Sleen

"It is at night that the sleen hunts, that six-legged, long-bodied mammalian carnivore, almost as much a snake as an animal." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 26 "I caught a strange, unpleasant scent, much like a common weasel or ferret, only stronger. In that instant every sense was alert. I froze, an almost animal response. I was silent, not moving, seeking the shelter of stillness and immobility. My head turned imperceptibly as I scanned the rocks and bushes about the road. I thought I heard a slight sniffing, a grunt, a small doglike whine. Then nothing. It too had frozen, probably sensing my presence. Most likely it was a sleen; hopefully a young one. I guessed it had not been hunting me or I would not have been likely to have smelled it. It would have approached from upwind. Perhaps I stood thus for six or seven minutes. Then I saw it, on its six short legs, undulate across the road, like a furred lizard, its pointed, whiskered snout swaying from side to side testing the wind. It was indeed a young sleen, not more than eight feet long, and it lacked the patience of an older animal. Its attack, if it should detect my presence, would be noisy, a whistling rush, a clumsy squealing charge. It glided away into the darkness, perhaps not fully convinced that it was not alone, a young animal ready to neglect and overlook those slight traces that can spell the difference between death and survival in Gor's brutal and predatory world." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 34 - 35 ~才 "I had hardly moved another step when in a flash of lightning, I saw the sleen, this time a fully grown animal, some nineteen or twenty feet long, charging toward me, swiftly, noiselessly, its ears straight against its pointed head, its fur slick with rain, its fangs bared. Its wide nocturnal eyes bright with the lust of the kill. With an eagerness and a lust that matched that of the beast itself, I rushed forward in the darkness and when I judged its leap I lunged forward with the broad-headed spear of Gor, my arm felt wet and trapped, and was raked with fangs and I was spun as the animal squealed with rage and pain and rolled on the road. I withdrew my arm from the weak, aimlessly snapping jaws. A shudder involuntarily shook me, though I do not know if it was due to the cold and the rain ot the sight of the long, furred lizardlike body that lay at my feet." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, pages 36 - 37 ~才 "Then as sleen hunters do for luck, and because I was hungry, I took my sword and cut through the fur of the animal and ate the heart. It is said that only the heart of the moutain larl brings more luck than that of the vicious and cunning sleen." Book 2, Outlaw of Gor, page 37 ~才 "...I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged mammalian, moving in their undulating gait, with their viper's heads moving from side to side continually testing the winds..." Book 4, Nomads of Gor, page 2 ~才 "The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemispheres of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. ..... a transparent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the wind, or like the sleen, to burrow into the ground." Book 4, Nomads of Gor, pages 13 - 14 ~才 "The vicious, six-legged sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian but resembling a furred, serpentine lizard, was a reliable, indefatigable hunter. He could follow a scent days old with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of pasangs, and days, later, be unleashed for the sport of the hunters, to tear his victim to pieces." Book 6, Raiders of Gor, page 105 "The sleen is Gor's most perfect hunter." Book 8, Hunters of Gor, page 156 "She wore, over her shoulder, a cape of white fur of the northern sea sleen." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 25 She wore black and silver, a full, ankle-length gown of rich, black velvet, with silver belts, or straps, that crossed over her breasts, and tied about her waist. From it, by strings, hung a silver purse, that seemed weighty. Her blond hair was lifted from the sides and back of her head by a comb of bone and leather, like an inverted isoceles triangle, the comb fastened by a tiny black ribbon about her neck, and another such ribbon about her forehead. Her cloak, of black fur, from the black sea sleen, glossy and deep, swirled to her ankles. It was fastened at the left shoulder by a large circular brooch of silver, probably from Tharna..." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 35 "A recalcitrant girl may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however some danger in this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt to tear such a girl from the oar." Book 9, Marauders of Gor, page 66 "I saw its belly lower itself to the ground, the head still lifted, watching me. Its tail lashed, its eyes blazed. It inched forward. It had two rows of fangs." Book 11, Slave Girl of Gor, page 184 "There are many varieties of sleen, and most varieties can be, to one extent or another, domesticated. The two most common sorts of trained sleen are the smaller, tawny prairie sleen, and the large, brown or black forest sleen, sometimes attaining a length of twenty feet. In the north, I am told the snow sleen has been domesticated. The sleen is a dangerous and fairly common animal on Gor, which has adapted itself to a variety of environments. There is even an aquatic variety, called the sea sleen, which is one of the swiftest and most dreaded beasts in the sea." Book 11, Slave Girl of Gor, page 185 "Sleen are used for a multitude of purposes on Gor, but most commonly they are used for herding, tracking, guarding and patrolling. The verr and the bosk are the most common animals herded; tabuk and slave girls are the most common animals tracked; the uses to which the sleen is put to guarding and patrolling are innumerable; it is used to secure borders, to prowl walls and protect camps; it may run loose in the streets after curfews...." Book 11, Slave Girl of Gor, page 186 --in reference to tabuk hides-- "The hides can serve as harnesses for the snow sleen..." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 169 ~才 " 'Can you make a good sleen stew?' he asked. 'Yes, Master,' she said." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 427 ~才 "Conspicuously absent in the rain forests of the Ua were sleen. This is just as well for the sleen, commonly, hunts on the first scent it takes upon emerging from its burrow after dark. Moreover it hunts single-mindedly and tenaciously. It can be extremely dangerous to men, even more so, I think, than the Voltai, or northern, larl. I think the sleen, which is widespread on Gor, is not found, or not frequently found, in the jungles because of the enormous rains, and the incredible dampness and humidity. Perhaps the sleen, a burrowing, furred animal, finds itself uncomfortable in such a habitat. There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which frequents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water." Book 13, Explorers of Gor, page 312 ~才

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