After Tarzan returns from raiding the village, the ape leader Kerchak begins to grow jealous. Tarzan practices using his bow and arrow. He also figures out how to open a locked box in the cabin. Inside the box, he finds a photograph of his father, John Clayton. He also finds a book, but he cannot read the script or decipher its meaning because this book is John Clayton’s diary and is written in French. Tarzan returns to the African village to steal more arrows and finds cooking pots being brought out, along with other food being prepared.

He watches as the villagers return from hunting and realizes that their captured quarry is another human. The villagers drum and dance while they torture the prisoner in the same manner as the apes did during the Dum-Dum ritual. However, Tarzan is shocked by the cruelty of his own kind. The villagers practice cannibalism and prepare to eat the captured prisoner. Tarzan sneaks into one of the huts and hides from a woman who returns to find her cooking pot. Then, Tarzan climbs a tree and throws a human skull that he found in the village into the middle of the clearing, increasing the villagers’ superstitious fear.