CHAPTER 25
Home
Within an hour of the fall of Lu-don and Mo-sar, the chiefs and principal warriors of Pal-ul-don gathered in the great throneroom of the palace at A-lur upon the steps of the lofty pyramid and placing Ja-don at the apex proclaimed him king. Upon one side of the old chieftain stood Tarzan of the Apes, and upon the other Korak, the Killer, worthy son of the mighty ape-man.
And when the brief ceremony was over and the warriors with upraised clubs had sworn fealty to their new ruler, Ja-don dispatched a trusted company to fetch O-lo-a and Pan-at-lee and the women of his own household from Ja-lur.
And then the warriors discussed the future of Pal-ul-don and the question arose as to the administration of the temples and the fate of the priests, who practically without exception had been disloyal to the government of the king, seeking always only their own power and comfort and aggrandizement. And then it was that Ja-don turned to Tarzan. “Let the Dor-ul-Otho transmit to his people the wishes of his father,” he said.
“Your problem is a simple one,” said the ape-man, “if you but wish to do that which shall be pleasing in the eyes of God. Your priests, to increase their power, have taught you that Jad-ben-Otho is a cruel god, that his eyes love to dwell upon blood and upon suffering. But the falsity of their teachings has been demonstrated to you today in the utter defeat of the priesthood.
“Take then the temples from the men and give them instead to the women that they may be administered in kindness and charity and love. Wash the blood from your eastern altar and drain forever the water from the western.
“Once I gave Lu-don the opportunity to do these things but he ignored my commands, and again is the corridor of sacrifice filled with its victims. Liberate these from every temple in Pal-ul-don. Bring offerings of such gifts as your people like and place them upon the altars of your god. And there he will bless them and the priestesses of Jad-ben-Otho can distribute them among those who need them most.”
As he ceased speaking a murmur of evident approval ran through the throng. Long had they been weary of the avarice and cruelty of the priests and now that authority had come from a high source with a feasible plan for ridding themselves of the old religious order without necessitating any change in the faith of the people they welcomed it.
“And the priests,” cried one. “We shall put them to death upon their own altars if it pleases the Dor-ul-Otho to give the word.”
“No,” cried Tarzan. “Let no more blood be spilled. Give them their freedom and the right to take up such occupations as they choose.”
That night a great feast was spread in the pal-e-don-so and for the first time in the history of ancient Pal-ul-don black warriors sat in peace and friendship with white. And a pact was sealed between Ja-don and Om-at that would ever make his tribe and the Ho-don allies and friends.
It was here that Tarzan learned the cause of Ta-den’s failure to attack at the stipulated time. A messenger had come from Ja-don carrying instructions to delay the attack until noon, nor had they discovered until almost too late that the messenger was a disguised priest of Lu-don. And they had put him to death and scaled the walls and come to the inner temple court with not a moment to spare.
The following day O-lo-a and Pan-at-lee and the women of Ja-don’s family arrived at the palace at A-lur and in the great throneroom Ta-den and O-lo-a were wed, and Om-at and Pan-at-lee.
For a week Tarzan and Jane and Korak remained the guests of Ja-don, as did Om-at and his black warriors. And then the ape-man announced that he would depart from Pal-ul-don. Hazy in the minds of their hosts was the location of heaven and equally so the means by which the gods traveled between their celestial homes and the haunts of men and so no questionings arose when it was found that the Dor-ul-Otho with his mate and son would travel overland across the mountains and out of Pal-ul-don toward the north.
They went by way of the Kor-ul-JA accompanied by the warriors of that tribe and a great contingent of Ho-don warriors under Ta-den. The king and many warriors and a multitude of people accompanied them beyond the limits of A-lur and after they had bid them good-bye and Tarzan had invoked the blessings of God upon them the three Europeans saw their simple, loyal friends prostrate in the dust behind them until the cavalcade had wound out of the city and disappeared among the trees of the nearby forest.
They rested for a day among the Kor-ul-JA while Jane investigated the ancient caves of these strange people and then they moved on, avoiding the rugged shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved and winding down the opposite slope toward the great morass. They moved in comfort and in safety, surrounded by their escort of Ho-don and Waz-don.
In the minds of many there was doubtless a question as to how the three would cross the great morass but least of all was Tarzan worried by the problem. In the course of his life he had been confronted by many obstacles only to learn that he who will may always pass. In his mind lurked an easy solution of the passage but it was one which depended wholly upon chance.
It was the morning of the last day that, as they were breaking camp to take up the march, a deep bellow thundered from a nearby grove. The ape-man smiled. The chance had come. Fittingly then would the Dor-ul-Otho and his mate and their son depart from unmapped Pal-ul-don.
He still carried the spear that Jane had made, which he had prized so highly because it was her handiwork that he had caused a search to be made for it through the temple in A-lur after his release, and it had been found and brought to him. He had told her laughingly that it should have the place of honor above their hearth as the ancient flintlock of her Puritan grandsire had held a similar place of honor above the fireplace of Professor Porter, her father.
At the sound of the bellowing the Ho-don warriors, some of whom had accompanied Tarzan from Ja-don’s camp to Ja-lur, looked questioningly at the ape-man while Om-at’s Waz-don looked for trees, since the GRYF was the one creature of Pal-ul-don which might not be safely encountered even by a great multitude of warriors. Its tough, armored hide was impregnable to their knife thrusts while their thrown clubs rattled from it as futilely as if hurled at the rocky shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved.
“Wait,” said the ape-man, and with his spear in hand he advanced toward the GRYF, voicing the weird cry of the Tor-o-don. The bellowing ceased and turned to low rumblings and presently the huge beast appeared. What followed was but a repetition of the ape-man’s previous experience with these huge and ferocious creatures.
And so it was that Jane and Korak and Tarzan rode through the morass that hems Pal-ul-don, upon the back of a prehistoric triceratops while the lesser reptiles of the swamp fled hissing in terror. Upon the opposite shore they turned and called back their farewells to Ta-den and Om-at and the brave warriors they had learned to admire and respect. And then Tarzan urged their titanic mount onward toward the north, abandoning him only when he was assured that the Waz-don and the Ho-don had had time to reach a point of comparative safety among the craggy ravines of the foothills.
Turning the beast’s head again toward Pal-ul-don the three dismounted and a sharp blow upon the thick hide sent the creature lumbering majestically back in the direction of its native haunts. For a time they stood looking back upon the land they had just quit — the land of Tor-o-don and GRYF; of JA and JATO; of Waz-don and Ho-don; a primitive land of terror and sudden death and peace and beauty; a land that they all had learned to love.
And then they turned once more toward the north and with light hearts and brave hearts took up their long journey toward the land that is best of all — home.
Glossary
From conversations with Lord Greystoke and from his notes, there have been gleaned a number of interesting items relative to the language and customs of the inhabitants of Pal-ul-don that are not brought out in the story. For the benefit of those who may care to delve into the derivation of the proper names used in the text, and thus obtain some slight insight into the language of the race, there is appended an incomplete glossary taken from some of Lord Greyst
oke’s notes.
A point of particular interest hinges upon the fact that the names of all male hairless pithecanthropi begin with a consonant, have an even number of syllables, and end with a consonant, while the names of the females of the same species begin with a vowel, have an odd number of syllables, and end with a vowel. On the contrary, the names of the male hairy black pithecanthropi while having an even number of syllables begin with a vowel and end with a consonant; while the females of this species have an odd number of syllables in their names which begin always with a consonant and end with a vowel.
A. Light.
ab. Boy.
Ab-on. Acting gund of Kor-ul-JA.
Ad. Three.
Adad. Six.
Adadad. Nine.
Adaden. Seven.
Aden. Four.
Adenaden. Eight.
Adenen. Five.
A-lur. City of light.
An. Spear.
An-un. Father of Pan-at-lee.
As. The sun.
At. Tail.
Bal. Gold or golden.
Bar. Battle.
Ben. Great.
Bu. Moon.
Bu-lot (moon face). Son of chief Mo-sar.
Bu-lur (moon city). The city of the Waz-ho-don.
Dak. Fat.
Dak-at (fat tail). Chief of a Ho-don village.
Dak-lot. One of Ko-tan’s palace warriors.
Dan. Rock.
Den. Tree.
Don. Man.
Dor. Son.
Dor-ul-Otho
(son of god). Tarzan.
E. Where.
Ed. Seventy.
El. Grace or graceful.
En. One.
Enen. Two.
Es. Rough.
Es-sat (rough skin). Chief of Om-at’s tribe of hairy blacks.
Et. Eighty.
Fur. Thirty.
Ged. Forty.
Go. Clear.
Gryf. “Triceratops. A genus of huge
herbivorous dinosaurs of the group
Ceratopsia. The skull had two large
horns above the eyes, a median
horn on the nose, a horny beak, and a
great bony hood or transverse crest over
the neck. Their toes, five in front and
three behind, were provided with hoofs,
and the tail was large and strong.”
Webster’s Dict. The GRYF of Pal-ul-don
is similar except that it is
omnivorous, has strong, powerfully
armed jaws and talons instead of hoofs.
Coloration: face yellow with blue bands
encircling the eyes; hood red on top,
yellow underneath; belly yellow; body a
dirty slate blue; legs same. Bony
protuberances yellow except along the
spine — these are red. Tail conforms with
body and belly. Horns, ivory.
Gund. Chief.
Guru. Terrible.
Het. Fifty.
Ho. White.
Ho-don. The hairless white men of Pal-ul-don.
Id. Silver.
Id-an. One of Pan-at-lee’s two brothers.
In. Dark.
In-sad. Kor-ul-JA warrior accompanying Tarzan, Om-at,
and Ta-den in search of Pan-at-lee.
In-tan. Kor-ul-lul left to guard Tarzan
Ja. Lion.
Jad. The
Jad-bal-lul. The golden lake.
Jad-ben-lul. The big lake.
Jad-ben-Otho. The Great God.
Jad-guru-don. The terrible man.
Jad-in-lul. The dark lake.
Ja-don (the lion-man). Chief of a Ho-don village and father of Ta-den.
Jad Pele ul
Jad-ben-Otho. The valley of the Great God.
Ja-lur (lion city). Ja-don’s capital.
Jar. Strange.
Jar-don. Name given Korak by Om-at.
Jato. Saber-tooth hybrid.
Ko. Mighty.
Kor. Gorge.
Kor-ul-GRYF. Gorge of the GRYF.
Kor-ul-JA. Name of Es-sat’s gorge and tribe.
Kor-ul-lul. Name of another Waz-don gorge and tribe.
Ko-tan. King of the Ho-don.
Lav. Run or running.
Lee. Doe.
Lo. Star.
Lot. Face.
Lu. Fierce.
Lu-don (fierce man). High priest of A-lur.
Lul. Water.
Lur. City.
Ma. Child.
Mo. Short.
Mo-sar (short nose). Chief and pretender.
Mu. Strong.
No. Brook.
O. Like or similar.
Od. Ninety.
O-dan. Kor-ul-JA warrior accompanying Tarzan, Om-at,
and Ta-den in search of Pan-at-lee.
Og. Sixty.
O-lo-a
(like-star-light). Ko-tan’s daughter
Om. Long.
Om-at (long tail). A black.
On. Ten.
Otho. God.
Pal. Place; land; country.
Pal-e-don-so
(place where men eat). Banquet hall.
Pal-ul-don
(land of man). Name of the country.
Pal-ul-JA. Place of lions.
Pan. Soft.
Pan-at-lee. Om-at’s sweetheart.
Pan-sat (soft skin). A priest.
Pastar. Father.
Pastar-ul-ved. Father of Mountains.
Pele. Valley.
Ro. Flower.
Sad. Forest.
San. One hundred
Sar. Nose.
Sat. Skin.
So. Eat.
Sod. Eaten.
Sog. Eating.
Son. Ate.
Ta. Tall.
Ta-den (tall tree). A white.
Tan. Warrior.
Tarzan-jad-guru. Tarzan the Terrible.
To. Purple.
Ton. Twenty.
Tor. Beast.
Tor-o-don. Beastlike man.
Tu. Bright.
Tu-lur (bright city). Mo-sar’s city.
Ul. Of.
Un. Eye.
Ut. Corn.
Ved. Mountain
Waz. Black.
Waz-don. The hairy black men of Pal-ul-don.
Waz-ho-don
(black white men). A mixed race
Xot. One thousand.
Yo. Friend.
Za. Girl.
The Barsoom Series
The ‘Barsoom’ series is named after the fictionalised version of the planet Mars on which the saga centres. It was initiated in 1912 with the serialisation of Under the Moons of Mars in The All-Story magazine. In 1917, this first novel was published in book form under Burroughs’ preferred title: A Princess of Mars. The novel was followed by ten sequels and the series has been hugely influential not only in the development of science fiction as a literary genre, but also as an imaginative inspiration for modern astronomers.
The series tells of the adventures of John Carter, a late-nineteenth-century human who is mysteriously transported from Earth to Mars – or Barsoom as it is known to its inhabitants. Barsoom is a dying world, in which warring tribes of red and green Martians fight over dwindling resources. Carter uses the superhuman abilities conferred on him by the planet’s lower gravity to intervene politically and physically in the struggle and to safeguard his beloved princess Dejah Thoris. Further books in the series tell of the adventures of Carter and Dejah’s offspring, as well as exploring the later adventures of Carter himself. Other novels focus on the native Martians, while one instalment (The Master Minds of Mars) focuses on Ulysses Paxton, another human transported mysteriously to Mars.
The series’ portrayal of Mars as a dying world is very characteristic of late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century ideas about the planet. In particular, Burroughs was influenced by Percival Lowell’s idea that Mars had once had canals on the surface – a last desperate bid by which its now extinct populati
on had tried to tap the only remaining water source on their dying world. The idea of Mars as a ‘dying world’ was also very prescient, playing into theories of degeneration and decay, which envisioned a distant future in which the Earth would inevitably suffer a similar fate (a hypothesis perhaps most famously and vividly exploited by H. G. Wells in The Time Machine).
Despite exerting a huge influence on later writers of science fiction, the novels might be said to fit more comfortably into the ‘planetary romance’ genre, utilising the fantasy elements of pulp ‘sword and sorcery’ literature, whilst adding a science fiction twist. They also include elements of the Western genre, while the trope of an ordinary human ingratiating himself with an ‘alien’ tribe through his superhuman abilities has obvious similarities with Burroughs’s most famous creation, Tarzan.
Cover of the first book version of ‘A Princess of Mars’ (1917)
Illustration from the 1920 serial Thuvia, Maid of Mars, showing the four-armed green Martians
Film poster for the 2012 film based on the series, starring Taylor Kitsch in the title role
A PRINCESS OF MARS (1912)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
Delphi Collected Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Illustrated) (Series Four Book 26) Page 201