Allen St. John's Thoat

SOURCE: A Princess of Mars  by Edgar Rice Burroughs (All-Story, July-September 1912).

DESCRIPTION: "And his mount! How can earthly words describe it! It towered ten feet at the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out behind while running; a gaping mouth which split its head from its snout to its long, massive neck. Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. The feet themselves were heavily padded and nailless, which fact had also contributed to the noiselessness of their approach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is a characteristic feature of the fauna of Mars. The highest type of man and one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have well-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existence there. " (The Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Reed Crandall's thoat

NOTES:  The thoat is the horse of Mars. Though domesticated from wild stock, these animals can be formidable.

HISTORY: The image of John carter riding on a thoat over a Martian desert with a ruin in the background can still bring a tear to my eye.