| ~Nomads of Gor~ Written by John Norman (Copyright 1969 by John Norman) (Masquerade Books, Inc.) ~Back Cover~ Far south of the Sardar Mountains, Tarl Cabot pursues his mission for the Priest-Kings of Gor. He must find their last precious link to survival. All Tarl knows is that it is hidden somewhere among the teeming hordes of the savage Wagon People and that he might well be inviting death to ask for it directly. ~Inside~ There were four major tribes of the Wagon Peoples, living off their herds of constantly moving bosk, riding their savage, fighting kaiila, the women secured in Wagons they called Home. Fierce, proud and intensely suspicious, the Wagon Peoples had a nasty habit of killing strangers on sight. In fact, their word for stranger was synonymous with enemy. When they couldn't find strangers, they fought among themselves. Thus, all sensible folk avoided them except at certain times of the year when trading took place. For, despite their simple way of life, this piratical people was rich--rich with stolen goods, jewels, slaves taken in raids. On the Plain of Turia where Tarl finally found them, all creatures, all men, fled before the thundering heards of the Wagon People. Except Tarl Cabot. He stood alone, and waited. And finally began to move toward the clouds of oncoming dust that might hold his death |
| ~Quotations from the book, Nomads of Gor~ |
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| “A master takes no interest in the squabbles of slaves, it being beneath him.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 13 "Suddenly the Tuchuk bent to the soil and picked up a handful of dirt and grass, the land on which the bosk graze, the land which is the land of the Tuchuks, and this dirt and this grass he thrust in my hands and I held it. The warrior grinned and put his hands over mine so that our hands together held the dirt and the grass, and were together clasped on it. “Yes,” said the warrior, “come in peace to the Land of the Wagon Peoples.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 26~ "I was told by Kamchak that once an army of a thousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels poisonous, crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest, crushed by the wheel of the lead wagon." ~Nomads of Gor, page 27~ “For a male slave, or Kajirus, of the Wagon Peoples, and there are few, save for the work chains.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 30~ "......both girls wore the Sirik, a light chain favored for female slaves by many Gorean masters; it consists of a Turian-type collar, a loose, rounded circle of steel, to which a light, gleaming chain is attached; should the girl stand, the chain, dangling from her collar, falls to the floor; it is about ten or twelve inches longer than is required to reach from her collar to her ankles; to this chain, at the natural fall of her wrists, is attached a pair of slave bracelets; at the end of the chain there is attached another device, a set of linked ankle rings, which, when closed about her ankles, lifts a portion of the slack chain from the floor; the Sirik is an incredibly graceful thing and designed to enhance the beauty of its wearer; perhaps it should only be added that the slave bracelets and the ankle rings may be removed from the chain and used separately; this also, of course, permits the Sirik to function as a slave leash." ~Nomads of Gor, page 42~ "When Kamchak had finished he held out his right hand and a man, not a Tuchuk, who wore the green robes of the Caste of Physicians, thrust in his hand a goblet of bosk horn; it contained some yellow fluid." ~Nomads of Gor, page 44~ “Who has signed this message?” asked Kutaituchik. I hesitated to read the signature. “Well?” asked Kutaituchik. “It is signed,” I said. “---Priest_Kings of Gor.” Kutaituchik smiled. “You read Gorean well,” he said. I understood then that both men could read, though perhaps many of the Tuchuks could not. It had been a test. Kamchak grinned at Kutaituchik, the scarring on his face wrinkling with pleasure. “He has held grass and earth with me,” he said. “Ah!” said Kutaituchik. “I did not know.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 50~ "What," I asked Kamchak, "would you do if you thought the message were truly from Priest-Kings?" "Nothing," said Kamchak, gravely. "You would risk," I asked, "the herds--the wagons--the peoples?" Both Kamchak and I knew that Priest-Kings were not lightly to be disobeyed. Their vengeance could extend to the total and complete annihilation of cities. Indeed their power, as I knew, was sufficient to destroy planets. "Yes," said Kamchak. "Why?" I asked. He looked at me and smiled. "Because," said he, "we have together held grass and earth." ~Nomads of Gor, page 52~ "I learned as well the rope and bow. The bow, of course, small, for use from the saddle, lacks the range and power of the Gorean longbow or crossbow; still, at close range, with considerable force, firing rapidly, arrow after arrow, it is a fearsome weapon." ~Nomads of Gor, pages 66 & 67~ "I was most fond, perhaps, of the balanced saddle knife, the quiva; it is about a foot in length, double edged; it tapers to a daggerlike point." ~Nomads of Gor, Page 67~ "The Gorean girl is, even if free, accustomed to slavery; she will perhaps own one or more slaves herself; she knows that she is weaker than men and what this can mean; she knows that cities fall and caravans are plundered; she knows she might even, by a sufficiently bold warrior, be captured in her own quarters and, bound and hooded, be carried on tarnback over the walls of her own city. Moreover, even if she is never enslaved, she is familiar with the duties of slaves and what is expected of them; if she should be enslaved she will know, on the whole, what is expected of her, what is permitted her and what is not; moreover, the Gorean girl is literally educated, fortunately or not, to the notion that it is of great importance to know how to please men; accordingly, even girls who will be free companions, and never slaves, learn the preparation and serving of exotic dishes, the arts of walking, and standing and being beautiful, the care of a man’s equipment, the love dances of their city, and so on." ~Nomads of Gor, page 63~ “It might be mentioned, for those unaware of the fact, that the Caste of Merchants is not considered one of the traditional five High Castes of Gor-the Initiates, Scribes, Physicians, Builders and Warriors. Most commonly, and doubtless unfortunately, it is only the members of the five high casts who occupy positions on the High Councils of the cities. Nonetheless, as might be expected, the gold of merchants, in most cities, exercises its not imponderable influence, not always in so vulgar a form as bribery and gratuities, but more often in the delicate matters of extending or refusing to extend credit in connection with the projects, desires or needs of the High Councils. There is a saying on Gor, “Gold has no caste.” It is a saying of which the merchants are fond. Indeed, secretly among themselves, I have heard, they regard themselves as the highest caste on Gor, though they would not say so for fear of rousing the indignation of other castes. There would be something, of course, to be said for such a claim, for the merchants are often indeed in their way, brave, shrewd, skilled men, making long journeys, venturing their goods, risking caravans, negotiating commercial agreements, among themselves developing and enforcing a body of Merchant Law, the only common legal arrangements existing among the Gorean cities. Merchants also, in effect, arrange and administer the four great fairs that take place each year near the Sardar Mountains. I say “in effect” because the fairs are nominally under the direction of a committee of the Caste of Initiates, which, however, largely contents itself with its ceremonies and sacrifices, and is only too happy to delegate the complex management of those vast, commercial phenomena, the Sardar Fairs, to members of the lowly, much-despised Caste of Merchants, without which, incidentally, the fairs most likely could not exist, certainly not at any rate in their current form.” ~Nomads of Gor, Page 84~ "The women in bondage present, who served us, each wore four golden rings on each ankle and each wrist, locked on, which clashed as they walked or moved, adding their sound to the slave bells that had been fixed on their Turian collars, and that hung from their hair; the ears of each, too had been pierced and from each ear hung a tiny slave bell." ~Nomads of Gor, page 90~ “Down the stairway, slowly, in trailing white silk bordered with gold, the colors of the Merchants, there regally descended the girl who as Aphris of Turia. Her sandles were of gold and she wore matching gloves of gold. Her face could not be seen, for it was veiled, a white silken veil trimmed with gold, nor even her hair, for it was hidden in the folds of the free woman’s Robes of Concealment, in her case, of course, done in the colors of the merchants. Aphris of Turia, then, was of the caste of merchants.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 91~ "Aphris of Turia, pleased with herself, assumed her place between the merchant and Kamchak, kneeling back on her heels in the position of a Gorean free woman. Her back was very straight and her head high, in the Gorean fashion." ~Nomads of Gor, page 94~ "On the heights of distant Turia itself I could see the flutter of flags and pennons. The walls were crowded, and I supposed many upon them used the long glasses of the Caste of Builders to observe the field of the stakes." ~Nomads of Gor, page 113~ “The saber, incidentally, is not only unpopular among the Wagon Peoples but among the warriors of Gor generally; it is regarded as being too long and clumsy a weapon for the close, sharp combat so dear to the heart of the warrior of the cities; further it is not of much use from the saddle of a tarn or tharlarion.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 124~ "I resolved that the best time to steal the egg would be during the days of the Omen Taking. At that time, the men would be afield, on the rolling hills surrounding the Omen Valley, in which on the hundreds of smoking alters, the haruspexes of the four peoples would be practicing their obscure craft, taking the omens, trying to determine whether or not they were favorable for the election of a Ubar San, a One Ubar, who would be Ubar of all the Wagons…..there had been no Ubar San for a hundred years or more—the Wagon Peoples, fierce and independent, did not wish a Ubar San." ~Nomads of Gor, pages 146 & 147~ "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." ~Nomads of Gor, page 154~ ”Cut off her feet,” said Kamchak, “and her nose and ears, and blind her in one eye---then release her to live as she can among the wagons.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 167~ "Then, before I could realize what he intended, he had subjected Miss Cardwell to what, among slavers, is known as the Whip Caress. Ideally it is done, as Kamchak had, unexpectedly, taking the girl unawares. Elizabeth suddenly cried out throwing her head to one side. I observed to my amazement the sudden, involuntary, uncontrollable response to the touch. The Whip Caress is commonly used among Slavers to force a girl to betray herself." ~Nomads of Gor, page 168~ ”The punishment of a runaway slave is often grievous, sometimes culminating in death.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 169~ ”About her neck was a thick metal collar to which a heavy iron chain had been fastened, the chain itself was attached to a large iron ring placed in the floor. I supposed she was being disciplined.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 219~ "She wore yellow Pleasure Silk……..she was a beauty, and the diaphanous Pleasure Silk that was the only garment permitted her did not, by design, conceal her charms." ~Nomads of Gor, page 220~ "I shop for wealthy women," said she, "for pastries and tarts and cakes--things they will not trust their female slaves to buy." ~Nomads of Gor, page 238 “The institution of freedom for women, I decided, as many Goreans believed, was a mistake. “ ~Nomads of Gor, page 286~ “There is no freer nor higher nor more beautiful woman than the Gorean Free Companion.” ~Nomads of Gor, page 290~ |