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- Герберт Уеллс
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- Война миров
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- Стр. 71/99
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The
cylinder
was
already
opened
in
the
centre
of
the
pit
,
and
on
the
farther
edge
of
the
pit
,
amid
the
smashed
and
gravel-heaped
shrubbery
,
one
of
the
great
fighting-machines
,
deserted
by
its
occupant
,
stood
stiff
and
tall
against
the
evening
sky
.
At
first
I
scarcely
noticed
the
pit
and
the
cylinder
,
although
it
has
been
convenient
to
describe
them
first
,
on
account
of
the
extraordinary
glittering
mechanism
I
saw
busy
in
the
excavation
,
and
on
account
of
the
strange
creatures
that
were
crawling
slowly
and
painfully
across
the
heaped
mould
near
it
.
The
mechanism
it
certainly
was
that
held
my
attention
first
.
It
was
one
of
those
complicated
fabrics
that
have
since
been
called
handling-machines
,
and
the
study
of
which
has
already
given
such
an
enormous
impetus
to
terrestrial
invention
.
As
it
dawned
upon
me
first
,
it
presented
a
sort
of
metallic
spider
with
five
jointed
,
agile
legs
,
and
with
an
extraordinary
number
of
jointed
levers
,
bars
,
and
reaching
and
clutching
tentacles
about
its
body
.
Most
of
its
arms
were
retracted
,
but
with
three
long
tentacles
it
was
fishing
out
a
number
of
rods
,
plates
,
and
bars
which
lined
the
covering
and
apparently
strengthened
the
walls
of
the
cylinder
.
These
,
as
it
extracted
them
,
were
lifted
out
and
deposited
upon
a
level
surface
of
earth
behind
it
.
Its
motion
was
so
swift
,
complex
,
and
perfect
that
at
first
I
did
not
see
it
as
a
machine
,
in
spite
of
its
metallic
glitter
.
The
fighting-machines
were
coordinated
and
animated
to
an
extraordinary
pitch
,
but
nothing
to
compare
with
this
.
People
who
have
never
seen
these
structures
,
and
have
only
the
ill-imagined
efforts
of
artists
or
the
imperfect
descriptions
of
such
eye-witnesses
as
myself
to
go
upon
,
scarcely
realise
that
living
quality
.
I
recall
particularly
the
illustration
of
one
of
the
first
pamphlets
to
give
a
consecutive
account
of
the
war
.
The
artist
had
evidently
made
a
hasty
study
of
one
of
the
fighting-machines
,
and
there
his
knowledge
ended
He
presented
them
as
tilted
,
stiff
tripods
,
without
either
flexibility
or
subtlety
,
and
with
an
altogether
misleading
monotony
of
effect
.
The
pamphlet
containing
these
renderings
had
a
considerable
vogue
,
and
I
mention
them
here
simply
to
warn
the
reader
against
the
impression
they
may
have
created
.
They
were
no
more
like
the
Martians
I
saw
in
action
than
a
Dutch
doll
is
like
a
human
being
.
To
my
mind
,
the
pamphlet
would
have
been
much
better
without
them
.
At
first
,
I
say
,
the
handling-machine
did
not
impress
me
as
a
machine
,
but
as
a
crablike
creature
with
a
glittering
integument
,
the
controlling
Martian
whose
delicate
tentacles
actuated
its
movements
seeming
to
be
simply
the
equivalent
of
the
crab
's
cerebral
portion
.
But
then
I
perceived
the
resemblance
of
its
grey-brown
,
shiny
,
leathery
integument
to
that
of
the
other
sprawling
bodies
beyond
,
and
the
true
nature
of
this
dexterous
workman
dawned
upon
me
.
With
that
realisation
my
interest
shifted
to
those
other
creatures
,
the
real
Martians
.
Already
I
had
had
a
transient
impression
of
these
,
and
the
first
nausea
no
longer
obscured
my
observation
.
Moreover
,
I
was
concealed
and
motionless
,
and
under
no
urgency
of
action
.
They
were
,
I
now
saw
,
the
most
unearthly
creatures
it
is
possible
to
conceive
.
They
were
huge
round
bodies
--
or
,
rather
,
heads
--
about
four
feet
in
diameter
,
each
body
having
in
front
of
it
a
face
.
This
face
had
no
nostrils
--
indeed
,
the
Martians
do
not
seem
to
have
had
any
sense
of
smell
,
but
it
had
a
pair
of
very
large
dark-coloured
eyes
,
and
just
beneath
this
a
kind
of
fleshy
beak
.
In
the
back
of
this
head
or
body
--
I
scarcely
know
how
to
speak
of
it
--
was
the
single
tight
tympanic
surface
,
since
known
to
be
anatomically
an
ear
,
though
it
must
have
been
almost
useless
in
our
dense
air
.
In
a
group
round
the
mouth
were
sixteen
slender
,
almost
whiplike
tentacles
,
arranged
in
two
bunches
of
eight
each
.
These
bunches
have
since
been
named
rather
aptly
,
by
that
distinguished
anatomist
,
Professor
Howes
,
the
hands
.
Even
as
I
saw
these
Martians
for
the
first
time
they
seemed
to
be
endeavouring
to
raise
themselves
on
these
hands
,
but
of
course
,
with
the
increased
weight
of
terrestrial
conditions
,
this
was
impossible
.
There
is
reason
to
suppose
that
on
Mars
they
may
have
progressed
upon
them
with
some
facility
.
The
internal
anatomy
,
I
may
remark
here
,
as
dissection
has
since
shown
,
was
almost
equally
simple
.
The
greater
part
of
the
structure
was
the
brain
,
sending
enormous
nerves
to
the
eyes
,
ear
,
and
tactile
tentacles
.
Besides
this
were
the
bulky
lungs
,
into
which
the
mouth
opened
,
and
the
heart
and
its
vessels
.
The
pulmonary
distress
caused
by
the
denser
atmosphere
and
greater
gravitational
attraction
was
only
too
evident
in
the
convulsive
movements
of
the
outer
skin
.
And
this
was
the
sum
of
the
Martian
organs
.
Strange
as
it
may
seem
to
a
human
being
,
all
the
complex
apparatus
of
digestion
,
which
makes
up
the
bulk
of
our
bodies
,
did
not
exist
in
the
Martians
.
They
were
heads
--
merely
heads
.
Entrails
they
had
none
.
They
did
not
eat
,
much
less
digest
.
Instead
,
they
took
the
fresh
,
living
blood
of
other
creatures
,
and
injected
it
into
their
own
veins
.
I
have
myself
seen
this
being
done
,
as
I
shall
mention
in
its
place
.
But
,
squeamish
as
I
may
seem
,
I
can
not
bring
myself
to
describe
what
I
could
not
endure
even
to
continue
watching
.
Let
it
suffice
to
say
,
blood
obtained
from
a
still
living
animal
,
in
most
cases
from
a
human
being
,
was
run
directly
by
means
of
a
little
pipette
into
the
recipient
canal
...
.
