Pages 14-15

In the Conan story, Rogues in the House, there is a brutal character with a lot of character, named Thak, an apeman domesticated by a sorcerer. I am not certain as to the composition date of Almuric or Rogues in the House, however, it is fascinating that Howard has the apeman of Almuric swear by a god named Thak. It could just be that Thak is a great name if you’re a guy with tusks in your mouth.

Of course, being an interplanetary fantasy, the apemen of Almuric speak English as do the demons. I, for one, would like to thank Howard for not doing anthropological interplanetary back flips, attempting to find a way for Esau Cairn to communicate with the inhabitants of Almuric, seemingly content to leave this to the imagination of the reader, who might, as did this reader, chalk it up to a dream that Esau Cairn has been transported not to an alien planet but to some place inward.

The creature that Cairn meets is shocked by his appearance, saying, “By Thak, are you a man or a woman?

"My answer was the smash of my clenched fist that sent him rolling on the sward.”

What follows is classic atmospheric Howard action in which the superior strength and size of the apeman are pitted against Cairn’s earthly boxing and wrestling skills. This scene recalls much of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ fiction, in which his hero was typically an educated American with a background in wrestling and boxing who dished out punishment to other savages and heathens. However, Howard’s more emotive and gritty treatment of the subject is far more satisfying to the reader than Burroughs’ almost dismissive suggestion that no brute would be able to defeat a skilled combatant.

Esau Cairn completes his first few minutes on Almuric with a knockout of one of its inhabitants.