Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the
strange horror of its appearance.  The peculiar V-shaped mouth with
its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a
chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this
mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the
lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness
of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth--above
all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes--were at
once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous.  There was
something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy
deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty.  Even at this
first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and
dread.