# The Night Attack explained — Tarzan the Untamed

> Chapter companion for Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

## What happens

Tarzan, Bertha Kircher, and Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick are surrounded by a pack of lions in the gorge. Tarzan reveals that a man is among the lions, controlling them. After being knocked unconscious, Tarzan awakens to find Numa of the pit defending him from two other lions. Together, Tarzan and Numa defeat the attackers. Tarzan then discovers that Bertha and Smith-Oldwick have been taken captive, and he follows their tracks southward into a hidden valley.

## Themes in this chapter

### Survival and Adaptation

Tarzan uses his jungle instincts to detect the lions and a hidden man, and adapts to fight alongside Numa.

### Savagery vs. Civilization

Tarzan's primal acceptance of a violent death contrasts with Smith-Oldwick's civilized reliance on a pistol.

## Character check-ins

### Tarzan

Defends the group from lions, fights alongside Numa of the pit, and tracks the missing captives.

### Fräulein Bertha Kircher

Warns of the lions, is captured during the night attack.

### Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick

Smokes nervously while surrounded by lions, is taken captive.

### Numa

The black lion from the Wamabo pit defends Tarzan and helps him defeat the other lions.

## Key lines

> “One must die sometime,” he said. “To you doubtless it may seem terrible⁠—such a death; but Tarzan of the Apes has always expected to go out in some such way.”

Tarzan calmly accepts that death is inevitable and that he has always anticipated a violent end in the jungle.

_Reflects Tarzan's fatalistic and primal worldview._

> “I think,” said Tarzan to Numa, “that you and I together can make these beasts very unhappy.”

Tarzan tells the lion that they can defeat the other lions together.

_Shows Tarzan's unique bond with Numa and his confidence in their combined strength._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tarzan_the_untamed_se/chapters/xvi-the-night-attack
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tarzan_the_untamed_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tarzan_the_untamed_se/chapters