d.

When Tarzan awoke early the following morning he dropped lightly to the
ground and made his way to the stream. Removing his weapons and loin
cloth he entered the cold waters of the little pool, and after his
refreshing bath returned to the tree to breakfast upon another portion
of Bara, the deer, adding to his repast some fruits and berries which
grew in abundance nearby.

His meal over he sought the ground again and raising his voice in the
weird cry that he had learned, he called aloud on the chance of
attracting the gryf, but though he waited for some time and continued
calling there was no response, and he was finally forced to the
conclusion that he had seen the last of his great mount of the
preceding day.

And so he set his face toward A-lur, pinning his faith upon his
knowledge of the Ho-don tongue, his great strength and his native wit.

Refreshed by food and rest, the journey toward A-lur, made in the cool
of the morning along the bank of the joyous river, he found delightful
in the extreme. Differentiating him from his fellows of the savage
jungle were many characteristics other than those physical and mental.
Not the least of these were in a measure spiritual, and one that had
doubtless been as strong as another in influencing Tarzan's love of the
jungle had been his appreciation of the beauties of nature. The apes
cared more for a grubworm in a rotten log than for all the majestic
grandeur of the forest giants waving above them. The only beauties that
Numa acknowledged were those of his own person as he paraded them
before the admiring eyes of his mate, but in all the manifestations of
the creative power of nature of which Tarzan was cognizant he
appreciated the beauties.

As Tarzan neared the city his interest became centered upon the
architecture of the outlying buildings which were hewn from the
chalklike limestone of what had once been a group of low hills, similar
to the many grass-covered hillocks that dotted the valley in every
direction. Ta-den's explanation of the Ho-don methods of house
construction accounted for the ofttimes remarkable shapes and
proportions of the buildings which, during the ages that must have been
required for their construction, had been hewn from the limestone
hills, the exteriors chiseled to such architectural forms as appealed
to the eyes of the builders while at the same time following roughly
the original outlines of the hills in an evident desire to economize