Fearless Master of the Jungle (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure

by J. T. Edson

  In Bunduki’s hands, the Randall Model 12 ‘Smithsonian’ bowie knife—sixteen inches in overall length, weighing forty-three ounces, with an eleven inch long, two and a quarter inch wide, three-eighths of an inch thick clip point lxxxii blade—was an even more effective weapon than James Bowie had found the original. lxxxiii Sir Armond Drummond-Clayton had taught him fighting techniques which were unknown in Bowie’s day. In archery, he had acquired sufficient skill to duplicate most of the feats attributed to Robin Hood. From a Masai melombuki lxxxiv he had learned to throw a m’kuki, that nation’s traditional spear and handle a shield. During visits to the United States, along with his Texas-born look-alike cousin Bradford Counter, lxxxv he had been instructed in the arts of horse handling and lariat throwing by a purebred Comanche Indian. To round off his knowledge of martial arts, he was equally adept at fencing with a saber or an epee lxxxvi and had gained great proficiency at boxing, judo, karate and plain, old fashioned rough house brawling.

  Appendix Two

  Always something of a tomboy, Dawn Drummond-Clayton had—with her parents’ full approval—duplicated the lessons in martial arts and wilderness survival that her inseparable companion, Bunduki, was receiving. Even during her formal and conventional education, which had not been neglected, she had contrived to keep up her training and did not forget what she had been taught. In addition, while attending Roedean, lxxxvii she had taken part in every permissible form of sporting and athletic activity, excelling in them all. However, like Bunduki, she had become completely disenchanted by the blatantly one-sided political bias and hypocrisy of the international sporting bodies and authorities. So, in spite of being a world class athlete, gymnast, swimmer and fencer with either saber or epee, she had refused to compete in their events. For all that, she had always kept herself at the peak of physical condition.

  As was the case with Bunduki, much of Dawn’s perfect physical health stemmed from being allowed to share in some longevity pills obtained by his adoptive parents. Specimens had been given to Dr. Clark Savage, J.R., lxxxviii for analysis and reproduction. He had discovered that, in addition to slowing down the ageing process in human beings—granting those who took them what amounted to immortality, barring accidental death, suicide, or murder—they also gave immunity from practically every tropical disease and destroyed all such harmful internal parasites as the various nematode worms— commonly called ‘hookworms’—of the genera Necator which might be ingested when eating the raw flesh of wild animals. lxxxix

  So, with such qualifications, Dawn was ideally suited to survive on Zillikian and made a fitting mate for the man who had been created the Dapan-Dankara, the Fearless Master of the Jungle.

  Appendix Three

  Dwelling upon the open plains of the planet Zillikian, the Mun-Gatah nation was so dependent upon its domesticated zebras—which bore about the same resemblance to the wild animals as, on Earth, an Arabian Thoroughbred, American Saddlebred, or English Hunter does to the tarpan, Equus Caballus Gmelini, or Przewalski’s horse, E.G. Przewalskii, that are believed to have been the progenitors of all the various domesticated breeds of E.C. Caballus—that its entire culture was based upon the different sub-species of Equus Quagga. In fact, roughly translated, the nation’s name means the ‘Riders of the Striped Animals’.

  The lowest social order ride the grar-gatah, which has the black and white stripes, forming a gridiron pattern on the hindquarters, in the manner of the Grant’s zebra, E.Q. Grantii. People of the next higher grade use the ocha-gatah, with the orange, or cream, and black coloration of the Burchell’s, E.Q. Burchellii. The aristocracy have the banar-gatah, which resembles the Grevy’s, E.Q. Grevyi, by being larger than the other two and in having numerous narrow black stripes, but no transverse bars on the rump. A further sub-division among the classes comes from whether one rides a stallion, gelding, or mare. There are also medium and heavy draught animals known as tuh- and moh-gatahs, derived from the grar- and ocha-gatahs.

  Because of their importance in the nation’s religious beliefs, only the six-man Council of Elders, the High Priest, the Protectress of the Quagga God, the six District Administrators and their wives are allowed to ride the rarest of the sub-species, the quagga, E.Q. Quagga.

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  i Details of Dawn Drummond-Clayton’s and Bunduki’s family backgrounds and unconventional education are given in Appendices One and Two.

  ii Like the gibbons, genus Hylobates, of Asia and the South American howler monkeys, genus Alouatta, the Australopithecus of Zillikian employed various cries and roars to warn of danger, ask for help, signify triumph, or issue a challenge which denoted a claim of ownership over a piece of territory. As some acoustic quality allowed these calls to be audible at distances far beyond the range of a normal human shout, Dawn and Bunduki used them for signaling purposes.

  iii Information pertaining to the various types of gatahs and how they were used in the culture of the Mun-Gatah nation is given in Appendix Three.

  iv Told in: BUNDUKI.

  v Told in BUNDUKI AND DAWN.

  vi The ‘Terrifiers’ were simple hand grenades made from hollowed out coconut shells filled with ‘Thunder Powder’. Detonation was achieved by igniting a fuse made from an inflammable cord.

  vii As there was no equivalent word in the linqua franca of Zillikian, Dawn and Bunduki had said ‘Earth’ in English when speaking of their homeland. Being unaware of any other planets’ existence, the people they met believed this to be the name of the couple’s nation.

  viii Some details of Beryl Snowhill’s earlier career are given in: ‘CAP’ FOG, TEXAS RANGER, MEET MR. J.G. REEDER.

  ix How this came about is told in: THE AMAZONS OF ZILLIKIAN.

  x Told in: SACRIFICE FOR THE QUAGGA GOD.

  xi ‘Hand’: four inches, the height being measured to the highest point of the withers.

  xii Sambur: Cervus Unicolor, a species of deer originating in India.

  xiii Recurved bow: one with the ends of the limbs bent back from the straight line.

  xiv The dimensions of the Randall Model 12 ‘Smithsonian’ Bowie knife are given in APPENDIX ONE.

  xv No pun intended, I assure you.

  xvi Told in: SACRIFICE FOR THE QUAGGA GOD.

  xvii New readers can find an explanation of a ‘clip’ point in APPENDIX ONE.

  xviii On Earth, one name for fulsa is ‘jerky. The meat is cured by stripping an animal’s hams in a manner that leaves a thin membrane covering on each of the approximately one inch thick segments. The portions are dipped in a strong solution of boiling brine, then smoked briefly before the curing process is completed by exposure to the sun. If done correctly, the result is a nourishing, palatable, long lasting, easily stored or transportable food.

  xix As Protectress of the Quagga God, Charole’s garments had been made from gold lame mesh and her female adherents wore sandals with silver colored straps.

  xx Told in: BUNDUKI AND DAWN.

  xxi The Brelefs were an early type of Neanderthal Man, Homo Neanderthalensis.

  xxii Duas unicas in puncta mortalis est: advice given to Ancient Roman legionaries, roughly translated as, ‘Two inches in the right spot is fatal.’

  xxiii Spear point: one where the double cutting edges of the blade come together in symmetrical convex arcs.

  xxiv A description of some of the methods employed by mustangers in the Old West can be read in: .44 CALIBER MAN and A HORSE CALLED MOGOLLON.

  xxv In Texas during the mid-1870s, catering for outlaws and being fugitives from justice themselves, the citizens of the town called Hell had taken similar precautions against discovery. See: HELL IN THE PALO DURO and GO BACK TO HELL.

  xxvi Czdkan: a type of
war-hammer used by Polish horsemen during the late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries.

  xxvii Bongo: Boocercus Euryceros, the largest of the African jungle-dwelling antelopes, a deep chestnut in color, with numerous white stripes, a well developed spinal crest and large, smooth horns which form an open spiral.

  xxviii Honda: the ‘business’ end of a lariat. A knotted, or spliced, eyelet about two inches in diameter and usually lined with smooth leather, through which the ‘end’ of the rope is passed to form a ‘running’ noose.

  xxix Stem: in roping terminology, the portion of the lariat which is outside the honda and so does not form part of the ‘noose’.

  xxx Examples of how tracks can be concealed are given in Part One, ‘The Half Breed’ of THE HALF BREED.

  xxxi Riposte: in fencing terminology, a return thrust or cut after an attack.

  xxxii Matador: in the terminology of bullfighting, the man who dispatches the bull with a thrust of his sword.

  xxxiii The incident to which Dawn Drummond-Clayton was referring is recorded in BUNDUKI AND DAWN.

  xxxiv The first occasion when the blond giant had been compelled to intervene and defend Joar-Fane from a family of Australopithecus is told in BUNDUKI.

  xxxv Nemenuh: the phonetic spelling of the Comanche Indians’ name for their nation, meaning ‘The People’. Most other Indian nations referred to them as the Tshaoh, the ‘Enemy People’, because of their propensity towards horse-stealing—called ‘raiding’ by the Comanches—and warfare. Some details of the Nemenuh’s methods of horse catching and training are given in COMANCHE.

  xxxvi Being caught in such a manner crippled General Jackson Baines ‘Ole Devil’ Hardin C.SA. for life. Told in the ‘The Paint” episode of THE FASTEST GUN IN TEXAS.

  xxxvii

  ‘Chinning the moon’: in rodeo parlance, when a mount rears high on its hind legs and paws the air with its front hooves. A dangerous tactic because the animal might overbalance and fall backwards on to its rider. Some even learn to do this deliberately.

  xxxviii Kichwa Mkubwa: Swahili for ‘Big Head’, literally ‘Head Big’.

  xxxix The modern materials, excellent design and great strength of Dawn Drummond-Clayton’s and Bunduki’s sophisticated archery equipment provided the power required to penetrate the Mun-Gatahs’ hitherto invulnerable breastplates. This was because even the seventy pounds draw weight of the girl’s composite—fiberglass and wood—weapon was almost double that of the strongest all wood ‘self’ bows of the other archers on Zillikian. Another contributory factor was that the Earth couple employed the more efficient ‘cheek’ draw and not the ‘chest’ draw practiced by the local bowmen. Full descriptions of the methods used by the girl and the blond giant are given in the earlier volumes of the ‘BUNDUKI’ series. For comparison, an explanation of one style of Japanese archery and its equipment can be read in the authors ‘OLE DEVIL HARDIN’ series of biographies.

  xl Details of the Amazon nation are given in APPENDIX FOUR of SACRIFICE FOR THE QUAGGA GOD.

  xli The throwing stick used on Zillikian is similar to that employed by the Hopi and related Indian tribes of North America, or the war and hunting boomerangs of the Australian aborigines, but—unlike the latter—is not expected to return to the thrower if it should miss its target. This does not make it any less lethal or effective as a weapon. American author, Daniel Mannix, describes in Chapter Seven, ‘The Boomerang, The Stick That Kills’, of his book, A SPORTING CHANCE—which covers the subject thoroughly—how he has thrown one a distance of five hundred and forty feet and it still retained sufficient momentum to crack an inch thick branch of a tree.

  xlii Fence cornering: rodeo terminology for bucking in a zigzag fashion. So called because it was said to resemble the meanderings of the kind of wooden rail fences sometimes erected during the Old West days of the United States of America.

  xliii Manadero: the Spanish-Mexican term for the master stallion of a band of horses.

  xliv While the author realizes that in this present ‘permissive’ society, he could record Dawn Drummond-Clayton’s exact words, he sees no valid reason to do so.

  xlv ‘Sunfishing’: a bound during which the animal twists its body into crescents alternatively—at least, most of the time—to left or right, seeming to be trying to touch the ground with first one and then the other shoulder, as if wishing to let the sunlight hit its stomach in the process.

  xlvi ‘Crawfishing’: pitching backwards instead of to the front.

  xlvii ‘Pinwheeling’: undoubtedly the rarest and, arguably, most lethal kind of bucking. The animal leaps forward and upwards, turning with its feet in the air and alighting on its back.

  xlviii Carvel-built: in shipbuilding terminology, where the planks of the hull are laid edge to edge and form a smooth surface; as opposed to ‘clinker-built’, where they are fitted so that they overlap one another.

  xlix A ‘gaff’ is a pole, or ‘spar’, extending from the after side of the mast to support a fore-and-aft sail.

  l A ‘lug’ is a four-sided sail without a boom, or lower yard, attached to an upper yard which hangs obliquely on the mast.

  li A Missouri River ‘bullboat’ twenty-five feet in length, with a width of fifteen and a depth of three feet could carry up to six thousand pounds’ burden. Although smaller, those of the Cara-Bunte were proportionately as effective.

  lii A ‘lateen’—a European corruption of the word, ‘Latin’—is a right-angled triangular sheet laced to a long, sloping yard and controlled by a system of blocks and tackles which allows the ship to sail against, as well as with, the wind.

  liii When employed for legitimate purposes such as pearl-diving, the zaruk is sometimes called a ‘garookuh’.

  liv The principal difference between the zaruk and the badan is that the stem piece of the latter is almost perpendicular and lacks the extreme rake which is characteristic of the former. The author is unable to say which style of bow is most advantageous, as each kind of vessel is equally seaworthy. We suspect that the choice was made on the personal prejudices of the respective clans’ warlords and dictated by past traditions. It is noticeable that none of the Tansha clans rivals used the zaruk.

  lv Although it has no bearing on the present volume, the Cara-Buntes made their voyages to raid the northern, southern and western shores of the mainland in replicas of Arabian sambuks. Graceful, carvel-built, lateen-rigged, square-sterned and weath-erly, these large vessels have two forward raking masts, a built-up poop deck and offer far more adequate accommodation for the crews than either a zaruk or a badan.

  lvi The Yung-Libs are a very early type of Cro-Magnons.

  lvii The occasion is recorded in BUNDUKI.

  lviii In addition to the entire coastline of the Telongas’ territory being fringed by swampland after the fashion of the Florida Everglades, the Cara-Buntes’ failure to penetrate the region was induced by the ‘Suppliers’.

  lix The occasions are described in BUNDUKI AND DAWN.

  lx The larger ‘plains’ sub-species of African elephant is classified Loxodonta Africana Africana. Up to twenty-four inches taller than L.A. Cyclotis, their ears are less rounded and the tusks which are bulkier and longer, curl upwards instead of being straight and parallel; an adaptation making it easier for the ‘forest’ elephants to move through thick undergrowth.

  lxi The smaller sub-species of African buffalo, Syncerus Caffer Namus, known as the ‘dwarf forest buffalo’ was also very aggressive and dangerous, but it did not inhabit the jungle in the Telongas’ territory.

  lxii Although the Telongas had a predilection for making love, they also held strong views regarding babies being born out of wedlock. So, to allow the former and avoid the latter, they had obtained very effective oral contraceptive tablets for use by the maidens from the ‘Suppliers’.