Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, page 130

"I found Turia to match my expectations. She was luxurious. Her shops were filled with rare, intriguing paraphernalia. I smelled perfumes that I had never smelled before. More than once we encountered a line of musicians dancing single file down the center of the street, playing on their flutes and drums, perhaps on their way to a feast. I was pleased to see again, though often done in silk, the splendid varieties of caste colors of the typical Gorean city, to hear once more the cries of peddlers that I knew so well, the cake sellers, the hawkers of vegetables, the wine vendor bending under a double verrskin of his vintage."

Book 4, Nomads of Gor, page 87 ~¤~

"To one side, across a clearing from the fire, a bit in the background, was a group of nine musicians. They were not as yet playing, though one of them was absently tapping a rhythm on a small hand drum, the kaska;

two others, with stringed instruments, were tuning them, putting their ears to the instruments. One of the instruments was an eight-stringed czehar, rather like a large flat oblong box; it is held across the lap when sitting cross-legged and is played with a horn pick;

the other was the kalika, a six-stringed instrument; it, like the czehar, is flat-bridged and its strings are adjusted by means of small wooden cranks; on the other hand, it less resembles a low, flat box and suggests affinities to the banjo or guitar, though the sound box is hemispheric and the neck rather long; it, too, of course, like the czehar, is plucked;

I have never seen a bowed instrument on Gor; also, I might mention, I have never on Gor seen any written music; I do not know if a notation exists; melodies are passed on from father to son, from master to apprentice.

There was another kalika player, as well, but he was sitting there holding his instrument, watching the slave girls in the audience. The three flutists were polishing their instruments and talking together; it was shop talk I gathered, because one or the other would stop to illustrate some remark by a passage on his flute, and then one of the others would attempt to correct or improve on what he had done; occasionally their discussion grew heated.

There was also a second drummer, also with a kaska, and another fellow, a younger one, who sat very seriously before what appeared to me to be a pile of objects; among them was a notched stick, played by sliding a polished tem-wood stick across its surface; cymbals of various sorts; what was obviously a tambourine; and several other instruments of a percussion variety, bits of metal on wires, gourds filled with pebbles, slave bells mounted on hand rings, and such. These various things, from time to time, would be used not only by himself but by others in the group, probably the second kaska player and the third flutist.

Among Gorean musicians, incidentally, czehar players have the most prestige; there was only one in this group, I noted, and he was their leader; next follow the flutists and then the players of the kalika; the players of the drums come next; and the farthest fellow down the list is the man who keeps the bag of miscellaneous instruments, playing them and parceling them out to others as needed.

Lastly it might be mentioned, thinking it is of some interest, musicians on Gor are never enslaved; they may, of course, be exiled, tortured, slain and such; it is said, perhaps truly, that he who makes music must, like the tarn and the Vosk gull, be free."

Book 4, Nomads of Gor, pages 153 - 154 ~¤~

"The slave girl sitting on the furs, for the kalika is played either sitting or standing, bent over her instrument, her hair falling over the neck of it, lost in her music, a gentle, slow melody, rather sad. I had heard it sung some two years ago by the bargemen on the Cartius, a tributary of the Bosk, far to the south and west of Ar."

Book 5, Assassins of Gor, page 207 ~¤~

"The drums, the cymbals, the trumpets, were now quite close."

Book 7, Captive of Gor, page 209

"We heard music in the distance, trumpets, drums, and cymbals."

Book 7, Captive of Gor, page 209

"Behind him came musicians, with their trumpets, and cymbals and drums."

Book 7, Captive of Gor, page 209

"On the thumb and first finger of both her left and right hand were golden finger cymbals."

Book 10, Tribesmen of Gor, page 8

"There was a clear note of the finger cymbals, sharp, delicate, bright, and the slave girl danced before us."

Book 10, Tribesmen of Gor, page 8

"The drum of the red hunters is large and heavy. It has a handle and is disklike. It requires strength to manage it. It is held in one hand and beaten with a stick held in the other. Its frame is generally of wood and its cover, of hide, usually tabuk hide, is fixed on the frame by sinew. Interestingly the drum is not struck on the head, or hide cover, but on the frame. It has an odd resonance. That drum in one hand of the hunter standing now in the midst of the group was some two and one half feet in diameter."

Book 12, Beasts of Gor, pages 261 - 262

"A girl on a flute and a sudden pounding on twin tabors, small, hand drums, called my attention to the square of sand at the side of which sat the musicians."

Book 13, Explorers of Gor, page 133

"These rattles were then joined by the fifing of whistles, shrill and high, formed from the wing bones of the taloned Herlit."

Book 18, Blood Brothers of Gor, page 40

"The czehar is a long, low, rectangular instrument. It is played, held across the lap. It has eight strings, plucked with a horn pick."

Book 19, Kajira of Gor, page 108

"The drummer's fingers light on the taut skin of his instrument, the kaska, then adjusting it, then trying it again, then tapping lightly, then more vigorously, with swift, brief rhythms, limbering his wrists, fingers and hands."

Book 22, Dancer of Gor, page 180

"One wiped the flute, the other was addressing himself to the tabor, loosening some pegs, relaxing the tension of the drumhead. The drumhead is usually made of verr skin, as most often are wineskins."

Book 24, Vagabonds of Gor, page 36

"There was suddenly near us, startling us, another skirl of notes on a flute, the common double flute."

Book 25, Magicians of Gor, page 120