Chapter VII
The Light of Knowledge
After what seemed an eternity to the little sufferer he was able towalk once more, and from then on his recovery was so rapid that inanother month he was as strong and active as ever.
During his convalescence he had gone over in his mind many times thebattle with the gorilla, and his first thought was to recover thewonderful little weapon which had transformed him from a hopelesslyoutclassed weakling to the superior of the mighty terror of the jungle.
Also, he was anxious to return to the cabin and continue hisinvestigations of its wondrous contents.
So, early one morning, he set forth alone upon his quest. After alittle search he located the clean-picked bones of his late adversary,and close by, partly buried beneath the fallen leaves, he found theknife, now red with rust from its exposure to the dampness of theground and from the dried blood of the gorilla.
He did not like the change in its former bright and gleaming surface;but it was still a formidable weapon, and one which he meant to use toadvantage whenever the opportunity presented itself. He had in mindthat no more would he run from the wanton attacks of old Tublat.
In another moment he was at the cabin, and after a short time had againthrown the latch and entered. His first concern was to learn themechanism of the lock, and this he did by examining it closely whilethe door was open, so that he could learn precisely what caused it tohold the door, and by what means it released at his touch.
He found that he could close and lock the door from within, and this hedid so that there would be no chance of his being molested while at hisinvestigation.
He commenced a systematic search of the cabin; but his attention wassoon riveted by the books which seemed to exert a strange and powerfulinfluence over him, so that he could scarce attend to aught else forthe lure of the wondrous puzzle which their purpose presented to him.
Among the other books were a primer, some child's readers, numerouspicture books, and a great dictionary. All of these he examined, butthe pictures caught his fancy most, though the strange little bugswhich covered the pages where there were no pictures excited his wonderand deepest thought.
Squatting upon his haunches on the table top in the cabin his fatherhad built--his smooth, brown, naked little body bent over the bookwhich rested in his strong slender hands, and his great shock of long,black hair falling about his well-shaped head and bright, intelligenteyes--Tarzan of the apes, little primitive man, presented a picturefilled, at once, with pathos and with promise--an allegorical figure ofthe primordial groping through the black night of ignorance toward thelight of learning.
His little face was tense in study, for he had partially grasped, in ahazy, nebulous way, the rudiments of a thought which was destined toprove the key and the solution to the puzzling problem of the strangelittle bugs.
In his hands was a primer opened at a picture of a little ape similarto himself, but covered, except for hands and face, with strange,colored fur, for such he thought the jacket and trousers to be.Beneath the picture were three little bugs--
BOY.
And now he had discovered in the text upon the page that these threewere repeated many times in the same sequence.
Another fact he learned--that there were comparatively few individualbugs; but these were repeated many times, occasionally alone, but moreoften in company with others.
Slowly he turned the pages, scanning the pictures and the text for arepetition of the combination B-O-Y. Presently he found it beneath apicture of another little ape and a strange animal which went upon fourlegs like the jackal and resembled him not a little. Beneath thispicture the bugs appeared as:
A BOY AND A DOG
There they were, the three little bugs which always accompanied thelittle ape.
And so he progressed very, very slowly, for it was a hard and laborioustask which he had set himself without knowing it--a task which mightseem to you or me impossible--learning to read without having theslightest knowledge of letters or written language, or the faintestidea that such things existed.
He did not accomplish it in a day, or in a week, or in a month, or in ayear; but slowly, very slowly, he learned after he had grasped thepossibilities which lay in those little bugs, so that by the time hewas fifteen he knew the various combinations of letters which stood forevery pictured figure in the little primer and in one or two of thepicture books.
Of the meaning and use of the articles and conjunctions, verbs andadverbs and pronouns he had but the faintest conception.
One day when he was about twelve he found a number of lead pencils in ahitherto undiscovered drawer beneath the table, and in scratching uponthe table top with one of them he was delighted to discover the blackline it left behind it.
He worked so assiduously with this new toy that the table top was soona mass of scrawly loops and irregular lines and his pencil-point worndown to the wood. Then he took another pencil, but this time he had adefinite object in view.
He would attempt to reproduce some of the little bugs that scrambledover the pages of his books.
It was a difficult task, for he held the pencil as one would grasp thehilt of a dagger, which does not add greatly to ease in writing or tothe legibility of the results.
But he persevered for months, at such times as he was able to come tothe cabin, until at last by repeated experimenting he found a positionin which to hold the pencil that best permitted him to guide andcontrol it, so that at last he could roughly reproduce any of thelittle bugs.
Thus he made a beginning of writing.
Copying the bugs taught him another thing--their number; and though hecould not count as we understand it, yet he had an idea of quantity,the base of his calculations being the number of fingers upon one ofhis hands.
His search through the various books convinced him that he haddiscovered all the different kinds of bugs most often repeated incombination, and these he arranged in proper order with great easebecause of the frequency with which he had perused the fascinatingalphabet picture book.
His education progressed; but his greatest finds were in theinexhaustible storehouse of the huge illustrated dictionary, for helearned more through the medium of pictures than text, even after hehad grasped the significance of the bugs.
When he discovered the arrangement of words in alphabetical order hedelighted in searching for and finding the combinations with which hewas familiar, and the words which followed them, their definitions, ledhim still further into the mazes of erudition.
By the time he was seventeen he had learned to read the simple, child'sprimer and had fully realized the true and wonderful purpose of thelittle bugs.
No longer did he feel shame for his hairless body or his humanfeatures, for now his reason told him that he was of a different racefrom his wild and hairy companions. He was a M-A-N, they were A-P-E-S,and the little apes which scurried through the forest top wereM-O-N-K-E-Y-S. He knew, too, that old Sabor was a L-I-O-N-E-S-S, andHistah a S-N-A-K-E, and Tantor an E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T. And so he learnedto read. From then on his progress was rapid. With the help of thegreat dictionary and the active intelligence of a healthy mind endowedby inheritance with more than ordinary reasoning powers he shrewdlyguessed at much which he could not really understand, and more oftenthan not his guesses were close to the mark of truth.
There were many breaks in his education, caused by the migratory habitsof his tribe, but even when removed from his books his active braincontinued to search out the mysteries of his fascinating avocation.
Pieces of bark and flat leaves and even smooth stretches of bare earthprovided him with copy books whereon to scratch with the point of hishunting knife the lessons he was learning.
Nor did he neglect the sterner duties of life while following the bentof his inclination toward the solving of the mystery of his library.
He practiced with his rope and played with his sharp knife, which hehad learned to keep keen by whetting upon flat stones.
The tribe had grown larger since Tarzan had come among them, for underthe leadership of Kerchak they had been able to frighten the othertribes from their part of the jungle so that they had plenty to eat andlittle or no loss from predatory incursions of neighbors.
Hence the younger males as they became adult found it more comfortableto take mates from their own tribe, or if they captured one of anothertribe to bring her back to Kerchak's band and live in amity with himrather than attempt to set up new establishments of their own, or fightwith the redoubtable Kerchak for supremacy at home.
Occasionally one more ferocious than his fellows would attempt thislatter alternative, but none had come yet who could wrest the palm ofvictory from the fierce and brutal ape.
Tarzan held a peculiar position in the tribe. They seemed to considerhim one of them and yet in some way different. The older males eitherignored him entirely or else hated him so vindictively that but for hiswondrous agility and speed and the fierce protection of the huge Kalahe would have been dispatched at an early age.
Tublat was his most consistent enemy, but it was through Tublat that,when he was about thirteen, the persecution of his enemies suddenlyceased and he was left severely alone, except on the occasions when oneof them ran amuck in the throes of one of those strange, wild fits ofinsane rage which attacks the males of many of the fiercer animals ofthe jungle. Then none was safe.
On the day that Tarzan established his right to respect, the tribe wasgathered about a small natural amphitheater which the jungle had leftfree from its entangling vines and creepers in a hollow among some lowhills.
The open space was almost circular in shape. Upon every hand rose themighty giants of the untouched forest, with the matted undergrowthbanked so closely between the huge trunks that the only opening intothe little, level arena was through the upper branches of the trees.
Here, safe from interruption, the tribe often gathered. In the centerof the amphitheater was one of those strange earthen drums which theanthropoids build for the queer rites the sounds of which men haveheard in the fastnesses of the jungle, but which none has everwitnessed.
Many travelers have seen the drums of the great apes, and some haveheard the sounds of their beating and the noise of the wild, weirdrevelry of these first lords of the jungle, but Tarzan, Lord Greystoke,is, doubtless, the only human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad,intoxicating revel of the Dum-Dum.
From this primitive function has arisen, unquestionably, all the formsand ceremonials of modern church and state, for through all thecountless ages, back beyond the uttermost ramparts of a dawninghumanity our fierce, hairy forebears danced out the rites of theDum-Dum to the sound of their earthen drums, beneath the bright lightof a tropical moon in the depth of a mighty jungle which standsunchanged today as it stood on that long forgotten night in the dim,unthinkable vistas of the long dead past when our first shaggy ancestorswung from a swaying bough and dropped lightly upon the soft turf ofthe first meeting place.
On the day that Tarzan won his emancipation from the persecution thathad followed him remorselessly for twelve of his thirteen years oflife, the tribe, now a full hundred strong, trooped silently throughthe lower terrace of the jungle trees and dropped noiselessly upon thefloor of the amphitheater.
The rites of the Dum-Dum marked important events in the life of thetribe--a victory, the capture of a prisoner, the killing of some largefierce denizen of the jungle, the death or accession of a king, andwere conducted with set ceremonialism.
Today it was the killing of a giant ape, a member of another tribe, andas the people of Kerchak entered the arena two mighty bulls were seenbearing the body of the vanquished between them.
They laid their burden before the earthen drum and then squatted therebeside it as guards, while the other members of the community curledthemselves in grassy nooks to sleep until the rising moon should givethe signal for the commencement of their savage orgy.
For hours absolute quiet reigned in the little clearing, except as itwas broken by the discordant notes of brilliantly feathered parrots, orthe screeching and twittering of the thousand jungle birds flittingceaselessly amongst the vivid orchids and flamboyant blossoms whichfestooned the myriad, moss-covered branches of the forest kings.
At length as darkness settled upon the jungle the apes commenced tobestir themselves, and soon they formed a great circle about theearthen drum. The females and young squatted in a thin line at theouter periphery of the circle, while just in front of them ranged theadult males. Before the drum sat three old females, each armed with aknotted branch fifteen or eighteen inches in length.
Slowly and softly they began tapping upon the resounding surface of thedrum as the first faint rays of the ascending moon silvered theencircling tree tops.
As the light in the amphitheater increased the females augmented thefrequency and force of their blows until presently a wild, rhythmic dinpervaded the great jungle for miles in every direction. Huge, fiercebrutes stopped in their hunting, with up-pricked ears and raised heads,to listen to the dull booming that betokened the Dum-Dum of the apes.
Occasionally one would raise his shrill scream or thunderous roar inanswering challenge to the savage din of the anthropoids, but none camenear to investigate or attack, for the great apes, assembled in all thepower of their numbers, filled the breasts of their jungle neighborswith deep respect.
As the din of the drum rose to almost deafening volume Kerchak spranginto the open space between the squatting males and the drummers.
Standing erect he threw his head far back and looking full into the eyeof the rising moon he beat upon his breast with his great hairy pawsand emitted his fearful roaring shriek.
One--twice--thrice that terrifying cry rang out across the teemingsolitude of that unspeakably quick, yet unthinkably dead, world.
Then, crouching, Kerchak slunk noiselessly around the open circle,veering far away from the dead body lying before the altar-drum, but,as he passed, keeping his little, fierce, wicked, red eyes upon thecorpse.
Another male then sprang into the arena, and, repeating the horridcries of his king, followed stealthily in his wake. Another andanother followed in quick succession until the jungle reverberated withthe now almost ceaseless notes of their bloodthirsty screams.
It was the challenge and the hunt.
When all the adult males had joined in the thin line of circlingdancers the attack commenced.
Kerchak, seizing a huge club from the pile which lay at hand for thepurpose, rushed furiously upon the dead ape, dealing the corpse aterrific blow, at the same time emitting the growls and snarls ofcombat. The din of the drum was now increased, as well as thefrequency of the blows, and the warriors, as each approached the victimof the hunt and delivered his bludgeon blow, joined in the mad whirl ofthe Death Dance.
Tarzan was one of the wild, leaping horde. His brown, sweat-streaked,muscular body, glistening in the moonlight, shone supple and gracefulamong the uncouth, awkward, hairy brutes about him.
None was more stealthy in the mimic hunt, none more ferocious than hein the wild ferocity of the attack, none who leaped so high into theair in the Dance of Death.
As the noise and rapidity of the drumbeats increased the dancersapparently became intoxicated with the wild rhythm and the savageyells. Their leaps and bounds increased, their bared fangs drippedsaliva, and their lips and breasts were flecked with foam.
For half an hour the weird dance went on, until, at a sign fromKerchak, the noise of the drums ceased, the female drummers scamperinghurriedly through the line of dancers toward the outer rim of squattingspectators. Then, as one, the males rushed headlong upon the thingwhich their terrific blows had reduced to a mass of hairy pulp.
Flesh seldom came to their jaws in satisfying quantities, so a fitfinale to their wild revel was a taste of fresh killed meat, and it wasto the purpose of devouring their late enemy that they now turned theirattention.
Great fangs sunk into the carcass tearing away huge hunks, themightiest of the apes obtaining the choicest morsels, while the weakercircled the outer edge of the fighting, snarling pack awaiting theirchance to dodge in and snatch a dropped tidbit or filch a remainingbone before all was gone.
Tarzan, more than the apes, craved and needed flesh. Descended from arace of meat eaters, never in his life, he thought, had he oncesatisfied his appetite for animal food; and so now his agile littlebody wormed its way far into the mass of struggling, rending apes in anendeavor to obtain a share which his strength would have been unequalto the task of winning for him.
At his side hung the hunting knife of his unknown father in a sheathself-fashioned in copy of one he had seen among the pictures of histreasure-books.
At last he reached the fast disappearing feast and with his sharp knifeslashed off a more generous portion than he had hoped for, an entirehairy forearm, where it protruded from beneath the feet of the mightyKerchak, who was so busily engaged in perpetuating the royalprerogative of gluttony that he failed to note the act of LESE-MAJESTE.
So little Tarzan wriggled out from beneath the struggling mass,clutching his grisly prize close to his breast.
Among those circling futilely the outskirts of the banqueters was oldTublat. He had been among the first at the feast, but had retreatedwith a goodly share to eat in quiet, and was now forcing his way backfor more.
So it was that he spied Tarzan as the boy emerged from the clawing,pushing throng with that hairy forearm hugged firmly to his body.
Tublat's little, close-set, bloodshot, pig-eyes shot wicked gleams ofhate as they fell upon the object of his loathing. In them, too, wasgreed for the toothsome dainty the boy carried.
But Tarzan saw his arch enemy as quickly, and divining what the greatbeast would do he leaped nimbly away toward the females and the young,hoping to hide himself among them. Tublat, however, was close upon hisheels, so that he had no opportunity to seek a place of concealment,but saw that he would be put to it to escape at all.
Swiftly he sped toward the surrounding trees and with an agile boundgained a lower limb with one hand, and then, transferring his burden tohis teeth, he climbed rapidly upward, closely followed by Tublat.
Up, up he went to the waving pinnacle of a lofty monarch of the forestwhere his heavy pursuer dared not follow him. There he perched,hurling taunts and insults at the raging, foaming beast fifty feetbelow him.
And then Tublat went mad.
With horrifying screams and roars he rushed to the ground, among thefemales and young, sinking his great fangs into a dozen tiny necks andtearing great pieces from the backs and breasts of the females who fellinto his clutches.
In the brilliant moonlight Tarzan witnessed the whole mad carnival ofrage. He saw the females and the young scamper to the safety of thetrees. Then the great bulls in the center of the arena felt the mightyfangs of their demented fellow, and with one accord they melted intothe black shadows of the overhanging forest.
There was but one in the amphitheater beside Tublat, a belated femalerunning swiftly toward the tree where Tarzan perched, and close behindher came the awful Tublat.
It was Kala, and as quickly as Tarzan saw that Tublat was gaining onher he dropped with the rapidity of a falling stone, from branch tobranch, toward his foster mother.
Now she was beneath the overhanging limbs and close above her crouchedTarzan, waiting the outcome of the race.
She leaped into the air grasping a low-hanging branch, but almost overthe head of Tublat, so nearly had he distanced her. She should havebeen safe now but there was a rending, tearing sound, the branch brokeand precipitated her full upon the head of Tublat, knocking him to theground.
Both were up in an instant, but as quick as they had been Tarzan hadbeen quicker, so that the infuriated bull found himself facing theman-child who stood between him and Kala.
Nothing could have suited the fierce beast better, and with a roar oftriumph he leaped upon the little Lord Greystoke. But his fangs neverclosed in that nut brown flesh.
A muscular hand shot out and grasped the hairy throat, and anotherplunged a keen hunting knife a dozen times into the broad breast. Likelightning the blows fell, and only ceased when Tarzan felt the limpform crumple beneath him.
As the body rolled to the ground Tarzan of the Apes placed his footupon the neck of his lifelong enemy and, raising his eyes to the fullmoon, threw back his fierce young head and voiced the wild and terriblecry of his people.
One by one the tribe swung down from their arboreal retreats and formeda circle about Tarzan and his vanquished foe. When they had all comeTarzan turned toward them.
”I am Tarzan,” he cried. ”I am a great killer. Let all respect Tarzanof the Apes and Kala, his mother. There be none among you as mighty asTarzan. Let his enemies beware.”
Looking full into the wicked, red eyes of Kerchak, the young LordGreystoke beat upon his mighty breast and screamed out once more hisshrill cry of defiance.