realized it, communication by word of mouth became an accomplished
fact.

Tarzan explained to his companions the purpose of his mission but
neither could give him any slightest thread of hope to weave into
the fabric of his longing. Never had there been in their country a
woman such as he described, nor any tailless man other than himself
that they ever had seen.

"I have been gone from A-lur while Bu, the moon, has eaten
seven times," said Ta-den. "Many things may happen in seven times
twenty-eight days; but I doubt that your woman could have entered
our country across the terrible morasses which even you found
an almost insurmountable obstacle, and if she had, could she have
survived the perils that you already have encountered beside those
of which you have yet to learn? Not even our own women venture into
the savage lands beyond the cities."

"'A-lur,' Light-city, City of Light," mused Tarzan, translating
the word into his own tongue. "And where is A-lur?" he asked. "Is
it your city, Ta-den, and Om-at's?"

"It is mine," replied the hairless one; "but not Om-at's. The
Waz-don have no cities--they live in the trees of the forests and
the caves of the hills--is it not so, black man?" he concluded,
turning toward the hairy giant beside him.

"Yes," replied Om-at, "We Waz-don are free--only the Hodon imprison
themselves in cities. I would not be a white man!"