"02 - Gods of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

lesser attraction of this smaller planet and the reduced air pressure of its
greatly rarefied atmosphere, afforded so little resistance to my earthly muscles
that the ordinary exertion of the mere act of rising sent me several feet into
the air and precipitated me upon my face in the soft and brilliant grass of this
strange world. This experience, however, gave me some slightly increased
assurance that, after all, I might indeed be in some, to me, unknown corner of
Mars, and this was very possible since during my ten years' residence upon the
planet I had explored but a comparatively tiny area of its vast expanse. I arose
again, laughing at my forgetfulness, and soon had mastered once more the art of
attuning my earthly sinews to these changed conditions. As I walked slowly down
the imperceptible slope toward the sea I could not help but note the park-like
appearance of the sward and trees. The grass was as close-cropped and
carpet-like as some old English lawn and the trees themselves showed evidence of
careful pruning to a uniform height of about fifteen feet from the ground, so
that as one turned his glance in any direction the forest had the appearance at
a little distance of a vast, high-ceiled chamber. All these evidences of careful
and systematic cultivation convinced me that I had been fortunate enough to make
my entry into Mars on this second occasion through the domain of a civilized
people and that when I should find them I would be accorded the courtesy and
protection that my rank as a Prince of the house of Tardos Mors entitled me to.
The trees of the forest attracted my deep admiration as I proceeded toward the
sea. Their great stems, some of them fully a hundred feet in diameter, attested
their prodigious height, which I could only guess at, since at no point could I
penetrate their dense foliage above me to more than sixty or eighty feet. As far
aloft as I could see the stems and branches and twigs were as smooth and as
highly polished as the newest of American-made pianos. The wood of some of the
trees was as black as ebony, while their nearest neighbours might perhaps gleam
in the subdued light of the forest as clear and white as the finest china, or,
again, they were azure, scarlet, yellow, or deepest purple. And in the same way
was the foliage as gay and variegated as the stems, while the blooms that
clustered thick upon them may not be described in any earthly tongue, and indeed
might challenge the language of the gods. As I neared the confines of the forest
I beheld before me and between the grove and the open sea, a broad expanse of
meadow land, and as I was about to emerge from the shadows of the trees a sight
met my eyes that banished all romantic and poetic reflection upon the beauties
of the strange landscape. To my left the sea extended as far as the eye could
reach, before me only a vague, dim line indicated its further shore, while at my
right a mighty river, broad, placid, and majestic, flowed between scarlet banks
to empty into the quiet sea before me. At a little distance up the river rose
mighty perpendicular bluffs, from the very base of which the great river seemed
to rise. But it was not these inspiring and magnificent evidences of Nature's
grandeur that took my immediate attention from the beauties of the forest. It
was the sight of a score of figures moving slowly about the meadow near the bank
of the mighty river. Odd, grotesque shapes they were; unlike anything that I had
ever seen upon Mars, and yet, at a distance, most manlike in appearance. The
larger specimens appeared to be about ten or twelve feet in height when they
stood erect, and to be proportioned as to torso and lower extremities precisely
as is earthly man. Their arms, however, were very short, and from where I stood
seemed as though fashioned much after the manner of an elephant's trunk, in that
they moved in sinuous and snakelike undulations, as though entirely without bony