"Look!" he cried, "Apes of Kerchak. See what Tarzan, the mighty killer, has done. Who else among you has ever killed one of Numa's people? Tarzan is mightiest amongst you for Tarzan is no ape. Tarzan is--" But here he stopped, for in the language of the anthropoids there was no word for man, and Tarzan could only write the word in English; he could not pronounce it.

The tribe had gathered about to look upon the proof of his wondrous prowess, and to listen to his words.

Only Kerchak hung back, nursing his hatred and his rage.

Suddenly something snapped in the wicked little brain of the anthropoid. With a frightful roar the great beast sprang among the assemblage.

Biting, and striking with his huge hands, he killed and maimed a dozen ere the balance could escape to the upper terraces of the forest.

Frothing and shrieking in the insanity of his fury, Kerchak looked about for the object of his greatest hatred, and there, upon a near-by limb, he saw him sitting.

"Come down, Tarzan, great killer," cried Kerchak. "Come down and feel the fangs of a greater! Do mighty fighters fly to the trees at the first approach of danger?" And then Kerchak emitted the volleying challenge of his kind.

Quietly Tarzan dropped to the ground. Breathlessly the tribe watched from their lofty perches as Kerchak, still roaring, charged the relatively puny figure.

Nearly seven feet stood Kerchak on his short legs. His enormous shoulders were bunched and rounded with huge muscles. The back of his short neck was as a single lump of iron sinew which bulged beyond the base of his skull, so that his head seemed like a small ball protruding from a huge mountain of flesh.

His back-drawn, snarling lips exposed his great fighting fangs, and his little, wicked, blood-shot eyes gleamed in horrid reflection of his madness.

Awaiting him stood Tarzan, himself a mighty muscled animal, but his six feet of height and his great rolling sinews seemed pitifully inadequate to the ordeal which awaited them.

His bow and arrows lay some distance away where he had dropped them while showing Sabor's hide to his fellow apes, so that he confronted Kerchak now with only his hunting knife and his superior intellect to offset the ferocious strength of his enemy.

As his antagonist came roaring toward him, Lord Greystoke tore his long knife from its sheath, and with an answering challenge as horrid and bloodcurdling as that of the beast he faced, rushed swiftly to meet the attack. He was too shrewd to allow those long hairy arms to encircle him, and just as their bodies were about to crash together, Tarzan of the Apes grasped one of the huge wrists of his assailant, and, springing lightly to one side, drove his knife to the hilt into Kerchak's body, below the heart.

Before he could wrench the blade free again, the bull's quick lunge to seize him in those awful arms had torn the weapon from Tarzan's grasp.

Kerchak aimed a terrific blow at the ape-man's head with the flat of his hand, a blow which, had it landed, might easily have crushed in the side of Tarzan's skull.

The man was too quick, and, ducking beneath it, himself delivered a mighty one, with clenched fist, in the pit of Kerchak's stomach.

The ape was staggered, and what with the mortal wound in his side had almost collapsed, when, with one mighty effort he rallied for an instant--just long enough to enable him to wrest his arm free from Tarzan's grasp and close in a terrific clinch with his wiry opponent.

Straining the ape-man close to him, his great jaws sought Tarzan's throat, but the young lord's sinewy fingers were at Kerchak's own before the cruel fangs could close on the sleek brown skin.

Thus they struggled, the one to crush out his opponent's life with those awful teeth, the other to close forever the windpipe beneath his strong grasp while he held the snarling mouth from him.

The greater strength of the ape was slowly prevailing, and the teeth of the straining beast were scarce an inch from Tarzan's throat when, with a shuddering tremor, the great body stiffened for an instant and then sank limply to the ground.

Kerchak was dead.

Withdrawing the knife that had so often rendered him master of far mightier muscles than his own, Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his vanquished enemy, and once again, loud through the forest rang the fierce, wild cry of the conqueror.

And thus came the young Lord Greystoke into the kingship of the Apes.

--Burroughs could write, and though he wrote fantasy, he, more than anyone or anything, fueled my boyhood fire for Africa.

mrlexma,

Thanks for posting.

I must get hold of,and read, that book again! Yes, Burroughs could write to fill the minds of young readres with wonder and fantasy - but real fantasy, not today's computor generated junk.

Andrew.

MR,
Me too. I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs' books in the fifth grade, right after having read John Hunter's first book from the school library.

The summer after fifth grade I began collecting the Ballantine Books paperbacks, eventually getting and reading the entire set. I used to shine my dad's shoes for him for 25 cents a shine. Two shines would buy a book in 1965. Mail order.

I ran wild in the woods swinging on grape vines with bare chest and large sheath knife (Marine Kabar). My little brother was Daniel Boone, Coonskin cap and duplicate Kabar. I was Tarzan. Quite the combo hero pairing. My older brother was a sissy who played with dolls, and I could beat him up even though he was bigger than me. He is a lawyer now.

Old Johnnie Weismiller movies with sexy Jane and villainous bwanas (Raymond Burr?), then finally Ron Ely as TV Tarzan. I was a "Ronnie" until that point in life. After that I was "Ron."

Tarzan was my reason for taking up archery as well as knives in pre-puberty ...

... and yes, AFRICA.

I still have all the paperbacks. My first "collection." Comic books don't count.

Thanks for the memories.

I certainly hope not!

Thanks!

I do indeed remember that... and other Tarzan books (I recall another graphic passage about the dance of ouled nails)...

Dan

Andrew, I agree. I'll take Tarzan over "Grand Theft Auto" any day of the week. That computer stuff is hideous.

RIP, talk about nostalgia! Ballantine Books! I read every one I could get my hands on, which was eventually all of them.

Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, Son of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Lost City, etc., etc. I also read Carson of Venus, John Carter of Mars, At the Earth's Core, etc., etc.

Those little books were worth the price if only for the cover art! I still have many of them, but the paper has turned brown and become brittle from the acid content.

Weissmuller was the best of the old movie Tarzans, even though they bastardized the story and made him out to be a primitive lunkhead with a pet chimp.

His yell was pretty good, but a bit too effeminate - I always imagined something much more raw, rasping and savage, more of a scream than a melodious yell. But I'm picking nits, here.

Nick, I found this, the original 1912 "Tarzan of the Apes," online courtesy of the Gutenberg Project. I just started re-reading it on the screen, and before I knew it, it had transported me back in time to my boyhood. So, I thought I would share it here.

As a boy, I spent countless hours reading Burroughs and other adventure books by H. Rider Haggard, Jules Vern, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson and on and on.

Like Andrew, I do think that too many of today's kids have lost the reading habit and have become vidiots. They will be the poorer for it, IMHO.

And as for growing up? I agree - Never!

Dan, glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for the great post Mike! I was born and raised overseas, so I didn't have a whole lot of TV viewing options. I read every book I could get my hands on. Burroughs was one of my favorites; I read all the Tarzan and John Carter of Mars books.

I would definately say that Burroughs and Hemingway did more to whet my appetite for Africa than any other authors.

Tarzan kreegah bundolo!

jim

quote:

Nick, I found this, the original 1912 "Tarzan of the Apes," online courtesy of the Gutenberg Project. I just started re-reading it on the screen, and before I knew it, it had transported me back in time to my boyhood. So, I thought I would share it here.

Hey, I love your post! These are the books that made me miss the a.m. school bus!

quote:

Originally posted by HunterJim:
Tarzan kreegah bundolo!

jim

I freely admin to having been an ERB addict. My favorites were the first Tarzan book, the Pelucidar series, and the "Carson of Venus" books; the John Carter books never did anything for me.

I also loved the individual fantasy novels, such as "Beyond the Farthest Star" and "I am a Barbarian."



analog_peninsula

THE Tarzans were good,
but the best HE-MAN scream in a movie..
Arnie Schwarznager in the last battle scene in PREDATOR.

Great post, fun books and I must agree so much be than tody's 'puter stuff.

RIP, I grew up next door to "boy" from the Weissmuller movies John Shiefield. His older son, two years my junior looked just like he did in the moview...

Brett

And now, thanks to you and MR, I can spell "Weissmuller."