TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
Tarzan pointed toward the hole in the roof. “There,” he said, “is the hole made by the ghost of Ogonyo’s grandfather. Fetch Nyuto and let him see. Then, perhaps, he will believe.”
“It will make no difference,” said Lukedi. “If he saw a thousand ghosts with his own eyes, he would not be afraid. He is very brave, but he is also very stubbom and a fool Now we shall all die.”
“Unquestionably,” said Tarzan.
“Can you not save me?” asked Lukedi.
“If you will help me to escape, I promise you that the ghosts shall not harm you.”
“Oh, if I could but do it,” said Lukedi, as he passed the gourd of milk to the ape-man.
"You bring me nothing but milk,” said Tarzan. “Why is that?"
“In this village we belong to the Buliso clan and, therefore, we may not drink the milk nor eat the flesh of Timba, the black cow, so when we have guests or prisoners we save this food for them.”
Tarzan was glad that the totem of the Buliso clan was a cow instead of a grasshopper, or rainwater from the roofs of houses or one of the hundred of other objects that are venerated by different clans, for while Tarzan’s early training had not placed grasshoppers beyond the pale as food for men, he much preferred the milk of Timba.
“I wish that Nyuto would see me and talk with me,” said Tarzan of the Apes. “Then he would know that it would be better to have me for a friend than for an enemy. Many men have tried to Kill me, many chiefs greater than Nyuto. This is not the first hut in which I have lain a prisoner, nor is it the first time that black men have prepared fires to receive me, yet I still live, Lukedi, and many of them are dead. Go, therefore, to Nyuto and advise him to treat me as a friend, for I am not from The Lost Tribe of the Wiramwazi.”
“I believe you,” said Lukedi, “and I shall go and beg Nyuto to hear me, but I am afraid that he will not.”
As the youth reached the doorway of the hut, there suddenly
arose a great commotion in the village. Tarzan
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