Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
As Tarzan watched with interest the scene below him, two Bolgani emerged
from the main entrance, a huge portal, some thirty feet in width, and
perhaps fifteen feet high. The two wore head-bands, supporting tall,
white feathers. As they emerged they took post on either side of the
entrance, and cupping their hands before their mouths gave voice to a
series of shrill cries that bore a marked resemblance to trumpet calls.
Immediately the blacks ceased work and hastened to the foot of the
stairs descending from the terrace to the garden. Here they formed lines
on either side of the stairway, and similarly the Bolgani formed two
lines upon the terrace from the main portal to the stairway, forming a
living aisle from one to the other. Presently from the interior of the
building came other trumpet-like calls, and a moment later Tarzan saw
the head of a procession emerging. First came four Bolgani abreast, each
bedecked with an ornate feather headdress, and each carrying a huge
bludgeon erect before him. Behind these came two trumpeters, and twenty
feet behind the trumpeters paced a huge, black-maned lion, held in leash
by four sturdy blacks, two upon either side, holding what appeared to be
golden chains that ran to a scintillant diamond collar about the beast’s
neck. Behind the lion marched twenty more Bolgani, four abreast. These
carried spears, but whether they were for the purpose of protecting the
lion from the people or the people from the lion Tarzan was at a loss to
know.
The attitude of the Bolgani lining either side of the way between the
portal and the stairway indicated extreme deference, for they bent their
bodies from their waists in a profound bow while Numa was passing
between their lines. When the beast reached the top of the stairway the
procession halted, and immediately the Gomangani ranged below prostrated
themselves and placed their foreheads on the ground. Numa, who was
evidently an old lion, stood with lordly mien surveying the prostrate
humans before him. His evil eyes glared glassily, the while he bared his
tusks in a savage grimace, and from his deep lungs rumbled forth an
ominous roar, at the sound of which the Gomangani trembled in unfeigned
terror. The ape-man knit his brows in thought. Never before had he been
called upon to witness so remarkable a scene of the abasement of man
before a beast. Presently the procession continued upon its way
descending the staircase and turning to the right along a path through
the garden, and when it had passed them the Gomangani and the Bolgani
arose and resumed their interrupted duties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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