Chapter IX. Man and Man

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

　　Tarzan of the Apes lived on in his wild, jungle existencewith little change for several years, only that he grewstronger and wiser, and learned from his books more andmore of the strange worlds which lay somewhere outside hisprimeval forest.

　　To him life was never monotonous or stale. There was alwaysPisah, the fish, to be caught in the many streams and thelittle lakes, and Sabor, with her ferocious cousins to keepone ever on the alert and give zest to every instant that onespent upon the ground.

　　Often they hunted him, and more often he hunted them,but though they never quite reached him with those cruel,sharp claws of theirs, yet there were times when one couldscarce have passed a thick leaf between their talons and hissmooth hide.

　　Quick was Sabor, the lioness, and quick were Numa andSheeta, but Tarzan of the Apes was lightning.

　　With Tantor, the elephant, he made friends. How? Ask not.But this is known to the denizens of the jungle, that onmany moonlight nights Tarzan of the Apes and Tantor, theelephant, walked together, and where the way was clear Tarzanrode, perched high upon Tantor's mighty back.

　　Many days during these years he spent in the cabin of hisfather, where still lay, untouched, the bones of his parentsand the skeleton of Kala's baby. At eighteen he readfluently and understood nearly all he read in the many andvaried volumes on the shelves.

　　Also could he write, with printed letters, rapidly and plainly,but script he had not mastered, for though there were severalcopy books among his treasure, there was so little writtenEnglish in the cabin that he saw no use for bothering with thisother form of writing, though he could read it, laboriously.

　　Thus, at eighteen, we find him, an English lordling, whocould speak no English, and yet who could read and write hisnative language. Never had he seen a human being otherthan himself, for the little area traversed by his tribe waswatered by no greater river to bring down the savage natives ofthe interior.

　　High hills shut it off on three sides, the ocean on thefourth. It was alive with lions and leopards and poisonoussnakes. Its untouched mazes of matted jungle had as yetinvited no hardy pioneer from the human beasts beyond itsfrontier.

　　But as Tarzan of the Apes sat one day in the cabin of hisfather delving into the mysteries of a new book, the ancientsecurity of his jungle was broken forever.

　　At the far eastern confine a strange cavalcade strung, insingle file, over the brow of a low hill.

　　In advance were fifty black warriors armed with slenderwooden spears with ends hard baked over slow fires, and longbows and poisoned arrows. On their backs were oval shields,in their noses huge rings, while from the kinky wool of theirheads protruded tufts of gay feathers.

　　Across their foreheads were tattooed three parallel lines ofcolor, and on each breast three concentric circles. Theiryellow teeth were filed to sharp points, and their greatprotruding lips added still further to the low and bestialbrutishness of their appearance.

　　Following them were several hundred women and children,the former bearing upon their heads great burdens of cookingpots, household utensils and ivory. In the rear were ahundred warriors, similar in all respects to the advance guard.

　　That they more greatly feared an attack from the rear thanwhatever unknown enemies lurked in their advance wasevidenced by the formation of the column; and such was thefact, for they were fleeing from the white man's soldiers whohad so harassed them for rubber and ivory that they hadturned upon their conquerors one day and massacred a whiteofficer and a small detachment of his black troops.

　　For many days they had gorged themselves on meat, buteventually a stronger body of troops had come and fallen upontheir village by night to revenge the death of their comrades.

　　That night the black soldiers of the white man had hadmeat a-plenty, and this little remnant of a once powerfultribe had slunk off into the gloomy jungle toward theunknown, and freedom.

　　But that which meant freedom and the pursuit of happinessto these savage blacks meant consternation and death tomany of the wild denizens of their new home.

　　For three days the little cavalcade marched slowly throughthe heart of this unknown and untracked forest, until finally,early in the fourth day, they came upon a little spot near thebanks of a small river, which seemed less thickly overgrownthan any ground they had yet encountered.

　　Here they set to work to build a new village, and in amonth a great clearing had been made, huts and palisadeserected, plantains, yams and maize planted, and they hadtaken up their old life in their new home. Here there were nowhite men, no soldiers, nor any rubber or ivory to be gatheredfor cruel and thankless taskmasters.

　　Several moons passed by ere the blacks ventured far intothe territory surrounding their new village. Several hadalready fallen prey to old Sabor, and because the jungle was soinfested with these fierce and bloodthirsty cats, and with lionsand leopards, the ebony warriors hesitated to trust themselvesfar from the safety of their palisades.

　　But one day, Kulonga, a son of the old king, Mbonga,wandered far into the dense mazes to the west. Warily hestepped, his slender lance ever ready, his long oval shieldfirmly grasped in his left hand close to his sleek ebony body.

　　At his back his bow, and in the quiver upon his shieldmany slim, straight arrows, well smeared with the thick, dark,tarry substance that rendered deadly their tiniest needle prick.

　　Night found Kulonga far from the palisades of his father'svillage, but still headed westward, and climbing into the forkof a great tree he fashioned a rude platform and curled himselffor sleep.

　　Three miles to the west slept the tribe of Kerchak.

　　Early the next morning the apes were astir, movingthrough the jungle in search of food. Tarzan, as was hiscustom, prosecuted his search in the direction of the cabin sothat by leisurely hunting on the way his stomach was filled bythe time he reached the beach.

　　The apes scattered by ones, and twos, and threes in alldirections, but ever within sound of a signal of alarm.

　　Kala had moved slowly along an elephant track toward theeast, and was busily engaged in turning over rotted limbs andlogs in search of succulent bugs and fungi, when the faintestshadow of a strange noise brought her to startled attention.

　　For fifty yards before her the trail was straight, and downthis leafy tunnel she saw the stealthy advancing figure of astrange and fearful creature.

　　It was Kulonga.

　　Kala did not wait to see more, but, turning, moved rapidly backalong the trail. She did not run; but, after the manner of herkind when not aroused, sought rather to avoid than to escape.

　　Close after her came Kulonga. Here was meat. He couldmake a killing and feast well this day. On he hurried, hisspear poised for the throw.

　　At a turning of the trail he came in sight of her againupon another straight stretch. His spear hand went far backthe muscles rolled, lightning-like, beneath the sleek hide. Outshot the arm, and the spear sped toward Kala.

　　A poor cast. It but grazed her side.

　　With a cry of rage and pain the she-ape turned upon hertormentor. In an instant the trees were crashing beneath theweight of her hurrying fellows, swinging rapidly toward thescene of trouble in answer to Kala's scream.

　　As she charged, Kulonga unslung his bow and fitted anarrow with almost unthinkable quickness. Drawing the shaftfar back he drove the poisoned missile straight into the heartof the great anthropoid.

　　With a horrid scream Kala plunged forward upon her facebefore the astonished members of her tribe.

　　Roaring and shrieking the apes dashed toward Kulonga,but that wary savage was fleeing down the trail like afrightened antelope.

　　He knew something of the ferocity of these wild, hairymen, and his one desire was to put as many miles betweenhimself and them as he possibly could.

　　They followed him, racing through the trees, for a longdistance, but finally one by one they abandoned the chaseand returned to the scene of the tragedy.

　　None of them had ever seen a man before, other than Tarzan,and so they wondered vaguely what strange manner ofcreature it might be that had invaded their jungle.

　　On the far beach by the little cabin Tarzan heard the faintechoes of the conflict and knowing that something wasseriously amiss among the tribe he hastened rapidly toward thedirection of the sound.

　　When he arrived he found the entire tribe gathered jabberingabout the dead body of his slain mother.

　　Tarzan's grief and anger were unbounded. He roared outhis hideous challenge time and again. He beat upon his greatchest with his clenched fists, and then he fell upon the bodyof Kala and sobbed out the pitiful sorrowing of his lonely heart.

　　To lose the only creature in all his world who ever hadmanifested love and affection for him was the greatesttragedy he had ever known.

　　What though Kala was a fierce and hideous ape! To Tarzanshe had been kind, she had been beautiful.

　　Upon her he had lavished, unknown to himself, all thereverence and respect and love that a normal English boyfeels for his own mother. He had never known another, andso to Kala was given, though mutely, all that would havebelonged to the fair and lovely Lady Alice had she lived.

　　After the first outburst of grief Tarzan controlled himself,and questioning the members of the tribe who had witnessedthe killing of Kala he learned all that their meager vocabularycould convey.

　　It was enough, however, for his needs. It told him of astrange, hairless, black ape with feathers growing upon itshead, who launched death from a slender branch, and then ran,with the fleetness of Bara, the deer, toward the rising sun.

　　Tarzan waited no longer, but leaping into the branches of thetrees sped rapidly through the forest. He knew the windingsof the elephant trail along which Kala's murderer hadflown, and so he cut straight through the jungle to interceptthe black warrior who was evidently following the tortuousdetours of the trail.

　　At his side was the hunting knife of his unknown sire, andacross his shoulders the coils of his own long rope. In anhour he struck the trail again, and coming to earth examinedthe soil minutely.

　　In the soft mud on the bank of a tiny rivulet he foundfootprints such as he alone in all the jungle had ever made,but much larger than his. His heart beat fast. Could it bethat he was trailing a man--one of his own race?

　　There were two sets of imprints pointing in opposite directions.So his quarry had already passed on his return along thetrail. As he examined the newer spoor a tiny particle ofearth toppled from the outer edge of one of the footprints tothe bottom of its shallow depression--ah, the trail was veryfresh, his prey must have but scarcely passed.

　　Tarzan swung himself to the trees once more, and withswift noiselessness sped along high above the trail.

　　He had covered barely a mile when he came upon theblack warrior standing in a little open space. In his handwas his slender bow to which he had fitted one of his deathdealing arrows.

　　Opposite him across the little clearing stood Horta, theboar, with lowered head and foam flecked tucks, ready tocharge.

　　Tarzan looked with wonder upon the strange creature beneathhim--so like him in form and yet so different in faceand color. His books had portrayed the negro, but howdifferent had been the dull, dead print to this sleek thing ofebony, pulsing with life.

　　As the man stood there with taut drawn bow Tarzan recognized himnot so much the negro as the archer of his picture book--

　　A stands for ArcherHow wonderful! Tarzan almost betrayed his presence inthe deep excitement of his discovery.

　　But things were commencing to happen below him. The sinewyblack arm had drawn the shaft far back; Horta, theboar, was charging, and then the black released the littlepoisoned arrow, and Tarzan saw it fly with the quickness ofthought and lodge in the bristling neck of the boar.

　　Scarcely had the shaft left his bow ere Kulonga had fittedanother to it, but Horta, the boar, was upon him so quicklythat he had no time to discharge it. With a bound the blackleaped entirely over the rushing beast and turning withincredible swiftness planted a second arrow in Horta's back.

　　Then Kulonga sprang into a near-by tree.

　　Horta wheeled to charge his enemy once more; a dozen stepshe took, then he staggered and fell upon his side. For amoment his muscles stiffened and relaxed convulsively, thenhe lay still.

　　Kulonga came down from his tree.

　　With a knife that hung at his side he cut several largepieces from the boar's body, and in the center of the trail hebuilt a fire, cooking and eating as much as he wanted. Therest he left where it had fallen.

　　Tarzan was an interested spectator. His desire to killburned fiercely in his wild breast, but his desire to learnwas even greater. He would follow this savage creature for awhile and know from whence he came. He could kill him athis leisure later, when the bow and deadly arrows were laidaside.

　　When Kulonga had finished his repast and disappeared beyonda near turning of the path, Tarzan dropped quietly tothe ground. With his knife he severed many strips of meatfrom Horta's carcass, but he did not cook them.

　　He had seen fire, but only when Ara, the lightning, haddestroyed some great tree. That any creature of the junglecould produce the red-and-yellow fangs which devouredwood and left nothing but fine dust surprised Tarzan greatly,and why the black warrior had ruined his delicious repast byplunging it into the blighting heat was quite beyond him.Possibly Ara was a friend with whom the Archer was sharing his food.

　　But, be that as it may, Tarzan would not ruin good meat inany such foolish manner, so he gobbled down a great quantityof the raw flesh, burying the balance of the carcass besidethe trail where he could find it upon his return.

　　And then Lord Greystoke wiped his greasy fingers uponhis naked thighs and took up the trail of Kulonga, the son ofMbonga, the king; while in far-off London another LordGreystoke, the younger brother of the real Lord Greystoke'sfather, sent back his chops to the club's chef because theywere underdone, and when he had finished his repast hedipped his finger-ends into a silver bowl of scented waterand dried them upon a piece of snowy damask.

　　All day Tarzan followed Kulonga, hovering above him inthe trees like some malign spirit. Twice more he saw himhurl his arrows of destruction--once at Dango, the hyena,and again at Manu, the monkey. In each instance the animaldied almost instantly, for Kulonga's poison was very freshand very deadly.

　　Tarzan thought much on this wondrous method of slayingas he swung slowly along at a safe distance behind hisquarry. He knew that alone the tiny prick of the arrow couldnot so quickly dispatch these wild things of the jungle, whowere often torn and scratched and gored in a frightful manneras they fought with their jungle neighbors, yet as oftenrecovered as not.

　　No, there was something mysterious connected with thesetiny slivers of wood which could bring death by a merescratch. He must look into the matter.

　　That night Kulonga slept in the crotch of a mighty treeand far above him crouched Tarzan of the Apes.

　　When Kulonga awoke he found that his bow and arrowshad disappeared. The black warrior was furious andfrightened, but more frightened than furious. He searchedthe ground below the tree, and he searched the tree above theground; but there was no sign of either bow or arrows or ofthe nocturnal marauder.

　　Kulonga was panic-stricken. His spear he had hurled atKala and had not recovered; and, now that his bow and arrowswere gone, he was defenseless except for a single knife.His only hope lay in reaching the village of Mbonga asquickly as his legs would carry him.

　　That he was not far from home he was certain, so he tookthe trail at a rapid trot.

　　From a great mass of impenetrable foliage a few yardsaway emerged Tarzan of the Apes to swing quietly in his wake.

　　Kulonga's bow and arrows were securely tied high in thetop of a giant tree from which a patch of bark had beenremoved by a sharp knife near to the ground, and a branchhalf cut through and left hanging about fifty feet higher up.Thus Tarzan blazed the forest trails and marked his caches.

　　As Kulonga continued his journey Tarzan closed on himuntil he traveled almost over the black's head. His rope henow held coiled in his right hand; he was almost ready forthe kill.

　　The moment was delayed only because Tarzan was anxious toascertain the black warrior's destination, and presently hewas rewarded, for they came suddenly in view of a greatclearing, at one end of which lay many strange lairs.

　　Tarzan was directly over Kulonga, as he made the discovery.The forest ended abruptly and beyond lay two hundredyards of planted fields between the jungle and the village.

　　Tarzan must act quickly or his prey would be gone; butTarzan's life training left so little space between decision andaction when an emergency confronted him that there was noteven room for the shadow of a thought between.

　　So it was that as Kulonga emerged from the shadow of thejungle a slender coil of rope sped sinuously above him fromthe lowest branch of a mighty tree directly upon the edge ofthe fields of Mbonga, and ere the king's son had taken a halfdozen steps into the clearing a quick noose tightened abouthis neck.

　　So quickly did Tarzan of the Apes drag back his prey thatKulonga's cry of alarm was throttled in his windpipe. Handover hand Tarzan drew the struggling black until he had himhanging by his neck in mid-air; then Tarzan climbed to alarger branch drawing the still threshing victim well up intothe sheltering verdure of the tree.

　　Here he fastened the rope securely to a stout branch, andthen, descending, plunged his hunting knife into Kulonga'sheart. Kala was avenged.

　　Tarzan examined the black minutely, for he had neverseen any other human being. The knife with its sheath andbelt caught his eye; he appropriated them. A copper ankletalso took his fancy, and this he transferred to his own leg.

　　He examined and admired the tattooing on the foreheadand breast. He marveled at the sharp filed teeth.He investigated and appropriated the feathered headdress,and then he prepared to get down to business, for Tarzanof the Apes was hungry, and here was meat; meat of the kill,which jungle ethics permitted him to eat.

　　How may we judge him, by what standards, this ape-manwith the heart and head and body of an English gentleman,and the training of a wild beast?

　　Tublat, whom he had hated and who had hated him, hehad killed in a fair fight, and yet never had the thought ofeating Tublat's flesh entered his head. It could have been asrevolting to him as is cannibalism to us.

　　But who was Kulonga that he might not be eaten as fairlyas Horta, the boar, or Bara, the deer? Was he not simplyanother of the countless wild things of the jungle who preyedupon one another to satisfy the cravings of hunger?

　　Suddenly, a strange doubt stayed his hand. Had not hisbooks taught him that he was a man? And was not TheArcher a man, also?

　　Did men eat men? Alas, he did not know. Why, then, thishesitancy! Once more he essayed the effort, but a qualm ofnausea overwhelmed him. He did not understand.

　　All he knew was that he could not eat the flesh of thisblack man, and thus hereditary instinct, ages old, usurped thefunctions of his untaught mind and saved him from transgressinga worldwide law of whose very existence he was ignorant.

　　Quickly he lowered Kulonga's body to the ground, removedthe noose, and took to the trees again.