READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
universe, the Star of Issus, of which—as legend has it—there
were only two in existence.
I have personal knowledge of the destruction of that
lesser Star of Issus which adorned the brow of the last
Hekkador, Matai Shang, as he fell to his death from an airship
into a deep crevasse along the Great Ice Barrier of the
Northern polar region of Barsoom. Of the other, only the very
ancient Legend of Issus can tell.
According to this legend, Issus, herself, wore a greater
stone on her own holy diadem, 'twice as large as the eye of a
man,' which was known as the Great Star of Issus. In later
times, the original and genuine Issus caused to be made a
lesser stone, which she handed over to the Father of
Therns—as though it were a badge of authority given to one
who ruled the lower heavens—and it was apparently this
lesser Star of Issus which went to destruction along with its
iniquitous wearer, Matai Shang, at the end of an ages-old
dynasty of Hekkadors.
Insofar as the original Great Star of Issus is concerned,
legend loses its detail somewhere, lost as an ancient river
which sinks at last spent with its journey across time and
distance into the dead sands of Yesterday's silenced eons. At
this writing, all I can say is that if the Great Star of Issus
exists, it is the only gem of its kind in the universe...
To this observation was appended a most interesting
footnote:
A great loss, if it is never to be located, inasmuch as
certain Barsoomian scientists have been desirous of examining
this rare gem in the light of certain historical information—to
the effect that both of the stones mentioned above
may, indeed, be composed of that legendary element, tharton,
allegedly utilized by the ancient wizards of olden Barsoom.
This element, alone, with phenomena occurring in the
frequency ranges of human thought. Hence its other name,
the psychic ray...
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