Nomads of Gor (8 page)

 
Priest-Kings, but unlike the Goreans of the cities, with their

 
castes of Initiates, they do not extend to them the dignities of

 
worship. I suppose the Tuchuks worship nothing, in the

 
common sense of that word, but it is true they hold many

 
things holy, among them the bask and the skills of arms, but

 
chief of the things before which the proud Tuchuk stands

 
ready to remove his helmet is the sky, the simple, vast

 
beautiful sky, from which fans the rain that, in his myths,

 
formed the earth, and the basks, and the Tuchuks. It is to the

 
sky that the Tuchuks pray when they pray, demanding victory

 
and luck for themselves, defeat and misery for their enemies.

 
    
The Tuchuk, incidentally, like others of the Wagon Peoples,

 
prays only when mounted, only when in the saddle and with

 
weapons at hand; he prays to the sky not as a slave to a

 
master, nor a servant- to a god, but as warrior to a Ubar;

 
the women of the Wagon Peoples, it might be mentioned,

 
are not permitted to pray; many of them, however, do

 
patronize the haruspexes, who, besides foretelling the future

 
with a greater or lesser degree of accuracy for generally

 
reasonable fees, provide an incredible assemblage of amulets,

 
talismans, trinkets, philters, potions, spell papers, wonder-

 
working sleen teeth, marvelous powdered kailiauk horns, and

 
colored, magic strings that, depending on the purpose, may

 
be knotted in various ways and worn about the neck.

 
    
As we passed among the wagons I leaped back as a tawny

 
prairie sleen hurled itself against the bars of a sleen cage,

 
reaching out for me with its sic-clawed paw. There were four

 
other prairie sleen in the cage, a small cage, and they were

 
curling and moving about one another, restlessly, like angry

 
snakes. They would be released with the fan of darkness to

 
rum the periphery of the herds, acting, as I have mentioned,

 
as shepherds and sentinels. They are also used if a slave

 
escapes, for the sleen is an efficient, tireless, savage, almost

 
infallible hunter, capable of pursuing a scent, days old, for

 
hundreds of pasangs until, perhaps a month later, it finds its

 
victim and tears it to pieces.

 
I was startled by the sound of slave bells and saw a girl,

 
stripped save for bells and collar, carrying a burden among

 
the wagons.

 
    
Kamchak saw that I had noticed the girl and chuckled,

 
sensing that I might find it strange, seeing a slave so among

 
the wagons.

 
    
She wore bells locked on both wrists, and on both ankles,

 
thick cuffs and anklets, each with a double line of bells,

 
fastened by steel and key. She wore the Turian collar, rather

 
than the common slave collar. The Turian collar lies loosely

 
on the girl, a round ring; it fits so loosely that, when grasped

 
in a man's fist, the girl can turn within it; the common

 
Gorean collar, on the other hand, is a flat, snugly fitting steel

 
band. Both collars lock in the back, behind the girl's neck.

 
The Turian collar is more difficult to engrave, but it, like the

 
flat collar, will bear some legend assuring that the girl, if

 
found, will be promptly returned to her master. Bells had

 
also been afflicted to her collar.

 
"She is Turian?" I asked.

 
"Of course," said Kamchak.

 
"In the cities," I said, "only Pleasure Slaves are so belled,

 
and then customarily for the dance."

 
"Her master," said Kamchak, "does not trust her."

 
    
In his simple statement I then understood the meaning of

 
her condition. She would be allowed no garments, that she

 
might not be able to conceal a weapon; the bells would mark

 
each of her movements.

 
"At night," said Kamchak, "she is chained under the

 
wagon."

 
The girl had now disappeared.

 
"Turian girls are proud," said Kamchak. "Thus, they make

 
excellent slaves."

     
 
What he said did not surprise me. The Gorean master,

 
commonly, likes a spirited girl, one who fights the whip and

 
collar, resisting until at last, perhaps months later, she is

 
overwhelmed and must acknowledge herself his, utterly and

 
without reservation, then fearing only that he might tire of

 
her and sell her to another.

 
"In time," said Kamchak, `'she will beg for the rag of a

 
slave."

 
    
I supposed it was true. A girl could take only so much, and

 
then she would kneel to her master, her head to his boots,

 
and beg for a bit of clothing, even though it be only to be

 
clad Kajir.

 
    
Kajira is perhaps the most common expression for a fe-

 
male slave. Another frequently heard expression is Sa-Pora, a

 
compound word, meaning, rather literally, Chain Daughter,

 
or Daughter of the Chain. Among the Wagon Peoples, to be

 
clad Kajir means, for a girl, to wear four articles, two red,

 
two black; a red cord, the Curia, is tied about the waist; the

 
Chatka, or long, narrow strip of black leather, fits over this

 
cord in the front, passes under, and then again, from the

 
inside, passes over the cord in the back; the Chatka is drawn

 
tight; the Kalmak is then donned; it is a short, open, sleeve-

 
less vest of black leather; lastly the Koora, a strip of red

 
cloth, matching the Curia, is wound about the head, to hold

 
the hair back, for slave women, among the Wagon Peoples,

 
are not permitted to braid, or otherwise dress their hair; it

 
must be, save for the Koora, worn loose. For a male slave,

 
or Kajirus, of the Wagon Peoples, and there are few, save

 
for the work chains, to be clad Kajir means to wear the Kes,

 
a short, sleeveless work tunic of black leather. As Kamchak

 
and I walked to his wagon, I saw several girls, here and

 
there, clad Kajir; they were magnificent; they walked with

 
the true brazen insolence of the slave girl, the wench who

 
knows that she is owned, whom men have found beautiful

 
enough, and exciting enough, to collar. The dour women of

 
the Wagon Peoples, I saw, looked on these girls with envy

 
and hatred, sometimes striking them with sticks if they should

 
approach too closely the cooking pots and attempt to steal

 
a piece of meat.

 
"I will tell your master!" screamed one.

 
The girl laughed at her and with a toss of her auburn hair,

 
bound in the Koora, ran off between the wagons.

 
Kamchak and I laughed.

 
   
I gathered that the beauty had little to fear from her

 
master, saving perhaps that she might cease to please him.

 
The wagons of the Wagon Peoples are, in their hundreds

 
and thousands, in their brilliant, variegated colors, a glorious

 
sight. Surprisingly the wagons are almost square, each the

 
size of a large room. Which is drawn by a double team of

 
bosk, four in a team, with each team linked to its wagon

 
tongue, the tongues being joined by "tem-wood crossbars. The

 
two axles of the wagon are also of "tem-wood, which perhaps,

 
because of its flexibility, joined with the general flatness of

 
the southern Gorean plains, permits the width of the wagon.

 
    
 
The wagon box, which stands almost six feet from the

 
ground, is formed of black, lacquered planks of "em-wood.

 
Inside the wagon box, which is square, there is fixed a

 
rounded, tentlike frame, covered with the taut, painted, var-

 
nished hides of basks. These hides are richly colored, and

 
often worked with fantastic designs, each wagon competing

 
with its neighbor to be the boldest and most exciting. The

 
rounded frame is Fred somewhat within the square of the

 
wagon box, so that a walkway, almost like a ship's bridge,

 
surrounds the frame. The sides of the wagon box, incidental-

 
ly, are, here and there, perforated for arrow ports, for the

 
small horn bow of the Wagon Peoples can be used to advant-

 
age not only from the back of a kaiila but, like the crossbow,

 
from such cramped quarters. One of the most striking

 
features of these wagons is the wheels, which are huge, the

 
back wheels having a diameter of about ten feet; the front

 
wheels are, like those of the Conestoga wagon, slightly small-

 
er, in this case, about eight feet in diameter; the larger rear

 
wheels are more difficult to mire; the smaller front wheels,

 
nearer the pulling power of the bask, permit a somewhat

 
easier turning of the wagon. These wheels are carved wood

 
and, like the wagon hides, are richly painted. Thick strips of

 
boskhide form the wheel rims, which are replaced three to

 
four times a year. The wagon is guided by a series of eight

 
straps, two each for the four lead animals. Normally, how-

 
ever, the wagons are tied in tandem fashion, in numerous long

 
columns, and only the lead wagons are guided, the others

 
simply following, thongs running from the rear of one wagon

 
to the nose rings of the bask following, sometimes as much as