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Chapter IV - When the Lion Fed

Kudu, the sun, was well up in the heavens when Tarzan awoke. The ape-man

stretched his giant limbs, ran his fingers through his thick hair, and swung

lightly down to earth. Immediately he took up the trail he had come in search of,

following it by scent down into a deep ravine. Cautiously he went now, for his

nose told him that the quarry was close at hand, and presently from an

overhanging bough he looked down upon Horta, the boar, and many of his

kinsmen. Un-slinging his bow and selecting an arrow, Tarzan fitted the shaft and,

drawing it far back, took careful aim at the largest of the great pigs. In the ape-

man's teeth were other arrows, and no sooner had the first one sped, than he had

fitted and shot another bolt. Instantly the pigs were in turmoil, not knowing from

whence the danger threatened. They stood stupidly at first and then commenced

milling around until six of their number lay dead or dying about them; then with

a chorus of grunts and squeals they started off at a wild run, disappearing

quickly in the dense underbrush.

Tarzan then descended from the tree, dispatched those that were not already

dead and proceeded to skin the carcasses. As he worked, rapidly and with great

skill, he neither hummed nor whistled as does the average man of civilization. It

was in numerous little ways such as these that he differed from other men, due,

probably, to his early jungle training. The beasts of the jungle that he had been

reared among were playful to maturity but seldom thereafter. His fellow-apes,

especially the bulls, became fierce and surly as they grew older. Life was a serious

matter during lean seasons--one had to fight to secure one's share of food then,

and the habit once formed became lifelong. Hunting for food was the life labor of

the jungle bred, and a life labor is a thing not to be approached with levity nor

prosecuted lightly. So all work found Tarzan serious, though he still retained

what the other beasts lost as they grew older--a sense of humor, which he gave

play to when the mood suited him. It was a grim humor and sometimes ghastly;

but it satisfied Tarzan.

Then, too, were one to sing and whistle while working on the ground,

concentration would be impossible. Tarzan possessed the ability to concentrate

each of his five senses upon its particular business. Now he worked at skinning

the six pigs and his eyes and his fingers worked as though there was naught else

in all the world than these six carcasses; but his ears and his nose were as busily

engaged elsewhere--the former ranging the forest all about and the latter assaying

each passing zephyr. It was his nose that first discovered the approach of Sabor,

the lioness, when the wind shifted for a moment.

Tarzan the Untamed