Tarzan the Untamed · Chapter
XIV: The Black Lion explained
Tarzan discovers a magnificent black lion trapped in a pit by the Wamabo tribe.
What happens
Tarzan discovers a magnificent black lion trapped in a pit by the Wamabo tribe. Moved by admiration and pity, he feeds the starving beast and then devises a plan to free it by removing the stakes that imprison it. After successfully liberating Numa, Tarzan disappears into the jungle, leaving the lion to escape.
Themes in this chapter
Savagery vs. Civilization
Tarzan's compassion for the lion contrasts with the Wamabos' cruel intent to torture it, highlighting the tension between civilized empathy and savage brutality.
Survival and Adaptation
Numa's hunger and Tarzan's cunning to free the lion demonstrate the primal drive for survival and the adaptive strategies of both man and beast.
Characters to notice
- Tarzan
Observes and admires the black lion, feeds it, and frees it from the Wamabo pit.
- Numa
A young, powerful black lion trapped by the Wamabos; hungry and savage, but accepts Tarzan's aid.
- Bara
The deer killed by Tarzan and used to feed Numa.
- Sheeta
The panther that inadvertently causes Numa to lose his prey earlier in the chapter.
Key passages
“Old woman,” muttered the ape-man. “Tarzan has become a weak old woman. Presently he would shed tears because he has killed Bara, the deer. He cannot see Numa, his enemy, go hungry, because Tarzan’s heart is turning to water by contact with the soft, weak creatures of civilization.””
Tarzan chides himself for showing compassion to the lion, feeling that his exposure to civilized people has made him soft and sentimental.
This moment reveals Tarzan's internal struggle between his primal nature and the empathy he has learned from civilization.
“For a moment Numa, the lion, glared ferociously at the naked man-thing upon the tree limb above him. Steadily those yellow-green eyes bored into the clear eyes of the ape-man, and then the sensitive nostrils caught the scent of the fresh blood of Bara and the eyes moved to the carcass lying across the brown shoulder, and there came from the cavernous depths of the savage throat a low whine.”
The lion initially glares at Tarzan with hostility, but upon smelling the fresh deer meat, his hunger overcomes his aggression and he whines pleadingly.
This interaction establishes a non-verbal communication between Tarzan and Numa, based on mutual recognition of hunger and survival.