Tarzan the Terrible - Edgar Rice Burroughs (free romance novels TXT) 📗

and come to the inner temple court with not a moment to spare.

The following day O-lo-a and Pan-at-lee and the women of Ja-don’s family arrived at the palace at A-lur and in the great throneroom Ta-den and O-lo-a were wed, and Om-at and Pan-at-lee.

For a week Tarzan and Jane and Korak remained the guests of Ja-don, as did Om-at and his black warriors. And then the ape-man announced that he would depart from Pal-ul-don. Hazy in the minds of their hosts was the location of heaven and equally so the means by which the gods traveled between their celestial homes and the haunts of men and so no questionings arose when it was found that the Dor-ul-Otho with his mate and son would travel overland across the mountains and out of Pal-ul-don toward the north.

They went by way of the Kor-ul-ja accompanied by the warriors of that tribe and a great contingent of Ho-don warriors under Ta-den. The king and many warriors and a multitude of people accompanied them beyond the limits of A-lur and after they had bid them good-bye and Tarzan had invoked the blessings of God upon them the three Europeans saw their simple, loyal friends prostrate in the dust behind them until the cavalcade had wound out of the city and disappeared among the trees of the nearby forest.

They rested for a day among the Kor-ul-ja while Jane investigated the ancient caves of these strange people and then they moved on, avoiding the rugged shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved and winding down the opposite slope toward the great morass. They moved in comfort and in safety, surrounded by their escort of Ho-don and Waz-don.

In the minds of many there was doubtless a question as to how the three would cross the great morass but least of all was Tarzan worried by the problem. In the course of his life he had been confronted by many obstacles only to learn that he who will may always pass. In his mind lurked an easy solution of the passage but it was one which depended wholly upon chance.

It was the morning of the last day that, as they were breaking camp to take up the march, a deep bellow thundered from a nearby grove. The ape-man smiled. The chance had come. Fittingly then would the Dor-ul-Otho and his mate and their son depart from unmapped Pal-ul-don.

He still carried the spear that Jane had made, which he had prized so highly because it was her handiwork that he had caused a search to be made for it through the temple in A-lur after his release, and it had been found and brought to him. He had told her laughingly that it should have the place of honor above their hearth as the ancient flintlock of her Puritan grandsire had held a similar place of honor above the fireplace of Professor Porter, her father.

At the sound of the bellowing the Ho-don warriors, some of whom had accompanied Tarzan from Ja-don’s camp to Ja-lur, looked questioningly at the ape-man while Om-at’s Waz-don looked for trees, since the gryf was the one creature of Pal-ul-don which might not be safely encountered even by a great multitude of warriors. Its tough, armored hide was impregnable to their knife thrusts while their thrown clubs rattled from it as futilely as if hurled at the rocky shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved.

“Wait,” said the ape-man, and with his spear in hand he advanced toward the gryf, voicing the weird cry of the Tor-o-don. The bellowing ceased and turned to low rumblings and presently the huge beast appeared. What followed was but a repetition of the ape-man’s previous experience with these huge and ferocious creatures.

And so it was that Jane and Korak and Tarzan rode through the morass that hems Pa-ul-don, upon the back of a prehistoric triceratops while the lesser reptiles of the swamp fled hissing in terror. Upon the opposite shore they turned and called back their farewells to Ta-den and Om-at and the brave warriors they had learned to admire and respect. And then Tarzan urged their titanic mount onward toward the north, abandoning him only when he was assured that the Waz-don and the Ho-don had had time to reach a point of comparative safety among the craggy ravines of the foothills.

Turning the beast’s head again toward Pal-ul-don the three dismounted and a sharp blow upon the thick hide sent the creature lumbering majestically back in the direction of its native haunts. For a time they stood looking back upon the land they had just quit—the land of Tor-o-don and gryf; of ja and jato; of Waz-don and Ho-don; a primitive land of terror and sudden death and peace and beauty; a land that they all had learned to love.

And then they turned once more toward the north and with light hearts and brave hearts took up their long journey toward the land that is best of all—home.

 

Glossary

 

From conversations with Lord Greystoke and from his notes, there have been gleaned a number of interesting items relative to the language and customs of the inhabitants of Pal-ul-don that are not brought out in the story. For the benefit of those who may care to delve into the derivation of the proper names used in the text, and thus obtain some slight insight into the language of the race, there is appended an incomplete glossary taken from some of Lord Greystoke’s notes.

A point of particular interest hinges upon the fact that the names of all male hairless pithecanthropi begin with a consonant, have an even number of syllables, and end with a consonant, while the names of the females of the same species begin with a vowel, have an odd number of syllables, and end with a vowel. On the contrary, the names of the male hairy black pithecanthropi while having an even number of syllables begin with a vowel and end with a consonant; while the females of this species have an odd number of syllables in their names which begin always with a consonant and end with a vowel.

 

A. Light.

ab. Boy.

Ab-on. Acting gund of Kor-ul-ja.

Ad. Three.

Adad. Six.

Adadad. Nine.

Adaden. Seven.

Aden. Four.

Adenaden. Eight.

Adenen. Five.

A-lur. City of light.

An. Spear.

An-un. Father of Pan-at-lee.

As. The sun.

At. Tail.

 

Bal. Gold or golden.

Bar. Battle.

Ben. Great.

Bu. Moon.

Bu-lot (moon face). Son of chief Mo-sar.

Bu-lur (moon city). The city of the Waz-ho-don.

 

Dak. Fat.

Dak-at (fat tail). Chief of a Ho-don village.

Dak-lot. One of Ko-tan’s palace warriors.

Dan. Rock.

Den. Tree.

Don. Man.

Dor. Son.

Dor-ul-Otho (son of god). Tarzan.

 

E. Where.

Ed. Seventy.

El. Grace or graceful.

En. One.

Enen. Two.

Es. Rough.

Es-sat (rough skin). Chief of Om-at’s tribe of hairy blacks.

Et. Eighty.

 

Fur. Thirty.

 

Ged. Forty.

Go. Clear.

Gryf. “Triceratops. A genus of huge herbivorous dinosaurs of the group Ceratopsia. The skull had two large horns above the eyes, a median horn on the nose, a horny beak, and a great bony hood or transverse crest over the neck. Their toes, five in front and three behind, were provided with hoofs, and the tail was large and strong.” Webster’s Dict. The gryf of Pal-ul-don is similar except that it is omnivorous, has strong, powerfully armed jaws and talons instead of hoofs. Coloration: face yellow with blue bands encircling the eyes; hood red on top, yellow underneath; belly yellow; body a dirty slate blue; legs same. Bony protuberances yellow except along the spine—these are red. Tail conforms with body and belly. Horns, ivory.

Gund. Chief.

Guru. Terrible.

 

Het. Fifty.

Ho. White.

Ho-don. The hairless white men of Pal-ul-don.

 

Id. Silver.

Id-an. One of Pan-at-lee’s two brothers.

In. Dark.

In-sad. Kor-ul-ja warrior accompanying Tarzan, Om-at, and Ta-den in search of Pan-at-lee.

In-tan. Kor-ul-lul left to guard Tarzan

 

Ja. Lion.

Jad. The

Jad-bal-lul. The golden lake.

Jad-ben-lul. The big lake.

Jad-ben-Otho. The Great God.

Jad-guru-don. The terrible man.

Jad-in-lul. The dark lake.

Ja-don (the lion-man). Chief of a Ho-don village and father of Ta-den.

Jad Pele ul

Jad-ben-Otho. The valley of the Great God.

Ja-lur (lion city). Ja-don’s capital.

Jar. Strange.

Jar-don. Name given Korak by Om-at.

Jato. Saber-tooth hybrid.

 

Ko. Mighty.

Kor. Gorge.

Kor-ul-gryf. Gorge of the gryf.

Kor-ul-ja. Name of Es-sat’s gorge and tribe.

Kor-ul-lul. Name of another Waz-don gorge and tribe.

Ko-tan. King of the Ho-don.

 

Lav. Run or running.

Lee. Doe.

Lo. Star.

Lot. Face.

Lu. Fierce.

Lu-don (fierce man). High priest of A-lur.

Lul. Water.

Lur. City.

 

Ma. Child.

Mo. Short.

Mo-sar (short nose). Chief and pretender.

Mu. Strong.

 

No. Brook.

 

O. Like or similar.

Od. Ninety.

O-dan. Kor-ul-ja warrior accompanying Tarzan, Om-at, and Ta-den in search of Pan-at-lee.

Og. Sixty.

O-lo-a (like-star-light). Ko-tan’s daughter

Om. Long.

Om-at (long tail). A black.

On. Ten.

Otho. God.

 

Pal. Place; land; country.

Pal-e-don-so (place where men eat). Banquet hall.

Pal-ul-don

(land of man). Name of the country.

Pal-ul-ja. Place of lions.

Pan. Soft.

Pan-at-lee. Om-at’s sweetheart.

Pan-sat (soft skin). A priest.

Pastar. Father.

Pastar-ul-ved. Father of Mountains.

Pele. Valley.

 

Ro. Flower.

 

Sad. Forest.

San. One hundred

Sar. Nose.

Sat. Skin.

So. Eat.

Sod. Eaten.

Sog. Eating.

Son. Ate.

 

Ta. Tall.

Ta-den (tall tree). A white.

Tan. Warrior.

Tarzan-jad-guru. Tarzan the Terrible.

To. Purple.

Ton. Twenty.

Tor. Beast.

Tor-o-don. Beastlike man.

Tu. Bright.

Tu-lur (bright city). Mo-sar’s city.

 

Ul. Of.

Un. Eye.

Ut. Corn.

 

Ved. Mountain

 

Waz. Black.

Waz-don. The hairy black men of Pal-ul-don.

Waz-ho-don (black white men). A mixed race

 

Xot. One thousand.

 

Yo. Friend.

 

Za. Girl.