Tarzan the Untamed quotes

He did not think of her as Lady Jane Greystoke, but rather as the she he had won by the might of his steel thews, and that he must hold and protect by virtue of the same offensive armament.

It was no member of the House of Lords who swung swiftly and grimly through the tangled forest or trod with untiring muscles the wide stretches of open plain⁠—it was a great he ape filled with a single purpose that excluded all thoughts of fatigue or danger.

Little Manu, the monkey, scolding and chattering in the upper terraces of the forest, saw him pass. Long had it been since he had thus beheld the great Tarmangani naked and alone hurtling through the jungle.

Never had his civilization been more than a veneer put on for the sake of her he loved because he thought it made her happier to see him thus. In reality he had always held the outward evidences of so-called culture in deep contempt.

Civilization meant to Tarzan of the Apes a curtailment of freedom in all its aspects⁠—freedom of action, freedom of thought, freedom of love, freedom of hate.

Clothes he abhorred—uncomfortable, hideous, confining things that reminded him somehow of bonds securing him to the life he had seen the poor creatures of London and Paris living.

Clothes he abhorred—uncomfortable, hideous, confining things that reminded him somehow of bonds securing him to the life he had seen the poor creatures of London and Paris living.

Clothes were the emblems of that hypocrisy for which civilization stood⁠—a pretense that the wearers were ashamed of what the clothes covered, of the human form made in the semblance of God.

Tarzan knew how silly and pathetic the lower orders of animals appeared in the clothing of civilization, for he had seen several poor creatures thus appareled in various traveling shows in Europe, and he knew, too, how silly and pathetic man appears in them since …

… rather more in keeping with his mental attitude, which was marked by a dogged determination to require from the Germans more than an eye for an eye and more than a tooth for a tooth, the element of time entering but slightly into his calculations.

Inwardly as well as outwardly Tarzan had reverted to beast and in the lives of beasts, time, as a measurable aspect of duration, has no meaning.

The beast is actively interested only in now, and as it is always now and always shall be, there is an eternity of time for the accomplishment of objects. The ape-man, naturally, had a slightly more comprehensive realization of the limitations of time;

When he was quite through he made a grimace at the hidden lion beyond the barrier and resumed his way toward the east.

“A man-eater who will eat no more men,” he soliloquized.

That night Tarzan lay up under an overhanging shelf of rock. The next morning he resumed his journey, stopping only long enough to make a kill and satisfy his hunger. The other beasts of the wild eat and lie up;

Scarcely a day or night of his jungle life—and practically all his life had been spent in the jungle—had he not heard the roaring of hungry lions, or angry lions, or lovesick lions.

Such sounds affected Tarzan as the tooting of an automobile horn may affect you⁠—if you are in front of the automobile it warns you out of the way, if you are not in front of it you scarcely notice it.

Figuratively Tarzan was not in front of the automobile—Numa could not reach him and Tarzan knew it, so he continued deliberately to choke the entrance until there was no possibility of Numa’s getting out again.

She did not ask for aid, for she felt that she was beyond even divine succor—she only asked that the end might come quickly and with as little pain as possible.

No one can prophesy what a lion will do in any given emergency.

This one glared and growled at the girl for a moment and then fell to feeding upon the dead horse. Fräulein Kircher wondered for an instant and then attempted to draw her leg cautiously from beneath the body of her mount;

… had tricked him neatly, and that it must have taken nerve to do the thing she did and to set out armed only with a pistol through the trackless waste that lay between them and the railway and beyond into the hills where Wilhelmstal lies.

Tarzan admired courage.

He was big enough to admit it and admire it even in a German spy, but he saw that in this case it only added to her resourcefulness and made her all the more dangerous and the necessity for putting her out of the way …

The Hun ceased blustering and began to plead. “I have a wife and children at home,” he cried. “I have done nothing, I—”

“You are going to die as befits your kind,” said Tarzan, “with blood on your hands and a lie on your lips.”

He started across the room toward the burly Hauptmann. Schneider was a large and powerful man—about the height of the ape-man but much heavier.

Tarzan turned at her.

“No,” he said, “you are right, I cannot do it⁠—I am no German,”

and he raised the point of his blade and sunk it deep into the putrid heart of Hauptmann Fritz Schneider, putting a bloody period to the Hun’s last gasping cry: “I did not do it! She is not—”

“I am Tarzan,” he cried. “While Tarzan was yet a balu he slew a Bolgani. Tarzan seeks the Mangani, who are his brothers, but Bolgani he does not seek, so let Bolgani keep from the path of Tarzan.”

Little Manu, the monkey, was much impressed, for the way of the jungle is to boast and to believe.

It was then that he condescended to tell Tarzan more of the Mangani.

So once again Tarzan of the Apes was forced to protect a Hun. Growling, he muttered to himself in extenuation:

“She is a woman and I am not a German, so it could not be otherwise!”

“I will try,” said the girl, “but I am afraid that it will be difficult. He is the most frightful creature I ever have seen.” Tarzan smiled.

“Doubtless he thinks the same of you,” he said.

By this time other apes had entered the clearing and they were now the center of a considerable group, among which were several bulls, some young shes, and some older ones with their little balus clinging to their backs or frolicking around at their feet.

“They will fill their bellies tonight,” he said.

The Englishman grinned. “From the fuss they made,” he said, “the beggars must be awfully hungry. They like to have eaten me alive when they brought me in. How did they get you?”

Tarzan shrugged his head ruefully. “It was my own fault,” he replied. “I deserve to be eaten.

When they had gone Tarzan looked across at his companion in misery.

“While there is life,” he said, “there is hope,” but he grinned as he voiced the ancient truism.

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick returned the other’s smile. “I fancy,” he said, “that we are getting short on both. It must be close to supper time now.”

Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick returned the other’s smile.

“I fancy,” he said, “that we are getting short on both. It must be close to supper time now.”

Zu-tag hunted alone far from the balance of the tribe of Go-lat, the great ape. Zu-tag (Big-neck) was a young bull but recently arrived at maturity.

He chafed under the obligation she had put upon him, but no less did he acknowledge it and as he watched the two, the rueful expression upon his face was lightened by a smile as he thought of the helplessness of them.

What a puny thing, indeed, was man! How ill equipped to combat the savage forces of nature and of nature’s jungle.

Why, even the tiny balu of the tribe of Go-lat, the great ape, was better fitted to survive than these, for a balu could at least escape the numerous creatures that menaced its existence, while with the possible exception of Kota, the tortoise, none moved …

I could not kill her with my own hands when I tried, and if I let them go on alone, I will have killed her just as surely as though I had run my knife into her heart. No,” and again he shook his head.

“Tarzan of the Apes is a fool and a weak, old woman,”

and he turned back toward the south.

… the center of the meadow, and when at last the Englishman could gain the courage to again turn his eyes upon it, he breathed a fervent prayer of thanks, for the shapeless mass that lay upon the bloodstained turf was covered with an ebon hide.

Usanga had reaped his reward.

Again and again the plane circled above the meadow. The blacks, at first dismayed at the death of their leader, were now worked to a frenzy of rage and a determination to be avenged.

In the center of the meadow stood the ape-man watching them.

“It is too bad that she is a German and a spy,” he said, “for she is very hard to hate.”

What if he was a young, powerful, cunning, and ferocious beast?

In the face of hunger, the great leveler, he was as the old, the toothless, and the decrepit.

His belly cried aloud in anguish and his jowls slavered for flesh. Zebra or deer or man, what mattered it so that it was warm flesh, red with the hot juices of life?

“Yes,” he said, “I think I can understand it, and because I understand I can appreciate more than you imagine the heroism you have shown in your endurance of all that you have passed through.

There can be no bravery where there is no fear. A child might walk into a lion’s den, but it would take a very brave man to go to its rescue.

”

The man laughed.

“Cute little harbinger of hope!” he said. “Reminds me of Cock Robin heralding spring.”

The girl cast a quick glance at him. “Don’t be silly, and I don’t care if you do laugh. He fills me with hope.”

The girl cast a quick glance at him. “Don’t be silly, and I don’t care if you do laugh. He fills me with hope.”

“It is probably mutual,” replied Smith-Oldwick, “as we doubtless fill him with hope.”

The lion evidently having satisfied himself as to the nature of the creatures before him advanced slowly now in their direction.

A well-defined scent spoor might never be forgotten by a beast if it had first been sensed under unusual circumstances, and so Tarzan was confident that Numa’s nose had already reminded him of all the circumstances of their brief connection.

Love of the sporting chance is inherent in the Anglo-Saxon race and it was not now Tarzan of the Apes but rather John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, who smilingly welcomed the sporting chance which he must take to discover how far-reaching was Numa’s gratitude.

Smith-Oldwick and the girl saw the two nearing each other. The former swore softly beneath his breath while he nervously fingered the pitiful weapon at his hip. The girl pressed her open palms to her cheeks as she leaned forward in stony-eyed, horror-stricken silence.

I have never been sure that all of the other beasts understand the language of the Mangani. I know that Manu, the monkey, speaks nearly the same tongue and I am sure that Tantor, the elephant, understands all that I say to him.

We of the jungle are great boasters.

In our speech, in our carriage, in every detail of our demeanor we must impress others with our physical power and our ferocity. That is why we growl at our enemies.

The ape-man shrugged his shoulders.

“One must die sometime,” he said.

“To you doubtless it may seem terrible—such a death; but Tarzan of the Apes has always expected to go out in some such way. Few of us die of old age in the jungle, nor should I care to die thus.

Tarzan smiled and shook his head. “I am afraid you would not understand,” he replied. “

It is difficult for us to understand anything that is beyond our own powers.

”

“Yes,” said Tarzan.

“No two lions look alike, no two have the same scent.”

The young Englishman shook his head. “No,” he said, “I cannot understand.”

The man regarded one of their captors closely for a moment and then, turning to the girl asked,

“Did you ever visit a madhouse?”

She looked up at him in quick understanding and with a horrified expression in her eyes. “That’s it!” she cried.

She came close to the party as they passed her, jabbering to the guards who paid no attention to her. The prisoners had an opportunity to observe her closely as she followed at their side for a short distance.

“The figure of a houri,” remarked Smith-Oldwick, “with the face of an imbecile.”

The street they followed was intersected at irregular intervals by crossroads which, as they glanced down them, proved to be equally as tortuous as that through which they were being conducted. The houses varied but little in design.

She moved closer to him and took hold of his hand.

“Save one cartridge for me, please?” she begged.

Smith-Oldwick looked down at her and blinked his eyes very rapidly. An unfamiliar and disconcerting moisture had come into them. He had realized, of course, how bad a plight was theirs but somehow it had seemed to affect him only:

“For sixty years you have lived here,” continued Bertha Kircher, “and they have not harmed you!”

“I did not say they had not harmed me,” said the old woman, “they did not kill me, that is all.”

“What”—the girl hesitated—“what,” she continued at last, “was your position among them? Pardon me,” she added quickly, “I think I know but I should like to hear from your own lips, for whatever your position was, mine will doubtless be the same.”

As she removed the smaller vessels from the larger and arranged them before her on the table a crooked smile twisted her lips as she watched the younger woman eat.

“Hunger is a great leveler,” she said with a laugh.

“What do you mean?” asked the girl.

For some time he lay feigning death while the lion, having ceased to lick him, sniffed about his body.

There are some things than which death is to be preferred; and there came at last to the Englishman the realization that it would be better to die swiftly than to lie in this horrible predicament until his mind broke beneath the strain and he went mad.

And so, deliberately and without haste, he rose, clinging to the grating for support.

From the edge of the roof he looked down upon the night life of the mad city.

He saw men and women and children and lions, and of all that he saw it was quite evident to him that only the lions were sane.

With the aid of the stars he easily picked out the points of the compass, and following carefully in his memory the steps that had led him into the city and to the roof upon which he now stood, he knew that the thoroughfare upon …

“We will get you other clothes, then,” said Tarzan.

“Go back to the roof beside the city wall where I entered,” replied the ape-man with a grim smile, “and ask the naked dead man there how I got my disguise.”

Smith-Oldwick looked quickly up at his companion. “I have it,” he exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” asked Tarzan. “How do you know that the man doesn’t need his clothes any more.”

“I know he doesn’t need them,” replied the Englishman, “because I killed him.”

“Oh!” exclaimed the ape-man, “I see. I guess it might be easier that way than to tackle one of these fellows in the street where there is more chance of our being interrupted.”

Tarzan drew the saber which still hung at his side. “We cannot go back,” he said.

“Lions, parrots, or men, it must be all the same,”

and he moved steadily forward in the direction of the gate.