midday
but it was a wondrous and inspiring sight -- this battle of the primordial apes and the great , white ape-man with their ancestral foe , Sheeta , the panther . In frenzied excitement , Teeka fairly danced upon the limb which swayed beneath her great weight as she urged on the males of her people , and Thaka , and Mumga , and Kamma , with the other shes of the tribe of Kerchak , added their shrill cries or fierce barkings to the pandemonium which now reigned within the jungle . Bitten and biting , tearing and torn , Sheeta battled for his life ; but the odds were against him . Even Numa , the lion , would have hesitated to have attacked an equal number of the great bulls of the tribe of Kerchak , and now , a half mile away , hearing the sounds of the terrific battle , the king of beasts rose uneasily from his midday slumber and slunk off farther into the jungle . Presently Sheeta 's torn and bloody body ceased its titanic struggles . It stiffened spasmodically , twitched and was still , yet the bulls continued to lacerate it until the beautiful coat was torn to shreds . At last they desisted from sheer physical weariness , and then from the tangle of bloody bodies rose a crimson giant , straight as an arrow .