I
r( a-
THE GOD OF TARZAN
The God of Tnrzan
'AMONG the books of his dead
father in the little cnbin by the
landlocked harbor, Tarzan of the
Apes found many things to puzzle
his young head. By much labor and
through the medium of inflnito pa
tience as well, he had, without as
sistance, discovered the purpose of
the little bugs which ran riot upon
the printed pages. Ho had learned
that in tho many combinations in
which he found them they spoke in
a silent language, spoke in a strange
tongue, spoko of wonderful things
which a littlo ape-boy could not by
any chance fully understand, arous
ing his curiosity, stimulating his
imagination and filling his soul with
a mighty longing for further knowl
edge. There wore, of course, certain
words which aroused his curiosity to
a greater extent than others, words
which, for one reason or another, ex
cited his imagination. There was
one, for, example, the meaning of
which was rather difficult to grasp.
It was tho word God. Tarzan first
had been attracted to it by the fact
that it was very short and that it
commenced with a larger g-bug than
those about it a male g-bug it was
to Tarzan, the lower-case letters be
ing females. Another fact which at
tracted him to this word was the
number of he-bugs which figured in
its definition Supreme Deity, Cre
ator or Upholder of the Universe.
This must be a very important word
indeed, he would have to look into
it, and ho did, though it still baffled
him after many months of thought
and study.
But of the meaning of God he was
yet in doubt. Once he thought he
had grasped it that God was a
mighty chieftain, king of all the
Mangani. He was not quite sure,
however, since that would mean that at least spy upon his hated enemies
God was mightier than Tarzan a ' and discover if they had any inter
point which Tarzan of the Apes, who course with God.
acknowledged no equal in tho jungle, It was dark when Tarzan came to
was loath to concede. the village of Mbonga. As silently
But in all the books he had there 1 as the s v.nt shadows of the night he
was no picture of God, though he 'sought his accustomed place among
found much to confirm his belief that1 the branches of the great tree which
God was a great, an all-powerful in-loveihung the palisade. Below him,
dividual. He saw pictures of places in the village street, he saw men
where God was worshiped; but never, and women. The men were hide
any sign of God. Finally he began ously painted more hideously than
to wonder if God were not of a dif- usual. Among them moved a weird
ferent form than he, and at last he and grotesque figure, a tall figure
determined to set out in search of that went upon the two legs of a
Him. j man and yet had the head of a buf-
He commenced by questioning falo. A tail dangled to his ankles
Mumga, who was very old and had ( behind him, and in one hand he car
seen many strange things in her ricd a zebra's tail while in the other
long life; but Mumga being an ape, j clutched a bunch of small arrows,
had a faculty for recalling the i Tarzan was electrified. Could it
trivial. That time when Gunto mis-1 be that chance had given him 'thus
took a sting-bug for an edible beetle j early an oppoitunity to look upon
had made more impression upon God? Surely this thing was neither
Mumga than all the innumerable ' man nor beast, so what could it be
manifestations of the greatness of then other than the Creator of the
God which she had witnessed, and ;
which, of course, she had not under
stood.
Numgo, overhearing Tarzan's
questions, managed to wrest his at
tention long enough from tho diver
sion of flea hunting to advance the
theory that the power which made
the, lightning and the rain and the
thunder came from Goro, the moon.
He knew this, he said, because the
Dum-Dum always was danced in the
light of Goro. This reasoning,
though entirely satisfactory to Num
go and Mumga, failed fully to con-
vince Tarzan. However, it gave him I
a basis lor further investigation
along a new line. He would inves-1
tigate the moon.
That night he clambered to the!
loftiest pinnacle of the tallest jungle fought upon the slightest provoca
giant. The moon was full, a great;, tion. Numa, the lion, was not given
glorious, equatorial moon. The ape-ito-loquacity, yet of all the jungle
man, upright upon a slender, sway
ing limb, raised his bronzed face to
the silver orb. Now that he had
clambered to the highest point with
in his reach, he discovered, to his
surprise, that Goro, was as far away
as when he viewed him from the
ground. He thought that Goro was
attempting to elude him.
"Come, Goro!" he cried, "Tarzan
of the Apes will not harm you!" But
still the moon held aloof.
"Tell me," he continued, "if you be
the great king who sends Ara, the
lightning; who makes tho great
noise and the mighty winds, and
sends tho waters down upon the
jungle people when- the days aie
dark and it is cold. Tell me, Goro,
are you God!"
Thus it was an imposing word
which Tarzan made of God. The
masculine prefix of, the apes is bu,
the feminine mu; g Tarzan had
named la, o he pronounced tu, and d
was mo. So the word God evolved
itself Bulamutumumo, or, in English,
he-g-she-o-she-d.
Similarly he had arrived at a
strange and wonderful spelling of
his own name. Tarzan is derived
from the two ape words tar and zan,
meaning white skin. It was given
him by his foster mother, Kala, the
great she-ape. When Tarzan first
put it into the written language of
his own people he had not yet
chanced upon either white or skin
in the dictionary, but in a primer he
had seen the picture of a littlo white
boy and so he wrote his name bu
mudemutomuro, or he-boy.
And so Tarzan harangued the
moon, and when Goio did not reply,
Tarzan of the Apes waxed wroth.
He swelled his giant chest and bared
his fighting fangs, and hurled into
the teeth of the dead satellite tho
challenge of tho 'bull ape.
"You are not Bulamutumumo," he
cried. "You are not king of the
jungle folk. You are not so great as blacks started nervously, dropping
Tarzan, mighty fighter, mighty into utter silence as they listened
hunter. None thero is so great as for a repetition of that all-too-fa-Tarzan.
If there bo a Bulamutu- miliar and always terrorizing voice.
mumo, Tarzan can kill him. Come
down, Goro, great coward, and fight,
with Tarzan,
Tarzan will kill you. I
I am Tarzan, the killer."
But the moon made no answer to
tho boasting of tho ape-man, and
when a cloud came and obscured her
face, Tarzan thought Goro was indeed
afraid, and was hiding from him.iso
ho came down out of tho trees and
awoke Numgo and told him how
great was Tarzan how he had
frightened Goro out of tho sky and
made him tremble. Tarzan spoko of
the moon as he, for all things large
or awe-inspiring are malo to the
npc folk.
Numgo was not much impressed,
but he was very sleepy, so he told
Tarzan to go away and leave his
betters alone.
"But whore shall I find God 7" in
sisted Tarzan. "You arc very old;
if there is a God you must have seen
Him. What does He look like?
Where does He live?"
"I am God," replied Numgo. "Now
sleep and disturb me no more."
Tarzan looked at Numgo steadily
for several minutes, his shapely head
sank just a trifle between his great
shoulders, his square chin shot for
ward and his short upper lip drew
back, exposing his white teeth. Then,
with a low growl he leaped upon the
ape and buried his fangs in the
other's hairy shoulder, clutching the
great neck in his mighty fingers.
Twice he shook the old, ape, then he '
leleased his tooth-hold. j
"Are you God?" he demanded.
"No," wailed Numgo. "I am only ,
a poor, old ape. Leave me alone.
Go ask the Gomangani where God is. i
They are hairless like yourself and
very wise, too. They should know." ,
Tarzan released Numgo and
turned away. The suggestion that
he consult the blacks appealed to
him, and though his relations with
the people of Mbonga, the chief, weie
tho antithesis of friendly, he could
Universe! The ape-man watched
the every move of tho strange
creature. He saw the black men and
women fall back at its approach as
though they stood in terror of its
mysterious powers.
Presently he discovered that the
deity was speaking and that all lis
tened in silence to his words. Tar
zan was sure that none other than
God could inspire such awe in the
hearts of the Gomangani, or stop
their mouths so effectually without
recourse to arrows or spears. Tar
zan had come to look with contempt
upon the blacks, principally because
of their garru.ity. The small apes
talked a great deal and ran away
from an enemy. The big, old bulls
of Kerchak talked but little and
folk there were few who fought more
often than he.
Tarzan witnessed strange things
that night, none of which he under
stood, and, perhaps because they
were strange, he thought that they
must have to do with the God he
could not understand. He saw three
youths receive their first war spears
in a weird ceremony which the
grotesque witch-doctor strove suc
cessfully to render uncanny and
awesome.
Hugely interested, he5 watched the
slashing of the three brown arms
and the exchange of blood with
Mbonga, the chief, in the rites of
the ceremony of blood bx-otherhood.
He saw the zebra's tail dipped into
a caldron of water above which the
witch-doctor had made magical
passes the while he danced and
leaped about it, and he saw the
breasts and foreheads of each of
the three novitiates sprinkled with
the charmed liquid. Could the ape
man have known the purpose of this
act, that it was intended to render
the recipient invulnerable to tho at
tacks of his enemies and fearless in
the face of any danger, he would
doubtless have leaped into the village
street and appropriated the zebra's
tail and a portion of the contents of
tho caldron,
The longer Tarzan watched, the !
more convinced ho became that his
eyes werfe upon God, and with the
conviction camo determination to
have word with the deity. With
Tarzan of the Apes to think was to
act,
The people of Mbonga were keyed 1
to tho highest pitch of hysterical ex-1 Upon another occasion and by day
citcment. They needed little to re- j light, the warriors would doubtless
lease the accumulated pressure of .have leaped to attack him, but at
static nerve force which the terroriz- night of all others, when they were
ing mummery of the witch-doctor ' wrought to such a pitch of nervous
had induced.
A lion roared, suddenly and loud,
close without tho palisade. The
Even the witch-doctor paused in the
midst of an. Intricate step, remaining,
momentarily rigid and statuesque as I
VMrirffl"PTJBIil6
lmmf life M
iK 1 1 fliP .
1 1 W I $ If ft &WhAWf V I WW ?3A
1 v
llistali, in
he plumbed his cunning mind for
suggestion as how nest he might
take advantage of the condition of
his audience and the timely inter
ruption. Already the evening had been
vastly profitable to him. There would
be three goats for the initiation of
copper wire from admiring and ter
rified members of his audience.
Numa's loar still reverberated
along taut nerves when a woman's
laugh, shrill and piercing, shattered
the silence of the village. It was
,l Hfctlv fvnm hi tvno into thn
t-ktin mnm.int Trtnr nv7on fiiricn t e
villa st. set. Fearless amonir his
village stieet. Fearless among his
blood enemies he stood, taller by a
full head than many of Mbonga's
warriors, stiaight as their straight-
est arrow, muscled like Numa, the
lion.
For a moment Tarzan stood look-
ing straight at tne witcn-noctor.
Every eye was upon him, yet no one
Tinrl moved a Daralvsis of terror
held them, to be broken a moment
later as the ape-man, with a toss,
stepped straight toward the hideous
figure beneath the buffalo head. I
Then tho nerves of the blacks
could stand no more, ror months '
the terror of the strange,
white
iung.e goa naa peen upon
them.
Their arrows had been stolen from
the very center of the village;- their
warriors had been silently slain upon
the jungle trails and their dead
bodies dropped mysteriously and by
night into the village street as from
the heavens above.
One or two there weie who
had glimpsed the strange figure of
the new demon and it was fiom their
oft-repeated descriptions that the
entire village now recognized Tarzan
as the author of many of their ills
dread by the uncanny artistry 01
their witch-doctor, they were belp
less with terror. As one man they
turned and fled, scattering for their
huts as Tarzan advanced. For a
moment one and one only held his
ground. It was the witch-doctor.
More than half self-hypnotized into
the three vouths into full-fledged nnstiiro with foot fav nnkmpml nml i , ,, ichest: .hcie was nothine- human in ! throuirh Ins giant name, ior
warriorshio. and besides these hel henrl thviisf nut tn..vmH tin. nno.mnn I .t Y;'i,. . '. the baled fanes. 01 the cat-like leans, enemy was the most hated a
had received several gifts of grain I Thus he remained for an instant bo-1 tj0'n of the'buffalo hide dracgimrthel JIbonga's v'arriors wel terrified I loathed of all thu jungle creatures
and beads, together with a piece of fore he uttered a loud "Boo!" which Li-...,:... r v: tJ .... ...i. , : too terrified to leave the seeminir se- Twined in a great tiee was His
a belief in his own charlatanry heiho leaped over cooking pots and thoforest demon's victory over the
faced this new demon who threat-1
EDOER- PHIL"ArELPHIA:; SATURDAY, JVNE 21, 1919
Being the Fourth of the Series
of the Jungle Tales of Tarzan
9
9
turning, brought Ills head within teacii of
aioned to undermine his ancient and
luciative profession
"Are you God?" asked Tarzan.
The witch-doctor, hav.ng no idea
of the meaning of the other's words,
danced a lew strange steps, leaped
high in the air, turning completely,
around and alighting
was evidently intended to ingmen black man that Tarzan saw dodge
Taizan away, but in reality had nuijnto the daikness of the hut's inte-
buhi euju.
larzan did not pause. He had set
out to approach and examine God
and nothing upon ealth nrght now
.t-n iin -. c : a..t i, . . ...!.;., i
tics
I uJ f :.l. .1 ... !.
I u-itr-h-Hnpfn,. tvt,l mn w mprli..
witch-doctor tried seme new medi
v i V- i P; u -lu'-1-;1" "
which he still c.utched m one hand,
ho made circles above it with the
arrows in thc other hand, meanwhile .
hnekinn- eaut.innsW nu-nv f.nm Tar-
Lan and speaking confidentially toln an attempt to escape, but a few.
the bushy end of the tail.
This medicine must be shoit medi-
i cinn hnwnvni' few tlio M-piilnre end
j 0r demon, was steadily clot ng up
the distance which had separated '
them. The circles, theiefoie, weie!
few and rapid, and when they weie ,
completed, the witch-doctor struck i
an attitude which was intended to be 1
awe-inspiring and waving the zebra's '
tail before him, drew an imaginary
line between himself and Taizan.
"Beyond this line you cannot pass,
for my medicine is strong medicine,"
ho cried. "Stop, or you will fall
dead as your foot touches this spot.
My mother was a voodoo, my father '
was a snake; I live upon lions'
hearts and the entrails of the pan-!
ther; I eat young babies for bicak-jas
fast and the demons of the jungle
are my slaves. I am the most pow-
erful witch-doctor in the world;
I fear nothing, for I cannot die. I"
But he cot no fuither: instead he
turned and fled as Tarzan of the
Apes crossed the magical dead line
and still lived. '
As the witch-doctor ran Tarzan
almost lost his temper. This was no
way for God to act, at least not in
accordance with the conception Tar
zan had come to have of God.
"Come back!" he cried. "Cornel
back, God, I will not harm you
But the witch-doctor was in full re-
treat by this time, stepping high as 1
smoldering embeiy of small fires that
9
9
ffAHtfSjL
Taran's blade
i had burned before the huts of vil-
lagers. Straight for his own hut
ran the witch-doctor, terror-spun ed
to unwonted speed, but futile was his
effort the ape-man boie down upon
h m with the speed of Bara, the deer,
Just at the entranct! to his hut the
nor
So this was what he had thought
was God! Tarzan's lip curled in an
.,-. ., .nnn;i .. , ... i rnnr rum inn nn tvnw his fbnnn i iviinc np saw sent ii
III tl SlUUUIIi KMfnh.rlc.ntnK nm,. .-... n.Un.1. J K .---"- - .,. . ... , ..... vi-.i i - ---
-' II 11L11-I.ULLU1 Vlll II V l"l I illllH . t . - . . ..
'"... i .... u. i i ..i- .l.
?"? 'V "'". a "c lerp.eu 'THe just lay '.-ncath his antagonist
hut aft0r th2 terror-str W211 Witch
c!octo.r- . In the hlackness within he
Hound thc man huddled at the far
.side and dragged him forth into the
I ... ... . . " . Vr
iT " " ui
The witch-doctor bit and scratched
cuffs across the head brought him to
a better realization of tho futility
of resistance. Beneath the moon
Tarzan held the cringing figure upon
lts shaking feet.
"So you are God!" he cried. "If
you be God, then Tarzan is greater
than God," and so the ape-man I
thought. "I am Tarzan," he shouted
into the ear of the black. "In all the J
jungle, or above it, or upon the run
ning wateis, or the sleeping waters,
or upon the big water, or the little
water, there is none so great 03 Tar
zan. ' Tarzan is greater than the
Mangani; he is gi eater than tho
Gomangani. With his own hands he
has slam Numa, the lion, and Sheeta,
the panther; there is none so great
Tarzan. Tarzan is greater than
God. See!" and with a sudden
wrench he twisted the black's neck
until the fellow shrieked in pain and
then slumped to the earth in a
swoon
Placing his foot upon the neck of!
the fallen witch-doctor, the ape-man
raised his face to the moon and ut-i
tered the long, shrill scream of the I
victorious bull ape. Then he stooped
and snatched tho zebra's tail from
the nerveless fingers of the uncon
scious man and without a, backward
glance retraced his footsteps acres
the village,
Mbonga must do something to
counteract the evil influence of the
witch-doctor. He raised his heavy
t t'X-tfr- " vi'rt'jjptji
By Edgar Rice
spear and
d crept silently from his'noath which slept the apes of Ker -
le wake of the retreating chak, and he was still absorbed in
Down the village street the solution of his strange problem
hut in tl
ape-man. Down the village street
whikcu inrzan as unconcerned and wnen no fell asleep,
as deliberate' as though only the! The .sun was well up in the he'.vcns
friendly apes of Kerchak surrounded when he awoke. The apes were astir
him instead of a village full of armed in seaich of food. Tarzan watched
enemies. them lazily from above as they
Seeming only was the indifTei once scratched in the rotting loam for
of Taizan, for alert and watch-! bugs and beetles and grubworms, or
ful was every well-trained .sense, sought among the branches of the
Mbonga, wily stalker of keen-eared trees for egps and young birds, or
jungle creatines, moved now in utter luscious caterpillars,
silence. Not even Bara, tho deer,1 An oichid, dangling close beside
with his gieat cars could have bis head, opened slowly, unfolding
guessed from any sound that Mbonga its delicate petals to the warmth and
was near, but the black was not light of tho sun which but recently
stalking liara, ho was stalking man, J had penetrated to its shady retreat,
and so he .sought only to avoid noise. A thousand times had Tarzan of the
Closer and closer to the slowly Apes witnessed the beauteous mir
moving ape-man ho came. Now bade; but now it aroused a keener in
raised his war spear, throwing his , terest for the ape-man was just
spear-hand far back above his right commencing to ask himself questions
shoulder. Once and for all would about all the myiiad wonders which
Mbonga, the chief, rid himself and heietoforc he had but taken for
his people of the menace of thi.- gi anted.
terrifying enemy. He would make
no poor cast; ho would take nains.
ho would take pains,
hurl Ws weapon with
xe as would finish the
and ho would h
such great fore
demon foiever.
But Mbonga, su.e as he thought
himself, erred in his calculations. He
might believe that he was stalking a
man-he did not know, however, that,
it was a man with the delicate se.ue
perception of the lower orders. Tar-
zan, when he had turned bis back
upon his enemies, had noted what
Mbonga never vmuld hae thought
of considering in the hunting of
man the wind It was blowing in
the same direction that Taizan was
nroreeHim- rrrvl in l,i- .it!...,
nostrils the odors which aiosc behind Buto. the ihinoceros? Where and Quickly Tarzan seized Teeka and
him. Thus it was that Taizan knew how, anyway, did they all come from ''ragged her to the ground beneath,
that he was being followed, for even the trees, the flowers, the insects, then he extricated the balu and tossed
among the many stenches of an Af- the countless creatures of the jungle? Il to its mother. Still Histah whip
rican village, the ape-man's uncanny Quite unexpectedly an idea popped Ilcd about, clinging to the ape-man;,
faculty was equal to the task of lntu Tarzan's head. In following out but after a dozen efforts Tarzan suc
differcntiating one stench from an- the many ramifications of the die- needed in wriggling free and leaping
other and locating with remarkable tionary definition of God he had come to the ground out of range of the
piecision the source whence it u"on thc wo"' cieatc "to cause to mighty battering of the dying snake,
came. ,come into existence; to form out of A circle of apes surroun-'d the
He knew that a man was following j nothing." ' scene of the battle; but the moment
him and coming closer, and his judg-1 Tarzan almost had arrived at that Tarzan broke safely from the
ment warned him of the puipose of something tangible when a distant enemy they turned silently away to
the stalker. When Mbonga, there-' wail staitlcd him from his pieoccu-, lesume their interrupted feeding,
fore, came within spear range of the i Pat'n ir'to sensibility of the present and Teeka turned with them, appar-ape-man,
thc latter suddenly wheeled ' and ''h The wail came from ' ently forgetful of all but her balu
upon him, so suddenly "that tho the jungle at some little distance from and the fact that when the inter
poised spear was shot a" fraction of Tarzan':- swaying couch. It was ruption had occurred she just had
a second before Mbonga had in-! tne u:lil of a tin' halu. Tar- discovered an ingeniously hidden
tended. It went a. trifle high and zan recognized it at once as the voice nest containing three perfectly good
Tarzan stooped to let it pass overi"f Gaza. Teeka 's baby. They had ' eggs.
his head; then he sprang toward the1 t,allctl 't Gazan because its soft, baby , Tarzan, equally indifferent to 'a
chief. But Mbonga did not wait to ' hair had been unusually led, and battle that was over. merMv ,f .
receive him. Instead, he turned and
ueu ior tne clan; uoorwav ot the ncai-
est hut, calling as he went for his
warriors to fall upon the sti anger
and slay him.
Well, indeed, mifht Mhrinri sr-rnnm
for help, for Taizan, young and
fleet-footed, coveted the distance be
tween them in great leaps, at the
speed of a charging lion. He was
growling, too, not at all unlike Numa
himself. Mbonga heard and his
blood lan cold
He could feel the
wooi stnien upon his pate and a
h n-itn .1,1,1 n
prickly chill run up his spine, as
thoucrh Death had romf. an,) inn l-iw,
... . -
col.l tinger aiong Mbonga's back.
utners ncaiu, too, anu saw, trom "" !'-"""' ,.....&
the daikness of their huts bold (Up te-races toward the sounds which
wairinrs. hirleniiK- rnintBfl tn.'now had risen in volume to deafen-
ing heavy war snears in nerveless
fingers. Against Numa, the lion,
they would have charged feailessly
Against many times their own num
ber of black warriors would thev
haye laced to the protection of their
chief, but this weird jungle demon I But Tarzan, swifter than his heavy he gave the matter thought, no rea
fi'.led them with terror. There was fellows, distanced them all. It was ' son in tne WOrld why he should have
nothing human in tho bestial growls bo who was first upon the scene. ! done the tbjnf? he did, and presently
curity of their huts while they
watched the beast-man spring full i
upon the back of their old chieftain. ,
Mbonga went down with a scream
of terror. He was too frightened
on to attempt to defend himself,
-"
in a paialysii cf fear, screaming at
the top of his lungs T-irzan half l
rose and kneeled aboe the blank. He,
I turned Mbonga over and looked him !
in the face, exposing the man's
throat, then he drew his long, keen
knife, the knife that John Clayton,
Lord Greystoke, had brought from i
England many years before. He
raised it close above Mbonga's neck. '
iiiu u.u uioin ..nun). nit, iwi.ii i.v.4-
,... ti i,.,.i,.,i f..- u; iif ;., ..
lui. "c ii.-.um iui ins i.c in
tongue which Tarzan could not
derstand.
The old man seemed to wither and
shrink to a bag of puny bones be-
neatli his eyes, ho wcaK and help-'
less and teiror-tneken he appeared
that the ape-man was filled with u
great contempt, but another sensa
tion also claimed him something
new to Tarzan of th Apes in 1 ela
tion to an enemy. It was pity pity
for a poor, frightened, old man.
Tarzan rose and turned away,
leaving Mbonga, the chief, unharmed.
With head held high the ape-man
walked through the village, swung I
himself into the branches of the tree
which overhung the palisade and (lis-
appeared fiom the sight of the vil-:
lagers. I
All the way to the
..i !.. .. '
buiKipniB
ground of the apes Tarzan sought1
for an explanation of the strange
power which had stayed his hand
and prevented him from slaying
mi It . o V,1, .-..rv, .,
... eater than he had commanded
him to spare the life of the old man.
Tarzan could not understand, for he
could conceive of nothing, or no one,
with the authority to dictate to him
what he should do, or what he should
refrain from tjoing.
It was late when Tarzan sought a
swaying couch among the trees be-
- 'Ili 'iptw56Piffy,-VJ' fsf ii
the solution of his strange problem
What made
the flower open
i What mad
i hat made it grow from a tiny bud
to a full-blown bloom? Why was it
at all? Why was he? Where ,lid
, Numa, tho lion, come from?
iiri.
Planted tho first t.ee? How did
0oll) Kot way up into the darkness
J the night sky to cast his welcome
l'K"t upon the fearsome nocturnal
jungle? And the sun! Did the sun'
'""
merely Happen there.'
Why weie all the peoples of the
jungle not tiecs? Why were the
trcCft ,lot something else? Why was
Tarzan different from Taug, and
Taug different fiom Bara, the deer,
am' ara diffeient fiom Sheeta, the
u..;vi.a, i-...
panther, and whv was not Shceta like
, Gazan in tllL language of the great
apes means leil skin. ,
Tho wail was immediately fo'low-
ed by a real scream of terror from
the small lungs. Tarzan was electri-
i fied
ill!
anow from a bow he shot through
the trees in the direction of the
sound. Ahead of him he heaid the
savage snailing of an adult she-ape.
It was Teeka to the rescue. The
danger must be ery leal. Tarzan
' cou1'1 teil that "' tne ",)t0 0l raBe
mingieu witn rear in tne voice 01 tne i
fl10-
Running along bending limbs,
r t .U..
'k'k " " ' - '"-""-.
lnK proportions
From all directions
I the apes of Keichak were hurrying
in lesnonse to the appeal in the tones
of the balu and its mother, and as
thev came, their roars reverberated
ln''"RI1 tne I01tsc
com cnui
tne
ntl ,
tah, the snake huge, ponderous,
slimy and in the folds of its deadly
embrace was Teeka's little balu,
Gazan. Nothing in tho jungle in-
spired within the breast of Tarzan
so near a semblance to fear as did
the hideous Histah. The apes, too,
loathed the terrifying reptile and
feared lvm even more than they did
Shceta, the panther, or Numa, the
lion. Of all their enemies there was
none they gave a wider berth than
they gave Histah, the snake.
Tarzan knew that leeua was
peculiarly fearful of this silent, re-
pulsive foe. and as the scene broke
upon his vision, it was the action of ,
1 CCKH WHICH HIIUU HUH Willi tile
r . j r . ,l !
, greatest wuimrr, jur ul iiiu moment
un-,that he saw her, the she-ape leaped
, upon the glistening body of the
snake, and as the mighty folds en
ciiclcd her as well as her offspring,
she made no effort to escape, but
instead grasped the writhing body in
a futile eft'oit to tear it from her
scieaming balu.
Tarzan knew all too well how deep
rooted was Tceka's terror of His
tah. He scarce could believe the
testimony "f his own eyes, when they
told him that she had voluntarily
rushed into that deadly embrace.
Nosvus Teeka's innate dread of the
monster much greater thun Tarzan's
own. Never, willingly, had he
touched a snake. Why, he could
not say, for he would admit fear of
nothing; nor was it fear, but rather
n , inlin.nnt .alDllLlntt I. tin , , A t, 1 1. Ul l
a.. ......-.... .;,." . uvMmv.v.
him by many generations
, generations of civilized
ancestors, and back of them, perhaps,
by countless myriads of such as
Teeka, in the breasts of each of which
!,,! 1.,k1o,1 hB enme tisiimi torrnr i
of the slimy reptile.
Yet Tarzan did not hesitate more
than had Teeka, but leaped upon
Histah with all the speed and im-
petuosity that he would have shown
had he been springing upon Bara,
the- dfer, to make a kill for food.
Thus beset the snake writhed andi
twisted horribly; but not for an in-1
Burroughs
latent did it loose its hold unon ani
0f its inteti,!.l v!rflm . i. u j
ts 'fended victims, for it had in
eluded the ape-man in its cold errf- $
urace me minute that ho had fallen
upon it.
Still clinging to the tree, the
migiuy reptile held the three as M
tllOUirh thev Iiml linnn n.itV,,.t . i-.l'-8v
the while it sought to crush the lifo S
from them. Tarzan had drawn hta $
knife and this lie now plunged rapfd
ly into the body of tho enemy; but
the encircling folds promised to sap
his life before he had inflicted a
death wound upon the snake. Yet
on he fought, nor once did he seek to
escape the horrid death that can
fronted him his sole aim was to slay
Histah and thus free Teeka and her
balu.
The great, wide-gaping jaws of
the snake turned and hovered abova
him. The elastic maw. which could
accommodate a rabit or a homed1
i buck with eoual fnriliK. ,j , '
him; butmShtonrM ? i
I tetion upon it ape man'br ut
, . " -i'--".ii, uiuugllb
nis, nenrl xiMthtn unl. rr ,.
b;ade. InstantIy a broTand
leaped fortli and seized the mntt! A
cck) afld anothe; (lrove th ""
hunting knife to the hilt into thP lit
tle brajtl- mlt lnto tne ht"
Convulsively Histah shuddered
and relaxed, tensed and relaxed
again, whipping and striking with
his great body; but no longer sen
tient or sensible. Histah ,was dead,
but in his death throes he mitrhk
... ,. . , , -...
" ultPacn a oozen apes or men.
l parting glance at the still writhing
bodv of Histah and wanHorn ff f.
,rard the little pool whjch gerved
to water the tribe at this point.
Sfiancelv. he did not Hve tlm viofnrr
pry nvni tVlf vnnnnieVinfl TJifoV.
Why, he could not have told you,
otner than that to him Histah waa
not an anjmai, He differed in some
peculiar way from the other deni-
zens of the jungic, Tai-zan only
i:ncw that he hated him.
At the pool Tarzan drank his fill
and lay stretched upon the soft grass
1 beneath the shade of a tree.
His
"' -'
mind 1 everted to the battle
with
Histah, the snake. It seemed strange
to him that Teeka should have placed
herself within the folds of the hor
rid monster. Why had she done it?
Why, indeed, had he? Teeka did not
belond to him, nor did Tceka's balu.
They were both Taug's. Why then
had he done this thing? Histah was
not food for him when he was dead.
Theie seemed to Tarzan. now that
jt occurred to him that ho had acted
nlmncf Itn'nliintnri'v lllcf oc lio linrt
,)f.f en Vnr n Vinrl voloncprl f ria nln
Gomangani the previous evening.
What made him do such things?
Somebody more powerful than he
must force him to act at times. "All
powerful," thought Tarzan. "The
little bugs say that God is all-powerful.
!t must be that God made me
do these things, for I never did them
by myself. It was God made Teeka
rush upon Histah. Teeka would
never go near Histah of her own
volition. It was God who held my
knife from the throat of the
old Gomangani. God accomplishes
strange things for he is 'all-power-
that it m'ust be God who docs these
lu!.' I cannot see Him; but 1 know
things. No Mangani, no Gomangani,
no T'manjram could do them."
, , , ,l, J 1. ,
And the flowers who made them
grow ? Ah, now it was all explained
the flowers, the trees, the moon,
the sun, himself, every living crea
ture in the jungle they were all
made by God out of nothing.
And what was God? What did
God look like? Of that he had no
conception; but he was sure that
everything that was good came from
God his good act in refraining
from slaying the poor, defenseless
old Gomangani; Teeka's love that
had hurled her into the embrace of
death; his own loyalty to Teeka
which had jeopardized his life that
she might live. The flowers and the
trees were good and beautiful. God
had made them. He made the other
creatuies, too, that each might have.
food upon which to live. He had
....!.. Cl,...... tl,.. ,a,flia,- U.'1 lt Me.
l.UO I , f , .
i,ifi,l rntt ami Numa. the 1 on?
...,. .. ... ' .... , u. t.:
with his noble head and his shaggy,
mane. He had made Bara, thc deer,
lovely and graceful.
Ves, 1 arZan haQ lOUnU UOU, ano
he spent the whole day m attributing
I ln TItm oil nf thn rrn.nrt' nrl tipntltlful
things of nature; but there was 0n
thing which troubled him. He could
not quite reconcile it to his concep
tion of his new-found God.
Who made Histah, the snake?
Th. nt nmnlti Muneln Tale" wIH.
appear Saturday, June 29.
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