Since ERB's first novel -- A Princess of Mars
-- appeared there have been countless artistic interpretations of Barsoomian
Tharks and Tars Tarkas. Although most are amusing, it is obvious that some
of these images are not based upon the Green Men that ERB described in
his Mars novels. The best description appeared in the first book of the
Mars series:
"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. They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks
and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an
intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or
legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle
above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed
either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting
this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once,
without the necessity of turning the head.
"The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer
together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an
inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits
in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.
"There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very
light yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon,
this color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in
the female. Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of proportion
to their bodies as in the case of the young.
"The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while
the pupil is dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth.
These latter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and
terrible countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which
end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located. The whiteness
of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming
of china. Against the dark background of their olive skins their tusks
stand out in a most striking manner, making these weapons present a singularly
formidable appearance.
"The man himself (TARS TARKAS), for such I may call him,
was fully fifteen feet in height and, on Earth, would have weighed some
four hundred pounds. He sat his mount as we sit a horse, grasping the animal’s
barrel with his lower limbs, whilethe hands of his two right arms held
his immense spear low at the side of his mount; his two left arms were
outstretched laterally to help preserve his balance, the thing he rode
having neither bridle or reins of any description for guidance.
"While the Martians are immense, their bones are very
large and they are muscled only in proportion to the gravitation which
they must overcome. The result is that they are infinitely less agile and
less powerful, in proportion to their weight, than an Earth man, and I
doubt that were one of them suddenly to be transported to Earth he could
lift his own weight from the ground; in fact, I am convinced that he could
not do so.
"He was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me,
and was evidently the leader of the band, as I had noted that they seemed
to have moved to their present position at his direction. When his force
had come to a halt he dismounted, threw down his spear and small arms,
and came around the end of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed and
as naked as I, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head, limbs,
and breast."
Keeping
this description in mind you will find it interesting to peruse the hundreds
of artistic renderings of Tharks that I have compiled in the following
galleries:
