In their religion they worship the Source of Life, and look upon the Sun as the place to which the spirit goes at death.  In brief, the Sun is their Heaven.  They believe that the Sun’s heat will be no barrier to the spirit’s complete happiness when liberated from the body.  Phonetically pronounced, they call the Sun Then-ka.

I was indeed surprised at the simplicity of their devotions to their unseen God.  Even the untutored toilers of the valleys talk to the Source of Life and are constantly looking forward to the time when their hard lot will be over that they may enter the Then-ka life.  I could not help but think that their chances of Heaven were better than those of the highland caste; but I will not judge lest I might err.  Who can understand the universal plans of Jehovah?

Before I left the Marsmen I informed them that certain enthusiasts of my world had been signaling to them for some time, and urged them to improve their astronomical apparatus so that they might be able to discern these signals and reply to them.

On account of my thoughtlessness I made an error, for I failed, while I was yet on Mars, to arrange a code of signals; hence I fear that there will be considerable experimenting before we can hope to establish communication with our neighbor world.

CHAPTER IV.

A Glimpse of Jupiter.

The next world I visited was Jupiter, the greatest orb in the solar system, almost fourteen hundred times as large as our Earth.  I found it whirling on its axis so rapidly that it makes an entire revolution in about ten hours of our time.

This voluminous sphere is in great contrast to both the Moon and Mars.  Its physical constituency resembles a liquid more than a solid, and it is quite hot but not luminous.  It has cooled sufficiently to admit human forms, although certain parts of the giant planet are void of all life, owing to the more intense heat in those sections.

The atmosphere is charged with thick clouds, never at rest and continually forming into immense scrolls close to the surface of the planet.

The human life of Jupiter is found in certain belts where the crust of the planet has been hardened for several thousand years.  The people have risen from rude, primitive conditions to a state of splendid civilization.  In size they are colossal giants, averaging twenty-five feet in height.  Their two powerful arms extend from what we would call the hips, and no one would imagine with what facility these giants use them.  After extended observation, I was almost tempted to wonder why our arms were placed so high on the body.  These Jupiterites are more handsome than the people on the Moon or Mars, and their faces shine with a superior intelligence.  Instead of hair on the head, they have something unknown to our world, quite similar in appearance to wool.

Their two eyes blaze like balls of fire, making one of the giants appear like a fiersome though not repulsive monster.  The most unusual feature about the face is the peculiarity of the chin and forehead.  Each is covered with convolutions of an insensible, rubber-like membrane.