Seasons and Journeys and Customs of the Mangani

based on my geographical studies based on the Megatransect from National Geographic and with the use of Google Earth this is the material of interest to all Tarzan lovers.

Its just some thoughtful reflections on the tribe and their lifestyle.

Seasons and Journeys and Customs of the Mangani

1898/ Tarzan is Age 10

A Year in the Life of the Folk

Paranthropus Australopithicus Robust / Petit Loango / Gabon Africa 1888

Summer Solstice Coastal Megatrek / May - June
Winter Solstice Inland Megatransect / December - January

Winter Solstice Inland Megatransect :
December – January / Short Dry Season / 600 Miles
Ogooue River / Ngounie River / Waka / Lope

Summer Solstice Coastal Megatrek :
May – June / Long Dry Season / 550 Miles
Ogooue River / Petit Loango / Mayumba


The coastal range of the Mangani is 250 miles from the mouth of the Ogooue River in the north to the Mayumba National Park in the south. This was the Summer Solstice Coastal Megatrek. There are four large major lagoons and three national parks in the coastal area of the tribe of Kerchak. Loango National Park and Mayumba National Park are on the coastal boundary and Moukalaba DouDou National Park lies only 50 miles inland. Of the four lagoons Nkomi Lagoon to the north is the largest lagoon. Iguela Lagoon the smallest of the three in the middle. The Ndogo Lagoon which was nearest Petit Loango was further south where the Cabin of Lord and Lady Greystoke was built. Mayumba National Park and Banio Lagoon was the southern limit of the travels of the tribe. It was 250 miles from the mouth of the Ogooue River in the north to the end of the Banio Lagoon in the south. This 250 mile coastal stretch of beach, savannah, rainforest and lagoons and up to 100 miles inland, was the main nomadic area of the tribe of Kerchak comprising an area of 25,000 square miles. There were also two more National Parks on their yearly inland Winter Solstice Megatransect to Lope and Waka National Parks.

The Mouth of the Nkomi Lagoon was 80 miles North from Petit Loango and 20 miles south of the mouth of the largest river in Gabon, the Ogooue River. It is the largest of the three lagoons. Nkomi Lagoon is 50 miles long with a 35 mile long and 1.5 mile wide peninsula of coastal beach, savanna and rain forest on the west side. The mouth of the lagoon was a half a mile wide and ran for 10 miles south before it opened up. Here it varied from 2 to 5 miles across for 27 miles south where it then turned in east for 14 miles.

The mouth of the Iguela Lagoon is 35 miles north of Petit Loango. Only a quarter-mile wide, it travels east and in land for 2 1/2 miles before it opens up. The lagoon itself is 20 miles long, where it varies anywhere from one to 5 miles wide. Iguela Lagoon is the smallest of the three lagoons. It has a 10 mile long 1 mile wide peninsula of coastal beach, with savannah and rainforest.

Loango National Park is the location of Petit Loango home of the Mangani. Petit Loango was only 12 miles north from the mouth of Ndogo Lagoon and the Cabin of Lord Greystoke on the protected cove. Only a half of a mile south from the cabin and also a 1/3 of a mile behind it ran a jungle stream that entered the mouth of the lagoon that ran with clear cold water from a lake 3 miles in land. The three major local rivers are the Nioungou River which drains the Iguela Lagoon south. The Echira River which flows east and the Rembo Ngowe River which converge at the Akaka forest. The water from the lagoons tended to be warmer and a dark brown color due to the mineral content of the soil. The mouth of the Ndogo Lagoon runs south for 12 miles but is only a third of a mile wide with a narrow peninsula on the ocean side that was only 1/4 mile wide that was mainly beach and savannah with some jungle forest at the south end. The mouth of the lagoon then travels east for 5 miles. It then opens up into the world's most abundant island studded lagoon that runs 25 miles south as it varies between 3 to 5 miles wide.

Banio Lagoon was 150 miles south from Petit Loango and is the location of Mayumba National Park. The mouth was only .1 of a mile across and ran 5 miles south west then makes a sharp turn south for 20 then opens up into the Banio Lagoon for another 22 miles. This was the southern end of the Mangani range.

The nomadic habits of the tribe depend greatly on the yearly weather patterns. There were four major weather patterns at Loango. There were two Yearly Megatreks of eight weeks each. The rest of the time was long rest periods. The majority of the year was spent at Petit Loango with inward treks dependant on the dry seasons. During the three month Long Wet Season between February and April the tribe stayed only on the coast keeping to Petit Loango. The majority of this time was spent in the rainforest for some shelter from the heavy rains and occasional tornados. The 385,000-acre (1,550 square kilometers) Loango National Park protects diverse coastal habitat, including part of the 220 km² Iguéla Lagoon, the only significant example of a typical western African lagoon system that is protected within a national park.

The Loango is an exceptional coastal park because of the diversity of its ecosystems. Located on the coast some 250 km to the south of Libreville, the Loango encompasses over 100 km of wild uninhabited coastline. In this magical place, Forest Elephants, Hippopotamus, Red Forest Buffalo, Sitatunga, and sometimes Gorilla wander on the white sandy beaches or concentrate in the adjacent marshlands.

Loango National Park created in 2002 on joining the Iguela and Petit Loango Reserves is an area of outstanding beauty combining a variety of different habitats including ocean, lagoon, forest and savannah. The choice of attractions varies depending on the season with whale spotting from July - October and the turtle season from mid November - mid January. Throughout the rest of the year one has the chance to see Buffalo, Crocodiles, Elephants, Hippo, Chimpanzees and Gorillas. From October through to March one will often see the larger mammals such as the Forest Elephant wondering along the beach, or if lucky the Hippos surfing in the sea!

The Long Dry Season was five months long between May to September and had no rain although the sky was often overcast in the afternoon. The tribe had two nomadic Megatreks. The first one they would spend all their time on the coast line and open areas between May and June as the inland dried. This was the Yearly Summer Coastal Megatrek, a total journey of 550 miles. They would migrate from Petit Loango north of to the Ogooue River and back to Petit Loango which is a 125 mile journey one way. Then travel south 150 miles to Mayumba National Park and Banio Lagoon, a 70km ribbon-like lagoon that acts as another natural barrier between the interior and back to Petit Loango. They averaged 10 miles a day.

It was between the next three months of the Long Dry Season during July to September that they made journeys further inland as the land dried. These inland journeys were within a 100 mile limit which is now the eastern edge of Moukalaba DouDou National Park. Moukalaba DouDou is a lush region of vast savannahs with many Elephants, Gorillas, many great cats including the huge Liger, the Water Buck and Jackal all interspaced with lush rainforest. Here they rested for three months after their long Coastal Summer Solstice Megatrek.

October and November was a Small Rainy Season with heavy rain in the morning and afternoon sunshine. The tribe having returned to Petit Loango would gather food semi protected from the rain in the forest in the morning and in the sunny afternoons on the beaches spending most of their time resting. In December they traveled north along the beaches of Loango and slowly work their way up the coast to the Ogooue River which was 125 miles north. This was the start of the Yearly Inland Winter Megatransect, a journey of 600 miles. They would walk about an average of 10 miles a day with much resting in the sun on the beach which they shared with all the animals of the jungle. It was an area of social gathering and the beauty and splendor of the beach and the ocean surf was enjoyed by all the animals of the jungle of Loango.

The tribe of Kerchak never traveled more than 60 miles north of Point St. Catherine Beach at Iguela Lagoon as the mighty 1200 km long Ogooue River emptied into the Atlantic Ocean there. It was too large and deep for them to cross it. The largest river of Gabon the Ogooue (Ogowe) River meets the Ngounie River the second largest tributary about 100 miles inland. This again made another physical barrier. They would travel on the Megatransect inward east once a year along the Ogooue River for 100 miles and then follow the Ngounie River south for 100 miles where it finally ended deep in the forest. They would travel straight east of the south end of the Ngounie River 100 miles further inland to the east edge of Lope National Park and the Ogooue River to the point where the Lope Hotel now sits overlooking the Ogooue Rapids.

Lope National Park is a lush open savanna region of the African landscape. It has rolling landscape with many hills and valleys with the jungle forest interspaced amongst the large savannas of Lope National Park. It was early January when they traveled the 200 mile journey back to Petit Loango. This was the end of the Yearly Megatransect of 600 miles.

This Yearly Megatranset to Lope, a journey of 600 miles, took eight weeks and was during the Small Dry Season between December and January which has clear blue sky with very little rainfall. They would average about 10 miles a day. It was just before the start of one of these Megatransects that Tarzan was adopted by Kala in November 1889.

This Megatransect was the longest journey from the general area they covered along the coastline of Loango and the inner savannahs of Moukalaba Dou Dou during the rest of the year. The trek to Lope was always exciting for the tribe and an important part of their nomadic habits. The Journey along the Ogooue River and Ngounie River was an easy trek as the rain forests and open savannah made for leisurely progress especially during the Small Dry Season. This brought them to Waka National Park by the end of December. Waka comprises 1070 square km and is in mountainous Mitsogho country, they traveled a deep rift valley over 100 km long in a block of ancient forest and only 50 miles east of Lope National Park.

OGOOUE VALLEY/LOPE
Lopé National Park, located in the center of Gabon, is 4970 square km and became the first protected area in Gabon when the Lopé-Okanda Wildlife Reserve was created in 1946. Its legal and management statutes have changed several times over the years, and the Lopé National Park became part of the network of 13 parks created in August 2002 by Presidential decree. Although the terrain is mostly rain forest, in the north the park contains the last remnants of grass savannas created in Central Africa during the last Ice Age, 15,000 years ago.

These savannas are now a rare ‘island’ habitat in the rain forests and represent a unique record of biological evolution during that time. The largest mandrill baboon troops ever recorded are found here. Lope is home to 400 of the 680 bird species in Gabon including the rare rock fowl and approximately 60 different species of mammal including forest elephant, lowland gorilla, chimpanzee and mandrill. The Lope Reserve has an estimated population of 1,350 mandrills (usually visible in July-August) and 3-500 lowland gorillas; whilst one makes every effort to track these primates they are fast moving and elusive. Lope is located in the centre of Gabon and became the first protected area in Gabon in 1946. Although the terrain is mostly rain forest, to the north the park contains the last remnants of grass savannas created in Central Africa during the last Ice Age. It has a relatively dry climate compared to most other equatorial rain forests. Lopé National Park has several important primate species, especially Western Lowland Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Mandrill and the endemic Sun-tailed Monkey, Forest Elephants, Sitatunga Antelope, Forest Buffalo and Red River Hog.

The Ogooué River flowing through the north of the park has always been a major trade route across Gabon. Despite the designation of the reserve, a road was built in the 1960s through the northern edge of the park and the area was opened to forestry in the 1980s by railway. Villages spread through the forests of the park at the turn of the century, but have gradually migrated north to benefit from the economic possibilities of the river, road, and railway.

The Lope Hotel is a tranquil place with its bungalows, private bathrooms and air-conditioning are surrounded by extensive lawns. The lodge overlooks the Ogooué River which tumbles over a series of rapids. It is easily the nicest and best lodge in all of Gabon

ELARMEKORA: Ancient Petroglyphs in Lope: The Lopé area has been inhabited almost continuously as of 400,000 years ago. Artifacts of hunter-gatherer settlements represent the oldest concentration of archaeological relics in west-central Africa. Between 2500 and 1400 BC, iron-working cultures burned and felled the forest and carved some 1200 petroglyphs. “This forest was home to ancient hominid civilizations that lived here for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Stone Age people cut down trees in the forest and developed complex communities. Then they died off, for unknown reasons, some 1,400 years ago.” The ancestors of today’s inhabitants arrived around 700 years ago. They cleared forest for plantations of fruits and manioc, as villages still do today. Many rural villages have completely vanished, as Gabon’s population has urbanized in recent years. Today, the population living around the park is around 3500 inhabitants, occupying six villages on the northern and eastern boundaries of the Lope National Park. No villages existed within the park when it was created in 1946, but some Bongo ‘pygmy’ groups still hunt and gather in its south. It was the same in the days of The Folk. The tribe of Kerchak by habit and chance always stopped east of the pygmy tribes hunting grounds and would swing back west again to the coast and Petit Loango. Their only encounter with human beings was with Tarzans parents, Lord and Lady Greystoke in 1888 at the Cabin at Ndogo Lagoon.

The jouney through Lope was over much beautiful and exciting terrain. The countryside here is spectacular. There are mist-covered hills, rocky rapids in the Ogooué River, large rolling savannahs and Jungle Forest was incredible.

This forest was home to ancient hominid civilizations that lived here for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Stone Age people cut down trees in the forest and developed complex communities. Then they died off, for unknown reasons, some 1,400 years ago.

The journey back to Petit Loango was 150 miles and over much beautiful and exciting terrain. This brought them back to Waka National Park by the middle of January. Waka comprises a 1070 km² and is in mountainous Mitsogho country with the Deep Rift Valley over 100 km long in the block of age and forest and only 50 miles east of low-paying National Park. This deep rift valley was the route home. The terrain was easy-going and the amount of wildlife was numerous. Gorilla, Chimpanzees, Mandrill baboons, five species of monkeys, Forest Elephants rare Reed Buck, Sid Striped Jackal, African wild dog, Sheeta, Numa and rare African Tigers who where the last in Africa.

The Mighty Cats of the Jungle always presented constant challenges to the Mangani. If you wanted to stay alive, and survive it took all of your senses honed to a critical degree. The West African Lion was very rare, for they preferred the huge open savanna of East Africa to the rain forests. It was true, there were Lions on the coast but the majority of the mighty cats there were Leopards. The Lion preferred the larger savanna’s further in land in places like Waka and Lope. The existence of the West African Tiger was extremely limited in area and in population to the Waka National Park. The interbreeding between the African Lion and the African Tiger, creating the monster Liger was a creature unlike any other the tribe had ever seen. They were glad that this huge cat did not live in their local territory except the east end of Moukalaba DouDou, so they always walked with extra caution through the Deep Rift Valley of the Liger.

Continuing east they entered the region of Moukalaba DouDou National Park and home territory. It was not much longer before they were home on the shores of Petite Loango. They had walked 600 miles in 8 weeks, averaging about 10 miles a day. The two Megatreks, the Coastal 550 mile Megatrek of the Summer Solstice and the Inland 600 mile Megatransect of the Winter Solstice were always something that helped to tie the year together as much as the ritual of the Dum Dum tied the months together. Having been part of the ritual nomadic lifestyle of the tribe since antiquity the Megatreks although mainly driven by the four weather patterns were also an integral part of the tribal society of The Folk. The monthly patterns of the rituals of the full moon and the Dum Dum and the two yearly Megatreks were important events in the existence of the tribe and was the closest they ever came to telling time.

DUM – DUM The monthly ritual of the Full Moon. The Dum – Dum was always beaten by three senior female members of the tribe. It was an earthen dome that was fashioned on Palm Leaves and there was a local Dum – Dum from antiquity for all their Nomadic Travels. The consistent weather patterns and the cycle of the Full Moon were the one time pieces of The Folk when it concerned where they traveled and when and why. They also would hold a Dum – Dum to celebrate the crowning of a new King or the kill of an enemy tribe member, a gorilla or a fierce jungle cat. The Males of the tribe would dance around the earthen drum and the night would echo with the Howls and Victory Crys of the Giant Paranthropus. Modern day recordings of a Sasquatch howl sound very similar to the Victory Cry of the Mangani. The large throat sac and the powerful diaphragm muscles created an eerie unhuman sound. The only person able to reproduce it was Tarzan of the Mangani. Nothing like the famous recordings of Tarzan Movies.

DECEMBER TO JANURARY / (SDS) = CLEAR BLUE SKY VERY LITTLE RAINFALL – THE MEGATRANSECT. 100 MILES NORTH THEN 100 MILES EAST ON THE OGOOUE RIVER AND 100 MILES SOUTH DOWN THE NGOUNIE RIVER TO WAWA NATIONAL PARK AND EAST 50 MILES TO LOPE NATIONAL PARK AND 150 MILES BACK WEST TO PETIT LOANGO, FOR A TOTAL OF 600 MILES IN 8 WEEKS – 10 MILES A DAY.

FEBURARY TO APRIL / (LWS) = HEAVY RAIN AND TORNADOS – LOANGO JUNGLE AND COASTLINE.

MAY TO SEPTEMBER / (LDS) = NO RAIN, OVERCAST AFTERNOONS – FROM MAY TO JUNE THE 250 MILE COASTLINE MEGATREK. FROM PETIT LOANGO 125 MILES NORTH TO OGOOUE RIVER AND BACK. THEN SOUTH 150 MILES TO MAYUMBA AND BACK FOR A TOTAL OF 550 MILES – 10 MILES DAY.

THEN IN JULY EAST INLAND 100 MILES FROM PETIT LOANGO TO MOUKALABA DOU DOU FOR 3 MONTHS ON THE SAVANNAHS TILL THEY RETURN TO PETIT LOANGO IN SEPTEMBER.

OCTOBER TO NOVEMBER / (SRS) = RAIN IN MORNING SUN IN AFTERNOON – PETIT LOANGO JUNGLE AND COASTLINE

Small dry season: Dec-Jan Clear blue sky, very little rainfall
Long wet season: Feb-April Heavy rainfall with "tornades", warm
Long dry season: May-Sept Covered sky, no rain, smooth mornings
Small raining season:Oct-Nov Heavy rainfall followed by sunshine

The Folk were an ancient form of hominid probably a giant form of Paranthropus Australopithecus. Some researchers refer to the Robust Australopithecies as Paranthropoids (genus Paranthropus). The Folk had a combination of features of 3 types of Paranthropus Australopithecus. The Gracile the Robust and the Boisie. They were the last of a dying breed. Their numbers in total were no more then six hundred over all of Africa and Kerchaks tribe comprised from sixty to eighty of those individuals.
They were massive in structure and girth hence their great strength and agility was formidable to even the most dangerous of the jungle citizens.

Kerchak was the largest and tallest of the tribe and the most powerful male. He was the King of the Folk. Kerchak stood 6 feet tall and weighed about 350 pounds. He was a magnificent specimen with huge jaw muscles and a pronounced sagittal crest on his skull where those muscles attached. The cranial crest of the male Folk was only slightly smaller then a gorillas cranial crest. The supra orbital ridges were almost as large as a gorilla as well. The teeth were very large but lacked the canines of the great apes. Those hominids with massive jaws, massive flat crowned teeth, and robust anchor points for the chewing muscles had a unique diet. The Folk were primarily eaters of reeds and rhizomes, as their teeth are not reported to have leaf disrupting ridges, unlike gorilla. In addition, the fact they have very small canines means they can move their jaws in a lateral plane, effective in powerful grinding-chewing hard nuts. They are reasonably adapted to a specialized feeding ecology based on wetland margin plants.

The lips were not the thin lips of the great apes but were fully everted as mans. The head was carried further forward then man and the pelvis was not as efficient for walking as man. The legs were shorter in proportion to the torso than a humans and were less straight. Their hominid feet were flat, and there was a wider separation between the big toe and the other toes then in humans. The arms were somewhat longer in proportion to the torso then those of man. The hands were larger and thicker. The thumbs were shorter and thicker in proportion. The Folk never equaled the manual dexterity of Tarzan. The hair color varied from a dull black to a russet brown. Their skin was coffee brown with two spoons of cream. Their body muscles were not only more massive then the largest man but superior in quality. Even the smallest female was stronger then the strongest weightlifter. The muscles were attached to dense thick bones. Tarzans own skeleton was thicker then the average man due to his feral upbringing.

Anthropologist that have studied the fossil skulls of early man (Homo erectus) and their predecessors Paranthropus and the Australopithecus speculate that the brain volume that divides man from his forerunners is 750 cc. The brain volume of the Gorilla and Robust Australopithecus is 500 cc. The brain volume of Homo erectus was between 900 cc and 1,200 cc. The cranial capacity of the Folk was about 1,200 cc. The brain volume of modern man averages 1,400 cc. A brain of at least 750 cc seems to be critical for speech. The brain size of the Folk was 900 to 1000 cc and the balu of the Folk did not reach 750 cc till they were about three years old. The ability to speak the language of the tribe for the children of the Folk began at about that age. The human brain reaches 750 cc by six months of age.

Tarzan was able to fully speak Mangani by three years old. This amazed the Folk and compensated for Tarzans lack of speed of in physical development and his lengthy dependence on Kala. They had a language hence Tarzan was not limited by linguistics and this more then any other trait was their method of survival. Language above all else separate The Folk from the beast. True all animals communicate but structured vocabulary belonged to The Folk and therefore Tarzan. Had he been brought up by gorillas or apes he would have been unable to speak. Research into feral children has shown that speech is required to be acquired. If speech is not heard and seen past the age of 5 or 6 it cannot ever be learned. The regions of the brain responsible for language and speech and special mirror neurons pass the point of forming neural pathways and then degenerate in size unable to ever perform speech and language.
Speech is also due to the position of the larynx in the throat. In the great apes it is much higher and touches the uvula. In man the larynx is positioned much lower in the throat. One important adaptation that must have occurred in order for humans to speak is the ability to consciously hold one's breath. Other primates don't speak because they are physiologically unable to voluntarily hold their breath and because the larynx is too high. Also the range of sounds that humans can make is a result of our "descended" larynx. The only other known animals with this feature are the dugong, sea lion and walrus. After birth in the case of humans, the larynx moves deeper into the throat, and no longer makes contact with the uvula, as in the great apes. The larynx begins its descent between 4 - 6 months of age and by 18 months the larynx is in its final position at the base of the throat. This morphological character allows humans to take air in not only through the nose, but also through the mouth.
This attribute also allows for choking and the risk of death by drowning in one's own fluids. What advantage would mouth breathing give us? Mouth breathing also allows for more air to be taken into the lungs very quickly before a dive into water. Mouth breathing also allows for increased intake of oxygen, allowing for greater endurance while running, for example. If we consider our ancestors as purely savanna/dry land dwellers, then finding a good reason for this adaptation is not difficult. It is possible the need to run from predators was the evolutionary push.
The Folk could hold their breath, could breath with their mouth and spoke. The larynx of The Folk was positioned in the throat halfway between that of the great apes and modern man similar to Homo erectus. The pharynx consequently was higher and more limited in size than modern man and more of the tongue was in the mouth. The language centers of the brain of the Folk were also developed about half way between that of the great apes and man. All these limitations meant that The Folk had a very slow limited speech.
The speech of The Folk has four click consonants, glottal stops and heavy aspirations. Click consonants are common in Bushman and Hottentot languages found in some Nahuatle dialects. One is similar to the tsk tsk created by a rider urging a horse faster. This was made by the tongue close to the side of the cheek. Another click consonant was made by flattening the tip of the tongue agains the front teeth and then quickly withdrawing it. Another was made with the tongue against the gums above the teeth. The last click consonant included the palatal click. The Folk controlled the vocal bands enough to produce the glottal stop. By closing them they produced a consonant which is found in many human tongues such as Danish, Scotts, English, Nahuatl, etc.
The Folk were not capable of vowels sounds like A in father or I as in machine or the O and U vowel sounds as in tool. The Folk could produce one vowel sound. It is the vowel sound E. Similar to that found in the English word “the” or “cut” it was unvoiced that is it was produced without any vibration taking place in the larynx. It occurred in about one of ten words. Nor were the consonants L, M, N, W voiced by The Folk. These were accompanied by a strong aspiration. Each syllable of Mangani consists of two or three consonants or combinations of consonants plus E. Each word is a mono, di or tri syllable. The language included exclamatory, hortatory, interrogative and conditional phrases using similar pitch as you or me. The rise or change in pitch is important.
Consonants included C, H, K, L, M, N, P, S, T, W, ^, /, //, ///, ////

^ Stands for a glottal stop

/ is the click consonant made by flattening the tip of the tongue agains the front teeth and then quickly withdrawing it.

// is the click consonant made with the tongue against the gums above the teeth.

/// is the click consonant stands for the palatal click.

/// is the click consonant made by the tongue close to the side of the cheek

The speech of The Folk sounds normal to Tarzan but the long strings of whispered consonants with no intervening vowels, the clicks and glottal stops and heavy aspirations would sound unhuman and seem weird to you or me. The Folk lived in a setting of advanced social order that had been followed for over a million years since the Pliocene period. Other species of hominids and even Neanderthals had come and gone but The Folk were still making their presence known as late as the 21 century in West Africa.

Yet in the use of tools they were by circumstance or design not as far advanced as others that had long since died away. It was true they used stones to dig and branches as weapons but that was the limit of their tool activity. It was probable that the lush jungle environment of constant plenty afforded them this luxury. They enjoyed meat as much as you or I but did not thirst for it the way Tarzan did. It was the thirst for meat and the use of tools based on his keen imagination that allowed Tarzan to become much more then The Folk ever were. It was this next step that enable Tarzan to begin his mastery of the jungle around him and the many dangers that surrounded his very existence. Truly the use of imagination and tools separates man from The Folk and Tarzan was a man.

The Folk were nomadic with a territory of about 5,000 square miles. They did not swim so the deeper rivers were a natural boundary. They traveled around the many swamps and mangroves preferring the open regions of savannahs and the never ending miles of coastal beach lined with jungle rainforest of Loango.

The coastal rainforest were not dense like the inner rainforest regions of Gabon. Travel along the elephant trails was easy and comfortable. Although not dense the coastal rain forest jungle trees allowed easy travel through the mid and upper levels for the many types of primates and also for Tarzan and The Folk. Their hands and feet while hominid and not chimpanzee or gorilla like were still adapted to travel in the trees. The wider space between the large toe and the other four toes made their climbing ability more efficient then humans yet not as efficient as great ape feet. Their hand grip while greater then a man was not as powerful as the hand of a gorilla and therefore the Folk traveled slightly slower in the trees then the great apes. They would build nest like gorillas and bili chimps but unlike the gorilla they did not foul the nest but went a distance away to perform bodily functions. The anal excrement is softer but more adhesive then Homo sapiens but not nearly as offensive, probably due to their largely vegetarian diet. Like most rainforest dwellers they don’t have or need many sweat glands. Their body odor differs from man. The Folk smelled somewhat like a cross between a human and a gorilla. Their sense of smell was much more developed then modern man though not nearly as keen as a dog. Tarzans own sense of smell was much more developed then you or I and could rival the best of the Folk. Although well developed olfactory powers they did not hunt prey with scent by rather by sight. They were in a land of plenty that had a continual rotating supply of fruits, nuts, berries, tubers, reeds, rhizomes, tubers, grubs, eggs, small mammals and insects. There huge teeth and massive jaw muscles were perfectly suited for the tougher skinned fruit, siliceous tuber plant life and cracking the nuts which formed a large part of their diet.

The Folk tribal society was a male based hierarchy although the females held important positions with in the tribe. During the Dum-Dum three females always beat the earthen drum with sticks. The Dum-Dum was a monthly celebration held when Goro the moon was full. Two Megatreks a year. As in all societies of primates and humans the social order was well established yet in a constant state of flux. Babies were born, children matured into members who became leaders, elders died. The average life span was about 50 years. The average gestation was nine months. Living in a complex social order of ancient ways among a giant variety of language using Paranthropus Robust Hominids lived the young ten year old Tarzan a myostatin genetic mutant on the West African Coast of Gabon 1898.

End of Chapter One, Tarzan’s Jungle Home and The Folk



[edit on 3-6-2007 by junglelord]

The above work is actually a compilation of chapter 1 and 2 from a series of stories I am writing for my granddaughter.

Please see the link Tarzan Alive in BTS.
www.belowtopsecret.com...



here is a link to ATS the Megatransect
www.abovetopsecret.com...


[edit on 5-6-2007 by junglelord]

Here is a pic of the Mangani