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148 marry. So we soften the character of the males by friendly and supervised conversation with the females."

"How do you manage about marriages? There is the chief difficulty in the societies of earth, and men have divers ways of dealing with it in divers nations."

"We expect those who wish to be married to know each other many years before the marriage is completed, and to obtain the consent of the elders."

We had many such conversations, which I cannot now describe to you, but the more he told me, the more I thought that in many things men might learn from the Martians—a class of beings not unlike men in many things, and living in a world very like your earth, but further advanced.

When passing Webb's Land, I asked if I might see one of the common feasts and recreations of the Martians. After some delay and consideration, my friend assented, on condition of my being very careful about preserving my secret, and not of exposing myself to detection. He promised to show me the Hall of Feasting and the Hall of Recreation of his own commune, when we got back to Tycho land, which we did next morning.