"You recall your terrestrial history? Once your ancestors had performers on the stage who did funny motions and said amusing remarks, de spectators to make laugh. I t'ink you called it 'vaudeville.' Well, on Mars they have also vaudeville!" He paused, and looked at me from under half-shut eyelids, and grinned widely to show his reptilian teeth. I wondered if he'd really found something new. I would even be willing to pay for a glimpse of Martian vaudeville. I wondered if my Martian was too rusty for me to understand jokes in the spoken lingo. "They haf not only men and women telling jokes. They haf trained animals acting funny!" Dworken went on. This was too much. "I suppose the animals talked, too?" I said sarcastically. "Do they speak Earth or Martian?" He regarded me approvingly. "My friend, you catch on quick." He raised a paw. "Now, don't at conclusions jump. Let me exblain. At first, I did not believe it either. "Dey sprang it with no warning. Onto de stage came a _tllooll_ (you know him, I t'ink), and a _shiyooch'iid_. The _shiyooch'iid_ was riding a bicycle--I mean a monocle. One wheel. The _tllooll_ moved just as awkward as he always does, and tried to ride a tandem four-wheeled vehicle which had been especially for him made." In spite of my resolve, I chuckled. The picture of a _tllooll_ trying to ride a four-wheeled bicycle, pumping each of his eight three-jointed legs up and down in turn, while maintaining his usual supercilious and indifferent facial expression, was irresistibly funny. "Wait!" said my friend, and again raised a paw. "You have as yet not'ing heard. They make jokes at same time. De _shiyooch'iid_ asks de _tllooll_, 'Who was dat _tlloolla_ I saw you wit' up the Canal?' and the _tllooll_ replies, 'Dat was no _tlloolla_, dat was my _shicai_.'" I doubled up, laughing. Unless you have visited Mars this may not strike you as funny, but I collapsed into a heap. I put my head on the table and wept with mirth. It seemed like five minutes before I was able to speak. "Oh, no!" "Yes, yes, I tell you. Yes!" insisted my friend. He even smiled himself. * * * * * If you don't know the social system of the Martians there is no point in my trying to explain why the idea of a _tllooll's_ being out with that neuter of neuters, a _shicai_, is so devastatingly funny. But that, suddenly, was not quite the point. _Did it happen?_ I had large doubts. Nobody had ever heard a _tllooll_ make any sort of a sound, and it was generally supposed that they had no vocal chords. And no _shiyooch'iid_ (they somewhat resemble a big groundhog, and live in burrows along the canals of Mars) had ever been heard to make any noise except a high-pitched whistle when frightened. "Now, just a minute, Dworken," I said. "I know, my vriend. I know. You t'ink it is impossible. You t'ink the talking is faked. So I t'ought too. But vait."