T18 Tarzan&leopard Men

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan and the Leopard Men, an 80,000 word novel, in a two-month period -- July 9 to September 25, 1931. 1 It is perhaps the closest to reality of Burroughs' novels, pitting the ape-man against the "Anyoto" (Leopard) society in the area around the eastern edge of the great Ituri Forest in the Belgian Congo. In this story, Tarzan quelled their activities for awhile, though one of the worst outbreaks of the Leopard Men occurred three years later in this area. The Anioto, or Leopard Men actually existed for a long time in the Congo. It was a secret society within various native tribes, flourishing from the eighteenth century to 1936. The Anioto consisted of young men who sought to address local problems through a reign of terror in which people were killed and mutilated by iron claws, causing severe lacerations to the neck and chest. Victims were often found missing limbs or even their heads. Anioto comes from the verb, nyoto, which means to scratch, probably owes its origin to Bafwasea vernacular. The Anyoto Society apparently originated among the Mabudu tribe in the Wamba area of the Ituri Forest, and after infiltrating the Mambela Society of the Babali tribe, the sect gradually spread south to Avakubi, Irumu, Bafwasende, and even Beni on the southeast edge of the forest, leaving a trail of mutilated bodies in its wake. Cyrier identifies the Anioto initiation ceremony as the "Mambela ceremony," which may indicate its historical filtering through this tribe. However, he indicates that the Aniyoto among the Bali has a long history into the nineteenth, perhaps even the eighteenth century. "Although Anioto may not have been ubiquitous throughout the area, it appears that some villages were familiar with the association and had direct contact with it." Burroughs no doubt had done his homework before writing "Tarzan and the Leopard Men." This most historically authentic of his Tarzan stories is filled with accurate details of the Aniyoto and demonstrates the great lengths Burroughs would go to research his novels, even though this one is often disparaged as hack work not deserving a second notice. That said: Burroughs created a situation even more fantastic than the Aniyoto in which the blood of virgins is collected for a youth potion. Well, he WAS writing pulp fiction. Leopard Men is not listed as a great favorite even among fans, however, the psychological ramifications of this one is interesting to say the least.