The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1914-01-16
CHAPTER IN.
Tarzan Mightiest of the Apes.


larger since TarZan had come
among them.
Under the leadership of Ker-
chalk they had been able to brighten
the other tribes from their part of the
jungle, so that they had plenty to eat
and little or no loss from predatory in
cursions of neighbors.
The younger males as they became
adult found it more comfortable to take
wives from their own tribe or, if they
captured one of another tribe, to bring
her back to Kerchak's band and live
In amity rather than attempt to set up
new establishments of their own or
make war upon the redoubtable Ker-
chalk.
Occasionally one more ferociOus than
his fellows would attempt this latter
alternative. but none had come yet
who could wrest the palm of victory
from the fierce and brutal ape
Tarzan held a peculiar position in
the tribe.
They seemed to consider him one of
them and yet in some way different.
The older males either ignored him en-
tirely or else hated him so vindictively
that but for his wonderous agility and
speed and the fierce protection of the
huge Kala he would have been dis
patched at an early age
Tublat was his most consistent enc
my, but it was through Tublat that.
when he was about thirteen, the perse
pr1ti Of
and he was left severely alone, except
on the occasions when one of them
ran amuck in the throes of one of
those strange fits of insane rage which
attack the males Of many of the fercer
animals of the jungle. Then none was
safe
On the day that Tarzan established
his right to respect the tribe was gath
cred about a small natural amphithe-
ter which the jungle had left free
from its entangling vines and creepers.
Here the tribe often gathered. In
the center Of the amphitheater was
one of those strange earthen drums
which the anthropoids build for the
dumdum, the queer rites the sound of
which men have heard in the fastness-
es of the jungle, but which none has
ever witnessed
On the day that Tarzan won his
emancipation from the persecution that
had followed him remorselessly for
twelve of his thirteen years of life the
tribe, now a full 100 strong, trOoped
silently through the lower terrace of
the jungle trees and dropped noiseless-
ly upon the floor Of the amphitheater.
The rites of the dumdum marked
important events in the life Of the
tribe-a victory, the capture Of pris
oner, the killing of some large, fierce
denizen of the jungle, the death or ac-
cession of king.
Today it was the killing of giant
ape, a member of another tribe, and as
the people of Kerchak entered the
arena two mighty bulls might have
been seen bearing the body of the van
pushed between them. They laid their
burden before the earthen drum and
then squatted beside it as guards, while
the other members of the community
curled themselves in grassy hooks to
sleep until the rising moon should give
the signal for the commencement Of
the orgy.
A darkness settled upon the jungle,
the apes commenced to bestir them
selves, and soon they formed a great
circle about the earthen drum.
The females and young squatted in
a thin line at the outer periphery OF
the circle, while just in front Of them
ranged the adult males. Before the
drum sat three old females, each arm
ed with q kn0tted branch fifteen or
eighteen inches in length.
Slowly and softly they began tap
ping upon the resounding surface of
the drum as the first faint rays of the
ascending moon silvered the treetops
AS the light increased the females
augmented the frequency and force OF
their blows until presently a rhyth-
mical din pervaded the jungle for miles
in every direction. Huge bruteS stop
ped in their hunting, with uppricked
ears and raised heads, to listen to the
dull booming that betokened the dunn
dunn of the great apes.
AS the din of the drum rose to al
most deafening volume kerchak
sprang into the open space between
the sQuatting males and the drummers.