Ska, the vulture, winged his way leisurely in great circles far above
the right bank of the Ugogo. The pendant locket, sparkling in the
sun light, had ceased to annoy him while on the wing, only when he
alighted and walked upon the ground did it become an incumbrance; then
he stepped upon it and tripped, but long since had he ceased to fight
it, accepting it now as an inescapable evil. Beneath him he presently
descried the still, recumbent form of Gorgo, the buffalo, whose posture
proclaimed that he was already fit food for Ska. The great bird
dropped, alighting in a nearby tree. All was well, no foes were in
evidence. Satisfied of this, Ska flapped down to the fallen beast.
Miles away a giant white man crouched in the concealment of a dense
thicket with a little black girl. The fingers of one of the man's hands
were across her mouth, those of the other held a knife at her heart.
The man's eyes were not upon the girl, but were straining through the
dense foliage toward a game trail along which two ebon warriors were
advancing. Succor was close at hand for Uhha, the daughter of Khamis
the witch doctor, for the two approaching were hunters from the
village of Obebe, the chief; but she dared not call aloud to attract
them lest the sharp point of Miranda's knife slip into her young
heart, and so she heard them come and go until, their voices lost in
the distance, the Spaniard arose and dragged her back upon the trail,
where they took up, what seemed to Uhha, their endless and fruitless
wanderings through the jungle.
In the village of the ant-men Tarzan found a warm welcome and having
decided to remain for a while that he might study them and their
customs he set to work, as was his wont when thrown among strange
peoples, to learn their language as quickly as possible. Having already
mastered several languages and numerous dialects the ape-man never
found it difficult to add to his linguistic attainments, and so it was
only a matter of a comparatively short time before he found it possible
to understand his hosts and to make himself understood by them. It was
then that he learned that they had at first thought that he was some
form of Alalus and had consequently believed that it ever would be
impossible to communicate with him by other means than signs. They were
greatly delighted therefore when it had become apparent that he could
utter vocal sounds identical to theirs, and when they comprehended that
he desired to learn their tongue, Adendrohahkis, the king, placed
several instructors at his disposal and gave orders that all his
people, with whom the giant stranger might come in contact, should aid
him to an early understanding of their language.
Adendrohahkis was particularly well inclined toward the ape-man because
of the fact that it had been the king's son, Komodoflorensal, whom
Tarzan had rescued from the clutches of the Alalus woman, and so it was
that everything was done to make the giant's stay among them a pleasant
one. A hundred slaves brought his food to him where he had taken up his
abode beneath the shade of a great tree that grew in lonely majesty
just outside the city. When he walked among the group of dome-houses a
troop of cavalry galloped ahead to clear a path for him, lest he trod
upon some of the people of the city; but always was Tarzan careful of
his hosts, so that no harm ever befell one of them because of him.
As he mastered the language he learned many things concerning these
remarkable people. Prince Komodoflorensal almost daily took it upon
himself to assist in the instruction of his colossal guest and it
was from him that Tarzan learned most. Nor were his eyes idle as he
strolled around the city. Particularly interesting was the method of
construction used in erecting the comparatively gigantic dome-houses
which towered high above even the great Tarzan. The first step in the
construction was to outline the periphery of the base with bowlders
of uniform size and weighing, perhaps, fifty pounds each. Two slaves
easily carried such a bowlder when it was slung in a rope hammock and
as thousands of slaves were employed the work progressed with rapidity.
The circular base, with a diameter of one hundred and fifty to two
hundred feet, having been outlined, another, smaller circle was laid
about ten feet inside the first, four openings being left in each
circle to mark the location of the four entrances to the completed
building and corresponding to the four principal cardinal points of
the compass. The walls of the entrances were then outlined upon the
ground with similar large bowlders, these being a little more carefully
selected for uniformity, after which the four enclosures thus formed
were packed closely with bowlders. The corridors and chambers of the
first floor were then outlined and the spaces between filled with
bowlders, each being placed with the utmost care and nicety in relation
to those touching it and those that should rest upon it when the second
course was laid, for these were to support a tremendous weight when the
edifice was completed. The corridors were generally three feet wide,
the equivalent of twelve feet by our standards, while the chambers
varied in dimensions according to the uses to which they were to be
put. In the exact center of the building a circular opening was left
that measured ten feet in diameter and this was carried upward as the
building progressed until the whole formed an open shaft from ground
floor to roof in the completed edifice.
The lower course having been built up in this manner to a height of
six inches wooden arches were placed at intervals the lengths of
the corridors which were now ceiled over by the simple expedient of
fastening thin wooden strips lengthways of the corridors from arch to
arch until the corridors were entirely roofed. The strips, or boards,
which overlapped one another, were fastened in place by wooden dowels
driven through them into the peripheries of the arches. As this work
was progressing the walls of the various chambers and the outer wall of
the building were raised to a height of twenty-four inches, bringing
them to the level of the ceilings of the arched corridors, and the
spaces between chambers and corridors were packed with bowlders, the
interstices between which were filled with smaller stones and gravel.
The ceiling beams were then placed across the other chambers, timbers
six inches square hewn from a hard, tough wood being used, and in the
larger chambers these were further supported, at intervals, by columns
of the same dimensions and material. The ceiling beams being in place
they were covered over with tight fitting boards, doweled to place. The
ceilings of the chambers now projected six inches above the surrounding
course of the structure, and at this juncture hundreds of cauldrons
were brought in which a crude asphaltum was heated until it became
liquid and the interstices of the next six inch course were filled with
it, bringing the entire completed course to the same level at a height
of thirty inches, over all of which a second six inch course of rock
and asphaltum was laid, and the second story laid out and completed in
a similar manner.
The palace of Adendrohahkis, constructed in this way, was two hundred
twenty feet in diameter, and one hundred ten feet high, with thirty-six
floors capable of housing eighty thousand people, a veritable ant-hill
of humanity. The city consisted of ten similar domes, though each
slightly smaller than the king's, housing a total of five hundred
thousand people, two-thirds of whom were slaves; these being for the
most part the artisans and body servants of the ruling class. Another
half million slaves, the unskilled laborers of the city, dwelt in
the subterranean chambers of the quarries from which the building
material was obtained. The passageways and chambers of these mines
were carefully shored and timbered as the work progressed, resulting
in fairly commodious and comfortable quarters for the slaves upon the
upper levels at least, and as the city was built upon the surface
of an ancient ground moraine, on account of the accessibility of
building material, the drainage was perfect, the slaves suffering no
inconvenience because of their underground quarters.
The domes themselves were well ventilated through the large central air
shaft and the numerous windows that pierced the outer walls at frequent
intervals at each level above the ground floor, in which, as previously
explained, there are but four openings. The windows, which were six and
one-quarter inches wide by eighteen and a half inches high, admitted a
certain amount of light as well as air; but the interior of the dome,
especially the gloomy chambers mid-way between the windows and the
central light and air shaft, was illuminated by immense, slow-burning,
smokeless candles.
Tarzan watched the construction of the new dome with keenest interest,
realizing that it was the only opportunity that he ever would have to
see the interior of one of these remarkable, human hives, and as he
was thus engaged Komodoflorensal and his friends hastened to initiate
him into the mysteries of their language; and while he learned the
language of his hosts he learned many other things of interest about
them. The slaves, he discovered, were either prisoners of war or
the descendants of prisoners of war. Some had been in bondage for
so many generations that all trace of their origin had become lost
and they considered themselves as much citizens of Trohanadalmakus,
the city of King Adendrohahkis, as did any of the nobility. On
the whole they were treated with kindness and were not overworked
after the second generation. The recent prisoners and their children
were, for the most part, included in the caste of unskilled labor
from which the limit of human endurance was exacted. They were the
miners, the quarriers and the builders and fully fifty per cent of
them were literally worked to death. With the second generation the
education of the children commenced, those who showed aptitude for
any of the skilled crafts being immediately transferred from the
quarries to the domes, where they took up the relatively easy life
of a prosperous and indulged middleclass. In another manner might an
individual escape the quarries--by marriage, or rather by selection
as they choose to call it, with a member of the ruling class. In a
community where class consciousness was such a characteristic of the
people and where caste was almost a fetish it was rather remarkable
that such connections brought no odium upon the inferiors, but, on the
contrary, automatically elevated the lesser to the caste of the higher
contracting party.
"It is thus, Deliverer of the Son of Adendrohahkis," explained
Komodoflorensal, in reply to Tarzan's inquiry relative to this rather
peculiar exception to the rigid class distinctions the king's son
had so often impressed upon him: "Ages ago, during the reign of
Klamataamorosal in the city of Trohanadalmakus, the warriors of
Veltopishago, king of the city of Veltopismakus, marched upon our
fair Trohanadalmakus and in the battle that ensued the troops of our
ancestors were all but annihilated. Thousands of our men and women were
carried away into slavery and all that saved us from being totally
wiped out was the courageous defense that our own slaves waged for
their masters. Klamataamorosal, from whom I am descended, fighting in
the thick of the fray noted the greater stamina of the slaves; they
were stronger than the warriors of either city and seemed not to tire
at all, while the high caste nobility of the fighting clans, though
highly courageous, became completely exhausted after a few minutes of
fighting.
"After the battle was over Klamataamorosal called together all the
chief officers of the city, or rather all who had not been killed or
taken prisoner, and pointed out to them that the reason our city had
been defeated was not so much because of the greater numbers of the
forces of the king Veltopishago as to the fact that our own warriors
were physical weaklings, and he asked them why this should be and what
could be done to remedy so grievous a fault. The youngest man among
them, wounded and weak from loss of blood, was the only one who could
offer a reasonable explanation, or suggest a means of correcting the
one obvious weakness of the city.
"He called their attention to the fact that of all the race of
Minunians the people of the city of Trohanadalmakus were the most
ancient and that for ages there had been no infusion of new blood,
since they were not permitted to mate outside their own caste, while
their slaves, recruited from all the cities of Minuni, had inter-bred,
with the result that they had become strong and robust while their
masters, through inbreeding, had grown correspondingly weaker.
"He exhorted Klamataamorosal to issue a decree elevating to the warrior
class any slave that was chosen as mate by either a man or woman of
that class, and further to obligate each and every warrior to select
at least one mate from among their slaves. At first, of course, the
objections to so iconoclastic a suggestion were loud and bitter; but
Klamataamorosal was quick to sense the wisdom of the idea and not only
did he issue the decree, but he was the first to espouse a slave woman,
and what the king did all were anxious to do also.
"The very next generation showed the wisdom of the change and each
succeeding generation has more than fulfilled the expectations of
Klamataamorosal until now you see in the people of Trohanadalmakus the
most powerful and warlike of the Minunians.
"Our ancient enemy, Veltopismakus, was the next city to adopt the new
order, having learned of it through slaves taken in raids upon our
own community, but they were several generations behind us. Now all
the cities of Minuni wed their warriors with their slave women. And
why not? Our slaves are all descended from the warrior class of other
cities from which their ancestors were captured. We all are of the same
race, we all have the same language and in all important respects the
same customs.
"Time has made some slight changes in the manner of the selection of
these new mates and now it is often customary to make war upon another
city for the sole purpose of capturing their noblest born and most
beautiful women.
"For us of the royal family it has been nothing less than salvation
from extinction. Our ancestors were transmitting disease and insanity
to their progeny. The new, pure, virile blood of the slaves has washed
the taint from our veins and so altered has our point of view become
that whereas, in the past, the child of a slave woman and a warrior
was without caste, the lowest of the low, now they rank highest of the
high, since it is considered immoral for one of the royal family to wed
other than a slave."
"And your wife?" asked Tarzan. "You took her in a battle with some
other city?"
"I have no wife," replied Komodoflorensal. "We are preparing now to
make war upon Veltopismakus the daughter of whose king, we are told by
slaves from that city, is the most beautiful creature in the world.
Her name is Janzara, and as she is not related to me, except possibly
very remotely, she is a fit mate for the son of Adendrohahkis."
"How do you know she is not related to you?" asked the ape-man.
"We keep as accurate a record of the royal families of Veltopismakus
and several others of the nearer cities of Minuni as we do of our
own," replied Komodoflorensal, "obtaining our information from
captives, usually from those who are chosen in marriage by our own
people. For several generations the kings of Veltopismakus have not
been sufficiently powerful or fortunate to succeed in taking royal
princesses from us by either force of arms or strategy, though they
never have ceased attempting to do so, and the result has been that
they have been forced to find their mates in other and oftentimes
distant cities.
"The present king of Veltopismakus, Elkomoelhago, the father of the
princess Janzara, took his mate, the mother of the princess, from a
far distant city that has never, within historic times, taken slaves
from Trohanadalmakus, nor have our warriors visited that city within
the memory of any living man. Janzara, therefore, should make me an
excellent mate."
"But what about love--suppose you should not care for one another?"
asked Tarzan.
Komodoflorensal shrugged his shoulders. "She will bear me a son who
will some day be king of Trohanadalmakus," he replied, "and that is all
that can be asked."
While the preparations for the expedition against Veltopismakus
were being carried on Tarzan was left much to his own devices. The
activities of these diminutive people were a never ending source of
interest to him. He watched the endless lines of slaves struggling with
their heavy burdens toward the new dome that was rising with almost
miraculous speed, or he strolled to the farmlands just beyond the city
where other slaves tilled the rich soil, which they scratched with
tiny plows drawn by teams of diadets, the diminutive antelope that
was their only beast of burden. Always were the slaves accompanied by
armed warriors if they were slaves of the first or second generation,
lest they should attempt escape or revolution, as well as a protection
against beasts of prey and human enemies, since the slaves were not
permitted to bear arms and, consequently, could not protect themselves.
These slaves of the first and second generations were always easily
recognizable by the vivid green tunic, reaching almost to the knees,
which was the single garment of their caste, and which carried upon
both its front and back an emblem or character in black that denoted
the city of the slave's birth and the individual to whom he now
belonged. The slaves employed upon public works all belonged to the
king, Adendrohahkis, but in the fields many families were represented
by their chattels.
Moving about the city upon their various duties were thousands of
white-tunicked slaves. They exercised the mounts of their masters,
they oversaw much of the more menial and laborious work of the lower
caste slaves, they plied their trades and sold their wares in perfect
freedom; but like the other slaves they wore but a single garment,
together with rough sandals which were common to both classes. On their
breasts and backs in red were the emblems of their masters. The second
generation slaves of the green tunics had a similar emblem, these
having been born in the city and being consequently considered a part
of it. There were other, though minor, distinguishing marks upon the
tunics of the higher caste slaves; small insignia upon one shoulder or
upon both, or upon a sleeve, denoting the occupation of the wearer.
Groom, body servant, major domo, cook, hair-dresser, worker in gold and
silver, potter--one could tell at a glance the vocation of each--and
each belonged, body and soul, to his master, who was compelled to
feed and clothe these dependents, the fruits of whose labors belonged
exclusively to him.
The wealth of one warrior family might lie in the beauty and perfection
of the gold and silver ornaments it sold to its wealthy fellows and
in such an instance all its skilled slaves, other than those required
for personal and household duties, would be employed in the designing
and fabrication of these articles. Another family might devote its
attention to agriculture, another to the raising of diadets; but all
the work was done by the slaves, with the single exception of the
breaking of the diadets that were bred for riding, an occupation
that was not considered beneath the dignity of the warrior class,
but rather, on the contrary, looked upon as a fitting occupation for
nobles. Even the king's son broke his own diadets.
As an interested spectator Tarzan whiled the lazy days away. To his
repeated queries as to the possibility of a way out of this bizarre,
thorn-infested world, his hosts replied that it was naught to penetrate
the forest of thorn trees, but that as it continued indefinitely to
the uttermost extremities of matter it were quite useless to attempt
to penetrate it at all, their conception of the world being confined
to what they actually had seen--a land of hills, valleys and forest,
surrounded by thorn trees. To creatures of their size the thorn forest
was far from impenetrable, but Tarzan was not their size. Still he
never ceased to plan on a means of escape, though he was in no great
haste to attempt it, since he found the Minunians interesting and it
suited his present primitive mood to loll in lazy ease in the city of
Trohanadalmakus.
But of a sudden a change came, early of a morning, just as the first,
faint promise of dawn was tinging the eastern sky.