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05 - The White Ape · Tarzan of the Apes

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, The White Ape. Tenderly, Kyla nursed her little waif,
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  Speaker 1: wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility
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  Speaker 1: as did the little apes of other mothers. It was
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  Speaker 1: nearly a year from the time the little fellow came
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  Speaker 1: into her possession before he would walk alone. And as
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  Speaker 1: for climbing, my but how stupid he was. Kayla sometimes
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  Speaker 1: talked with the older females about her young hopeful, but
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  Speaker 1: none of them could understand how a child could be
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  Speaker 1: so slow and backward in learning to care for itself.
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  Speaker 1: Why it could not even find food alone, and more
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  Speaker 1: than twelve moons had passed since Kayla had come upon it.
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  Speaker 1: Had they known that the child had seen thirteen moons
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  Speaker 1: before it had come into Kayla's possession, they would have
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  Speaker 1: considered its case as absolutely hopeless, for the little apes
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  Speaker 1: of their own tribe were as far advanced in two
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  Speaker 1: or three moons as was this little stranger. After twenty
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  Speaker 1: too blat, Kayla's husband was sorely vexed, and but for
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  Speaker 1: the female's careful watching, would have put the child out
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  Speaker 1: of the way. He will never be a great ape,
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  Speaker 1: he argued, always will you have to carry him and
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  Speaker 1: protect him. What good will he be to the tribe? None,
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  Speaker 1: only a burden. Let us leave him quietly sleeping among
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  Speaker 1: the tall grasses, that you may bear other and stronger
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  Speaker 1: apes to guard us in our old age. Never broken nose,
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  Speaker 1: replied Kayla. If I must carry him forever, so be it.
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  Speaker 1: And then too Blat went to Kurchak to urge him
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  Speaker 1: to use his authority with Kayla and force her to
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  Speaker 1: give up little Tarzan, which was the name they had
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  Speaker 1: given to the tiny lord Greystoke, and which meant white skin.
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  Speaker 1: But when Kurjak spoke to her about it, Kayla threatened
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  Speaker 1: to run away from the tribe if they did not
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  Speaker 1: leave her in peace with the child. And as this
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  Speaker 1: is one of the inalienable rites of the jungle folk,
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  Speaker 1: if they'd be dissatisfied among their own people, they bothered
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  Speaker 1: her no more, for Kayla was a fine, clean limbed
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  Speaker 1: young female, and they did not wish to lose her.
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  Speaker 1: As Tarzan grew, he made more rapid strides, so that
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  Speaker 1: by the time he was ten years old, he was
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  Speaker 1: an excellent climber, and on the ground could do many
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  Speaker 1: wonderful things which were beyond the powers of his little brothers.
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  Speaker 1: And sisters. In many ways did he differ from them,
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  Speaker 1: and they often marveled at his superior cunning, But in
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  Speaker 1: strength and size he was deficient. For at ten, the
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  Speaker 1: great anthropoids were fully grown, some of them towering over
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  Speaker 1: six feet in height, while little Tarzan was still but
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  Speaker 1: a half grown boy. Yet such a boy. From early
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  Speaker 1: childhood he had used his hands to swing from branch
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  Speaker 1: to branch, after the manner of his giant mother, and
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  Speaker 1: as he grew older he spent out hour upon hour
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  Speaker 1: daily speeding through the tree tops with his brothers and sisters.
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  Speaker 1: He could spring twenty feet across space at the dizzy
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  Speaker 1: heights of the forest top and grasp with unerring precision
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  Speaker 1: and without apparent jar a limb waving wildly in the
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  Speaker 1: path of an approaching tornado. He could drop twenty feet
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  Speaker 1: at a stretch, from limb to limb in rapid descent,
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, where he could gain the utmost pinnacle
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  Speaker 1: of the loftiest tropical giant with the ease and swiftness
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  Speaker 1: of a squirrel. Though but ten years old, he was
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  Speaker 1: fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and
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  Speaker 1: far more agile than the most practiced athlete ever becomes,
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  Speaker 1: and day by day his strength was increasing. His life
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  Speaker 1: among these fierce apes had been happy, for his recollection
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  Speaker 1: held no other life, nor did he know that there
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  Speaker 1: existed within the universe aught else than his little forest
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  Speaker 1: and the wild jungle animals with which he was familiar.
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  Speaker 1: He was nearly ten before he commenced to realize that
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  Speaker 1: a great difference existed between himself and his fellows. His
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  Speaker 1: little body, burned brown by exposure, suddenly caused him feelings
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  Speaker 1: of intense shame, for he realized that it was entirely hairless,
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  Speaker 1: like some low snake or other reptile. He attempted to
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  Speaker 1: obviate this by plastering himself from head to foot with mud,
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  Speaker 1: but this dried and fell off. Besides, it felt so
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  Speaker 1: uncomfortable that he quickly decided that he preferred the shame
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  Speaker 1: to the discomfort. In the higher land which his tribe
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  Speaker 1: frequented was a little lake, and it was here that
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan first saw his face in the clear, still waters
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  Speaker 1: of its bosom. It was on a sultry day of
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  Speaker 1: the dry season that he and one of his cousins
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  Speaker 1: had gone down to the bank to drink. As they
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  Speaker 1: leaned over both little faces were mirrored on the placid pool,
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  Speaker 1: the deerce and terrible features of the ape beside those
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  Speaker 1: of the aristocratic sky and of an old English house.
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan was appalled. It had been bad enough to be hairless,
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  Speaker 1: but to own such a countenance. He wondered that the
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  Speaker 1: other apes could look at him at all. That tiny
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  Speaker 1: slit of a mouth, and those puny white teeth, how
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  Speaker 1: they looked beside the mighty lips and powerful fangs of
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  Speaker 1: his more fortunate brothers, And the little pinched nose of
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  Speaker 1: his So thin was it that it looked half starved.
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  Speaker 1: He turned red as he compared it with the beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: broad nostrils of his companion. Such a generous nose, why
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  Speaker 1: it spread half across his face. It certainly must be
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  Speaker 1: fine to be so handsome, thought poor little Tarzan. But
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  Speaker 1: when he saw his own eyes, ah, that was the
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  Speaker 1: final blow. A brown spot, a gray circle, and then
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  Speaker 1: blank whiteness. Frightful. Not even the snakes had such hideous
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  Speaker 1: eyes as he. So intent was he upon this personal
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  Speaker 1: appraisement of his features, that he did not hear the
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  Speaker 1: parting of the tall grass behind him, as a great
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  Speaker 1: body pushed itself stealthily through the jungle. Nor did his companion,
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  Speaker 1: the ape, hear either, for he was drinking, and the
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  Speaker 1: noise of his sucking lips and gurgles of satisfaction drowned
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  Speaker 1: the quiet approach of the intruder. Not thirty paces behind
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  Speaker 1: the two, she crouched Sabor, the huge lioness, lashing her
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  Speaker 1: tail cautiously. She moved a great padded paw forward, noiselessly,
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  Speaker 1: placing it before she lifted the next. Then she advanced
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  Speaker 1: her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground,
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  Speaker 1: a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey. Now
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  Speaker 1: she was within ten feet of the two unsuspecting little playfellows.
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  Speaker 1: Carefully she drew her hind feet well up beneath her body,
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  Speaker 1: the great muscles rolling under the beautiful skin. So low
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  Speaker 1: she was crouching now that she seemed flattened to the earth,
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  Speaker 1: except for the upward bend of the glossy back as
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  Speaker 1: it gathered for the spring. No longer the tail lashed
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  Speaker 1: quiet and straight behind her, it lay an instant She
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  Speaker 1: paused thus as though turned to stone, and then with
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  Speaker 1: an awful scream, she sprang. Sabor the Lioness was a
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  Speaker 1: wise hunter. To one less wise, the wild alarm of
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  Speaker 1: her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a
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  Speaker 1: foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen
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  Speaker 1: upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that
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  Speaker 1: loud shriek. But Sabor knew well the wondrous quickness of
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  Speaker 1: the jungle folk and their almost unbelievable powers of hearing
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  Speaker 1: to them, the sudden the scraping of one blade of
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  Speaker 1: grass across another was as effectual a warning as her
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  Speaker 1: loudest cry, and Sabor knew that she could not make
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  Speaker 1: that mighty leap without a little noise. Her wild scream
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  Speaker 1: was not a warning. It was voice to freeze her
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  Speaker 1: poor victims in a paralysis of terror, for the tiny
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  Speaker 1: fraction of an instant, which would suffice for her mighty
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  Speaker 1: claws to sink into their soft flesh and hold them
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  Speaker 1: beyond hope of escape. So far as the ape was concerned,
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  Speaker 1: Sabor reasoned correctly, the little fellow crouched trembling just an instant,
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  Speaker 1: But that instant was quite long enough to prove his undoing.
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  Speaker 1: Not so, however, with Tarzan, the manchild his life admitst
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  Speaker 1: the dangers of the jungle had taught him to meet
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  Speaker 1: emergencies with self confidence, and his higher intelligence resulted in
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  Speaker 1: the quickness of mental action far beyond the powers of
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  Speaker 1: the apes. So the scream of Sabor, the lioness, galvanized
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  Speaker 1: the brain of muscles of Little Tarzan into instant action.
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  Speaker 1: Before him lay the deep waters of the little lake.
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  Speaker 1: Behind him, certain death, a cruel death beneath tearing claws
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  Speaker 1: and rending fangs. Tarzan had always hated water, except as
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  Speaker 1: a medium for quenching his thirst. He hated it because
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  Speaker 1: he connected it with the chill and discomfort of the
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  Speaker 1: torrential rains, and he feared it for the thunder and
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  Speaker 1: lightning and wind which accompanied them. The deep waters of
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  Speaker 1: the lake he had been taught by his wild mother
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  Speaker 1: to avoid. And further, had he not seen Little Nita
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  Speaker 1: sink beneath its quiet surface only a few short weeks before,
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  Speaker 1: never to return to the tribe. But of the two evils,
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  Speaker 1: his quick mind chose the lesser ere. The first note
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  Speaker 1: of sab or screen had scarce broken the quiet of
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  Speaker 1: the jungle, and before the great beast had covered half
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  Speaker 1: her leap, Tarzan felt a chill close above his head.
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  Speaker 1: He could not swim, and the water was very deep,
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  Speaker 1: but still he lost no particle of that self confidence
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  Speaker 1: and resourcefulness which were the badges of his superior being. Rapidly,
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  Speaker 1: he moved his hands and feet in an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: scramble upward, and possibly more by chance than design, he
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  Speaker 1: fell into the stroke that a dog uses when swimming,
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  Speaker 1: so that within a few seconds his nose was above water,
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  Speaker 1: and he found that he could keep it there by
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  Speaker 1: continuing his strokes, and also make progress through the water.
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  Speaker 1: He was much surprised and pleased with this new acquirement,
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  Speaker 1: which had been so suddenly thrust upon him, but he
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  Speaker 1: had no time for thinking much upon it. He was
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  Speaker 1: now swimming parallel to the bank, and there he saw
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  Speaker 1: the cruel beast that would have seized him, crouching upon
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  Speaker 1: the still form of his little playmate. The lioness was
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  Speaker 1: intently watching Tarzan, evidently expecting him to return to shore,
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  Speaker 1: but this the boy had no intention of doing. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he raised his voice and the call of distress common
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  Speaker 1: to his tribe, adding to it the warning which would
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  Speaker 1: prevent would be rescuers from running into the clutches of sabor.
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  Speaker 1: Almost immediately there came an answer from the distance, and
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  Speaker 1: presently forty or fifty great apes swung rapidly and majestically
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  Speaker 1: through the trees toward the scene of tragedy. In the
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  Speaker 1: lead was Kayla, for she had recognized the tones of
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  Speaker 1: her best beloved, and with her was the mother of
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  Speaker 1: the little ape who lay dead beneath cruel sabor. Though
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  Speaker 1: more powerful and better equipped for fighting than the apes,
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  Speaker 1: the lioness had no desire to meet these enraged adults,
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  Speaker 1: and with a snarl of hatred, she sprang quickly into
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  Speaker 1: the brush and disappeared. Tarzan now swam ashore and clambered
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  Speaker 1: quickly upon dry land. The feeling of freshness, an acceleration
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  Speaker 1: which the cool waters had imparted to him, filled his
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  Speaker 1: little being with grateful surprise, and ever after he lost
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  Speaker 1: no opportunity to take a daily plunge in lake or
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  Speaker 1: stream or ocean when it was possible to do so.
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  Speaker 1: For a long time, Kayla could not accustom herself to
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  Speaker 1: the site, for though her people could swim when forced
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  Speaker 1: to it, they did not like to enter water, and
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  Speaker 1: never did so voluntarily. The adventure with the Lioness gave
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan food for pleasurable memories. For it was such affairs
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  Speaker 1: which broke the monotony of his daily life. Otherwise but
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  Speaker 1: a dull round of searching for food, eating, and sleeping.
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  Speaker 1: The tribe to which he belonged roam to tract, extending
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  Speaker 1: roughly twenty five miles along the sea coast and some
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  Speaker 1: fifty miles inland. This they traversed almost continually, occasionally remaining
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  Speaker 1: for months in one locale. But as they moved through
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  Speaker 1: the trees with great speed, they often covered the territory
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  Speaker 1: in a very few days. Much depended upon food's supply,
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  Speaker 1: climatic conditions, and the prevalence of animals of the more
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  Speaker 1: dangerous species, though Kurchak often led them on long marches
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  Speaker 1: for no other reason than that he had tired of
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  Speaker 1: remaining in the same place. At night, they slept where
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  Speaker 1: darkness overtook them, lying upon the ground and sometimes covering
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  Speaker 1: their heads and more seldom their bodies with the great
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  Speaker 1: leaves of the elephants. Ere two or three mte lie
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  Speaker 1: cuddled in each other's arms for additional warmth if the
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  Speaker 1: night were chill, and thus Tarzan had slept in Kayla's
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  Speaker 1: arms nightly for all these years that the huge, fierce
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  Speaker 1: brute loved this child of another race is beyond question,
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  Speaker 1: and he too gave to the great hairy beast all
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  Speaker 1: the affection that would have belonged to his faire young
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  Speaker 1: mother had she lived. When he was disobedient, she cuffed him,
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  Speaker 1: it is true, but she was never cruel to him,
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  Speaker 1: and was more often caressing him than chastising him. Too
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  Speaker 1: blat Her mate always hated Tarzan, and on several occasions
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  Speaker 1: had come near ending his youthful career. Tarzan, on his part,
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  Speaker 1: never lost an opportunity to show that he fully reciprocated
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  Speaker 1: his foster father's sentiments, and whenever he could safely annoy him,
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  Speaker 1: or make faces at him, or hurl insults upon him
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  Speaker 1: from the safety of his mother's arms or the slender
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  Speaker 1: branches of the higher trees, he did so. His superior
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  Speaker 1: intelligence and cunning permitted him to invent a thousand diabolical
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  Speaker 1: tricks to add to the burdens of Tublat's life. Early
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  Speaker 1: in his boyhood he had learned to form ropes by
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  Speaker 1: twisting and tying long grasses together, and with these he
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  Speaker 1: was forever tripping too blad or attempting to hang him
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  Speaker 1: from some overhanging branch By constant playing and experimenting with these,
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  Speaker 1: he learned to tie rude knots and make sliding nooses.
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  Speaker 1: And with these he and the younger apes amuse themselves.
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  Speaker 1: What Tarzan did, they tried to do also, but he
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  Speaker 1: alone originated and became proficient. One day, while playing thus,
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan had thrown his rope at one of his fleeing companions,
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  Speaker 1: retaining the other end in his grasp. By accident, the
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  Speaker 1: news fell squarely about the running ape's neck, bringing him
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  Speaker 1: to a sudden and surprising halt. Ah. Here was a
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  Speaker 1: new game, a fine game, thought Tarzan, and immediately he
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  Speaker 1: attempted to repeat the trick. And thus, by painstaking and
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  Speaker 1: continued practice, he learned the art of roping. Now, indeed
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  Speaker 1: was the life of Tublat, a living nightmare. Upon the
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  Speaker 1: March night or day, he never knew when that quiet
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  Speaker 1: noose would slip about his neck and nearly choke the
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  Speaker 1: life out of him. Caleb punished Tublat, swore a dire vengeance,
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  Speaker 1: and old Kirchak took notice and warned and threatened, but
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  Speaker 1: all to no avail. Tarzan defied them all, and the thin,
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  Speaker 1: strong news continued to settle about Tublat's neck whenever he
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  Speaker 1: least expected it. The other apes derived unlimited amusement from
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  Speaker 1: Tublat's discomfiture, for broken nose was a disagreeable old fellow
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  Speaker 1: whom no one liked anyway. In Tarzan's clever little mind,
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  Speaker 1: many thoughts revolved. In back of these was his divine
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  Speaker 1: power of reason. If he could catch his fellow apes
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  Speaker 1: with his long arm of many grasses, why not Sabor
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  Speaker 1: the lioness. It was the germ of a thought, which, however,
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  Speaker 1: was destined to mull around in his conscious and subconscious
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  Speaker 1: mind until it resulted in magnificent achievement. But that came
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  Speaker 1: in later years. End of chapter