Chapter 9 white ape

Carla tenderly nursed the little one she had picked out, wondering why he didn't grow as strong and flexible as the other mother's young apes.It took almost a year for the little one she fed to walk on his own, and as for climbing up trees, God, he was so stupid! Sometimes Carla talked to the old apes about the little creature on whom she had boundless hopes.But no one understands how a child can be so slow, so imbecile in learning to take care of himself.Alas, he couldn't even find food for himself, but more than twelve months had passed since Dakar took him in. If they had known that the child had passed thirteen months before it fell into Carla's hands, they would have thought him incurable.Because the little ape in their own tribe is more capable after two or three months than this little weirdo after twenty-five months.

Karla's husband, Tabrante, is very annoyed.If it wasn't for his wife's careful care, the child would have been thrown aside long ago. "He'll never grow up to be a great ape!" he argued. "You'll have to keep him and protect him forever. What good will he do to our tribe? Nothing! Only a burden. "Let's throw him into the grass, and let him sleep peacefully there. You should have some strong apes, and when we are old, we will have someone to take care of us." "Never, 'Broken Nose'!" Carla replied, "If I have to hold him forever, I'll hold him forever."

So Tabrante went to Kochak and begged him to use his authority to force Kara to give up little Tarzan--the name they gave to little Lord Greystoke, which means "white skin". But when Kochak spoke to Karla about it, Karla threatened to run away from the tribe if they didn't let her and the baby stay in peace, which is the inviolable right of the jungle dwellers.This right can be exercised by members of the tribe if they are dissatisfied with their tribe.So they didn't bother her anymore, because Carla was a well-proportioned, beautiful young female ape, and they didn't want to lose her.

The older Taishan was, the faster he progressed.By the age of ten, he was already a very good tree climber.On earth, he can do many wonderful things, far surpassing his little brothers and sisters. He is different from them in many ways.They were often puzzled by his unusual intelligence and cunning.But he was not as strong and tall as they were.By the age of ten, great apes are fully grown, some exceeding six feet in height.And Taishan was still a half-grown boy. But what a little boy he was! When he was a child, he followed his mother's example and swung from one branch to another.When you get older, you spend a lot of time every day with your brothers and sisters on the top of the tree, jumping up and down.

He can swing twenty feet from dizzyingly high treetops, and not only can he catch a branch dancing wildly in a whirlwind with perfect precision, but also with such lightness that he will never have too much trouble. shock. He can also step on the trees, from the top of the 20-foot-high tree to the ground quickly, and like a squirrel, he can climb the highest branch of the "king of trees" in the tropical jungle with ease and agility. head. Although he was ten years old, he was more vigorous than an ordinary thirty-year-old, and far more flexible than the most experienced athlete.His strength increased day by day.

He was very happy among these ferocious apes.For he knew no other life than this.He also didn't know that in the Great Thousand World, there were other worlds besides the small forest and the beasts in the forest that he was familiar with. When he was almost ten years old, he began to realize that he was very different from his companions. Although his small body was darkened by the wind and the sun, he didn't even have a hair, so he suddenly felt a strong feeling of "ashamed of himself", as if he belonged to the same class as the lower animal snake or other reptiles. one type.

He wanted to change this situation, so he was covered with mud from head to toe, but the mud fell off as soon as it dried, and it was very uncomfortable to be covered with mud.So he quickly made up his mind that he would rather "ashamed of himself" than accept this foreign crime. On the highlands frequented by his tribe, there is a small lake.For the first time, Taishan saw his own face on the clear and calm lake. It was a hot day in the dry season, and he went to the lake to drink water with a little brother.They bent down, and two small faces were reflected on the calm lake.It was the face of an ape, fierce and terrible, and the countenance of a descendant of an old English noble family.

Taishan was taken aback.It's already bad enough without long hair on your body, why did you have such a face?He wondered how the other apes must have looked down upon him. The mouth was like a long and thin slit, and in the "slit" were tiny white teeth. What an ugly face it must have been, compared with the fat lips and sharp ape's teeth of the lucky brethren! And his small nose with a high bridge, so thin, it looks like it hasn't grown up.Compared with his companion's beautiful thick and large nose hole, he flushed with embarrassment.Poor little Taishan thought to himself: Look at how "generous" his nose is!Taking up half of his face, if he could be so handsome, then of course it would be too bad!

Then, he saw his own eyes.Oh, here it was again the fatal blow. It seemed to be a brown spot with a gray hole in the middle and a flat white surrounding it.This is terrible!Even the snake's eyes were not so ugly as his. He was so engrossed in his annoyance at his own face that he did not hear that a big pet was stalking towards him through the dense forest, parting the grass.His companion, the little ape, didn't hear either.As he drank, the sound of his lips sipping and the contented gurgle drowned out the sound of the "intruder" approaching. It—Shan Bao, the gigantic lioness, crouched not thirty paces away from them, wagging its tail.It carefully stretched out one paw, put it down silently, and then stretched out the other.Just like this, it pressed on step by step, with its belly almost touching the ground, like a big cat ready to jump up and pounce on its prey at any time.

Now, he was not even ten feet away from the two unsuspecting little ones.It arched its legs cautiously, its massive muscles squirming beneath its beautiful fur. It pressed its body so low, as if it was stuck to the ground, only its smooth and smooth back bulged upwards when it was about to jump up. Its tail no longer swung back and forth, but trailed straight and motionless behind it. For a moment, it froze there like this, as if it had turned into a stone, and then roared suddenly and jumped up. The lioness Shan Bao is a clever hunter.Any lesser hunter would think that it had done a foolish thing by roaring like this when it jumped up.Because, if it doesn't scream like this, but pounces on it silently, wouldn't it be more sure to catch the prey?

But Shanbao knew very well that the animals in the dense forest were extremely agile and their hearing was unbelievably keen.To them the sudden rustling of a blade of grass is as alarming as its loud whistling.But Shanbao knew better that it was impossible to pounce on it completely silently. Its savage growl is not an alarm, but uses the effect of the sound to paralyze poor prey in an instant.In this way, it has sufficient time to stretch out its powerful claws, grab the soft flesh, and capture the prey before they have the hope of escape. As far as apes are concerned, Shan Bao's theory is absolutely correct.For a moment, the little guy crouched there trembling with fright.And this moment is enough to bring it into a catastrophe. But with Tarzan, the child of man, the situation is very different.The dangerous life in the depths of the jungle taught him to have self-confidence when he learned danger; his higher intelligence enabled him to react mentally far faster than the ape's body. The roar of the lioness Shanbao stimulated little Taishan, and his brain and muscles immediately reacted at the same time. In front of him is a pool of deep water, and behind him is the inescapable god of death—a tragic death torn to pieces under sharp claws and fangs. Tarzan has always hated water except for quenching his thirst.Because the water reminded him of cold, uncomfortable showers.He is afraid of the thunder, lightning and wind that accompany heavy rain. And the mother ape had told him to stay away from the deep water.Besides, hadn't he seen little Nita fall off the calm lake just a few weeks ago and never come back? However, Shan Bao's cry hadn't broken the silence of the forest, and he had already chosen the latter without hesitation in the face of these two disasters.As soon as the giant beast had jumped halfway, Taishan felt that the piercing water of the lake was over his head. He can't swim, but the water is very deep.But he didn't lose a little bit of self-confidence, as well as the sign of being an advanced animal and human being - wit. He flapped his hands and feet quickly, struggling to float up. Perhaps it was pure coincidence that his style of play was the "dog pawing" of a dog swimming, and in a few seconds his nose was out of the water.He found that as long as he continued to beat in this rhythm, he could not only float on the water, but also swim forward. He was surprised and delighted by this sudden new skill, but he didn't have time to think about it right now. Swimming along the lake, he saw the ferocious beast that would have killed him crouching beside the motionless body of his little friend. The Lion stared straight at Tarzan, evidently expecting him to come back to shore, but the little boy had no such intentions. Instead, he raised his voice and uttered the well-known cry of misfortune to his tribe, and warned those who tried to rescue him not to fall into the trap of Shan Bao. Immediately, voices echoed from afar.After a while, about forty or fifty giant apes climbed up from the dense forest in a majestic team and ran to the accident site. In the lead was Carla, for she had recognized the call of her dearest child.Immediately behind him was the mother of the little ape.Her child has been killed by Shan Bao's ferocious claws. Although the lioness is not inferior to the apes when it comes to fighting, when faced with this group of angry giant apes that have grown up, it has no intention of fighting. It gave a hostile roar, jumped into a bush, and disappeared. Taishan swam to the shore and climbed up very nimbly.The freshness and comfort that the cold water gave him filled his little heart with surprises.Since then, whenever possible, he has jumped into lakes, rivers, or the sea for a swim every day, never missing a chance. For a long time, Carla could not get used to this scene.Because although they can swim in the water twice when they have to, they don't like to get into the water, and they don't like to play in the water like Xiaotaishan. This thrilling encounter with a lion left a pleasant memory for Mount Tai.Because it breaks the monotony of everyday life.Usually, they can only turn around dully looking for food, eating and sleeping. The tribe he belonged to operated within a range of about twenty-five miles along the coast and fifty miles inland.They are almost always in the area, sometimes staying in one place for months.But because they travel very fast in the woods, in fact, they will turn around the entire "territory" within a few days. This mainly depends on whether the food is sufficient, whether the climatic conditions are suitable, and whether there are more dangerous beasts around.Of course, Kochak led them on long migrations, often simply because he was tired of staying in one place by himself. At night they slept in the darkened fields, sometimes covering their heads and, on rare occasions, their bodies with eucalyptus leaves.If it was cold at night, they would huddle together in twos and threes to keep each other warm.And all these years, Tarzan has been sleeping in Kara's arms. There is no question that this ferocious behemoth loves this child of another species with all his heart.And Taishan also dedicated all his love to this giant hairy beast.If the young and pretty mother had lived, she would have received all these loves. It was true that she slapped him when he was disobedient.But she was never cruel to him, what she gave him was more caress than punishment. Tarbrandt, her consort, had always hated Tarzan, and had nearly killed his little life several times. Taishan showed his hostility towards his adoptive father without losing the opportunity. As long as he feels safe in his mother's arms, or on the twigs of a big tree, you can get angry at him, make faces at him, or swear at him. His well-developed intelligence and cunning made him come up with many tricks that only the devil could devise, which added to the burden of Tabrant's life. At an early age, he learned to twist long pieces of thatch together and tie them into ropes.He always used these ropes to trip Tabrante, or try to hang him from some branch. After a long time of playing and groping, he learned to tie a knot with a rope, and also learned to tie a noose that could slide.He used these ropes and nooses to play with the little apes.The little monkeys also wanted to learn how Taishan played the rope and pull the noose, but only Taishan could do this kind of work skillfully. One day, while they were playing like this, Tarzan threw his rope at a fellow who was running away, and caught the other end in his own hand.As a result, the noose was just around the neck of the running little ape, and he stopped abruptly in surprise. Taishan thought, ah, this is a very fun game!He immediately tried to play again.After that, through unremitting efforts, he finally mastered the skill of lassoing things. Now Tabrant's life was a nightmare, day or night, sleeping or walking, at any moment a noose would slip around his neck and literally strangle him. die. Karla punished little Tarzan, Tabrant vowed to take revenge, and old Kochak also noticed the situation, and warned and threatened again, but it was still completely useless. Tarzan didn't care, and the thin and strong sleeve was often put on Tabrant's neck when he was unprepared. The other apes shared infinite pleasure in Tabrante's distress.Because "Broken Nose" was an old loner who didn't fit in, and nobody liked him anyway. There are many kinds of thinking activities lingering in Taishan's clever little brain, but among these activities, the most important thing is that he has extraordinary rational power. Since he can use the thatch to extend his arms for him and entangle his companions, why can't he also use it to catch the lioness Shanbao? This idea will gradually mature in his conscious or subconscious until it finally achieves amazing success. However, that was later.