Females and Clothing

"sometimes in the south, female slaves are dressed in the robes of free women, even veiled, and taken by their masters to see tarn races, or games, or song-dramas ; many assume that she, sitting regally by his side, is a companion, or being courted for the companionship ; only he and she know that their true relation is that of master and slave girl." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 171 "...when a female places her clothing at the feet of a man she acknowledges that whether or not she may wear it, or other garments, or even if she is to be clothed at all, is dependant on his will, not hers." Book 20, Players of Gor, page 136 "she who dresses in certain ways in order to make herself attractive to me, she who dresses herself in certain ways in order that she may be pleasing to them, is in her heart a slave." Book 20, Players of Gor, page 218

Accessories

"The shoe was at least ten inches high. I laughed. This explained the incredible height of the Ubar's daughter. 'It's broken,' I said. 'I'm sorry.' She tried to rise, but one foot was, of course, some ten inches higher than the other. She fell again, and I unstrapped the remaining shoe. 'No wonder you can hardly walk,' I said. 'Why do you wear these silly things?' 'The daughter of a Ubar must look down on her subjects,' was the simple if extraordinary reply. When she stood up, now barefoot, her head came only a little higher than my chin. She might have been a bit taller than the average Gorean girl, but not much. She kept her eyes sullenly down, unwilling to raise them to look into my own. The daughter of a Ubar looked up to no man." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 97 - 98 ~才 "It is not wise to try to tear away the garments of a free woman with one's bare hands. They may contain poisoned needles." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 402 ~才 "To finish this ensemble, gloves, hoses and slippers or taylored boots are worn. As accessories, the Free Woman wears jewelry befitting a woman of her status. She is very careful not to wear anything that could be mistaken for slave jewelry. The Gorean Woman also did not dye her hair or paint her toe nails. Her toenails were not painted, of course. Such is almost unheard of among Gorean free women and is rare even among slaves. The usual Gorean position on the matter is that toenails and fingernails are not, say, red by nature and thus should not be made to appear as if they were. They also tend to frown upon the dyeing of hair... the reservations about hair coloring are particularly acute in commercial situations. One would not wish to buy a girl thinking she was auburn, a rare and muchly prized hair color on Gor, for example, and then discover later that she was, say, blond. Against such fraud, needless to say, the law provides redress." Book 24, Vagabonds of Gor, page 186

Robes of Concealment

I regarded the daughter of the Ubar, now a sorry sight. Her Robes of Concealment were splattered with mud and marsh water, and in several places the heavy brocade had stiffened and cracked. The dominant colors of her Robes of concealment were subtle reds, yellows, and purples, arrayed in intricate, overlapping folds. I guessed it would have taken her slave girls hours to array her in such garments. Many of the free women of Gor and almost always those of High Caste wear the Robes of Concealment, though, of course, their garments are seldom as complex or splendidly wrought as those of a Ubar's daughter. The Robes of Concealment, in function, resemble the garments of Muslim women on my own planet, though they are undoubtedly more intricate and cumbersome. Normally, of men, only a father and a husband may look upon the woman unveiled." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 91 ~才 "In the barbaric world of Gor, the Robes of Concealment are deemed necessary to protect the women from the binding fibers of roving tarnsmen. Few warriors will risk their lives to capture a woman who may be as ugly as a tharlarion. Better to steal slaves, where the guilt is less and the charms of the captive are more readily ascertainable in advance." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 91 ~才 "If you had been a true warrior, she said, you would have taken me on the back of your tarn, above the clouds, even before we had passed the outermost ramparts of Ar, and you would have thrown my robes to the streets below to show my people what had been the fate of the daughter of their Ubar." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 105 ~才 "Elizabeth, besides speaking boldly out on a large number of delicate civic, social and political issues, usually not regarded as the province of the fairer sex, categorically refused to wear the cumbersome Robes of Concealment traditionally expected of the free woman. She still ore the brief, exciting leather of a Tuchuk wagon girl and, when striding the high bridges, her hair in the wind, she attracted much attention, not only, obviously, from the men, but from women, both slave and free. Once a slave girl bumped into her on one of the bridges and struck at her, thinking she was only a slave, but Elizabeth with a swift blow of her small fist, downed the girl, and managed to seize one ankle and prevent her from tumbling from the bridge. 'Slave!' cried the girl. At this point Elizabeth hit her again, almost knocking her once more from the bridge. Then, when they had their hands in one anothers hair, kicking, the slave girl suddenly stopped, terrified, not seeing the gleaming, narrow band of steel locked on Elizabeth's throat. 'Where is your collar?' she stammered. 'What collar?' asked Elizabeth, her fists clenched in a girl's hair. 'The collar,' repeated the girl numbly. 'I'm free,' said Elizabeth. Suddenly the girl howled and fell to her knees before Elizabeth, kneeling and trembling to the whip. 'Forgive me, Mistress,' she cried. 'Forgive me!' When one who is slave strikes a free person the penalty is not infrequently death by impalement, preceeded by lengthy torture. 'Oh, get up!' said Elizabeth irritably, jerking the poor girl to her feet. They stood there looking at one another. 'After all,' said Elizabeth, 'why should it be only slave girls who are comfortable and can move freely?' 'Aren't you a slave?' asked one of the men nearby, a Warrior, looking closely. Elizabeth slapped him rather hard and he staggered back. 'No I am not,' she informed him. He stood there rubbing his face, puzzled. A number of people had gathered about, among them several free women. 'If you are free,' said one of them, 'you should be ashamed of yourself, being on the bridges so clad.' 'Well,' said Elizabeth, 'if you like walking around wrapped up in blankets, you are free to do so.' 'Shameless!' cried the free girl. 'You probably have ugly legs,' said Elizabeth. 'I do not!' she cried. 'Don't choke on your veil,' advised Elizabeth. 'I am really beautiful!' cried the free girl. 'I doubt it,' said Elizabeth. 'I am!' she cried. 'Well then,' said Elizabeth, 'what are you ashamed of?' Then Elizabeth strode to her and, to the girl's horror, on one of the public bridges, face-stripped her. The girl screamed but no one came to her aid, and Elizabeth spun her about, peeling off layers of Robes of Concealment until, in a heavy pile of silk, brocade, satin and starched muslin the girl stood in a sleeveless, rather brief orange tunic, attractive, of a sort sometimes worn by free women in the privacy of their own quarters. The girl stood there, wringing her hands and wailing. The slave girl had backed off, looking as though she might topple off the bridge in sheer terror. Elizabeth regarded the free woman. 'Well,' she said, 'you are rather beautiful, aren't you?' The free woman stopped wailing. 'Do you think so?' she asked. 'Twenty gold pieces, I'd say,' appraised Elizabeth. 'I'd give twenty-three,' said one of the men watching, the same fellow whom Elizabeth had slapped. In fury the free woman turned about and slapped him again, it not behing his day in Ko-ro-ba. 'What do you think?' asked Elizabeth of the cringing slave girl. 'Oh, I would not know,' she said, 'I am only a poor girl of Tyros.' 'That is your misfortune,' said Elizabeth. 'What is your name?' 'Rena,' said she, 'if it pleases Mistress.' 'It will do,' said Elizabeth. 'Now what do you think?' 'Rena?' asked the girl. 'Yes,' snapped Elizabeth. 'Perhaps you are a dull-witted slave?' The girl smiled. 'I would say twenty-five gold pieces,' she said. Elizabeth with the others, inspected the free girl. 'Yes,' said Elizabeth, 'Rena, I think you're right.' then she looked at the free girl. 'What is your name, Wench?' she demanded. The girl blushed.'Relia,' she said. then she looked at the slave girl. 'Do you really think I would bring so high a price - Rena?' 'Yes, Mistress,' said the girl. 'Yes, Relia,' corrected Elizabeth. The girl looked frightened for a moment. 'Yes - Relia,' she said. Relia laughed with pleasure. 'I don't suppose an exalted free woman like yourself,' said Elizabeth, 'drinks Ka-la-na?' 'Of course I do,' said Relia. 'Well,' said Elizabeth, turning to me, [Tarl] who had been standing there, flabbergasted as any on the bridge. 'we shall have some.' She looked at me. 'You there,' she said, 'a coin for Ka-la-na.' Dumbfounded I reached in my pouch and handed her a coin, a silver Tarsk. Elizabeth then took Relia by one arm and Rena by the other. 'We are off,' she announced, 'to buy a bottle of wine.' 'Wait,' I said, 'I'll come along.' 'No, you will not,' she said, with one foot kicking Relia's discarded Robes of Concealment from the bridge. 'You,' she announced, "are not welcome." 'What are you going to talk about?' I asked, plaintively. 'Men,'said Elizabeth, and went her way, the two girls, much pleased, laughing beside her. I do not know if whether or not Elizabeth's continued presence in Ko-ro-ba would have initiated a revolution among the city's free women or not. Surely there had been scandalized mention of her in circles even as august as that of the High Council of the City. My own father, Administrator of the City, seemed unnerved by her." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, pages 73 - 77 ~才 "Virginia was clad in garments cut from the beautiful, many coloured robes of concealment of the free woman. But, proud of her beauty and glorious in her joy, she had boldly shortened the garments almost to the length of slave livery, and a light, diaphanous orange veil loosely held her hair and lay about her throat. She wore the robes of concealment in such a way as not to conceal but enhance her great loveliness. She had discovered herself and her beauty on this harsh world, and was as proud of her body as the most brazen of slave girls, and would not permit its being shut away from the wind and the sunlight. The garments suggested the slave girl and yet insisted, almost demurely, on the reserve, the pride and dignity of the free woman. The combination was devastating, tormentingly attractive, an achievement so tantalizing and astoundingly exciting that I would not be surprised if it were adopted throughout Ar by the city's free women, rebellious, proud of their bodies, at last determined to throw off centuries of restriction, of confinement and sequestration, at last determined to stand forth as individuals, female individuals, sensuous as slave girls but yet rich in their own persons, intelligent, bold, beautiful, free." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 408 ~才 " 'Between the third and fourth robes,' I told her, 'there is a sheathed dagger, concealed in the lining. Keep your hands away from it.' 'You are observant,' she said. A warrior is trained to look for such things." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 403 ~才 "There remained now but the fifth robe, and the light sleeveless, greenish-silk, sliplike undergown." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 403 ~才 " 'I can still see your hair,' said Drusus Renclus. I drew the hood angrily even more closely about my features. Little more now could be seen of me, as is common with the robes of concealment, but a bit of the bridge of my nose and my eyes." Book 19, Kajira of Gor, page 99 " `In Ar's Station,' he said, `as in Ar, robes of concealment, precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, no more than the veil. Such things are a matter of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are statutes prescribing certain standards of decorum for free women. For example, they may not appear naked in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these standards of decorum, for example, with her arms or legs too much bared, may be made a slave.' " Book 23, Renegades of Gor, pages 367 - 368

Veils

"I threw her to my feet. She tried frantically to readjust the folds of her veil, but with both hands I tore it fully away, and she lay at my feet, as it is said on Gor, face-stripped." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 104 ~才 "Free women, here and there, were delicately putting tidbits beneath their veils. Some even lifted their veils somewhat to drink of the flavored ices. Some low-caste free women drank through their veils, and there were yellow and purple stains on the rep-cloth." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 141 ~才 "Free women of rence growers, when in their own marshes, do not veil themselves as is common among gorean women, particularly of the cities." Book 6, Raiders of Gor, page ?? "In the northern villages, and in the forest towns, and northward on the coast the woman do not veil themselves, as is common in the cities to the south." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, pages 33 - 34 ~才 "Eta, from behind me, pinned the first of five veils about my face. It was light, and shimmering, of white silk, almost transparent. Then, one after the other, she added the freedom veil, or veil of the citizeness, the pride veil, the house veil, and street veil. Each of these is heavier and more opaque than the one which lies within. the street veil, worn publicly, is extremely bulky, quite heavy and completely opaque; not even the lineaments of the nose and cheeks are discernible when it is worn; the house veil is worn indoors when there are those present who are not of the household, as in conversing with or entertaining associates of one's companion. Veils are worn in various numbers and combinations by Gorean free women, this tending to vary by preference and caste. Many low class Gorean women own only a single veil which must do for all purposes. Not all high-caste women wear a large number of veils. A free woman, publicly, will commonly wear, one or two veils; a frequent combination is the light veil, or last veil, and the house or street veil. Rich, vain women of high caste may wear ostentatiously as many as nine or ten veils. In certain cities, in connection with the free companionship, the betrothed or pledged beauty may wear eight veils, several of which are ritualistically removed during various phases of the ceremony of companionship; the final veils, and robes, of course, are removed in private by the male who, following their removal, arms interlocked with the girl, drinks with her the wine of the companionship, after which he completes the ceremony. This sort, of thing, however, varies considerably from city to city. In some cities the girl is unveiled, though not disrobed, of course, during the public ceremony. The friends of the male may then express their pleasure and joy in her beauty, and their celebration of the good fortunes of their friend. The veil, it might be noted, is not legally imperative for a free woman; it is rather a matter of modesty and custom. Some low-class, uncompanioned, free girls do not wear veils. Similarly certain bold free women neglect the veil. Neglect of the veil is not a crime in Gorean cities, though in some it is deemed a brazen and scandalous omission." Book 11, Slave Girl of Gor, page 106 "I then took forth a long, linear face veil; it was red; it was an intimacy veil; any given layer of this veil is quite diaphanous; its opacity is a function of thenumber of times it is wrapped about the face; a free woman, entertaining an anxious lover, might detain him for days, each night permitting him a less obscure glimpse of her features, until the shattering moment when she perhaps permits him to gaze upon her unclothed face. Such nonesense, of course, is not tolerated from a slave girl." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, pages 404 - 405 ~才 "All then drank save for the Lady Florence, who smiling,did not lift her cup. Free Women, drinking, commonly lift their veil, or veils, with the left hand. Low-caste free women, if veiled, usually do the same. Sometimes, however, particularly, if in public, they will drink through their veil, or veils. Sometimes, of course, free women will drink unveiled, even with guests. Much depends on how well the individuals are known and who is present. In their homes, of course, with only members of their families present, or servants and slaves, most free women do not veil themselves, even those of high caste." Book 14, Fighting Slave of Gor, page 276 ~才 "Many Gorean women, in their haughtiness and pride, do not choose to have their features exposed to the common view. They are too fine and noble to be looked upon by the casual rabble. Similarly the robes of concealment worn by many Gorean women are doubtless dictated by the same sentiments. On the other hand veiling is a not impractical modesty in a culture in where capture, and the chain and the whip are not unknown. One not regarded as inconsiderable, is that it is supposed to provide something of a protection against abduction and predation. Who would wish to risk his life, it is said, to carry off a woman who might, when roped to a tree and stripped, turn out to be as ugly as a tharlarion?" Book 15, Rogue of Gor, page 41

In Torvaldsland

"The free woman was a tall woman, large. She wore a great cape of fur, of white sea-sleen, thrown back to reveal the whiteness of her arms. Her kirtle was of the finest wool of Ar, dyed scarlet, with black trimmings. She wore two brooches, both carved of the horn of kailiauk, mounted in gold. At her waist she wore a jewelled scabbard, protruding from which I saw the ornamented, twisted blade of a Turian dagger; free women in Torvaldsland commonly carry a knife; at her belt, too, hung her scissors, and a ring of many keys, indicating that her hall contained many chests or doors; her hair was worn high, wrapped about a comb, matching the brooches, of the horn of kailiauk; the fact that her hair was worn dressed indicated that she stood in companionship; the number of keys, together with the scissors, indicated that she was mistress of a great house. She had gray eyes; her hair was dark; her face was cold, and harsh." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 156

Tahari Women

"...clad in a black haik, ..... free woman who shared my poverty. The haik, black, covers the woman from head to toe. At the eyes, there is a tiny bit of black lace, through which she may see. On her feet were soft, black, nonheeled slippers, with curled toes; they were decorated with a line of silver thread" Book 10, Tribesmen of Gor, page 44 ~才 "Free women, in the Tahri, incidentally, usually, when out of their housees, also measure their stride. Some fasten their own ankles together with silken thongs. Some dare even the chain, though they retain its key. Free girls, not yet companions, but of an age appropriate for the companionship, sometimes signal their availability to possible swains by belling their left ankles with a single 'virgin bell.' The note of this bell, which is bright and clear, is easily distinguished from those of the degrading, sensual bells of the slave. Sometimes free girls, two or more of them, as a girlish lark, obtain slave bells and chaining their ankles, dress themselves in their haiks and go about the city. Sometimes their girlish amusement does not turn out as they expect. Sometimes they find themselves being sold in markets at obscure oases." Book 10, Tribesmen of Gor, pages 44 - 45 ~才

Tuchuk Women

"Tuchuk women, unveiled, in their long leather dresses, long hair bound in braids, tended cooking pots hung on tem-wood tripods over dung fires. These women were unscarred, but like the bosk themselves, each wore a nose ring." Book 4, Nomads of Gor, page 27 ~才

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