or by degraded habits and thoughts. The man's arms were
long, though not abnormally so, while his legs were short, though
straight.

He was clothed in tight-fitting nether garments and a loose,
sleeveless tunic that fell just below his hips, while his feet
were shod in soft-soled sandals, the wrappings of which extended
halfway to his knees, closely resembling a modern spiral military
legging. He carried a short, heavy spear, and at his side swung
a weapon that at first so astonished the ape-man that he could
scarcely believe the evidence of his senses--a heavy saber in
a leather-covered scabbard. The man's tunic appeared to have been
fabricated upon a loom--it was certainly not made of skins, while
the garments that covered his legs were quite as evidently made
from the hides of rodents.

Tarzan noted the utter unconcern with which the man approached the
lions, and the equal indifference of Numa to him. The fellow paused
for a moment as though appraising the ape-man and then pushed on
past the lions, brushing against the tawny hide as he passed him
in the trail.

About twenty feet from Tarzan the man stopped, addressing the former
in a strange jargon, no syllable of which was intelligible to the
Tarmangani. His gestures indicated numerous references to the lions
surrounding them, and once he touched his spear with the forefinger
of his left hand and twice he struck the saber at his hip.

While he spoke Tarzan studied the fellow closely, with the result
that there fastened itself upon his mind a strange conviction--that
the man who addressed him was what might only be described as a
rational maniac. As the thought came to the ape-man he could not
but smile, so paradoxical the description seemed. Yet a closer
study of the man's features, carriage, and the contour of his head
carried almost incontrovertibly the assurance that he was insane,
while the tones of his voice and his gestures resembled those of
a sane and intelligent mortal.

Presently the man had concluded his speech and appeared to be waiting
questioningly Tarzan's reply. The ape-man spoke to the other first
in the language of the great apes, but he soon saw that the words
carried no conviction to his listener. Then with equal futility
he tried several native dialects but to none of these did the man
respond.

By this time Tarzan began to lose patience. He had wasted sufficient
time by the road, and as he had never depended much upon speech in
the a