Jane’s Education by Tarzan
Neither Jane nor Tarzan would have thought of it at the time as training, but such instruction technically began right after Tarzan rescued her from Terkoz, the enraged ape, as told in Tarzan of the Apes.
Jane’s first lesson was one of observation — that a human, if properly skilled, could easily move through the middle terraces of the forest, Tarzan carrying her along as he made his way through the trees. The next lesson Tarzan taught was which jungle fruits were safe and good to eat, as he brought her an armload of sustenance.
Not exactly an intensive training course in jungle survival, but it was the seed of what was to grow into a store of know-how for Jane.
Tarzan and his mate-to-be fell in love, but the two were to endure myriad adventures alone before reunion and marriage at the end of The Return of Tarzan.
Jane’s training continued in the unrecorded moments which passed between husband and wife. Some do not regard The Eternal Lover as part of the Tarzan series, since Tarzan and Jane are only in “cameo roles.” But, in that story, we find them living on their African estate, and there were probably lots of times that Tarzan told Jane about the ways of the jungle.
We see evidence of this training in the next full-fledged Tarzan book, The Beasts of Tarzan, when we find Jane taken by enemies into the depths of the jungle. She escapes her captors and begins to put her training to work:
“That night she slept in the crotch of a tree, as Tarzan had so often told her that he was accustomed to doing….” (page 216)
What else did Tarzan tell her? We next read that Jane spies a great ape coming her way and:
“The wind was blowing directly across the clearing between them, and Jane lost no time in putting herself down-wind from the huge creature.”
It’s logical to conclude that Tarzan was also the teacher of that tactic.
The crisis past, we find Jane in the next book enacting the role of lady of the Greystoke estate, playing the charming hostess while adventure rages all about her in The Son of Tarzan.
In Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, page 177, we are again reminded of the benefits of Tarzan’s training. Escaping from captors, we read Jane “…had followed the old game trail toward the south, until there fell upon her trained hearing the stealthy padding of a stalking beast behind her. The nearest tree gave her instant sanctuary, for she was too wise in the ways of the jungle to chance her safety for a moment after discovering that she was being hunted.” [italics mine]
Note the italicized phrases. These can only speak of her training by Tarzan, and her experience in putting that training to use.
Jane’s presence hangs over Tarzan the Untamed, though she herself appears in the opening pages only long enough to be kidnapped by German soldiers, who maintain that captivity into the next book, Tarzan the Terrible.
This long period of captivity enabled Jane to exercise and develop her endurance and skills:
“The long and perilous journey with Obergatz had trained her muscles and her nerves….” (page 279)
It is in Terrible where Jane escapes Obergatz and comes of age at last as a Jungle Girl, ERB calling her “Diana of the Jungle” in a complimentary comparison to Diane, the goddess-huntress of Greek mythology.
Again, we read of Tarzan’s training in Terrible:
— Page 279, “She found a safe resting place such as Tarzan had taught her was best and there she curled herself, thirty feet above the ground, for a night’s rest.”
— Page 301, “As quickly as might be she skinned and cleaned her kill, burying the hide and entrails. That she had learned from Tarzan. It served two purposes. One was the necessity for keeping a sanitary camp and the other the obliteration of the scent that most quickly attracts the man-eaters.”
— Page 305. “To the woodcraft she had learned from Tarzan, that master of the art, was added a considerable store of practical experience derived from her own past adventures in the jungle and the long months with Obergatz, nor was any day now lacking in some added store of useful knowledge.”
A difference between Tarzan and Jane is that Tarzan is, at heart, as the beasts of the jungle, who can act the part of a civilized man when it is required. Jane, at heart a proper lady, can act the part of jungle survival expert when necessary, but there are some things which Tarzan would do which Jane would never do.
Tarzan, for example, upon making a kill, would be happy to sink his teeth into the still warm flesh, enjoying his “hot” meal with relish. Jane, when killing for food in Terrible, builds a fire and cooks her meat “thoroughly and all the way through.” We read on page 302:
“And never had aught more delicious passed her lips.”
Earlier, we’re told:
“She might learn to eat raw flesh as had her lord and master; but she shrank from that. The thought even was repulsive.” (page 300)
Next: Part 3, Jane and the Waziri
(All page numbers are from the early hardback editions, McClurg, Burt and G&D, which used the same printing plates throughout)
Copyright ©1989 John “Bridge” Martin