Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody: Who Are The Mangani?

WHO ARE THE MANGANI?

In Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series, the Mangani are a fictional species of great apes that represent a distinct evolutionary bridge between chimpanzees and humans. Burroughs described them as a unique, highly intelligent tribe.

Tarzan & The Mangani

THE MANGANI LINAGE

Ten million years ago, in the warm forests of Africa, the Mangani story began with ancient apes. Among them were the last common ancestors of chimpanzees and humans. These creatures lived in trees, walked on all fours, and had no idea they were planting the seeds of something extraordinary.

Prehistoric Chimpanzees

Around 7 million years ago, a shift occurred. Climate change fragmented forests into savannas. Some apes began to walk upright, freeing their hands and changing their fate. One of the earliest known was Sahelanthropus tchadensis, with a flat face and a spine aligned for bipedalism.

By 5 to 6 million years ago, Orrorin tugenensis and Ardipithecus ramidus appeared. They still climbed trees but walked on two legs when on the ground. Their teeth and pelvis hinted at a future beyond the forest.

Orrorin tugenensis

Then came Australopithecus, around 4 million years ago. With longer legs and better balance, they roamed the open plains. Australopithecus afarensis, like the famous “Lucy,” left footprints in volcanic ash; silent echoes of a new way of life.

Homo habilis

Finally, about 2.5 million years ago, a bold new genus emerged: Homo. With larger brains and stone tools, Homo habilis marked the dawn of human ingenuity.

Homo habilis

From shadowed canopies to sunlit savannas, this journey was not a straight line, but a winding path of adaptation, survival, and transformation; leading, step by step, to us.

From Apes To Human

THE MANGANI ARE MAIN FIGURES THROUGHOUT THE TARZAN SERIES.

They are the ones who adopt and raise the orphaned John Clayton II, who eventually grows up to become White-Skin.

Akut also taught his 10-year old son John Clayton III, aka Korak (Killer), to survive in Africa as told in The Son Of Tarzan.

COULD THE MANGANI SPEAK?

The Mangani were extremely smart anthropoids. They even had their own language. "The First Language" was ancient and simple, and others beside the Mangani could speak or understand it. The language which sounded like grunts and growls to human ears had words, names, animal names, and others .

Mangani

The "First Language" included specific words like Kreeg-ah (danger) and bula (baby), Names like Tarzan (White-Skin) and Gazan (Red-Skin), There were names describing animals like Saber (female lion),Numa (male lion), and Hista the snake. The name for white humans was Tarmangani. The name for black humans was Gomangani. The name for was Bogani.

Hista, The Snake

DID TARZAN SPEAK MANGANI?

Some Mangani words could not be produced by human vocal cords. Therefore, when White-Skin spoke he sounded to his hairy adopters like he had a speech impediment. The more in your life the wild boy was the better they could understand him. The more distant the relationship tribal members had to pay special attention to understand some words. Eventually he learned to communicate with them. When he visited the cabin by the sea and spent time with his books he would play dress up.

The language of the apes had so few words that they could talk but little of what they had seen in the cabin, having no words to accurately describe either the strange people or their belongs, and so, long before Tarzan was old enough to understand, the subject had been forgotten by the tribe.

The Cabin By The Sea

THE MANGANI HAD THEIR OWN SOCIAL HIERARCHY AND RITUALS.

Tarzan's tribe's King's name was . The surprisingly smart simians even had their own ritual dance called the "" which they performed on the full moon.

On the day that Tarzan established his right to respect, the tribe was gathered about a small natural amphitheater which the jungle had left free from its entangling vines and creepers in a hollow among some low hills. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.almo

The open space was almost circular in shape. Upon every hand rose the mighty giants of the untouched forest, with the little, level arena was through the upper branches of the trees. ERB- Tarzan Of The Apes.

Here, safe from interruption, the tribe often gathered. In the center of the amphitheater was one of those strange earthen drums which the anthropoids build for the queer rites the sounds of which men have heard in the fastnesses of the jungle, but which none has ever witnessed. ERB- Tarzan Of The Apes.

Many travelers have seen the drums of the great apes, and some have heard the sounds of their beating and the noise of the wild,weird revelry of these first lords of the jungle, but Tarzan, Lord Greystoke,is, doubtless, the only human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel of the Dum-Dim. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

From this primitive function has arisen, unquestionably, all the forms and ceremonials of modern church and state, for through all the countless ages, back beyond the uttermost ramparts of a dawning humanity our fierce, hairy forebears danced out the rites of the Dum-Dim to the sound of their earthen drums, beneath the bright light of a tropical moon in the depth of a mighty jungle which stands unchanged today as it stood on that long forgotten night in the depth of a mighty jungle which stands unchanged today as it stood on that long forgotten night in the dim, unthinkable vistas of the long dead past when our first shaggy ancestor swung from a swaying bought and dropped lightly upon the soft turfp of the first meeting place. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The rites of the Dum-Dim marked important events in the tribe ---a victory, the capture of a prisoner, the killing of asome large fierce denizen of the jungle, the death or accession of a king, and were conducted with set ceremonilism. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Joe Kubert

LIKE CHIMPANZEES THE MANGANI USED TOOLS.

Kerchak, seizing a huge club from the pile which lay at hand for the purpose, rushed furiously upon the dead ape, dealing the corpse a terrific blow, at the same time emitting the growls and snarls of combat. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

For half an hour the weird dance went on, until, at a sign from Kerchak, the noise of the drums ceased, the female drummers scampering hurriedly through the line of dancers toward the outer rim of squatting spectators. ERB- Tarzan Of The Apes.

The nuts they cracked between their powerful jaws,or, if too hard, broke by pounding between stones. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

For a half hour they pursuedhim with rocks and broken branches, and though he dragged his kill into densest thickets, yet they always found a way to reach him with their missiles, giving him no opportunity to feed, and driving him on and on. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

In Jungle Tales Of Tarzan, the ape-boy taught the Mangani to post centres.

The ape-man taught them to paddle a boat in The Beasts Of Tarzan.

Thomas Yates

We are first introduced to the Mangani by ERB in Tarzan Of The Apes, chapter 2, The Savage Home. Just before dusk while resting Alice Clayton caught sight of what she thought was a man.

Lady Alice, straining her eyes into the darkening shadows of the suddenly wood, suddenly reached out and grasped Clayton's arms. "John," she whispered, look! What is it, a man?" ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

As Clayton turned his eyes in the direction she indicated, he saw silhouetted dimly against the shadows beyond, a great figure standing upright upon the ridge. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

"No, John, if it was not a man it was some huge and grotesque mockery of man. Oh, I am afraid." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

THE GREYSTOKE CABIN.

During the next month John Clayton I, built a one room cabin and furnished. During that time the Claytons occassionly saw glimpses of the man-brute.

At last he saw it, the thing the little monkeys so feared---the man-brute of which the Claytons had caught occasional fleeting glimpses. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Burne Hogarth

DO THE MANGANI PREFER TO TRAVEL ON THE GROUND OR TREES?

In chapter 3, Life And Death, which occurs approximately a month after the first sighting.

It was approaching through the jungle in a semi-erect position, now and then placing the backs of its closed fists upon the ground---a great anthropoid ape, and, as it advanced, it emitted deep guttural growls and an occasional low barking sound. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

He knew that, armed only with an ax, his chances with this serious monster were small indeed---andAlice; O God, he thought, what will become of Alice? ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The ape was a great bull, weighing probably three hundred pounds. His nasty, close-set eyes glimed hatred from beneath his shaggy brows, while his great canine fangs were bared in a horrid snarl as he paused a moment before his prey. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

A hasty examination of his wife revealed no marks upon her, and Clayton decided that the huge brute had died the instant he had sprung toward Alice. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Mangani Bull

MANGANI ARE NOT CHIMPANZEES OR GORILLAS.

Although the Mangani were primates they were different than gorillas or chimpanzees. They were larger and stronger than chimps, but smaller and weaker than a gorilla. They were much more intelligent than either of their cousins and at times showed signs of problem solving. In the wild the Mangani were not friends with either chimpanzees or gorillas.

Tarzan & The Mangani

THE MANGANI VS CLAYTONS'.

During the year that followed the Claytons were attacked several times by the Mangani.

During the year that followed, Clayton was attacked several times by the great apes which now seemed to continually infest the vicinity of the cabin; but as he never again ventured outside without both rifle and revolvers he had little fear of the huge beast. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan VS Kerchak

ARE THE MANGANI PSYCHO?

The Mangani are known to lose their mind in a fit of uncontrolled murderous rage.

In the forest of the table-land a mile back from the ocean old Kerchak the Ape was on a rampage of rage among his people. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The other males scattered in all directions, but not before the infuriated brute had felt the vertebra of one snap between his great, foaming jaws. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

A luckless young female slipped from an insecure hold upon a branch and came crashing to the ground almost at Kerchak's feet. With a wild scream he was upon her, tearing a great piece from her side with his mighty teeth, and sticking her viciously upon her head and shoulders with a broken tree limb until her skull was crushed to jelly. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

With the death of the babe his fit of demoniacal rage passed as suddenly as it had seized him. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tublat was his most consistent enemy, but it was through Tublat that, when he was about thirteen, the persecution of his enemies suddenly ceased and he was left severely alone, except on the occasions when one of them ran amuck in the throes of one of those strange, wild fits of insane rage which attacks the males of many of the fiercer animals of the jungle. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Suddenly something snapped in the wicked little brain of the anthropoid. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

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. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Korak & The Mangani

DO THE MANGANI TRAVEL ON THE GROUND OR THE TREES?

While the tribe of Kerchak traveled to the Greystoke cabin it is revealed that the Mangani were comfortable traveling upon ground or trees.

While escaping danger trees were the anthropoids number one flight method.

They traveled for the most part upon the ground, where it was open, following the path of the great elephants whose comings and goings break the only roads through those tangled mazes of bush, vine, creeper, and tree. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

When they walked it was with a rolling, awkward motion, placing the knuckles of their closed hands upon the ground and swinging their ungainly bodies forward. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

But when the way was through the lower trees they moved more swiftly, swinging from branch to branch with the agility of their smaller cousins, the monkeys. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

But Kala was of a different mind; in fact, she had not waited but to learn that Tarzan was absent ere she was fairly flying through the matted branches toward the point from which the cries of the gorilla were still plainly audible. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Like some huge phantom, Kala swung noiselessly from tree to tree, now running nimbly along a great branch, now swinging through space at the end of another, only to grasp that of a further tree in her rapid progress toward the scene of the tragedy her knowledge of jungle life told her was being enacted a short distance before her. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Burne Horgoth

WHERE DO THE MANGANI LIVE?

After the Mangani killed Sir Clayton it is revealed the tribe does not live on the coast near the cabin. Instead they lived a nomadic life and roamed some miles inland.

After roaming about the vicinity for a short time, they started back for the deeper forests and the higher land from whence they had come. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

In the higher land which his tribe frequented was a little lake, and it was here that Tarzan first saw his face in the clear, still waters of its bosom. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The tribe to which he belonged roamed a tract extending, roughly, twenty-Five miles along the seacoast and some fifty miles inland. This they traversed almost continually, occasionally remaining for months in one locality; but as they moved through the trees with great speed they often covered the territory in a very few days. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Much depended upon food supply, climatic conditions, and the prevelence of animals of the more dangerous species; though Kerchak often led them on long marches for no other reason than that he had tired of remaining in the same place. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The wanderings of the tribe brought them often near the closed and silent cabin by the little land-locked harbor. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan

MANGANI CHILD DESCRIPTION

That tiny slit of a mouth and those puny white teeth! How they looked beside the mighty lips and powerful fangs of his more fortunate brothers! ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

He turned as he compared it with the beautiful broad nostrils of his companion. Such a generous nose! Why it spread half across his face! ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan VS Kerchak

MANGANI CHILD CARE

The other young rode upon their mothers' backs; their little arms tightly clasping the hairy neck before them, while their legs were locked beneath their mothers' armpits. ERB-TARZAN Of The Apes.

When he was disobedient she cuffed him, it is true, but she was never cruel to him, and was more often caressing him than chastising him. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

WHAT DO MANGANI CHILDREN DO FOR FUN?

She yet retained her childish delighting the primitive games of tag andhide-and-go-seek which Tarzan's fertile man-mind had evolved. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

To play tag through the tree tops is an exciting and inspiring pastime. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Young Mangani Playing Tag

DO THE MANGANI HAVE HEALTH CARE?

Of medicine or surgery the poor thing knew nothing. She could but lick the wounds, and thus she kept them cleansed, that healing nature might the more quickly do her work. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

All he craved was water, and this she bought him in the only way she could, bearing it in her own mouth. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zedenek Burian

HOW DO MANGANI CHOOSE THEIR MATES?

Hense the younger males as they became adult foiund it more comfortable to take mates from their own tribe, or if they captured one of another tribe to bring her back to Kerchak's band and live in amity with him rather than attempt to set up new establishments of their own, or fight with the redoubtable Kerchak for supremacy at home. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Occassionly one more serious than his fellows would attempt this latter alternative, but none had come yet who could wrest the palm of victory from the fierce and brutal ape. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Joe Jusko

WHERE DID A MANGANI BULL FIND A COW FOR A MATE?

The tribe next door is the primary choice.
Sometimes in larger groups bulls choose cows within their own tribe.
In rare cases (Jane & Terkoz) the Mangani will try to mate with females outside of their own species.

Tarzan's First Love

THE MANGANI CRIES.

Instead he raised his voice in the call of distress common to his tribe, adding to it the warning which would prevent would-be rescuers from running into the clutches of Sabor. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

As the body rolled to the ground Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his lifelong enemy and, raising his eyes to the full moon, threw back his fierce young head and voiced the wild and terrible cry of his people. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Teeka gave voice to a shrill scream of terror and of warning as she dashed after the ape-man. ERB- Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Taug, warned by Teeka's cry, came lumbering down to her assistance. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

He placed a foot upon the dead body of the pan-ther, and lifting his blood-stained face to the blue of the equatorial heavens, gave voice to the horrid victory cry of the bull apes. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Instantly he increased his speed, for the "Kreeg-ahs" that came to his ears warned him that something was amiss with his fellows. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Again he raised his voice in the call of the bull ape to its mate, but there was no reply; ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Leaping to his feet he screamed out a volley of "Kreeg-ahs," punctuated from time to time by the blood-freezing cry of an angry, challenging bull ----a rage-madbull with the blood lust strong upon him. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Answering his cries came the cries of the tribe as they swung through the trees toward him. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan .

It was these that Tarzan heard on his return from his cabin, and in reply to them he raised his own voice and hurried forward with increased speed until he fairly flew through the middle terraces of the forest. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Raising his face to the moon, Tarzan shrilled forth his hideous challenge. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Joe Kubert

WHAT DO THE MANGANI EAT?

Although the Mangani are different in many ways than gorillas and chimpanzees they are the same in many ways. When it comes to diet and the use of tools to get food the Mangani ways appear to mask the chimpanzees over the gorilla.

While chimpanzees and gorillas are both great apes living in similar African forests, their food wants are quite different. The biggest difference between the two apes is that chimpanzees are active hunters, whereas gorillas are essentially the "vegetarians" of the primate world.

Mangani Feasting

FOOD COMPARISON AT A GLANCE.

Diet Type: Omnivore (mostly fruit-based)
Meat Eating: Yes. They hunt monkeys and small deer.
Favorite Food: High-sugar fruits (Frugivores).
Insects: Regularly hunt termites and ants.
Daily Intake: Eat smaller amounts of calorie-rich food.

Chimpanzees Feeding

Dite Type: Herbivore (mostly foliage-based)
Meat Eating: No. They don't hunt or eat mammals.
Favorite Food, Leaves, stems, and bamboo (Folivores).
Insects: Occasionally eat ants/grubs for protein.
Daily Intake: Eat massive amounts (up to 40-65 lbs) of fiber.

Gorillas Feeding

KEY DIFFERENCES

Chimpanzees

Are high-energy foragers.
They will travel long distances to find a specific fruit tree or spend hours strategizing a hunt for a Red Colobus monkey.

Gorillas

Are more like "grazers".
They have huge bellies designed to ferment and break down tough plant cellulose, allowing them to sit and eat low-calorie leaves all day.

FRUIT AVAILABILITY:

If fruit disappears during a dry season, a chimpanzee might struggle or turn more to meat and insects.

A gorilla (especially a Mountain Gorilla) just switches to eating more bark, roots, and thistles. They are much less dependent on "sugar" than chimps.

THE "INCIDENTAL" MEAT:

While gorillas don't hunt, they do get animal protein by accident. When they eat a handful of leaves, they often swallow the ants, larvae, and snails attached to them. Some studies have found trace amounts of monkey DNA in gorilla droppings, but scientists think this is likely from gorillas eating ants that had scavenged on a carcass, rather than the gorilla eating the animal itself.

WHY THE DIFFERENCE?

It mostly comes down to size and energy. Gorillas are so massive that it wouldn't be energy-efficient for them to chase a fast monkey through the trees. It’s much easier for a 400-pound Silverback to simply reach over and rip a branch off a tree.

CHIMPANZEES ARE HUNTERS.

Chimpanzees eat meat. Most people mentally picture them snacking peacefully on bananas. Chimps, however, are actually omnivores with a fairly complex diet.

THE CHIMPANZEES MENU

Plants

(The Main Course): About 95% of their diet comes from plants. They love high-quality fruits, seeds, leaves, and flowers.

Insects

(The Protein Snack): They are famous for using tools—like sticks—to "fish" for termites or ants.

Meat

(The Rare Delicacy): Meat makes up a small but significant part of their diet (usually about 1% to 3%).

WHAT KIND OF MEAT?

When chimps go after meat, they don't just stumble upon it; they often engage in organized group hunting.

Preferred Prey: Their most common target is the Western Red Colobus monkey.

Other Targets: They also hunt small antelopes (like bushbucks), wild pigs, and other smaller primates.

Why Do They Hunt?

Hunting is as much about politics and social bonding as it is about nutrition.

Protein Boost: Meat provides essential fats and proteins that are hard to find in the forest.

Social Currency: High-ranking males often use meat as a "gift" to form alliances or gain favor with others in the troop.

Brain Power: Some scientists believe the cooperation required for hunting helped drive the evolution of their high intelligence.

CHIMPS ARE PICKY EATERS!

If they catch a monkey, they often start by eating the brain or organs first, which are the most nutrient-dense parts.

WHAT THE MANGANI EAT?

Cabbage palm and gray plum, pisang and scitamine they found in abundance, with wild pineapple, and occasionally small mammals, birds, eggs, reptiles, and insects. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The nuts they cracked between their powerful jaws,or, if too hard, broke by pounding between stones. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Only a few berries and an occasional grub worm reward his search, and he was half famashed when, looking up from a log he had been rooting beneath, he saw Sabor, the lioness, standing in the center of the trail not twenty paces from him. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Sometimes, quite often in fact, for he was an ape, his attention was designed by other things, a beetle,a caterpillar, a tiny field mouse, and off he would go in pursuit; the caterpillars he always caught, and sometimes the beetles; but the field mice, never. ERB-Junhle Tales Of Tarzan.

ARE THE MANGANI CANNIBALS?

The Mangani are cannibals as far as eating other apes.

In chapter 7, The Light Of Knowledge, Tarzan Of The Apes, we discover the Mangani eat other apes.

On the day that Tarzan won his emancipation from the prosecution that had followed him remorselessly for twelve of his thirteen years of his life, the tribe, now a full hundred strong, trooped silently through the lower terrace of the amphitheater. ERB- Tarzan Of The Apes.

The rites of the Dum-Dum marked important events in the life of some large fierce denizen of the jungle, the death or accession of a king, and were conducted with set ceremonialism. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Today it was the killing of a giant ape, a member of another tribe, and as the people of Kerchak entered the arena two mighty bulls were seen bearing the body of the vanquished between them. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Flesh seldom came to their jaws in satisfying quantities, so a, fit final to their wild revel was a taste of fresh killed meat, and it was to the purpose of devouring their late enemy that they now turned their attention. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Great fangs sunk into the carcass tearing away huge hunks, the mightiest of the apes obtaining the choicest morsels, while the weaker circled the outer edge of the fighting, snarling pack awaiting their chance to dodge in and snatch a dropped tidbit or filch a remaining bone before all was gone. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

In chapter 8, The Tree-top Hunter, Tarzan Of The Apes, we learn the the Mangani do not eat members of their own tribe.

The body of Tublat lay were it had fallen, for the people of Kerchak do not eat their own dead. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tublat, whom he had hated and who had hated him, he had killed in a fair fight, and yet never had the thought of eating Tublat's flesh entered his head. It would have been as revolting to him as is cannibalism to us. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

WHERE DO THE MANGANI SLEEP?

At night they slept where darkness overtook them, lying upon the ground, and sometimes covering their heads, and more seldom their bodies, with the great leaves of the elephant's ear. Two or three might lie cuddled in each other's arms for additional warmth if the night were chill, and thus Tarzan had slept in Kala's arms for many years. ERB- Tarzan Of The Apes.

A DESCRIPTION OF Kerchak, KING OF THE MANGANI.

Kerchak was a huge king ape, weighing perhaps three hundred and fifty pounds. His forehead was extremely low and receding, his eyes bloodshot, small and close set to his coarse, flat nose; his ears large and thin, but smaller than most of his kind. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

His awful temper and his mighty strength made him supreme among the little tribe into which he had been born so twenty years before. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Now that he was in his prime, there was no simian in all the mighty forest through which he roved that dared contest his right to rule, nor did the other and larger animals molest him. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Old Tantor, the elephant, alone of all the wild savage life, feared him not---and he alone did Kerchak fear.When Tantor trumpeted, the great ape scurried with his fellows high among the trees of the second terrice. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The tribe of anthropoids over which Kerchak ruled with an iron hand and bared fangs, numbered some six or eight families, and their young, numbering in all some sixty or seventy apes. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

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 is head seemed like a small ball protruding from a huge mountain of flesh. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

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

Kerchak

A DESCRIPTION OF KALA, The Foster MOTHER OF TARZAN.

Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Notwithstanding her youth, she was large and powerful ---a splined, clean-lumbef animal, with a round, high forehead, which denoted more intelligent than most of her kind possessed. So, also, she had a great capacity for mother love and mother sorrow. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

But she was still an ape, a huge, fierce, terrible beast of a species closely allowed to the gorilla, yet more intelligent; which, with the he strength of their cousin, made her kind the most fearsome of those awe-inspiring progenitors of man. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Not so with Kala; she held the small form of the little Lord Greystoke tightly to her breasts, where the dainty human hands clutched the long black hair which covered that portion of her body. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zedenek Burian

HOW DOES TARZAN GET ALONG WITH THE MANGANI?

Age 1 thru 10

And then Tublat went to Kerchak to urge him to use his authority with Kala, and force her to give up little Tarzan, which was the name they had given to the tinyLord Greystoke, and which meant "White-Skin." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan held a peculiar position in the tribe. They seemed to consider him one of them and yet in some way different. The older males either ignored him entirely or else hated him so vindictively that but for his wondrous agility and speed and the fierce protection of the huge Kala he would have been dispatched at an early age. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Two or three might lie cuddled in each other's arms for additional warmth if the night were chill, and thus Tarzan had slept in Kala's arms nightly for all those years. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tublat, her mate, always hated Tarzan, and on several occasions had come near ending his youthful career. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

I sleep, upon the march, night or day, he never knew when that quite noose would slip about his neck and nearly choke the life out of him. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Kala punished, Tublat swore direvengence, and old Kerchak took notice and warned and threatened, but all to no avail. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan defied them all, and the thin, strong noose continued to settle about Tublat's neck whenever he leaste expected it. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

In his younger years when the ape boy strayed from the tribe to long it became an ordeal upon his return. Upon his arrival their eyes seen a Tarmangani and it drove them into a nervous frenzy. It wasn't until they slowly approached him sniffing and reacquainting before he was accepted.

Joe Jusko

Age 11 thru 20

The ape-man's greatest peave about living with the Mangani as a teen was their kean smell. The anthropoids trusted their smell over eye sight anyday.

Tublat was his most consistent enemy, but it was through Tublat that, when he was about thirteen, the persecution of his enemies suddenly ceased and he was left severely alone, except on the occasions when one of them ran amuck in the throes of one of those strange, wild fits of insane rage which attacks the males of many of the fiercer animals of the jungle. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

White-Skin could not wear his stolen clothes and ornaments from Mogomba's village to the tribe of Kerchak. Their kean smell detected the scent of Gomangani and it drove them into a nervous frenzy. It took forever for the ape-man to calm them down.

After a few episodes of that kind of behavior the ape-man started leaving his spoils of war at the cabin by the sea. When he went there to spend a day with his books. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes

Had Kala lived, Tarzan would have sacrificed all else to remain near her, but now that she was dead, and the playful friends of his childhood grown into fierce and surly brutes he felt that he much preferred the peace and solitude of his cabin to the irksome duties of leadership amongst hordeof wild beasts. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The hatred and jealousy of Terkoz, son of Tublat, did much to counteract the effect of Tarzan's desire to renounce his kingship among the apes, for, stubborn young Englishman that he was, he could not bring himself to retreat in the face ofsomalignant an enemy. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The ape-man's eyes fell upon Taug,, the playmate of his childhood, the rival in his first love and now, of all the bulls of the tribe, the only one that might be thought to hold in his savage brain any such feeling toward Tarzan as we describe among ourselves as friendship. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Of all the bulls of the tribe, Taug held affection for Tarzan only. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Then he sprang to his feet, giving a peculiar cry. ERB-Jungle Tales Of Tarzan.

Zedenek Burian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines over forty-five years. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled, Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody is also the author of the dark fantasy Sci-Fi other world adventure Unium Series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium published on July 15, 2024.

Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody

Who Are The Mangani?

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