Norman, John - Gor 13 - Explorers of Gor

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I Talk With Samos

She was quite beautiful.

She knelt near the small, low table, behind which, cross-legged, in the hall

of Samos, I sat. At this table, too, cross-legged, sat Samos. He faced me. It

was early evening in Port Kar, and I had supped with Samos, first captain in

the council of captains, that congress of captains sovereign in Port Kar. The

hall was lit with burning torches. It contained the great map mosaic.

We had been served our supper by the collared slave, who knelt near us.

I glanced at her. She wore a one-piece tunic of rep-cloth, cut high at the

thighs, to better reveal them, her steel collar, which was a lock collar, and

her brand. The brand was the common Kajira mark of Gor, the first letter,

about an inch and a half in height and a half inch in width, in cursive

script, of the expression 'Kajira', which is the most common expression in

Gorean for a female slave. It is a simple mark, and rather floral, a staff,

with two, upturned, frondlike curls, joined where they touch, the staff on its

right. It bears a distant resemblance to the printed letter 'K' in several of

the Western alphabets of Earth, and I suspect, in spite of several

differences, it may owe its origin to that letter. The Gorean alphabet has

twenty-eight characters, all of which, I suspect, owe their origin to one or

another of the alphabets of Earth. Several show a clear-cut resemblance to

Greek letters, for example. 'Sidge', on the other hand, could be cuneiform,

and 'Tun' and 'Val' are probably calligraphically drifted from demotic. At

least six letters suggest influence by the classical Roman alphabet, and seven

do, if we count 'Kef', the first letter in 'Kajira'. 'Shu' is represented by a

sign which seems clearly oriental in origin and 'Homan', I speculate, may

derive from Cretan. Many Gorean letters have a variety of pronunciations,

depending on their linguistic context. Certain scribes have recommended adding

to the Gorean alphabet new letters, to independently represent some of these

sounds which, now, require alternative pronunciations, context-dependent, of

given letters. Their recommendations, it seems, are unlikely to be

incorporated into formal Gorean.

In matters such as those of the alphabet conservatism seems unshakable. For

example, there is not likely to be additions or deletions to the alphabets of

Earth, regardless of the rationality of such an alteration in given cases. An

example of the conservatism in such matters is that Goreans, and, indeed, many

of those of the Earth, are taught their alphabets in an order which bears no

rational relation whatsoever to the occurrence pattern of the letters. That

children should be taught the alphabet in an order which reflects the

frequency of the occurrence of the letters in the language, and thus would

expedite their learning, appears to be too radical and offensive an idea to

become acceptable. Consider, too, for example, the opposition to an

arithmetically convenient system of measurement in certain quarters on Earth,

apparently because of the unwillingness to surrender the techniques of

tradition, so painfully acquired so long ago.

"Do Masters desire aught else of Linda?" asked the girl.

"No," said Samos.

She put her small hand on the table, as though to reach to him, to beg his

touch.

"No," said Samos.

She withdrew, head down. She picked up the small tray from the stand near the

table. On it was the small vessel containing a thick, sweet liqueur from

distant Turia, the Ar of the south, and the two tiny glasses from which we had

sipped it. On the tray, too, was the metal vessel which had contained the

black wine, steaming and bitter, from far Thentis, famed for its tarn flocks,

the small yellow-enameled cups from which we had drunk the black wine, its

spoons and sugars, a tiny bowl of mint sticks, and the softened, dampened

cloths on which we had wiped our fingers.

I had eaten well.

She stood. up. She held the tray. The gleaming collar, snug and locked, was

very beautiful on her throat.

I remembered her from several months ago when I had first seen her, when she

had had about her throat only a simple collar of iron, curved about her throat

by the blows of a metal worker's hammer.

She looked at Samos, her lip trembled.

She had been the girl who had brought to the house of Samos the message of the

scytale. The scytale had been a marked hair ribbon. Wrapped about the shaft of

a spear, thus aligning the marks, the message had appeared. It had been to me,

from Zarendargar, or Half-Ear, a war general of the Kurii, inviting me to meet

him at the "world's end." My speculation that this referred to the pole of the

Gorean northern hemisphere had proved correct. I had met Half-Ear there, in a

vast northern complex, an enormous supply depot intended to arm and fuel, and

otherwise logistically support, the projected invasion of Gor, the Counter-

Earth. I think it likely that Half-Ear perished in the destruction of the

complex. The body, however, was never recovered.

The girl who had served us this night, slender and blond, blue-eyed, of Earth

origin, had delivered to us the scytale. She had not, originally, even

understood it to contain a message.

How different she seemed now from what she had then been. She had been brought

to the house of Samos still in the inexplicable and barbarous garments of

Earth, in particular, in the imitation-boy costume, the denim trousers and

flannel shirt of the contemporary Earth girl, pathologically conditioned, for

economic and historical reasons, to deny and subvert the richness of her

unique sexuality. Culture decides what is truth, but truth, unfortunately for

culture, is unaware of this. Cultures, mad and blind, can die upon the rocks

of truth. Why can truth not be the foundation of culture, rather than its

nemesis? Can one not build upon the stone cliffs of reality rather than dash

one's head against them? But how few human beings can think, how few dare to

inquire, how few can honestly question. How can one know the answer to a

question which one fears to ask?

Samos, of course, immediately recognized the ribbon as a scytale. As for the

girl, he had promptly, to her horror, had her clothing removed and had had her

put in a brief rep-cloth slave tunic and a rude neck-ring of curved iron, that

she would not escape and, anywhere, could be recognized as a slave. Shortly

thereafter I had been invited to his house and had received the message. I had

also questioned the girl, who had, at that time, spoken only English. I

recalled how arrogant and peremptory she had been, until she had learned that

she was no longer among men such as those of Earth. Samos had had her taken

below and branded, and used for the sport of the guards, and then penned. I

had thought that he would have sold her, but he had not. She had been kept in

his own house, and taught the meaning of her collar, fully.

I saw the brand on her thigh. Although the brand was the first letter, in

cursive Gorean script, of the most common Gorean expression for a slave girl,

'Kajira', its symbolism, I think, is much richer than this. For example, in

the slave brand, the 'Kef', though clearly a Kef and in cursive script, is

more floral, in the extended, upturned, frondlike curls, than would be the

common cursive Kef. This tends to make the mark very feminine. It is at this

point that the symbolism of the brand becomes more clear. The two frondlike

curls indicate femininity and beauty; the staff, in its uncompromising

severity, indicates that the femininity is subject to discipline; the upturned

curves on the frondlike curls indicate total openness and vulnerability. It is

a very simple, lovely brand, simple, as befits a slave, lovely, as befits a

woman.

Incidentally, there are many brands on Gor. Two that almost never occur on

Gor, by the way, are those of the moons and collar, and of the chain and claw.

The first of these commonly occurs in certain of the Gorean enclaves on Earth,

which serve as headquarters for agents of Priest-Kings; the second tends to

occur in the lairs of Kurii agents on Earth; the first brand consists of a

locked collar and, ascending diagonally above it, extending to the right,

three quarter moons; this brand indicates the girl is subject to Gorean

discipline; the chain-and-claw brand signifies, of course, slavery and

subjection within the compass of the Kur yoke. It is apparently difficult to

recruit Goreans for service on Earth, either for Priest-Kings or Kurii.

Accordingly, usually native Earthlings are used. Glandularly sufficient men,

strong, lustful, and vital, without their slave girls, would find Earth a very

dismal place, a miserable and unhappy sexual desert. Strong men simply need

women. This will never be understood by weak men. A strong man needs a woman

at his feet, who is truly his. Anything else is less than his fulfillment.

When a man has once eaten of the meat of gods he will never again chew on the

straw of fools.

"You may withdraw," said Samos to the girl.

"Master," she begged him, tears in her eyes. "Please, Master."

A few months ago she had not been able to speak Gorean. She now spoke the

language subtly and fluently. Girls learn swiftly to speak the language of

their masters.

Samos looked up at her. She stood there, lovely, holding the tray before her,

on which reposed the vessels, the tiny cups and glasses, the bowls, the

spoons, the soft, dampened cloths on which we had wiped our hands. She had

served well, beautifully, effacing herself, as a serving slave.

"Master," she whispered.

"Return the things to the kitchen," he said. I saw, from her eyes, that she

was more than a serving slave. It is interesting, the power that a man may

hold over a woman.

"Yes, Master," she said. When she had knelt facing Samos, she had knelt in the

position of the pleasure slave. When she had knelt facing me, she had knelt in

the position of the serving slave. Samos, it was said, was the first to have

brought her to slave orgasm. It had happened six days after she had first been

brought to his house. It is said that a woman who has experienced slave orgasm

can never thereafter be anything but a man's slave. She then knows what men

can do to her, and what she herself is, a woman. Never thereafter can she be

anything else.

"Linda begs Master's touch," she said. The name 'Linda' had been her original

Earth name. Samos had, after it had been removed from her, in her reduction to

slavery, put it on her again, but this time as a slave name, by his will.

Sometimes a girl is given her own name as a slave name; sometimes she is given

another name; it depends on the master's will. She spoke freely before me of

her need for his touch. She was no longer an inhibited, negatively conditioned

Earth girl. She was now open and honest, and beautifully clean, in her

slavery, in her confession of her female truths.

Seeing the eyes of Samos on her she quickly went to the door, to leave, but,

at the door, unable to help herself, she turned about. There were tears in her

eyes.

"After you have returned the things to the kitchen-" said Samos.

"Yes, Master," she said softly, excitedly. The small, yellow-enameled cups

moved slightly on the tray. She trembled. The torchlight glinted from her

collar.

"Go to your kennel," said Samos, "and ask to be locked within."

"Yes, Master," she said, putting her head down. I thought she shook with a

sob.

"I hear from the chain master," said Samos, "that you have learned the tile

dance creditably."

The tiny cups and glasses shook on the tray. "I am pleased," she said, "if

Krobus should think so."

The tile dance is commonly performed on red tiles, usually beneath the slave

ring of the master's couch. The girl performs the dance on her back; her

stomach and sides. Usually her neck is chained to the slave ring. The dance

signifies the. restlessness, the misery, of a love-starved slave girl. It is a

premise of the dance that the girl moves and twists, and squirms, in her need,

as if she is completely alone, as if her need is known only to herself; then,

supposedly, the master surprises her, and she attempts to suppress the

helplessness and torment of her needs; then, failing this, surrendering her

pride in its final shred, she writhes openly, piteously, before him, begging

him to deign to touch her. Needless to say, the entire dance is observed by

the master, and this, in fact, of course, is known to both the dancer and her

audience, the master. The tile dance, for simple psychological and behavioral

reasons, having to do with the submission context and the motions of the body,

can piteously arouse even a captured, cold free woman; in the case of a slave,

of course, it can make her scream and sob with need.

"I hear that you have worked hard to perfect the tile dance," said Samos.

"I am only a poor slave," she said.

"The last five times you have performed this dance," said Samos, "Krobus tells

me that he could not restrain himself from raping you."

She put down her head. "Yes, Master," she said, smiling. "After you have been

locked in your kennel," said Samos, "ask for a vessel of warm water, oils and

a cloth, and perfume. Bathe and perfume yourself. I may summon you later to my

chamber."

"Yes, Master," she said, delightedly. "Yes, Master!"

"Slave!" he said.

"Yes, Master," she said, turning quickly.

"I am less easy to please than Krobus," he said. "Yes, Master," she said, and

then turned and fled, swiftly, from the room.

"She is a pretty thing," I said.

Samos ran his tongue over his lips. "Yes," he said.

"I think you like her," I said.

"Nonsense," he said. "She is only a slave."

"Perhaps Samos has found a love slave," I said.

"An Earth girl?" laughed Samos.

"Perhaps," I said.

"Preposterous," said Samos. "She is only a slave, only a thing to serve, and

to beat and abuse, if it should please me."

"But is not any slave," I asked, "even a love slave?"

"That is true," said Samos, smiling. Gorean men are not easy with their

slaves, even those for whom they care deeply.

"I think Samos, first slaver of Port Kar, first captain of the council of

captains, has grown fond of a blond Earth girl."

Samos looked at me, angrily. Then he shrugged. "She is the first girl I have

felt in this fashion toward," he said. "It is interesting. It is a strange

feeling."

"I note that you did not sell her," I said.

"Perhaps I shall," he said.

"I see," I said.

"The first time, even, that I took her in my arms," said Samos, "she was in

some way piteously helpless, different even from the others."

"Is not any slave piteously helpless in the arms of her master?" I asked.

"Yes," said Samos. "But she seemed somehow different, incredibly so,

vulnerably so."

"Perhaps she knew herself, in your touch, as her love master," I said.

"She felt good in my hands," he said.

"Be strong, Samos," I smiled.

"I shall," he said.

I did not doubt his word. Samos was one of the hardest of Gorean men. The

blond Earth girl had found a strong, uncompromising master.

"But let us not speak of slaves," I said, "girls who serve for our diversion

or recreation, but of serious matters, of the concerns of men."

"Agreed," said he.

There was a time for slaves, and a time for matters of importance.

"Yet there is little to report," said he, "in the affairs of worlds."

"The Kurii are quiet," I said.

"Yes," said he.

"Beware of a silent enemy," I smiled.

"Of course," said Samos.

"It is unusual that you should invite me to your house," I said, "to inform me

that you have nothing to report."

"Do you think you are the only one upon Gor who labors occasionally in the

cause of Priest-Kings?" asked Samos.

"I suppose not," I said. "Why?" I asked. I did not understand the question.

"How little we know of our world," sighed Samos.

"I do not understand," I said.

"Tell me what you know of the Cartius," he said.

"It is an important subequatorial waterway," I said. "It flows west by

northwest, entering the rain forests and emptying into Lake Ushindi, which

lake is drained by the Kamba and the Nyoka rivers. The Kamba flows directly

into Thassa. The Nyoka flows into Schendi harbor, which is the harbor of the

port of Schendi, and moves thence to Thassa." Schendi was an equatorial free

port, well known on Gor. It is also the home port of the League of Black

Slavers.

"It was, at one time, conjectured," said Samos, "that the Cartius proper was a

tributary of the Vosk."

"I had been taught that," I said.

"We now know that the Thassa Cartius and the subequatorial Cartius are not the

same river."

"It had been thought, and shown on many maps," I said, "that the subequatorial

Cartius not only flowed into Lake Ushindi, but emerged northward, traversing

the sloping western flatlands to join the Vosk at Turmus." Turmus was the last

major river port on the Vosk before the almost impassable marshes of the

delta.

"Calculations performed by the black geographer, Ramani, of the island of

Anango, suggested that given the elevations involved the two rivers could not

be the same. His pupil, Shaba, was the first civilized man to circumnavigate

Lake Ushindi. He discovered that the Cartius, as was known, enters Lake

Ushindi, but that only two rivers flow out of Ushindi, the Kamba and Nyoka.

The actual source of the tributary to the Vosk, now called the Thassa Cartius,

as you know, was found five years later by the. explorer, Ramus of Tabor, who,

with a small expedition, over a period of nine months, fought and bartered his

way through the river tribes, beyond the six cataracts, to the Ven highlands.

The Thassa Cartius, with its own tributaries, drains the highlands and the

descending plains."

"That has been known to me for over a year," I said. "Why do you speak of it

now?"

"We are ignorant of so many things," mused Samos.

I shrugged. Much of Gor was terra incognita. Few knew well the lands on the

east of the Voltai and Thentis ranges, for example, or what lay west of the

farther islands, near Cos and Tyros. It was more irritating, of course, to

realize that even considerable areas of territory above Schendi, south of the

Vosk, and west of Ar, were unknown. "There was good reason to speculate that

the Cartius entered the Vosk, by way of Lake Ushindi," I said.

"I know," said Samos, "tradition, and the directions and flow of the rivers.

Who would have understood, of the cities, that they were not the same?"

"Even the bargemen of the Cartius proper, the subequatorial Cartius, and those

of the Thassa Cartius, far to the north, thought the rivers to be but one

waterway."

"Yes," said Samos. "And until the calculations of Ramani, and the expeditions

of Shaba and Ramus, who had reason to believe otherwise?"

"The rain forests closed the Cartius proper for most civilized persons from

the south," I said, "and what trading took place tended to be confined to the

ubarates of the southern shore of Lake Ushindi. It was convenient then, for

trading purposes, to make use of either the Kamba or the Nyoka to reach

Thassa."

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1ITalkWithSamosShewasquitebeautiful.Shekneltnearthesmall,lowtable,behindwhich,cross-legged,inthehallofSamos,Isat.Atthistable,too,cross-legged,satSamos.Hefacedme.ItwasearlyeveninginPortKar,andIhadsuppedwithSamos,firstcaptaininthecouncilofcaptains,thatcongressofcaptainssovereigninPortKar.Thehallwaslit...

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Norman, John - Gor 13 - Explorers of Gor

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