The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-30
C. Chapman
CHATTER XVII.
From Ape to Savage

~ T was during this dance that the
 ape-man first noticed that some
 of the men and many of the wo-
 men wore ornaments of gold, principally anklets and armlets of great weight, apparently beaten ont of the Solid metal. When he expressed wish to examine one of these the own CT removed it from her person and in sisted through the medium of signs that Tarzan accept it as gift A close scrutiny of the bauble convinced the ape-man that the article was of virgin gold, and he was surprised, for 1t was the first time that he had ever seen golden ornaments among the saw ages of Africa. other than the trifiing baubles those near the coast had pur- chased or stolen from Europeans. He tried to ask them from whence the metal came, but he could not make them understand.
 Declining the savages' offer of a hut, Tarzan slept that night, as usual, in a treetop. The following day he accom- panied a party of warriors to the near by plains on great hunt, and so dex- terous did they find this white man with their own crude weapons that another bond Of respect and admira- tion was thereby wrought.
 For weeks Tarzan lived with his savage friends, hunting buffalo, ante Iope and zebra for meat and elephant for ivory. Quickly he learned their simple speech, their savage customs and the ethics of their wild, primitive, tribal life. He found that they were not cannfbals-that they looked with. loathing and contempt upon men who ate men.
 s
 Busu1i, the warrior whom he had stalked to the village, told him many of the tribal legends how many years before his people had come many long marches from the north, how once they had been a great and powerful tribe af1d how the slave raiders had wrought such havoc among them with their death dealing guns that they had been reduced to mere remnant of their. former numbers and power
 They hunted us down as one hunts fierce beast, . said Busuii. There was no mercy in them. When it was not slaves they sought it was ivory, but usually it was both. Our men were killed and our women driven. aEay like sheep. We fought against them for many years, but our arrows and spears could not prevail against the sticks which spit fire and lead and death to many times the distance that our mightiest warrior could place an arrow. At last, when my father was a young man, the Arabs came again, but our warriors saw them from long way off, and Chowambi, who WAS chief then, told his people to gather up their belongings and come away with him that he would lead them far to the south until they found 8 spot to which <r-< And they did as he bid, carrying all their belongings, including many tusks |. Of ivory For months they wandered, suffering untold hardships and priva- tions, for much of the way was through dense jungle and across mighty mountains, but finally they came to this spot, and, although they sent parties farther on to search for an even better location. none has eyer been found z
 And the raiders have never found you here?" asked Tarzan.
 About year ago small party of Arabs and Manyuema stumbled upon us, but we drove them of, killing many. For days we followed them, stalking them for the wild beasts they are, picking them of one by one until but handful remained, but these es- 1 capped us.''
 As Busuli talked he fingered heavy l gold armIet that encfrcled the glossy hide of his left arm. Tarzan's eyes had been upon the ornament, but his | thoughts we're elsewhere. Presently ht recalled the question he had tried t ask when he first came to the tribe the question he could not at that time make them understand. For weeks h. had forgotten so trivial thing as gold
 for he had been for the time truly primeyal man, with no thought beyond today. But of a sudden the sight o I gold awakened the sleeping civilization that was in him, and with it came tn, lust for wealth. That lesson Tarzal 1 had learned well in his brief experi
 ence of the ways of civilized man. H,
 knew that gold meant power an,
 pleasure. He pointed to the baub1e.
 From whence came the yellow met al, Busuli,'' he asked.
 I The black pointed toward the south
 east.
 "A moons march away mayb
 more,'' he replied.
 Have you been thereT' asked Tar
 gan.
 .sNo, but some of our people wer
 there years ago, when my father wa
 vet a young man. One of the partie
 that searched farther for a location fo
 the tribe when first they settled her
 came upon strange people who wor
 many ornaments of yellow meta
 Their spears were tipped with it, a
 were their arrows. and they cooked i
 vessels made all of solid metal like m
 ar1nIet
 s.They lived in a great village in hut
 that were built of stone, and surround
 cd by a great wall They were yer,
 fierce, rushing out and falling upon ou
 warriors before ever they learned tha
 their errand was a peaceful one Gu
 men were few in number, but the
 held their own at the top of a littl
 rocky hill until the fierce people wen
 back at sunset into their wicked eitJ