Meriem, wife of Korak

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Meriem is a minor character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's series of Tarzan novels, and the heroine of the fourth, The Son of Tarzan. Born Jeanne Jacot, the daughter of French general Armand Jacot, she is taken captive by Arabs as a child by Arabs who give her the name Meriem. She is later rescued from her captors by Korak, son of Tarzan, with whom she afterwards lives in the jungle. She is beautiful, strong, athletic, brave, daring and sensitive. She will kill for food but not for sport. The emerging relationship between the two feral teenagers is described sensitively, as the embittered boy and the abused girl learn to live and love together, saving each other from various dangers and drawing to the happy ending in which Meriem marries Korak and is reunited with her father.

Meriem is an example of the "Jungle Girl" archetype, in that she lives in the forest, dressed in skins and scavenging for food, with Korak as her guide and protector. Unlike others of the type, she has a past (she is a kidnap victim) and a future — as the wife of a junior English aristocrat. In the tenth Tarzan book, Tarzan and the Ant Men, she also becomes a mother.