Tarzan the Terrible · Chapter
The Giant Stranger explained
Om-at and Ta-den encounter a strange, brown-skinned stranger who is searching for Tarzan.
What happens
Om-at and Ta-den encounter a strange, brown-skinned stranger who is searching for Tarzan. Through sign language, they learn he is a friend. Om-at organizes a raid on the Kor-ul-lul to capture prisoners and learn Tarzan's fate. The stranger, called Jar-don, fights fiercely alongside the Kor-ul-ja, and after a victorious battle, prisoners reveal that Tarzan escaped captivity five days earlier. The last prisoner offers to trade information for his life, claiming to know Tarzan's current location.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Adaptation
The stranger adapts to the hostile environment and tribal warfare, using his wits to distinguish friend from foe by their loin cloths.
Love and Loyalty
The stranger's determined search for Tarzan, driven by affection, is demonstrated through sign language and his refusal to harm Tarzan.
Characters to notice
- Om-at
Chief of the Kor-ul-ja; leads the raid on Kor-ul-lul and interrogates prisoners about Tarzan.
- Ta-den
Ho-don warrior; discovers the stranger and brings him to Om-at's cave; advises Om-at to take prisoners alive.
- Tarzan
The ape-man is the subject of the search; reported to have escaped from Kor-ul-lul five days earlier.
- Jar-don
The giant stranger; fights alongside the Kor-ul-ja and is given the name Jar-don, meaning 'stranger'; carries an Enfield rifle.
Key passages
“Om-at then pointed to the cave where they stood, pronouncing Tarzan’s name and imitating a walking man with the first and second fingers of his right hand upon the floor of the recess, sought to show that Tarzan had walked out of the cave and climbed upward on the pegs five days before”
Om-at used gestures to indicate that Tarzan had left the cave and climbed up the pegs five days earlier.
Sign language communication about Tarzan's departure.
“He pointed to the stranger’s knife, and repeating Tarzan’s name, seized Ta-den and pretended to stab him, immediately turning questioningly toward the stranger.”
Om-at tested the stranger's intentions by miming a stabbing motion toward Ta-den while saying Tarzan's name.
Om-at verifies the stranger is a friend, not a foe.