John Norman - Gor 18 - Blood Brothers of Gor

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Book 18 BLOOD BROTHERS OF GOR
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----- by John Norman -----
Volume eighteen of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth
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Chapter One
THE PTE
"There it is," said Grunt, pointing ahead and to our right. "Do you see
it?"
"Yes," I said. "Too, I feel it." I could feel the tremor in the earth, even
through the paws and legs of the lofty, silken kaiila.
"I have seen it only once before," he said.
I rose in the stirrups. The vibration, clearly, was registered in the
narrow, flat-based rings. Earlier, dimounted, we had placed the palms of our
hands to the earth. It was then that we had first felt it, earlier this
morning, from as faraway as perhaps twenty pasangs.
"They are coming," had said Cuwignaka, happily.
"I am puzzled," said Grunt. "It is early, is it not?"
I sat back on the saddle.
"Yes," said Cuwingaka, astride his kaiila, to my left.
The current moon was Takiyuhawi, the moon in whcih the tabuk rut. It is
sometimes known also as Canpasapawi, or the moon when the chokechrries are
ripe.
"I do not understand," said Grunt. "It is not due until Kantasawi." This
was the moon in which the plums become red. It is generally the hottest time
of the year in the Barrens. It occurs in the latter portion of the summer.
"Why is it early?" asked Grunt.
"I do not know," said Cuwignaka.
Our kaiila shifted beneath us, on the grassy rise. The grass here came to
the knees of the kaiila. It would have come to the thighs of a girl.
"Perhaps there is some mistake," I suggested. "Perhaps it is not what you
think."
"There is no mistaking it," said Grunt.
"No," said Cuwignaka, happily.
"could it not be another?" I asked.
"No," said Cuwignaka.
"These things are like the summer and the winter," said Grunt, "like the
phases of the moons, like day and night,"
"Why then is it early?" I asked.
"Has it been early before?" asked Grunt of Cuwignaka.
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"Not in my lifetime," said Cuwignaka. "In the old stories it has sometimes
been late, but never, as far as I know, has it been early."
"Think," I said. "Can you recall nothing of such a sort?"
Cuwignaka shrugged. "I can think of nothing of that sort," he said.
"Can there be no mistake?" I asked Grunt.
"No," said Grunt. "It is here,"
"It looks like it is raining there," I said.
"That is dust, in the wind," said Cuwignaka. "It is raised by the hoofs."
"It is here," said Grunt. "There is no doubt about it."
I looked into the distance. It was like a Vosk of horn and hide.
"How long is it?" I asked. I could not even see the end of it.
"It is probably about fifteen pasangs in length," said Grunt, "it is some
four or five pasangs in width."
"It can take the better part of a day to ride around it," said Cuwignaka.
"How many beasts are numbered in such a group?" I asked.
"Who has counted the stars, who has numbered the blades of grass," said
Cuwignaka.
"It is estimated," said Grunt, "that there are between some two and three
million beasts there."
"Surely it is the largest such group in the Barrens," I said.
"No," said Grunt, "there are larger, Boswell claims to have seen one such
group which took five days to swim a river."
"How long would it take a group like this to swim a river?" I asked.
"Two or three days," said Grunt.
"I see," I said. The Boswell he had referred to, incidentally, was the same
fellow for whom the Boswell Pass through the Thentis Mountains had been named.
He was an early explorer in the Barrens. Others were such men, as Diaz,
Hogarthe and Bento.
"It is an awsome and splendid sight," I said. "Let us ride closer."
"But let us be careful," said Cuwignaka. Then, with a cry of pleasure,
kicking his heels back into the flanks of his kaiila, he urged his beast down
the slope.
Grunt and I looked at one another, and grinned. "He is still a boy," said
Grunt.
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We then followed Cuwignaka. It was toward neen when we reined up beside him
on another rise. The animals were now some three to four pasangs away, below
us.
"It is the Pte!" called out Cuwignaka happily to us, turning to look at us.
"Yes," said Grunt.
We could now smell the animals clearly. My mount, a lofty black kaiila,
silken and swift, shifted nervously beneath me. Its nostrils were flared. Its
strom lids were drawn, giving its large round eyes a distinctive yellowish
cast. I did not think that it, a kaiila purchased some months ago in the town
of Kailiauk, near the perimeter, had ever smelled such beasts before, and
certainly not in such numbers. Too, I supposed that there were many among such
beasts, perhaps most, in fact, who had ever smelled a man, or a kaiila,
before. Grit and dust settled about us. I blinked my eyes against it. It was
very impressive to be so close to such beasts. I scarcely dared to conjeture
what it might be like to be even closer, say, within a few hudred yards of
them. Individual kills on such animals, incidentally, are commonly made from
distances whre one can almost reach out and touch the beast. One must be that
close for the lance thrust to be made or for the arrow, from the small bow, to
strke with suffcient depth, to the feathers, either into the intestinal cavity
behind the last rib, resulting in large-scale internal hemorrhaging, or behind
the left shoulder blade, into the heart.
"Is there always this much dust?" I asked. I raised my voice somewhat,
against the sounds of the beasts, their bellowing and the thud of the hoofs.
"No," said Cuwignaka, raising his voice. "It is moving now, not drifting
and grazing."
"Sometimes, for no clear reason," said Grunt, "it will move, and more or
less swiftly. Then, at other times, for similarly no apparent reson, it will
halt and graze, or move slowly, gently grazing along the way."
"It is early," I said.
"Yes," said Grunt. "That is interesting. It must have been moving more than
is usual."
"I will inspect the animals," said Cuwignaka.
"Be careful," said Grunt.
We watched Cuwignaka move his kaiila down the slope and toward the animals.
He would not approach them too closely. There were tribal reasons for this.
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"It is like a flood," I said, "or a movement of the earth' it is like wind,
or thunder; it is like a natrual phenomenon."
"Yes," said Grunt.
"In its way," I said, "I suppose it is a natural phenomenon."
"Yes, in its way, it is," said Grunt.
The movement of this group of animals had been reported in the camp of the
Isbu Kaiila, or the Little-Stones band of the Kaiila, for more than ten days
now, in a rough map drawn to the east of the camp, with notched sticks, the
notching indicating the first and second day, and so on, of the animals'
progress, and the placement of the sticks indicating the position of the
animals on the day in question. Scouts of the Sleen Soldiers, a warrior
society of the Isbu, had been keeping track of the animlas since they had
entered he country of the Kaiila more than two weeks ago. This was a moon in
which the Sleen Soldiers held police powers in the camp, and so it was to
their lot that numerous details, such as scouting and guarding, supervising
the camp and settling minor disputs, now fell. Among their other duties, of
course, would come the planning, organization and policing of the great
Wanasapi, the hunt or chase.
In a few Ehn Cuwignaka, sweating, elated, his braided hair behind him,
returned his lathering kaiila to our side.
"It is glorious!" he said.
"Good," said Grunt, pleased at the young man's pleasure.
It is difficult to make clear to those who are not intimately acquainted
with such things the meaning of the Pte, or Kailiiauk, to the red savages. It
is a central phenomenon in their life, and much of their life revolves around
it. The mere thought of the kailiauk can inspire awe in them, and pleasure and
excitement. More to them than meat for the stomach and clothes for the back is
the kailiauk to them; too, it is mystery and meaning for them; it is heavy
with medicine; it is a danger; it is a sport; it is a challenge; and, at dawn,
with a lance or bow in one's hand, and a swift, eager kaiila between one's
knees, it is a joy to the heart.
"Look," said Grunt, pointing to the right.
A rider, a red savage, was approaching rapidly. He wore a breechclout and
moccasins. About his neck was a string of sleen claws. There were no feathers
in his hair and neither he nor his animal wore paint. Too, he did not carry
lance and shild. He was not on the business of war. He did have a bow
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case and quiver, and at the thong of his waist was a beaded sheath, from
which protruded the hilt of a trade knife.
"It is Hci," said Cuwingaka. There is no exact translation of the
expression 'Hci' from Kaiila, into either Gorean or English. This is ot all
that unusual, incidentally. One cannot expect identical regularities in
meaning and usage to obtain in diverse linguistic communities. The expression,
for most practical regularities in meaning and usage to obtain in diverse
linguistic communites. The expresion, for most practical purposes, signifies a
certain type of gap, such as, for example, might occur in the edge of a trade
ax, or hatchet, for use in drawing nails, an occupation for which red savages,
of course, have little use. It is also used more broadly for a gash, such as
an ax might cut in a tree, or for a cut or scar. It seems to be clearly in the
latter range of meanings that the name belonged. At the left side of Hci's
face, at the chin, there was an irregular, jagged scar, som two inches in
length. This dated from several years ago, when he had been seventeen, from
the second time he had set the paws of his kaiila on the warpath. It had been
given to him by a Yellow Knife in mounted combat, the result of a stroke by a
long-handled, stone-bladed tomahawk, or canhpi. Before that time, as a
stalwart, handsome lad, he had been affectionately known as Ihdazicaka, or
One-Who-Counts-Himself-Rich. Afterwards he had become, by his own wish, only
Hci. He had become morose and cruel. Immersing himself in the comraderie, and
the rituals and ceremonies of the Sleen Soldiers, it seemed he lived then for
little other than the concerns of raiding and war. There were members of his
own society who feared to ride with him, so swift, so fierce, so careless of
danger he was. Once, in a fight with Fleer, he had leaped to the ground and
thrust his lance through the long, trailing end of the society's war sash,
which, on that occasion, he had been wearing. He thus fastened himself in
place, on foot, among the charging Fleer. "I will not yield this ground!" he
had cried. The fleeing members of his society, seeing this, and knowing that
he wore the war sash, had then rallied and, though outnumbered, had charged
the Fleer. The Fleer, eventually, had left the scene of battle, feeling the
cost of obtaining a victory over such men would be too high. As they left they
had raised their lances in salute to the young warrior. Such courage is
acknowledged in the Barrens, even though it be in an enemy.
Hci reined in his kaiila, squealing, kicking dust, before us.
The disfigurement was indeed prominent. The blow of the canhpi had slashed
through to the jawbone.
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"What are you doing here?" demanded Hci, speaking in Kaiila. I could not,
given my time with Grunt and Cuwignaka, and my time in the Isbu camp, follow
much of what was said. I could now, too, to some extent, communicate in that
expressive, sibilant language.
"We have come to see the Pte," said Cuwignaka. The expression 'Pte',
literally stands for the kailiauk cow, as 'Ta-tanka' stands for the kailiauk
bull, but it is commonly used colloquially, more generally, to stand for the
kailiauk in general. In a sense, the "Pte" may be considered the mother of the
tribes, as it is through her that their nomadic life, in its tichness and
variety, becomes possible. More formally, of course, one speaks of the
kailiauk. The expression 'kailiauk' is a Gorean word and, as far as I know,
does not have an Earth origin.
I looked beyond Hci to the beasts, some two to three pasangs away. The
kailiauk is a large, lumbering, shaggy trident-horned ruminant. I has four
stomachs and an eight-valved heart. It is dangerous, gregarious, small-eyed
and short-tempered. Adult males can stand as high as twenty or twenty-five
hands at the shoulder and weigh as much as four thousand pounds.
"You have no right here," said Hci, angrily.
"We are causing no harm," said Cuwignaka.
"No one will hunt until the great hunt," said Hci. "Then we will hunt. The
Isbu will hunt. The Casmu will hunt! The Isanna will hunt! The Napoktan will
hunt! TheWismahi will hunt! The Kaiila will hunt!"
The Isbu, or Little-Stones band; the Casmu, or Sand, band; the Isanna, the
Little-Knife band; the Napoktan, or Bracelets, band; and the Wismahi, or
Arrowhead band, are the five bands which constitute the Kaiila tribe. The
origins of these names are not always clear. It seems probable that the Litte-
Stones and the Sand bands may have had their names from geographical features,
perhaps those adjacent to riverside encampments. The Wismahi, or Arrowhead,
band is said by some to have once made their winter camp at the confluence of
two rivers, the joining of the rivers resembling the point of an arrowhead.
Others claim that they once lived in a flintrich area, and prior to the
general availability of trade points, conducted a lively trade in flint with
surrounding tribes. The Bracelets band, or the Napoktan, wear copper bracelets
on the left wrist. This band, outside of the Kaiila, is often known as the
Mazahubu band, which is the Dust-Leg word for
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braceltes. I do not know the origin of the name for the Isanna, or the
Little-Knife, band. Sometimes, as I suspect was the case with the Napoktan,
these names may owe their origin to the idiosyncrasies of given leaders, to
unique historiacal events of perhaps, even, to dreams. Dreams, and dreaming on
matters of importance, are taken very seriously by the red savages. Indeed, is
it not that in dreams one may even enter the medicine world itself? In dreams
is it not the case that one might sit about the fires of the dead, conversing
with them? is it not the case that in dreams one may understand the speech of
animals? And is it not the case that in dreams one may find oneself in distant
lands and countries, moons away, and yet, in a single night, find oneself,
awakening, returned to one's lodge, to the embers of one's fire and the
familiar poles and skins about one?
"We are here to see the Pte," said Cuwignaka, "not to hunt."
"It is well for you," said Hci, angrily. "You well know the penalties for
illcit hunting."
Cuwignaka did not even deign to respond. To be sure, the penalties were not
light. One might be publicly denounced and abuse, even beaten, in the village.
One's weapons could be broken. One's lodge, and robes, and possessions could
be taken away or cut to pieces with knives and scattered to the winds. In the
beliefs of the red savages the welfare of the whole, that of the tribe, takes
precedence over the welfare of the individual. In the thinking of the red
savages the right to diminish and jeopordize the community does not lie within
the prerogatives of the individual.
"Go away!" said Hci, with an angry wave of his arm.
Cuwignaka stiffened on the back of his kaiila.
Hci was angrily gestured to the string of sleen claws about his neck, the
sign of the Sleen Soldiers.
"It is an order," said Grunt to Cuwignaka, in Gorean. "He is well within
his authority, as you know. He is a Sleen Soldier, and it is among his duties
to track and protect the kailiauk. Do not think of it as a personal thing. He
is a Sleen Soldier, doing his work. In his place you would doubtless do much
the same."
Cuwignaka nodded, recognizing the justice of this view. It was not Hci, so
to speak, who was being obeyed, but rather a duly constituted authority, an
officer, a constable or warden in such matters.
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We turned our kaiila about, to take our way from the place.
"Women, slaves, and white men are not to ride forth to look upon the Pte,"
called Hci after us.
Cuwignaka wheeled his kaiila about, angrily. I, wheeling aoubt, too, caught
his arm.
"I am not a woman," said Cuwignaka.
"You are a woman," said Hci. "You sould please warriors."
"I am not a woman," said Cuwignaka.
"You do not wear the breechclout," said Hci, "You did not take the
warpath."
"I am not a woman," said Cuwingaka.
"You wear the dress of a woman." said Hci. "YOu do the work of a woman. I
think I will give you the name of a woman. I think I will call you Sipotopto."
Cuwignaka's fists clenched on the reins of his kaiila. The expression
'Siptopto' is a common expression for beads.
"You should please warriors," said Hci.
"I had not quarrel with Fleer," said Cuwignaka.
"You are not welcome among the Isbu," said Hci. "You shame them. You cannot
mate among us. Why do you not go away?"
"I am Isbu," said Cuwignaka. "I am Isbu Kaiila!"
My hand on his arm restrained Cuwignala from charging Hci. Had he attempted
to do so he would have been, without a saddle, dragged literally from the back
of the kaiila.
"You should have been left staked out," said Hci. "It would have been
better for the Kaiila."
Cuwignaka shrugged. "Perhaps," he said. "I do not know."
Cuwignaka, on the back of his kaiila, wore the remains of a white dress, a
portion of the loot of a destroyed wagon train. He had been a slave of
soldiers traveling with the train. Originally he had been Isbu Kaiila. He had
twice refused to go on the warpath against the Fleer, hereditary enemies of
the Kaiila. The first time he had been put in a dress of a woman and forced to
live as a woman, perfoming the work of a woman and being referred to in the
feminine gender. It was from that time that he had been called Cuwignaka,
which means "Woman's Dress." It is, moreover, the word for
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the dress of a white woman and, in this, given the contempt in which the
proud red savages hold white females, commonly reducing them to fearful,
groveling slaves, utilizing them as little more than beasts of burden and
ministrants to their will, in all respects, it possesses to the Kailla an
additional subtle and delicious irony.
The second time Cuwignaka had refused to go on the warpath he had been
bound in his dress and traded to Dust Legs, from whom, eventually, he was
purchased as a slave by whites, in the vicinity of the Ihanke, the border
between they lands of farmers and rancers and the lands of the red savages.
Near the perimeter, as a slave, he had learned to speak Gorean. Later he was
acquired by soldiers and brought again into the Barrens, thier intention being
to use him as an interpreter. When the wagon train had been destroyed, that
with which the soldiers were then traveling, he had fallen into the hands of
the victors. He had returned to the Barrens. He had been the slave of the
hated enemy. He was staked out, to die. A lance, unbroken, had been placed by
him, butt down, in the earth, in token of respect, at least, by Canka, Fire-
Steel, his brother. Canak had also taken the dress which Hci had thrown
contemptuously beside him, taken from the loot of one of the wagons, and
wrapped it about the lance. In this fashion Canka had conspicuously marked the
place, as though with a flag.
It has been my considered judgment that Canka, in doing this, had hoped to
draw attention to the location, that he hoped by this device to attract others
to the spot, who might free the lad, or perhaps to mark it for himself, that
he might later, accepting exile and outlawry at the hands of the Isbu, free
his brother. As it turned out Grunt and I, traversing the Barrens, had come on
the lad and freed him. Shortly thereafter we were apprehended by a mixed group
of unlikely allies, representatives of Sleen, Yellow Knives and Kaiila, who in
virtue of the Memory, as it is called, had joined forces to attack the wagon
train and soldiers.
Grung had brought a coffle of white slave girls into the Barrens with him,
as pack animals and trade goods. He had also acquired two prisoners, two
former enemies of his, Max and Kyle Hobart, in effect as gifts from Dust Legs.
The Sleen took two of his girls, Ginger and Evelyn, former tavern girls from
the town of Kailiauk, near the Ihanke, and the Hobarts, from him. Four other
girls were led away from him naked and bound, their necks in tethers, by a
Yellow-Knife warrior.
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These were two American girls, Lois and Inez, an English girl, named
Priscilla, and a short, dark-haired French girl, named Corinne.
The Kaiila wre mostly members of the All Comrades, a warrior society, like
the Sleen Soldiers, of the Isbu Kaiila. They were under the command of Canka,
Cuwignaka's brother. One other was with the party, too, an older, warrior,
Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the prestigious Yellow-Kaiila Riders. He
was of the Casmu, or Sand, band.
Grunt's prize on the coffle, a beautiful red-haired girl, a former
debutante from Pennsylvania, once Miss Millicent Aubry-Wells, was selected out
by Canka as personal slave, one to run at the left flank of his own kaiila and
wear her leather, beaded collar, placed on her by his command, for him alone.
Grunt's last slave, the dark-haired beauty, Wasnapohdi, or Pimples, whome he
had acquired in trade for three hatchets from Dust Legs, he was permitted to
keep. This is probably because Canka truly bore us no ill will. Indeed, he was
probably pleased, as I now understand, that we had freed Cuwignaka. He may
also have permitted Grunt to keep Wasnapohdi, of course, because she was
conversant in Kaiila. He would have respected her for that.
"Slave," said Hci, regarding me, scornfully.
I did not meet his eyes. It was I, of course, who had actually freed
Cuwignaka. It had been my knife which had cut the thongs. This was something
which Canka, as Blotanhunka, or war-party leader, of the All Comrades, had, of
course, not been able to overlook. Regardless of is own feelings in the matter
or even, possibly, of his own intentions with respect to the future, such an
act could not be allowed to pass unnoticed. A prisoner of the Kaiila, one duly
dealt with, so to speak, had been freed. There was a payment to be made. I, on
foot, had looked at the mounted warriors, the Kaiila left then in place. There
were some seventeen of them, including Canka. Each was an All Comrade; each
was skilled; all had counted coup.
"I am ready to fight," I had said.
"Do not be a fool," had said Grunt.
"I am read," I had said to Canka.
"There is an alternative," had said Grunt. "Can't you see? He is waiting."
"What?" I asked.
"The collar," said Grunt.
"Never," I said.
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"Please, Tatnkasa," had said Canka. This was what he had called me, when he
had learned that I was willing to fight with his men, no quarter given or
taken. It means, in effect, "Red Bull." 'Tatanka' designates the kiliauk bull,
and the suffix 'sa' means red. In Kaiila, as in most of the languages of the
Barrens, the adjective commonly succeeds the noun. The name was one in which
respect was conveyed.
"Please," had said Cuwignaka.
"Please," had said Grunt.
Numbly I had unbuckled my sword belt. I had wrapped the belt about the
sword and knife sheath, and had given the belt, and these objects, to Grunt. I
had disarmed myself. In moments Canka's beaded collar had been tied on my
neck. I had become his slave.
"Slave," sneered Hci.
I did not respond to him.
"White men," said Hci, scornfully, gesturing to myself and Grunt.
"Yes," said Grunt, pleasantly.
"How is it that a slave," asked Hci of Cuwignaka, "wears moccasins and
rides a kaiila?"
"It is permitted by Canka," said Cuwignaka.
"Dismount," said Hci to me. "Remove your moccasins and your garments,
completely."
"He is not your slave," said Cuwignaka.
"Nor is he yours," said Hci.
I dismounted and stripped, removing also the moccasins which Canka had
given me. I haded the clothing, and the moccasins, to Grunt. I then stood
before Hci's kaiila. I wore now only the beaded leather collar which had been
placed on me some two weeks ago. It was about an inch and a half high. It had
a distinctive pattern of beading. The colors and design of the beading marked
it as Canka's. It is common among red savages to use such designs, such
devices, to mark their possessions. A collar of identical designs, back in the
village, was worn by the lovely, red-haired girl, the former Miss Millicent
Aubrey-Wells, who had so taken the fancy of the ount warrior. Both of our
collars were tied shut. The knots on them had been retied personally by Canka
after our arrival at his camp. This is done, in effect, with a signature knot,
in a given tribal style, known only to the tier. This gives him a way of
telling if the knot has been untied and retied in his absence. It is death,
incidentally, for a slave to remove such a collar without permission. It can
be understood then
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that slaves of the red savages do not tamper with their collars. They keep
them on.
"Slave," said Hci, contemptuously.
One difference, of course, was clear between the collars of the girl and
myself. Hers was the collar of a true slave, in the fulness of that meaning,
whereas mine, ineffect, though identical, functioned almost as a badge of
protection. In being Canka's slave I had a status and place in the Isbu camp
which, in its way, sheltered me from the type of sportive attack to which a
lone, free white man might be otherwise exposed. In another way, Grunt's
familiarity to the Kaiila, for he had visited them last year, and was close to
Mahpiyasapa, Black Clouds, the civil chieftain of the Isbu, and his knowledge
of their language, which closely resembles Dust Leg, garnered him a similar
protection. His value as a trader, too, was clear to the Kaiila. They prized
many of the things of value which he might bring into the Barrens, the men
relishing trinkets such as trade points and knife blades, and the women
welcoming trade cloth, chemical dyes and drilled glass beads. Too, Grunt was
an honest man, and likeable. This pleased the Kaiila, as it also did the Dust
Legs and the Fleer.
The collar of Canka which I wore, as I had come to realize in the past
several days, was, all things considered, as he did not intend to enforce its
significance upon me, a valuable accouterment. Canka was a respected and
important young warrior; indeed, in the recent action to the west, he had even
served as Blotanhunka of the All Comrades. This gave me, as hisproperty, a
certain prestige, particularly as Canka himself treated me with obvious
respect. He called me Tatankasa, or Red Bull, which was a noble name from the
point of view of the Kaiila. He gave me noccasins. He permitted me my
clothing. He let me have, even, the use of my former kaiila. I did not even
stay in his lodge, or have to sleep near it. I stayed with Cuwignaka in a
tattered lodge, donated by Akihoka, One-Who-Is-Skillful, a close friend of
Canka. For most practical purposes I was free in the village.
"Kneel," said Hci.
I knelt, naked, save for the collar of Canka, in teh tall, dry grass.
"Put your head down," said Hci.
I did so.
"This is not necessary," said Cuwignaka.
"Be quiet, Siptopto," said Hci, "lest I consign you to the pleasure of
wariors."
page 16
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I do not fear you," said Cuwignaka.
"You speak boldly for a female," said Hci.
"I am a man," said Cuwignaka. Bold speech, incidentally, is commonly
accepted from free females of their own people by the red savages. If she
grows too irritating, of course, she may, like any other woman, be beaten.
Bold speech on the other hand, is not accepted from female slaves among the
red savages. Female slaves among such peoples quickly learn their place, a
place in which they are kept with perfection.
"I did not know that," said Hci, as though interested.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"On your belly," said Hci to me.
"Do not do this," said Cuwignaka.
"Crawl to the paws of my kaiila," said Hci to me.
"No," said Cuwignaka.
"Is he not a slave?" asked Hci.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka, uncertainly.
I moved to the paws of the kaiila, on my belly, my head down.
"Kiss the paws of my kaiila," said Hci to me, imperiously.
I did so. I had been commanded, as though I might have been a girl.
"Canka will hear of this," said Cuwignaka.
"See that he does," said Hci, angrily, and then pulled the kaiila away. The
dust from the paws of the kaiila was in my mouth. "And now, get away from
here! Return to the camp!" Little love was lost, I gathered, between Hci and
Canka. Hci doubtless held Canka responsible, in some fashion, for Cuwignaka's
freedom, and his presence among the Isbu, a presence which many among the
Isbu, including Hci, found infuriating and shameful. In humiliating me, whom
Canka treated with respect and honor, he was, in effect, demeaning Canka. On
Canka's part, similarly, there was little affection borne toward Hci, largely
because of the latter's hostility towards his brother, Cuwignaka. In Canka's
view Hci's contempt for Cuwignaka was moe unbending, more extreme and rigid,
than was called for. Cuwignaka lived and dressed as a woman; he was referred
to as a woman and performed the labors of a woman. He was not permitted to
mate among the Kaiila. What more did Hci want?
I myself suspected that the matter went deeper than Hci's tribal pride and
sense of propriety. Alread Canka was a rising young warrior in teh tribe.
Already, once, he had served as Blotanhunka, or the leader of the war party.
Hci, in spite of
page 17
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
his skills and courage, had not yet received such an honor. This may have
stung Hci even more as he was the son of Mahpiyasapa, the civil chief of the
Isbu. Such leadershipmight have seemed almost owed to one in his position. Yet
it had been denied him. I suspected that the reason that Hci had never been
given the command of the raiding party was not because he was not admired and
liked among the Isbu, nor because his trail and war skills were not
respected, by because his judgment was not trusted. The reclessness with which
he conducted hismelf and his insouciant disregard of personal danger did not
augur well for his capacity to discharge the duties of a responsible
leadership.
I did not think, incidentally, that Hci's hostility toward Canka had
anything to do with Canka's acquistion of, and ownership of, Winyela, the
lovely, white, red-haired female slave, the former Miss Millicent Aubrey-
Welles, of Pennsylvania, whom Grunt had brought into the Barrens for
Mahpiyasapa, his father. Hci had little use for such slaves, except
occasionally to rape and quirt them. Mahpiyasapa, on the other hand, had been
extremely displeased that Canka, despite being informed of the intended
disposition of the white female, had asserted his war rights of the slave
capture, and, desiring her mightily, had taken her for himself. Mahpiyasapa,
incidentally, as I have mentioned, was the civil chief of the Isbu.
Among the red savages there are various sorts of chief. The primary types
of chief are the war chief, the medicine chief and the civil chief. One may
be, interestingly, only one sort of chief at a time. This, like the rotation
of police powers among warrior societies, is a portion of the checks and
balance. Other checks and blaances are such things as traditon and custom, the
closeness of the governed and the governors, multiple-family
interrelatednessess, the election of chiefs, the submission of significant
matters to a council, and, ultimately, the feasibility of simply leaving the
group, in greater or lesser numbers. Despotism, then, in virtue of the
insitutions of the red savages, is impractical for them; this impracticality
is a much surer guarantee of its absence in a society than the must fervid of
negative rhetorics.
"Go," ordered Hci.
"Do you command me as Hci, or as a Sleen Soldier?" asked Cuwignaka,
angrily.
"Go," said Hci, menacingly.
page 18
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I obey you as a Sleen Soldier," said Cuwignaka. "I will go."
"When the hunt is mounted," said Hci to Cuwignaka, "you may not hunt. You
will cut meat with the women."
"That is known to me," said Cuwignaka.
"For you are a woman," said Hci, sneeringly.
"No," said Cuwignaka. "I am a man."
"She is pretty, isn't she?" aske Hci of Grunt.
Grunt did not respond.
"If she does not please you," said Hci to Grunt, "beat her, as you would
any other woman." He then turned his mount abruptly about. I heard its paws,
suddenly, striking the turf, the sound rapidly diminishing.
"Do not pursue him," said Grunt to Cuwignaka.
摘要：

Book18BLOODBROTHERSOFGOR~~~~~~~~~~~~~-----byJohnNorman-----VolumeeighteenoftheChroniclesofCounter-Earth----------------------------------------ChapterOneTHEPTE"Thereitis,"saidGrunt,pointingaheadandtoourright."Doyouseeit?""Yes,"Isaid."Too,Ifeelit."Icouldfeelthetremorintheearth,eventhroughthepawsandle...

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