PEOPLE

GREEN MARTIAN CULTURE

 John Carter, upon reaching Barsoom, did not have long to wait before encountering his first glimpse of the fierce green martian. At the time Carter was naked and unarmed, having just crossed the interplanetary distance between Earth and Mars, materializing outside of a Thark incubator. Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced John Carter and the reader to the harsh life of the green man in a novel manner, by showing us exactly how they are born into the world.

 Martians, without exception (including the red, yellow and white races) are oviparous, that is to say they reproduce by laying eggs about the size of a terrestrial goose egg. ERB never offers a satisfying reason for the phenomenal growth of goose-sized eggs to their hatching size of two and one-half feet in diameter. Where do the nutriments for this growth come from? Surely it cannot all be solar radiation!

 Carter's manuscript, written from a first person past tense, made it possible for the reader to be given information that theoretically could not have been revealed without the protagonist having been among the green martians for some time. In short, John Carter tells us:

The roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four or five inches in thickness, and beneath this were several hundred large eggs, perfectly round and snowy white. The eggs were nearly uniform in size being about two and one-half feet in diameter.

 Five or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatures which sat blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity...

 From birth the life of a green martian, is fraught with peril and disaster. The social and familial relations of this war-like race are not conducive to the more gentle influences of parent hood, for the Green Martian adult never knows the identity of their children.

 Burroughs strongly believed in family. This fact is a constant refrain throughout his entire body of work. Some of his greatest villains were men who deliberately destroyed families, or placed great hardship on them. One example is ERB's short novel The Moon Men published in 1925. A staunch family man, the most alien concepts of other-worldly life might certainly be his green martian, who was definitely not a family oriented creature. John Carter tells us:

...They paid no further attention to me and I was thus permitted to remain close and watch their operations, which consisted in breaking an opening in the wall of the incubator large enough to permit the exit of the young Martians.

 On either side of this opening ... the younger Martians, both male and female, formed two solid walls... Between these walls the little Martians scampered, wild as deer; permitted to run the full length of the aisle, where they were captured one at a time by the women and older children...until all the little fellows had left the enclosure and been appropriated by some youth or female.

...I believe this horrible system which has been carried on for ages is the direct cause of the loss of all the finer feelings and higher humanitarian instincts among these poor creatures. From birth they know no father or mother love, they know not the meaning of the word hope; they are taught that they are only suffered to live until they can demonstrate by their physique and ferocity that they are fit to live. Should they prove deformed or defective in any way they are promptly shot...

 I do not mean to say that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of which have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.

By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each species, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the birth rate to merely offset the loss by death. Each adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each year, and those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity tests are hidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where the temperature is too low for incubation. Every year these eggs are carefully examined by a council of twenty chieftains, and all but about one hundred almost perfect eggs are destroyed out of each yearly supply. At the end of five years about five hundred almost perfect eggs have been chosen from the thousands brought forth. these are then placed in t the almost air-tight incubators to be hatched by the sun's rays after a period of another five years.

 Continuing with Carter's description, we learn what happens to the few eggs that fail to hatch at the Tharks' secret incubator:

They were not wanted, as their offspring might inherit and transmit the tendency to prolonged incubation, and thus upset the system which has maintained for ages and which permits the adult Martians to figure the proper time for return to the incubators, almost to an hour.

 Green Martian women are similar except tusks are higher and larger. Female bodies show rudimentary nails which males lack. ERB notes that only the higher order of man and one mammal have well-formed nails. That mammal is not mentioned elsewhere in the novels, nor is it described.

 Adult Green Martian males are fifteen feet tall and four hundred pounds in weight. Females reach ten to twelve feet. Maturity is age forty and lasts for a thousand years, until they voluntarily take the pilgrimage of death down the River Iss to the Valley Dor--Martian Heaven.

 Only one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease, and possibly twenty per thousand live long enough to take the pilgrimage, the other 979 die violent deaths. The greatest loss of life, one reason the green martians have not overwhelmed the planet, is the terrible toll taken by the great white apes on green martian young. The average age of maturity seems to be three hundred years.

 The weapons of the green man are: long sword, short sword, dagger, pistol, hatchet and rifle. Swords and daggers are self-explanatory. The hatchet is mentioned in only two books, Princess and Thuvia. The rifle is white metal stocked with wood. The wood is light-weight and highly prized (sorapus, perhaps?) and the metal is an alloy of aluminum and steel, an exceedingly hard temper. Long barred, the rifle can fire one hundred rounds before reloading and it's effective radius is three hundred miles (sic) though in practical use, even with wireless finders and sights, it is accurate to only two hundred miles. The green martians are acknowledged as the best marksmen on Mars with this particular weapon.

 The radium bullet--"radium" is ERB's interpretation of a Martian hieroglyphic--must be manufactured in artificial light. The unusual properties of this substance, similar to refined phosphorous and its reaction with atmospheric oxygen, is explosive under natural solar light. Burroughs noted how the bullets could be used as solid projectiles in night battles, becoming potentially dangerous debris with the rising of the sun. Medical personnel operating on a radium bullet victim were in serious jeopardy if the operation had to be conducted in daylight conditions.

 The spear carried by the warriors of the green race are forty feet in length, metal tipped and shod. Standard usage is from the back of a thoat, holding the weapon in two arms of the same side and leaning the opposite direction to maintain balance while charging their foes.

 Martian clothing appears as sparse to non-existent. John Carter's first meeting with Tars Tarkas showed the great Thark wearing a harness of leather which supported his weapons, a few ornaments at head, limbs and breast, and nothing else. The Jeds and Jeddaks were similarly adorned, with the addition of gay-colored feathers and beautifully wrought trappings of leather, set with precious stones. At the shoulder the male would often wear a short cape of white fur lined with red silk. Green Martian women wore the simple costume first described, with a set of breast ornaments.

 Etiquette among the green martians (quoted from page 28, Princess)

"There were few formalities observed in approaching the Martian Chieftain. My captor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for him as he advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of my escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the ruler followed by his title.

 "At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to me, but later I came to know that this was the customary greeting between two green Martians. Had the men been strangers, and therefore unable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged ornaments, had their missions been peaceful--otherwise, they would have exchanged shots, or fought out their introduction with some other of their various weapons.

 "...convinced me that we at least had something in common, the ability to smile, therefore, to laugh; denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn that the Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror"..."(the) death agonies of a fellow being are, to these stranger creatures, provocative of the wildest hilarity...(their) greatest amusement is to inflict death on prisoners..."

 Most of the hordes move about in communities of eight to sixteen hundred individuals, taking all of their possessions. They exist almost exclusively on a plant they find in the desert which makes a liquid similar to milk, up to eight or ten quarts a day, and provides a cheese-like food. Could this food be made from the mantalia plant mentioned in later stories? I assume, though it is not specifically mentioned in the stories, that Tharks, when in the company of red men, eat meats and other vegetables.

 The sex life of a green martian is hinted in only the most clinical of terms by ERB. The female lays thirteen eggs which can be, and normally are, stored until the horde gets back to its secret incubator. There the eggs are sorted, those of a too small size are destroyed, as are any which appear defective. The eggs are then placed inside the incubator and forgotten as they take five years to mature under the rays of the sun. They grow from the size of a goose egg to two and a half feet in diameter. When born the green martian hatchlings are four feet in height and, as the matter of parentage is never known under these conditions, is raised by the first waiting females to catch and raise them for the community.

 There are numerous personal duels in the community, as many as eight a day. The victor of each encounter assumes the name of the vanquished and all of his chattels held by the deceased. John Carter acquired the name of Dotar, then shortly thereafter, the name Sojat. The greater the prowess, the more names, conversely the o-mad (man with one name) is rather low in importance.

 Each Horde is ruled by a Jed and nine lesser chieftains. A Jeddak rules all Hordes and is also surrounded by the Jeds of the Hordes in a loose hierarchy. Any male can become a Jed or Jeddak by merely fighting his way up through the ranks. John Carter became number eleven in the Thark tribe in a matter of days.

 For the beginnings of the green martian culture see the section on Tree of Life.

 The green Martian hordes became a dominate power when the seas of Mars began to fail. They took up their warrior existence in the dead sea bottoms, multiplied, and therefore became the raging death of the dying Orovar white race, and the successor red races which surrounded the sea beds. the pride of this war-like society is illustrated in the ancient Tharkian proverb: "Leave to a Thark his head and one hand and he may yet conquer."

THE RED MARTIAN CULTURE

 In physical respects the Red man is like any human of Earth. At birth they are taught the use of weapons, becoming so used to them in fact that in later life they feel naked without them. Quick to temper, and quick to kill, the red race holds down runaway population almost solely through murder and casual violence.

 This is not to imply that the finer emotional qualities are missing. Red Martian males revere their women. Not one of them can stand idly by and see a woman humiliated, injured, or abducted without speeding to their rescue. Sometimes, though not always, the rescued and rescuer find each other attractive and form a marriage alliance. This is accomplished by the simple expedience of the woman saying "my chieftain" to which the man replies "my princess". There is ceremony for marriage, though the officials and details involved were not specifically clarified in the Barsoom books, and seems to consist of a beautiful setting and the clamping of golden collars about the throats of the interested parties, or the use of handcuffs in ancient Manator.

 The Red Man holds his honor above all else. He does not lightly offer his loyalty, as shown in the following passage narrated by John Carter.

...the noble fellow...flung his sword at my feet.

 Could you know the customs and the character of red Martians you would appreciate the depth of meaning that that simple act conveyed ... equivalent to saying, "My sword, my body, my life, my soul are yours to do with as you wish. Until death and after death I look to you alone for authority for my every act. Be you right or wrong, your word shall be my only truth. Whoso raises his hand against you must answer to my sword."

 It is the oath of fealty that men occasionally pass to a Jeddak whose high character...inspired the enthusiastic love of his followers.

 The red man does not shake hands in greeting. He clasps the shoulder of the person he is meeting. The depth of his happiness is expressed by using two hands instead of one. The formal salute is accomplished by raising both hands to the shoulders, palms facing forward.

 For uncounted centuries the red man has maintained the vast atmospheric plant which is continually replenishing the thin air of Mars. This "Atmosphere Factory" is a building about four miles square with walls two hundred feet high, with walls one fifty feet thick and is impervious to assault. Even the roof is covered with five feet of glass to prevent airborn attack. John Carter, starving and near death from his long imprisonment by the green martian Warhoon horde, entered into the manufacturing plant and learned something about its operation:

The building in which I found myself contained the machinery which produces that artifical atmosphere which sustains life on Mars. The secret of the entire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray...

 This ray is separated from the other rays of the sun by means of finely adujusted instruments placed upon the roof of the huge building, three-quarters of which is used for reservoirs in which the ninth ray is stored. This product is then treated electrically, or rather certain proportions of refined electric vibrations are incorporated with it, and the result is then pumped to the five principal air centers of the planet where, as it is released, contact with the ether of space transforms it into atmosphere.

 There is always sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great building to maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand years, and the only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some accident might befall the pumping apparatus.

 John Carter, much later in the Barsoomian Saga, near the end of Burroughs' own life, discovered the construction of the vast atmosphere factory was conceived and nearly completed by the ancient Orovar race, the dominate white race during the time the five Martian Oceans were receding and civilization was tottering at the edge. Ho Ran Kim, Jeddak of Horz, a city thought long deserted but in fact still inhabited by a small group of Orovars, told this story to Carter in the "City of Mummies", one of four short novels in Llana of Gathol.

 The red man, most notably the Zodangans, also constructed the great network of canals across the arrid face of Barsoom, providing desperately needed moisture for agricultural and other purposes. These ingenious irrigation ducts are largely buried beneath the surface of the planet. Immense pumping stations along each canal transport the water collected from the polar regions across the desert areas. In farming districts a series of smaller pipes branch off at the root level, thus assuring proper moisture at all times.

 The technological aspects of the red martian culture include the flier, navigational devices, the ground flier, pneumatic tube transportation, magnetic lifts, and space ships capable of flying to the nearer moon. While the present day architecture cannot rival the ancient dead cities, the modern urban areas are well designed and maintained.

 The Red Martian scientists make use of the Eight and Ninth Rays--a form of solar energy which provides the motive force for engines and the energy by which atmosphere is synthesized. While the Red Man has minds of great intellect and insight into the mysteries of science, much of the technology which maintains the planet in a balance between life and death came from the ancient Ovovars. This prior technology has been largely forgotten or lost and as a result the Red Race relies on rather primitive weapons to conduct its wars. There are cannons, rifles, disintegrator rays and explosive devices of incredible force, but these are rarely used due to limitations, scarcity, or, as in most cases, why use an elephant gun to swat flies?

 Slavery is common on Barsoom, but is most prevalent in the Red Martian culture. The majority of slaves are captured in the many wars which are a way of life for the Red Race. Some slaves are bought and sold, some born in slavery, but there is some generosity in the Martian breast, it is possible for a slave to win their freedom by combat in the arenas.

 The average red martian believes in ancestor worship, though other religions abound. For a race that lives as long as a thousand years, the exploits of their ancestors takes on new meaning. Most revere their ancestors and attempt to live their lives by adhering to lofty ideals, but few are so devout that they cannot makes changes in their own lives.

 The religions of Barsoom are many, the majority of them being in the red culture. With the exception of Issus, described more fully under the Black Martian Culture and in Religion, only the Phandahlian god Tur, with a bible called a Turgan, seems to widely proliferate the red culture.

 A deeply superstitious race steeped in hoary traditions, the red martian reveres family, the sancity of womanhood, and their ancestors. The depth of this love of family is shown when a loved one dies. The Red Man reserves twenty-seven days for mourning.

 The governmental structures of the red races is similar to that of the green martians. A Jeddak rules over Jeds, Jeds rule over cities, lesser chieftains are below jeds. As in the case of the Green Martian all one needs to rise in power is support and a capable sword arm. Most offices are won by combat and, once seated in power, the winner appoints his own people to their posts.

 Each city, sometimes whole districts, have a unique written language which is not duplicated elsewhere. This is marvelous contradiction of written communication and history is off-set by the Burroughs' ingenious premise of a single oral tongue for the entire planet. ERB made it possible for his adventuresome and wide-traveling characters to roam the Barsoomian metropolitan and backwoods areas and ask directions without confusion.

 Martian officers go into battle with their men. The Red Man, while not endowed with the great physical strength of the Green Man, is equally ferocious in battle. Where the warriors of Helium, Gathol, Zodanga and other great Martian cities lack for individual strengths, their organization, numbers, and determination often turn the tide of battle to their favor, thus balancing the savage hordes of green men with whom they war most frequently and for long centuries.

 The Red Man is not without a sense of the finer aspects of human existence. As John Carter notes several times in his explorations of the planet Martian painters have perfected the mural to a state of realism and beauty that captures the eye and touches the heart. Marble statues grace the homes of the wealthy. Intricate gardens are found at estates or in the cities. The Dance of Barsoom is an intricate and balanced form which is appreciated by devotees and observers alike. Each red martian child must learn the Dance of Barsoom, their national dance and their city dance before they are allowed to attend important social functions. Music and singing is done in soft and subdued tones, but ERB neglected to describe musical instruments in any great detail other than the unique single string instrument strapped to the forearms of dancers participating in the Dance of Barsoom. Each instrument is made of wood and is marked with the instrument's note and length of duration.

 An industrious race, the Red Man farms and ranches, some stockmen operating at such levels they are able to export their products world-wide. The Gatholians are noted for their thoat herds and their incredible mines, which produce diamonds and platium primarily. So efficient are the methods of the red man at food production that the Green Tharks, after Tars Tarkas became Jeddak of the hordes of Thark, stuck a bargain with Mors Kajak, with John Carter's assistance, for these agricultural and ranch products; life on the dead sea bottoms is a difficult and perilous thing at best.

 With all the detail ERB provided for the Red Man of Mars, one may wonder if he was, in fact, offering a tribute to the Apache Indians he faced while a member of the Seventh Cavalry. The many similarities between the Red Barsoomian (which also extend into the more nomadic life styles of the Green Martian) and the American Indian cannot help but be noticed. In later years he penned two fine western books, The War Chief and Apache Devil, which showed the respect and admiration he felt for those one time advesaries. That the spirit of the American Indian is felt throughout the Barsoomian Saga is a fitting memorial to those ancestors who fought so long and hoplessly against the white man's invasion of their homeland. The Indian won--On Mars.

THE BLACK MARTIAN CULTURE

...interested me immensely...rumors...legends...but I had never seen them...

 They were popularly supposed to inhabit the lesser moon from which they descended upon Barsoom at long intervals. (They)...wrought the most horrible atrocities and when they left carried away with them firearms and ammunitions, and young girls as prisoners. These latter, the rumor had it, they sacrificed to some terrible god in an orgy which ended up in eating their victims.

 I had an excellent opportunity to examine them ... They were well over six feet ... features were clear cut and handsome ... eyes well set and large ... the iris was of extreme blackness, while the eyeball itself was quite white and clear. The physical structures of their bodies seemed identical with those of the therns, the red man, and my own...only in the colour of their skin did they differ ...(and) that is the appearance of polished ebony...

 Burroughs apparently decided that some regional "dialects" might be appropriate in parts of Barsoom. This is show by the change in titles and ranks within the First Born communities. They originally do not use the more common Jed and Jeddak titles found in the Green, Red, Yellow and White Races until after the publication of Gods of Mars. Dator is the highest title of respect, for officers only, and roughly translates to "prince".

 The First Born worship a living deity known throughout Barsoom as Issus. She has a multitude of lesser titles, and weilded great and absolute power until John Carter proved the religion to be a hideous hoax. Issus, accomplished through the unwitting aid of white missionaries, the Holy Therns, had perpetuated a vile and deceptive religion for her own sadistic purposes.

 This is covered completely in the chapter on religion, but briefly it should be stated that Martians, achieving the upper reach of their 1,000 year life spans, voluntarily made a final pilgrimage down the River Iss to "heaven". Heaven being the Valley Dor where the Martians expected to receive the blessing of Issus and be granted immortality in a world where peace reigned. The reality, however, was quite the opposite, robbery, rape and murder where among the various endings these poor souls faced, or enslavement by the Holy Therns. Some of the unfortunate victims wound up in the Valley Otz where even more horrible fates awaited them.

 And example of this is that any prisoner or individual not authorized to do so gazed upon the face of Issus, that person was forced to serve as the goddess' personal slave for a period of one year, then they were executed, unless they happened to be women. Issus would then eat them. Men in such condition were forced to put on gladiatorial exhibitions for the pleasure of Issus and might prolong their lives for as long as they were successful in combat.

 The Land of the First Born is located at the south pole in the Valley of Otz. The main city of this tall and handsome race is located below the surface of the planet on the shore of the Omean Sea, a vast body of water completely underground. It is here the First Born maintain their vast fleet of warships.

 The only other known habitation of First Born is in the northern hemisphere in located in the geographic area known as The Rift, which lies between Horz and Gathol. This modern settlement has a population of 200,000 and is known as Kamtol. On occasions when the Black Pirates of Barsoom plan a large-scale raid the First Born of the two areas join forces, attack, then split the loot and separate.

 A First Born is an arrogant individual, rarely conforming to the established forms of interracial etiquette. Until the coming of John Carter, the First Born were known as ruthless pirates, though one man, Xodar, a jeddak of the First Born, eventually became an ally of Helium.

 It is interesting to note that "First Born" is a racial conceit of this vigorous black culture. They believe they were the first race to come from the Tree of Life. (See Religion)

THE WHITE MARTIAN CULTURE

 In "The City of Mummies" (originally published as "The Ancient Dead") John Carter described the Orovarian thusly:

His skin was bronzed by exposure to the sun...but now I saw nothing red Martian about him. His harness, his weapons, everything...differed... (he) wore a headdress which is quite unusual upon Barsoom. It consisted of a leather band that ran about the head from right to left, and a second from front to rear. These bands were highly ornamented with carving and set with jewels and precious metals. ... Confined by this headdress was a shock of blond hair ... my companion was strangely handsome.

"The inhabitants of Horz are, as far as we know, the sole remaining remnant of the once dominate race of Barsoom... A million years ago our ships ranged the five great oceans, which we ruled ...Horz was not only the capital of a great empire, it was the seat of learning and culture ... Our empire spread from pole to pole. There were other races ... few in numbers and negligible in importance. The Orovars owned Barsoom ... (and) ... Horz enjoyed a thousand years of peace.

"...the seas began to recede, the atmosphere to grow more tenuous. What science had predicted was coming to pass--a world was dying.

 "For ages our cities followed the receding waters ... prosperous sea ports became deserted inland cities. Famine came. Hungry hordes made war upon the more fortunate ... green men overran what had once been fertile farmland, preying upon all.

 "The atmosphere became so tenuous that it was difficult to breath. (Our) Scientists were working on an atmosphere plant, but before it was ... in successful operation all but a few of the inhabitants of Barsoom had died. ...then life became merely a battle for the survival of the fittest."

 There is a small community of white men located in a single city in the southern hemisphere. This curious population is roughly 1,000 in strength and there are no women in that number. These people have the command of powerful hypnotic suggestion, able to populate their city with projections of their imaginations. Tario, Jeddak of Lothar, was so successful with his visualizations that one of his most frequent simulations, Kar Komak, changed from insubstantial imagining to physical reality. In all other descriptions of the white races of Mars the people were either blond or wore blond wigs. Kar Komak has auburn hair, a term once archaically used to describe a whitish or flaxen color, but now (and at the time Burroughs wrote the Martian books) refers to reddish-brown.

 Kar Komak is worthy of further mention in this particular: he is supposed to be the previous existence of a million year dead commander of the fleets of Lothar--from the time before the oceans of Barsoom vanished. How is it that Tario, Jeddak of Lothar and a contemporary of John Carter's Barsoom, was able to produce the spirit, essence, and physical characteristics of this long deceased Lotharian? Is Tario a million years old? While this is unlikely, it is certain we may never find the answer.

 In most respects the hand weapons of the Orovars are the same as the other Barsoomian races, with the single exception of Kar Komak and the dream legions of the present day Lotharians. Tario and his powerful hypnotist peers conjure full armies armed with bows and arrow. In no other place in the Barsoomian Saga is this weapon mentioned.

 In Lothar the deathless inhabitants, growing more mentally unbalanced with each passing eon, worship the god Komal. Komal proves to be nothing more than a rather large banth caged beneath the city. A banth is the ten-legged Martian lion. Komal is kept fat and sassy with the very reluctant cooperation of unfortunate victims, human and otherwise, offered in sacrifice.

THE YELLOW MARTIAN CULTURE

 The harsh climatic conditions at the Barsoomian North Pole require the Okarians to adopt a dress mode the more skin-loving races of the temperate and equatorial zones of Mars would find quite uncomfortable. Okarians wear furs when traversing the snow fields of their hidden northern valleys and maintain a clothed appearance while in their domed cities. The old familiar earthly hand shake is used when greeting in lieu of clasping shoulders as practiced by the Red Men. The Okarians, their skin the "color of a ripe lemon", are the only race on Barsoom which sport beards, making them unique in this respect.

 Technologically the Okarians have used the sciences of Barsoom in several ingenious fashions. The geodesic domes which cover the three large cities mentioned in the manuscripts would appear to be among the largest man-made structures on the planet. Environmental support for these metropolitan areas comes from "sunray tanks", obviously a form of solar radiation and conversion. Electro-magnetic devices abound, most notably in their elevator and lift systems which connect the many underground sections to the surface. Inside the cities the Okarians use the Eighth Ray to add buoyancy to the great tires of their ground vehicles. The automobiles are powered by small engines, though most of the motive force comes from a silent propeller at the rear of the vehicle.

 At the time John Carter arrives on Barsoom the Yellow Race is known only in old wives' tales and campfire stories. As red man Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth saic:

"The ancient chronicles of the first historians of Barsoom-- so ancient that we have for ages considered them mythology-- record the passing of the yellow men from the ravages of the green hordes that overran all Barsoom as the drying up of the great oceans drove the dominate races from their strongholds.

 "They tell of the wanderings of the remnants of this once powerful race, harassed at every step, until at last they found a way through the ice barrier of the north to a fertile valley at the pole.

 "At the opening of the subterranean passage that led to their haven of refuge a mighty battle was fought in which the yellow men were victorious, and within those caves that gave ingress to their new home they piled the bodies of the dead, both yellow and green, that the stench might warn away their enemies from further pursuit.

 "And ever since that day have the dead of this fabled land been carried to the Carrion Caves, that in death and decay they might serve their country and warn away invading enemies."

 The Okarians are a bright, vital race, given to slavery to support their economy, as are all the races of Barsoom. They, of course, remained apart from the mainstream of Barsoom, preferring the solitude of their secluded valleys until John Carter came among them. John's several adventures among the Okarians proved once again that there are good and bad in every society, and Carter managed to hook up with the good for the betterment of all. Eventually the Okarians joined forces with Carter and his adoptive Heliumites in battle. From the number of warriors who turned out for this bloody exercise it is apparent there are more settlements than the three domed cities mentioned.

 In closing this section on the Yellow Men of Barsoom it is interesting to note that several minerals are native to the polar region. In no other manuscript are these materials mentioned, especially the odd gem-like substance which becomes electrically excited when in close proximity to a similar stone.

THE KALDANES

"I will show you," he (Ghek) said, and lay down on the floor. Then he detached himself from the body, which lay as a thing dead. On his spider legs he walked toward the girl. "now look," he admonished her (Tara). "Do you see this thing?" and he extended what appeared to be a bundle of tentacles from the posterior part of his head. "This is an aperture just back of the rykor's mouth and directly over the upper end of his spinal column. Into this aperture I insert my tentacles and seize the spinal cord. Immediately I control every muscle of the rykor's body--it becomes my own, just as you direct the movement of the muscles of your body. I feel what the rykor would feel if he had a head and brain. If he is hurt, I would suffer if I remained connected with him, but the instant one of them is injured or becomes sick we desert it for another.* As we could suffer the pains of their physical injuries, similarly do we enjoy the physical pleasures of the rykors.

 ... "Ninty per centum of our volume is brain. We have only the simplest of vital organs and they are very small for they do not have to assist in the support of a complicated system of nerves, muscles, flesh and bone. We have no lungs, for we do not require air. Far below ...(underground)... is a vast network of burrows where the real life of the kaldane is lived. There the air-breathing rykor would perish as you would perish. There we have stored vast quantities of food in hermetically sealed chambers. It will last forever. Far beneath the surface is water that will flow for countless ages after the surface water is exhausted. ... We are preparing for the time when the last vestige of atmosphere is spent -- when food and water are gone ... that there might not perish from the planet Nature's divinest creation -- the perfect brain."

 Other functions of the Kaldane society, beside the controlled breeding of the rykor, which had one time eons past had been naught but a burrowing animal which the kaldanes had learned to ride, is the production of food to be placed beneath the surface in the eventual hope the kaldanes would one day evolve into the pure brain requiring no body whatsoever. To ensure the plan kaldanes like Ghek were placed in charge of food production and the care the rykors. Kaldanes dot nor require much in the way of sustenance, but when they have a yen to munch out they have a particular liking for human flesh (if rykors could be called "human" in that respect).

 As with all the races of Barsoom the Kaldanes duel constantly, however since the rykor is expendable, most duels end with the death of the mount. On occasion, if the situation is such that complete termination of the kaldane is required, a death dealing blow is struck to the 'perfect brain' in which instance the victim is permanently removed from existence. An example of this horrible (to a kaldane, of course) ending is the threat voiced by kaldanes when they wish to make a dramatic point: "You'll get it, in the head!"

 Interestingly, there are other points in the land of Bantoom, the kaldane's realm on Barsoom, which do not occur else where in the Barsoomian Saga. No place on Mars are stairwells used to travel between levels of towers or pits, only in Bantoom does this architectural form exist. There are no jeds, jeddaks or jeddarras or even sexes in Bantoom. the closest translation of the ruling member is "king", though queen might be more appropriate.

 In social structure the kaldane communities resemble hives of bees, or anthills. For example there is the egg laying matriarch/patriarch which produces the necessary workers and drones yet continues to lay king eggs which are carefully monitored and not allowed to develop unless there is a death of the royal member. The king kaldane is slightly larger in size to his fellows and exhibits an extremely high level of telepathic ability, a characteristic all kaldanes possess to some extent, though to a lesser degree.

 The following passage introduces Luud, king of the Tower of Luud at the time of Tara's capture in Chessmen of Mars.

...and something appeared in the opening. It was a pair of large chelae and immediately thereafter there crawled forth a hideous kaldane of enormous proportions. He was half again as large as any that Tara of Helium had yet seen and his whole aspect infinitely more terrible. The skin of the others was a bluish-gray -- this one was of a little bluer tinge and the eyes were ringed with bands of white and scarlet as was its mouth. From each nostril a band of white and one of scarlet extended outward horizontally the width of the face.

 The kaldane is certainly one of the more imaginative creations of ERB!

THE KANGAROO MEN OF GOOLI

 HOMADS

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 To describe the homad would be more than useless as the creature manufactured by Ras Thavas came in an endless variety of shapes and sizes. Ras Thavas apparently had some difficulty in refining his chemical process for the giant vats at his Toonolian Marsh laboratory for they continually produced a malformed homad every hour on the hour. (Ec: ERB first wrote about creating artificial life in The Monster Men, 1913.)

 The creatures were destined to be workers and warriors, to replace disobedient slaves and so forth, but they had misshapen bodies, often having noses where ears should be, mouths at the tops of their heads, eyes in odd places. They were, however, basically formed in the shape of man. There is no indication that homads could reproduce sexually, though it is mentioned that male and female bodies were formed. Intellectually the breed improved as Ras Thavas progressed with his experiments, but the homad remained inferior to the natural human.

THE PLANT MEN OF VALLEY DOR

 The plant men inhabit the Valley Dor exclusively. They are ten to twelve feet in height when standing erect, with short arms fashioned after the manner of an elephant's trunk, supple and sinuous. The body is hairless and a ghoulish blue except for a broad band of white which encircles the single, protruding eye, the pupil, iris, and ball of which are dead white. The nose is a ragged, inflamed circular hole in the center of the blank face, resembling an open wound. There is no mouth in the head. With the exception of the face the head is covered by a tangled mass of jet-black hair, some eight or ten inches in length. Each hair is the thickness of a large angle worm. The body, legs and feet are of human shape, but of monstrous proportions, the feet being fully three feet long and very flat and broad. The method of feeding consists of running their odd, dual purpose hands over the surface of the turf, cropping off the tender vegetation with razor-like talons and sucking it up through the two mouths, one in each palm. They are equipped with a massive tail about six feet long, quite round where it joins the body, but tapering to a flat, thin blade toward the end, which trails at right angles to the ground.

OTHER RACES BEYOND BARSOOM

 While the races of Thuria are interesting enough, one senses the casual coloration of long practice in adventure telling. The Tarids and Masenas, for example, are not treated with the same intense detail which ERB used when dealing with the Green, Yellow and Red Martians in the first six books of the series. He also expected his readership to be fairly knowledgeable of the prior books, thus saving some additional effort on his part. Real ERB fans like myself don't mind this at all, we get to partake in the adventure without "boring" recaps and descriptions.

 Let us examine the intelligent races of Thuria, or Ladan as the natives of this tiny moon call their home.

MASENAS

The creature was naked but for a leather skirt ... the shape of his skull was similar to a human but his features were most inhuman. In the center of his forehead was a single, large eye about three inches in diameter; the pupil a vertical slit, like a cat's eyes. ...The fingers and four of the toes were much longer than in the human race, his thumb and large toes were considerably shorter and extended laterally at right angles to hands and feet. ...whole arboreal ... most hideous of his countenance were his mouths. He had two of them, one directly above the other. The lower mouth, which was the larger, was lipless, the skin of the face forming the gums in which the teeth were set ... white teeth always exposed in a hideous death-like grin. The upper mouth was round with slightly protruding lips controlled by a sphincter-like muscle it was toothless.

 Nose, wide and flat with upturned nostrils ... two small orifices near the top of the head serve as ears. A stiff yellowish mane about two inches wide ran back along the center of his cranium. Masenas have the ability to change their coloration at will, like a chameleon.

TARIDS

 John Carter made a second trip off-planet, traveling to Jupiter in one of the last books written by ERB. There he encountered two races, the Morgors and the Savators.

MORGORS

 The Morgor has no nose to speak of, a gaping hole in the center of the face and smaller openings for ears on either side of the head. The skin of a Morgor is so thin that its internal organs are visible if the creature stands in front of a bright light.

SAVATORS

 This completes the section on the Races of Mars. ERB saw fit to include every color of the rainbow and personal traits which are bewildering, to say the least. In this remarkable adventure series Burroughs managed to poke fun at every earthly convention or political extreme, something he continued in his other off-world adventure series on the Moon, Venus, and Beyond the Farthest Star. In most cases each setting was populated by a human race were the men were men and the women were gorgeous and high adventure abounded.

MARTIANS AND THEIR HOME CITIES OR NATIONS

 BANTOOM
Ghek, Luud, Moak, Sept

 DUHOR
Kor San, Orm-o, Valla Dia

 DUSOR
Astok, Hal Vas, Halvas, Larok, Nutus, Vas Kor

 EARTH
Ulysses Paxton, Vad Varo

 GATHOL
A-Sor, Floran, Gahan, Gan Hor, Haja, Kor-an, Llana, San Tothis, Tanus, Tasor, Turan, U-Kal

 GHASTA
Ghron

 GOOLI
Anatok, Zuki

 HELIUM
John Carter, Carthoris, Dejah Thoris, Djor Kantos, Dotar Sojat, Gur Tus, Hor Vastus, Jat Or, Kantos Kan, Mors Kajak, Olvia Marthis, Saran Tal, Sil Vagis, Sonoma Tora, Tara, Tardos Mors, Tor Hatan, Turjun, Uthia, Val-Dor, Vandor, Vor Daj

 HORZ
Ho Ran Kim, Hor Kai Lan, Kam Han Tor, Lan Sohn Wen, Lee Um Lo, Lum Tar O, Pan Dan Chee, Ro Tan Bim

 HASTOR, HELIUM
Had Urtur, Tan Hadron, Ur-Raj

 INVAK
Kandus, Motus, Pnoxux, Ptanus, Rojas

 JAHAR
Fo-nar, Nur An, Phao, Phor Tak (JHAMA), Tul Axatar

 KADABRA, OKAR
Salensus Oll, Solan, Sorav, Talu

 KAOL
Kulan Tith, Torkar Bar

 KOBAL
Em-Tar

 KORVAS
Gore, Joog, Pew Mogel (HOMAD)

 KAMTOL
Ban-Tor, Doxus, Man-Lat, Myr-lo, Nastor, Nolat, Ptang, Van-Tija, Xaxak

 LOTHAR
Jav, Kar Komak, Tario

 MANATOR (INCLUDES Manatja & Manatos)
A-Kor, Corphal (GHOSTS), E-Med, E-Thas, I-Cos?, I-Gos?, I-Mal, I-Zav, O-Mai, O-Tar, U-Dor, U-Thor, U-Van

 MORBUS
Ay-mad, Aymad, Styor, Teaytan-ov, Tor-Dur-Bar HE?

 NO SPECIFIC CITY
Bal Zak (TOONOL?), Bal Tab, Dan-ho, Gan-ho, Il-Dur-En, Lan-O, Nolach, O-zar, Ul Val, Yamdor, Zanda

 OMBRA
Ozara, UL VAS?, Ulah, Umka, Zamak

 OTZ VALLEY
Issus, Thurid, Torith, Xodar, Yersted, Zithad

 PANKOR, PANAR
Gor-don, Hin Abtol, Phor San, Rab-zov, Ul-to

 PHUNDAHL
Dar Tarus, Hora San, Kara Vasa, Pandar, Sag Or, Xaxa

 PTARTH
Hovan Du, Soren, Thuvan Dihn, Thuvia

 THARK
Gozava, Lorquas Ptomel, Omad, Sarkoja, Sola, Tal Hadjus, Tars Tarkas, Woola, Zad

 TJANATH
Haj Alt, Haj Osis, Kal Taven, Sharu, Tavia, Yo Seno

 TOONOL
Dur-Dan, Gad Han, Gan Had, Gor Hajus, Mu Tel, Ulysses Paxton, Ras Thavas, Tun Gan, Vobis Kan

 TORQUAS
Hortan Gur, Thor-Ban

 VALLEY DOR
Lakor, Matai Shang, Phaidor, Sator Throg, Thorian

 WARHOONS
Bar Comas, Dak Kova, Kab Kadja, Tan Gama

 ZODANGA
Fal Sivas, Gar Nal, Hamas, Notan, Parthak, Phystal, Ptor Fak, Ptor, Rapas the Ulsio, Sab Than, Than Kosis, Uldak, Ur-Jan, Wolak, Zat Arrras

 ZOR
Multis Par, U-Dan, Vaja, Zu Tith

THE GREEN MARTIAN HORDES

THE RACES OF MARS

Green men, nomads of the dead sea bottoms, tribes of 30,000 loosely affiliated with larger hordes. An implacable enemy to the Red men, cruel and unforgiving.
 

Red men, the current dominate human race of Barsoom. Sophisticated and scientific, they have built upon the legacy of the older white race, the Orovars.
 

White men, the dominate race when Mars was young and with oceans. Seafaring, scientific, they developed the atmosphere plants.
 

Yellow men, the bearded race living at the north pole in domed cities. Their science revolves around electromagnetics.
 

Kaldanes, the Bantoomian brain which co-exists with a brainless humanoid body (rykors). The super-intelligence of Barsoom.
 

Homads, the chemically manufactured androids of Toonol's Ras Thavas; malformed, low intelligence.

OTHER RACES

 ON SASOOM -- Morgors, skeleton men of Jupiter. Savators, the human race of Jupiter with blue hair and eyebrows.

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Text and Images (c) 1982, 1996 by David Bruce Bozarth. HTML Version (c) 1996. All Rights Reserved. Excerpts from the Martian Books of Edgar Rice Burroughs are copyright by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Permission to copy for personal use is granted though links are preferred as long as this notice is intact.

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