We told our stories and gave him much news of those portions of Barsoom with which each of us was familiar, and as Nur An spoke, I looked about me at the assemblage of the great chamber. They were mostly women and many of them were young and beautiful. The men, for the most part, were gross-looking, fat and oily, and there were certain lines of cruelty about their eyes and their mouths that did not escape me, though I tried to attribute it to the first depressing impression that the black and sombre buildings and the deserted avenues had conveyed to my mind.
When we had finished our recitals, Ghron announced that a banquet had been prepared in our honour, and in person he led the procession from the throne room down a long corridor to a mighty banquet hall, in the centre of which stood a
