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." But yet he smiled, nor was he sorry that he had
given way to the dictates of a kindly impulse.
As Tarzan tore the flesh from that portion of the kill he had retained
for himself his eyes were taking in each detail of the scene below.
He saw the avidity with which Numa devoured the carcass; he noted
with growing admiration the finer points of the beast, and also
the cunning construction of the trap. The ordinary lion pit with
which Tarzan was familiar had stakes imbedded in the bottom, upon
whose sharpened points the hapless lion would be impaled, but this
pit was not so made. Here the short stakes were set at intervals of
about a foot around the walls near the top, their sharpened points
inclining downward so that the lion had fallen unhurt into the trap
but could not leap out because each time he essayed it his head
came in contact with the sharp end of a stake above him.
Evidently, then, the purpose of the Wamabos was to capture a lion
alive. As this tribe had no contact whatsoever with white men in
so far as Tarzan knew, their motive was doubtless due to a desire
to torture the beast to death that they might enjoy to the utmost
his dying agonies.
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