THE MOON MAID
Orthis, who was becoming the almost constant companion of the chief,
was standing beside the latter, while I was twenty-five or thirty
yards away, and directly between Ga-va-go and the warriors who were
approaching with the prisoner, who would of necessity have to pass
close beside me. I remained where I was, therefore, in order to get a
better look at it, which was rather difficult because it was almost
entirely surrounded by No-vans. However as they came opposite me,
there was a little break momentarily in the ranks, and I had my first
opportunity, though brief, for a closer observation of the captive;
and my comprehension was almost staggered by what my eyes revealed to
me, for there before me, was as perfectly formed a human female as I
had ever seen. By earthly standards, she appeared a girl of about
eighteen, with hair of glossy blackness, that suggested more the
raven’s wing than aught else and a skin of almost marble whiteness,
slightly tinged with a creamy shade. Only in the color of her skin,
did she differ from earthly women in appearance, except that she
seemed far more beautiful than they. Such perfection of features
seemed almost unbelievable. Had I seen her first posed motionless, I
could have sworn that she was chiseled from marble, yet there was
nothing cold about her appearance. She fairly radiated life and
feeling. If my first impression had been startling, it was nothing to
the effect that was produced when she turned her eyes full upon me.
Her black brows were two thin, penciled arches, beneath which were
dark wells of light, vying in blackness with her raven hair. On
either cheek was just the faintest suggestion of a deeper cream, and
to think that these hideous creatures saw in that form divine only
flesh to eat! I shuddered at the thought and then my eyes met hers
and I saw an expression of incredulity and surprise registered in
those liquid orbs. She half-turned her head as she was dragged past,
that she might have a further look at me, for doubtless she was as
surprised to see a creature like me as I was to see her.
Involuntarily I started forward. Whether there was an appeal for
succor in those eyes I do not know, but at least they aroused within
me instantly, that natural instinct of a human male to protect the
weak. And so it was that I was a little behind her and to her right,
when she was halted before Ga-va-go.
The savage Va-gas’ chieftain eyed her coldly, while from all sides
there arose cries of “Give us flesh! Give us flesh! We are hungry!”
to which Ga-va-go paid not the slightest attention.
“From whence come you, U-ga?” he demanded. Her head was high, and she
eyed him with cold dignity as she replied, “From Laythe.”
The No-van raised his brows. “Ah,” he breathed, “from Laythe. The
flesh of the women from Laythe is good,” and he licked his thin lips.
The girl narrowed her eyes, and tilted her chin a bit higher.
“Rympth!” she ejaculated, disgustedly.
As rympth is the name of the four-legged snake of Va-nah, the inner
lunar world, and considered the lowest and most disgusting of created
things, she could not well have applied a more opprobrious epithet to
the No-van chieftain, but if it had been her intent to affront him,
his expression gave no indication that she had succeeded.
“Your name?” he asked.
“Nah-ee-lah,” she replied.
“Nah-ee-lah,” he repeated, “Ah, you are the daughter of Sagroth,
Jemadar of Laythe.”
She nodded in indifferent affirmation, as though aught he might say
was a matter of perfect indifference to her.
“What do you expect us to do with you?” asked Ga-va-go, a question
which suggested a cat playing with a mouse before destroying it.
“What can I expect of the Va-gas, other than that they will kill me
and eat me?” she replied.
A roar of savage assent arose from the creatures surrounding her. Ga-
va-go flashed a quick look of anger and displeasure at his people.
“Do not be too sure of that,” he snapped. “This be little more than a
meal for Ga-va-go alone. It would but whet the appetite of the
tribe.”
“There are two more,” suggested a bold warrior, close beside me,
pointing at me and at Orthis.
“Silence!” roared Ga-va-go. “Since when did you become chief of the
No-vans?”
“We can starve without a chief,” muttered the warrior who had spoken,
and from two or three about him arose grumblings of assent.
Swift, at that, Ga-va-go reared upon his hind feet, and in the same
motion, drew and hurled his spear, the sharp point penetrating the
breast of the malcontent, piercing his heart. As the creature fell,
the warrior closest to him slit his throat, while another withdrew Ga-
va-go’s spear from the corpse, and returned it to the chief.
“Divide the carcass among you,” commanded the chief, “and whosoever
thinks that there is not enough, let him speak as that one spoke, and
there shall be more flesh to eat.”
Thus did Ga-va-go, chief of the No-vans, hold the obedience of his
savage tribesmen. There was no more muttering then, but I saw several
cast hungry eyes at me—hungry, angry eyes that boded me no good.
In what seemed an incredibly short space of time, the carcass of the
slain warrior had been divided and devoured, and once again we set
out upon the march, in search of new fields to conquer, and fresh
flesh to eat.
Now Ga-va-go sent scouts far in advance of the point, for we were
entering territory which he had not invaded for a long time, a truth
which was evidenced by the fact that there were only about twenty
warriors in the tribe, besides Ga-va-go, who were at all familiar
with the territory. Naturally quarrelsome and disagreeable, the No-
vans were far from pleasant companions upon that memorable march,
since they had not recovered from the fright and discomforts of the
storm and, in addition, were ravenously hungry. I imagine that none,
other than Ga-va-go, could have held them. What his purpose was in
preserving the three prisoners, that would have made such excellent
food for the tribe, I did not know. However, we were not slain,
though I judged the fellow who carried me, would much sooner have
eaten me, and to vent his spite upon me he trotted as much as he
could, and I can assure you that he had the most devilishly execrable
trot I ever sat. I felt that he was rather running the thing into the
ground, for he had an easy rack, which would have made it much more
comfortable for both of us, and inasmuch as I knew that I was safe as
long as I was under Ga-va-go’s protection, I made up my mind to teach
the fellow a lesson, which I finally did, although almost as much to
my discomfort as his, by making no effort to ease myself upon his
back so that at every step I rose high and came down hard upon him,
sitting as far back as possible so as to pound his kidneys painfully.
It made him very angry and he threatened me with all kinds of things
if I didn’t desist, but I only answered by suggesting that he take an
easier gait, which at last he was forced to do.
Orthis was riding ahead with Ga-va-go, who as usual led the point,
while the new prisoner astride a No-van warrior was with the main
body, as was I.
Once the warriors that we bestrode paced side by side, and I saw the
girl eyeing me questioningly. She seemed much interested in the
remnants of my uniform, which must have differed greatly from any
clothing she had seen in her own world. It seemed that she spoke and
understood the same language that Ga-va-go used, and so at last I
made bold to address her.
“It is unfortunate,” I said, “that you have fallen into the hands of
these creatures. I wish that I might be of service to you, but I also
am a prisoner.”
She acknowledged my speech with a slight inclination of her head, and
at first I thought that she was not going to reply, but finally
looking me full in the face she asked, “What are you?”
“I am one of the inhabitants of the planet Earth.”
“Where is that, and what is planet?” she asked, for I had had to use
the Earth word, since there is no word of similar meaning in the
language of the Va-gas.
“You know, of course,” I said, “that space outside of Va-nah is
filled with other worlds. The closest to Va-nah is Earth, which is
many, many times larger than your world. It is from Earth that I
come.”
She shook her head. “I do not understand,” she said. She closed her
eyes, and waved her hands with a gesture that might have included the
universe. “All, all is rock,” she said, “except here in the center of
everything, in this space we call Va-nah. All else is rock.”
I suppressed a smile at the vast egotism of Va-nah, but yet how
little different is it from many worldlings, who conceive that the
entire cosmos exists solely for the inhabitants of Earth. I even know
men in our own enlightened twenty-first century, who insist that Mars
is not inhabited and that the messages that are purported to come
from our sister planet, are either the evidences of a great world
hoax, or the voice of the devil luring people from belief in the true
God.
“Did you ever see my like in Va-nah?” I asked her.
“No,” she replied, “I never did, but I have not been to every part of
Va-nah. Va-nah is a very great world, and there are many corners of
it of which I know nothing.”
“I am not of Va-nah,” I told her again, “I am from another world far,
far away;” and then I tried to explain something of the universe to
her—of the sun and the planets and their satellites, but I saw that
it was as far beyond her as are the conceptions of eternity and space
beyond the finite mind of Earth Men. She simply couldn’t get it, that
was all. To her, everything was solid rock that we know as space. She
thought for a long time, though, and then she said, “Ah, perhaps
after all there may be other worlds than Va-nah. The great Hoos,
those vast holes that lead into the eternal rock, may open into other
worlds like Va-nah. I have heard that theory discussed, but no one in
Va-nah believes it. It is true, then!” she exclaimed brightly, “and
you come from another world like Va-nah. You came through one of the
Hoos, did you not?”
“Yes, I came through one of the Hoos,” I replied—the word means hole
in the Va-gas tongue—”but I did not come from a world like Va-nah.
Here you live upon the inside of a hollow sphere. We Earth Men live
upon the outside of a similar though much larger sphere.”
“But what holds it up?” she cried, laughing. It was the first time
that she had laughed, and it was a very contagious laugh, and
altogether delightful. Although I knew that it would probably be
useless, I tried to explain the whole thing to her, commencing with
the nebular hypothesis, and winding up with the relations that exist
between the Moon and the Earth. If I didn’t accomplish anything else,
I at least gave her something to distract her mind from her grave
predicament, and to amuse her temporarily, for she laughed often at
some of my statements. I had never seen so gay and vivacious a
creature, nor one so entirely beautiful as she. The single,
sleeveless, tunic-like garment that she wore, fell scarcely to her
knees and as she bestrode the No-van warrior, it often flew back
until her thighs, even, were exposed. Her figure was divinely
perfect, its graceful contours being rather accentuated than hidden
by the diaphanous material of her dainty covering; but when she
laughed, she exposed two rows of even white teeth that would be the
envy of the most beautiful of Earth Maids.
“Suppose,” she said, “that I should take a handful of gravel and
throw it up in the air. According to your theory the smaller would
all commence to revolve about the larger and they would go flying
thus wildly around in the air forever, but that is not what would
happen. If I threw a handful of gravel into the air it would fall
immediately to the ground again, and if the worlds you tell me of
were cast thus into the air, they too would fall, just as the gravel
falls.”
It was useless, but I had known that from the beginning. What would
be more interesting would be to question her, and that I had wished
to do for some time, but she always put me off with a pretty gesture
and a shake of her head, insisting that I answer some of her
questions instead, but this time I insisted.
“Tell me, please,” I asked, “how you came to the spot where you were
captured, how you flew, and what became of your wings, and why, when
they tore them from you, it did not injure you?”
She laughed at that quite merrily.
“The wings do not grow upon us,” she explained, “we make them and
fasten them upon our arms.”
“Then you can support yourself in the air with wings fastened to your
arms?” I demanded, incredulously.
“Oh, no,” she said, “the wings we use simply for propelling ourselves
through the air. In a bag, upon our backs, we carry a gas that is
lighter than air. It is this gas which supports us, and we carry it
in such quantities as to maintain a perfect equilibrium, so that we
may float at any altitude, or with our wings rise or fall gently; but
as I hovered over Laythe, came the air that runs, and seizing me with
its strong arms bore me off across the surface of Va-nah. Futilely I
fought against it until I was spent and weak, and then it dropped me
into the clutches of the Va-gas, for the gas in my bag had become
depleted. It was not intended to carry me aloft for any great length
of time.”
She had used a word which, when I questioned her, she explained so
that I understood that it meant time, and I asked her what she meant
by it and how she could measure it, since I had seen no indication of
the Va-gas having any conception of a measurable aspect of duration.
Nah-ee-lah explained to me that the Va-gas, who were a lower order,
had no means of measuring time, but that the U-ga, the race to which
she belonged, had always been able to compute time through their
observation of the fact that during certain periods the bottoms of
the hoos, or craters, were illuminated, and for another period they
were dark, and so they took as a unit of measure the total period
from the beginning of this light in a certain crater to its beginning
again, and this they called a _ula_, which corresponds with a
sidereal month. By mechanical means they divide this into a hundred
parts, called _ola_, the duration of each of which is about six hours
and thirty-two minutes earth time. Ten ulas make a _keld_, which one
might call the lunar year of about two hundred and seventy-two days
earth time.
I asked her many questions and took great pleasure in her answers,
for she was a bright, intelligent girl, and although I saw many
evidences of regal dignity about her, yet her manner toward me was
most natural and unaffected, and I could not help but feel that she
occupied a position of importance among her own people.
Our conversation was suddenly interrupted, however, by a messenger
from the point, who came racing back at tremendous speed, carrying
word from Ga-va-go that the scouts were signaling that they had
discovered a large village, and that the warriors were to prepare to
fight.
Immediately we moved up rapidly to Ga-va-go, and then we all advanced
toward the scout who could be seen upon a knoll far ahead. We were
cautioned to silence, and as we moved at a brisk canter over the
soft, pale lavender vegetation of the inner Moon, the feet of the Va-
gas giving forth no sound, the picture presented to my earthly eyes
was weird and mysterious in the extreme.
When we reached the scout, we learned that the village was situated
just beyond a low ridge not far distant, so Ga-va-go gave orders that
the women, the children, and the three prisoners should remain under
a small guard where we were until they had topped the ridge, when we
were to advance to a position where we might overlook the village,
and if the battle was against the No-vans we could retreat to a point
which he indicated to the warriors left to guard us. This was to be
the rendezvous, for following defeat the Va-gas warriors scatter in
all directions, thus preventing any considerable body of them being
attacked and destroyed by a larger body of the pursuing enemy.
As we stood there upon the knoll, watching Ga-va-go and his savage
warriors galloping swiftly toward the distant ridge, I could not but
wonder that the inhabitants of the village which they were about to
attack had not placed sentinels along the ridge to prevent just such
a surprise as this, but when I questioned one of the warriors who had
been left to guard us, he said that not all the Va-gas tribes were
accustomed to posting sentinels when they felt themselves reasonably
safe from attack. It had always been Ga-va-go’s custom, however, and
to it they attributed his supremacy among the other Va-gas tribes
over a large territory.
“After a tribe has made a few successful raids and returned
victorious, they are filled with pride,” the warrior explained to me,
“and presently they begin to think that no one dares to attack them
and then they grow careless, and little by little the custom of
posting sentinels drops into disuse. The very fact that they have no
sentinels indicates that they are a large, powerful and successful
tribe. We shall feed well for a long time.”
The very idea of the thought that was passing through his mind, was
repellent in the extreme, and I fairly shuddered when I contemplated
the callousness with which this creature spoke of the coming orgy, in
which he hoped to devour flesh of his own kind.
Presently we saw our force disappear beyond the ridge, and then we
too, advanced, and as we moved forward there came suddenly to us,
from the distance the fierce and savage war cry of the No-vans and a
moment later it was answered by another no less terrible, rising from
the village beyond the ridge. Our guards hastened us then, to greater
speed, until, at a full run, we mounted the steep slope of the ridge
and halted upon its crest.
Below us lay a broad valley, and in the center a long, beautiful
lake, the opposite shore of which was clothed in forest while that
nearest us was open and park-like, dotted here and there with
beautiful trees, and in this open space we descried a large village.
The ferocity of the scene below us was almost indescribable. The No-
vans warriors were circling the village at a rapid run, attempting to
keep the enemy in a compact mass within, where it would present a
better target for their spears. Already the ground was dotted with
corpses. There were no wounded, for whenever one fell the nearest to
him whether friend or foe cut his throat, since the victors would
devour them all without partiality. The females and the young had
taken refuge in the huts, from the doorways of which they watched the
progress of the battle. The defenders attempted repeatedly to break
through the circling No-vans. The warrior with whom I had been
talking told me that if they were successful the females and the
young would follow them through the break scattering in all
directions, while their warriors attempted to encircle the No-vans.
It was almost immediately evident that the advantage lay with the
force that succeeded in placing this swift-moving circle about its
enemy, and keeping the enemy within it until they had been
dispatched, for those in the racing circle presented a poor target,
while the compact mass of warriors milling in the center could scarce
be missed.
Following several unsuccessful attempts to break through the ring of
savage foemen the defenders suddenly formed another smaller ring
within, and moving in the opposite direction to the No-vans, raced in
a rapid circle. No longer did they cast spears at the enemy, but
contented themselves with leaping and bounding at a rapid gait. At
first it seemed to me that they had lost their heads with terror, but
at last I realized that they were executing a strategic maneuver
which demonstrated both cunning and high discipline. In the earlier
stages of the battle each side had depended for its weapons upon
those hurled by the opposing force, but now the defenders hurled no
weapons, and it became apparent that the No-vans would soon no longer
have spears to cast at them. The defenders were also lessening their
casualties by moving in a rapid circle in a direction opposite to
that taken by the attackers, but it must have required high courage
and considerable discipline to achieve this result since it is
difficult in the extreme to compel men to present themselves
continuously as living targets for a foe while they themselves are
permitted to inflict no injury upon the enemy.
Ga-va-go apparently was familiar with the ruse, for suddenly he gave
a loud cry which was evidently a command. Instantaneously, his entire
force wheeled in their tracks and raced in the opposite direction
paralleling the defenders of the village, and immediately thereafter
cast their remaining spears at comparatively easy targets.
The defenders, who were of the tribe called Lu-thans, wheeled
instantly to reverse the direction of their flight. Those wounded in
the sudden onslaught stumbled and fell, tripping and impeding the
others, with the result that for an instant they were a tangled mass,
without order or formation. Then it was that Ga-va-go and his No-vans
leaped in upon them with their short, wicked sword-daggers. At once
the battle resolved itself into a ferocious and bloody hand-to-hand
conflict, in which daggers and teeth and three-toed paws each did
their share to inflict injury upon an antagonist. In their efforts to
escape a blow, or to place themselves in an advantageous position,
many of the combatants leaped high into the air, sometimes between
thirty and forty feet. Their shrieks and howls were continuous and
piercing. Corpses lay piled so thick as to impede the movements of
the warriors, and the ground was slippery with blood, yet on and on
they fought, until it seemed that not a single one would be left
alive.
“It is almost over,” remarked the warrior at my side. “See, there are
two or three No-vans now attacking each Lu-than.”
It was true, and I saw that the battle could last but a short time.
As a matter of fact it ended almost immediately, the remaining Lu-
thans suddenly attempting to break away and scatter in different
directions. Some of them succeeded in escaping, possibly twenty but I
am sure that there were not more than that, and the rest fell.
Ga-va-go and his warriors did not pursue the few who had escaped,
evidently considering that it was not worth the effort, since there
were not enough of them to menace the village, and there was already
plenty of meat lying fresh and warm upon the ground.
We were summoned now, and as we filed down into the village, great
was the rejoicing of our females and young.
Guards were placed over the women and children of the defeated Lu-
thans, and then at a signal from Ga-va-go, the No-vans fell upon the
spoils of war. It was a revolting spectacle, as mothers devoured
their sons, and wives, their husbands. I do not care to dwell upon
it.
When the victors had eaten their fill, the prisoners were brought
forth under heavy guard, and divided by the Va-gas between the
surviving No-vans warriors. There was no favoritism shown in the
distribution of the prisoners, except that Ga-va-go was given first
choice, and received also those that remained after as nearly equal a
distribution as possible had been made. I had expected that the male
children would be killed, but they were not, being inducted into the
tribe upon an equal footing with those that had been born into it.
Being capable of no sentiments of either affection or loyalty, it is
immaterial to these creatures to what tribe they belong, but once
inducted into a tribe, the instinct of self-preservation holds them
to it, since they would be immediately slain by the members of any
other tribe.
I learned shortly after this engagement that Ga-va-go had lost fully
half his warriors, and that this was one of the most important
battles that the tribe had ever fought. The spoils, however, had been
rich, for they had taken over ten thousand women and fully fifty
thousand young, and great quantities of weapons, harness, and
apparel.
The flesh that they could not eat was wrapped up and buried, and I
was told that it would remain in excellent condition almost
indefinitely.