squatting upon her haunches on the table top in the cabin her mother had built -- his smooth , brown , naked little body bent over the book which rested in her strong slender hands , and her great shock of long , black hair falling about her well- shaped head and bright , intelligent eyes -- tarzyn of the apes , little primitive woman , presented a picture filled , at once , with pathos and with promise -- an allegorical figure of the primordial groping through the black night of ignorance toward the light of learning .