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To say that Mugambi was entirely happy or at ease in his new environment would

not be to adhere strictly to the truth. His eyes were constantly rolling

apprehensively from side to side as now one and now another of the fierce pack

chanced to wander near him, so that for the most of the time it was principally

the whites that showed.

Together Tarzan and Mugambi, with Sheeta and Akut, lay in wait at the ford for a

deer, and when at a word from the ape-man the four of them leaped out upon the

affrighted animal the black was sure that the poor creature died of fright before

ever one of the great beasts touched it.

Mugambi built a fire and cooked his portion of the kill; but Tarzan, Sheeta, and

Akut tore theirs, raw, with their sharp teeth, growling among themselves when

one ventured to encroach upon the share of another.

It was not, after all, strange that the white man's ways should have been so much

more nearly related to those of the beasts than were the savage blacks. We are,

all of us, creatures of habit, and when the seeming necessity for schooling

ourselves in new ways ceases to exist, we fall naturally and easily into the

manners and customs which long usage has implanted ineradicably within us.

Mugambi from childhood had eaten no meat until it had been cooked, while

Tarzan, on the other hand, had never tasted cooked food of any sort until he had

grown almost to manhood, and only within the past three or four years had he

eaten cooked meat. Not only did the habit of a lifetime prompt him to eat it raw,

but the craving of his palate as well; for to him cooked flesh was spoiled flesh

when compared with the rich and juicy meat of a fresh, hot kill.

That he could, with relish, eat raw meat that had been buried by himself weeks

before, and enjoy small rodents and disgusting grubs, seems to us who have been

always "civilized" a revolting fact; but had we learned in childhood to eat these

things, and had we seen all those about us eat them, they would seem no more

sickening to us now than do many of our greatest dainties, at which a savage

African cannibal would look with repugnance and turn up his nose.

For instance, there is a tribe in the vicinity of Lake Rudolph that will eat no sheep

or cattle, though its next neighbors do so. Near by is another tribe that eats

donkey-meat--a custom most revolting to the surrounding tribes that do not eat

donkey. So who may say that it is nice to eat snails and frogs' legs and oysters,

but disgusting to feed upon grubs and beetles, or that a raw oyster, hoof, horns,

and tail, is less revolting than the sweet, clean meat of a fresh-killed buck?

The next few days Tarzan devoted to the weaving of a barkcloth sail with which to

equip the canoe, for he despaired of being able to teach the apes to wield the

The Beasts of Tarzan