06Raiders

~Raiders of Gor~
Written by John Norman
(Copyright 1971 by John Norman)
(Ballantine Books)

~Back Cover~
Tarl Cabot was a warrior of Gor--the world that Earth could never see. Normally, he was a proud and mighty warrior. But now he was bound for Port Kar, the only city with no home stone to give it a heart. It was a city of reavers and looters...of outcasts without allegiance. Merchants and pirates stalked its quays beside the beautiful Sea of Thassa.
Tarl Cabot was headed for the sinkhole of the planet, a teeming den of iniquity. And that was no place for an honest warrior from far Ko-ro-ba.
But he was no longer Tarl Cabot, the warrior. Now he was only Bosk...a miserable slave!

~Inside~
The Shame of Tarl Cabot:
Telima lashed my wrists together tightly, with the strong hands of a working girl. She indicated that I should lie on my left side, facing her. Then, with another coil of marsh vine, she tied my ankles together.
As I lay there, she unlaced her tunic, opening it. Again she looked at me. To my amazement, insolently, with a liquid motion, she slipped the tunic off over her head.
She sat on the mat and regard me. "I see," she said, "that you must again be punished."
She struck me with savagery, four times.
I had been a warrior of Ko-ro-ba.
Now I was only a girl's slave.

~Quotations from the book, Raiders of Gor~

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"A kind of paper is made from rence. The plant itself has a long, thick root, about four inches thick, which lies horizontally under the surface of the water; small roots sink downward into the mud from this main root, and several "stems," as many as a dozen, rise from it, often of the length of fifteen to sixteen feet from the root; it has an excrescent, usually single floral spike. Rence paper is made by slicing the stem into thin, narrow strips;   one layer of strips is placed longitudinally, and then a shorter layer is placed latitudinally across the first layer; these two surfaces are then soaked under water, which releases a gluelike substance from the fibers, melding the two surfaces into a single, rectangular sheet; these formed sheets are then hammered and dried in the sun; roughness is removed by polishing, usually with a smooth shell or a bit of kailiauk horn; the side of a tharlarion tooth may also be used in this work. The paper is then attached, sheet to sheet, to form rolls, usually about twenty sheets to a roll. The best paper is on the outside of the roll. Rence paper comes in various grades, about eight in all.
Rence paper is, incidentally, not the only type of writing material used on Gor. A milled linen paper is much used, large quantities of which are produced in Ar, and vellum and parchment, prepared in many cities, are also popular."
~Raiders of Gor, page 7 & 8~

"There are various types of “exotics” bred by Gorean slavers, all of whom are to be distinguished from more normal varieties of bred slaves, such as Passion Slaves and Draft Slaves. Exotics may be bred for almost any purpose, and some of these purposes, unfortunately, seem to be little more than to produce quaint or unusual specimens."
~Raiders of Gor, page 15~

"She came and stood before me, and then dropped to her knees, resting back on her heels. She lowered her head and extended her arms, wrists crossed, the submission of the Gorean female."
~Raiders of Gor, page 92~

“We will need one,” said Clitus, “to cook, and clean, and run errands.”
Telima cast him a dark look.
“Telima,” said Telima, “ is not a serving slave.”
“Kettle Girl,” I said. She sniffed.
“I would say,” laughed Thurnock, grinning, “kettle and mat!”
I held Telima by the chin, regarding her.
“Yes,” I said, “doubtless both kettle and mat.”
~Raiders of Gor, page 98~

.
Port Kar, squalid, malignant Port Kar, sourge of gleaming Thassa, Tarn of the Sea, is a vast, disjointed mass of holdings, each almost a fortress, piled almost upon one another, divided and crossed by hundreds of canals. It is, in effect, walled, though it has few walls as one normally thinks of them. Those buildings which face outwards, say, either at the delta or along the shallow Tamber Gulf, have no windows on the outward side, and the outward walls of them are several feet thick, and they are surmounted, on the roofts, with crenelated parapets. The canals which open into the delta of the Tamber were, in the last few years, fitted with heavy, half-submurged gates of bars. We had entered the city through one such pair of gates. In Port Kar, incidentally, there are none of the towers often encountered in the northern cities of Gor. The men of Port Kar had not chosen to build towers. It is the only city on Gor I know of which was built not by free men, but by slaves, under the lash of masters. Commonly, on Gor, slaves are not permitted to build, that being regarded as a privilege to be reserved for free men."
~Raiders of Gor, page 103, 104~

“Do you recall,” I asked, looking down into her eyes, “how some days ago you taunted me”……….“Have you forgotten,” I asked, “How you danced before me?”
She drew back. “Please, Master,” she whispered, her eyes terrified.
I turned to the musicians. "Do you know," I asked, "the Love Dance of the Newly Collared Slave Girl?"
"Port Kar’s?" asked the leader of the musicians.
"Yes," I said.
"Of course," said he.
I had purchased more than marking and collars at the smithy.
"On your feet," boomed Turnock to Thura, and she leaped frightened to her feet, standing ankle deep in the thick pile rug.
At the gesture from Clitus, Ula, too, leaped to her feet.
I put ankle rings on Midice, and then slave bracelets. And tore from her the bit of silk she wore. She looked at me with terror.
I lifted her to her feet, and stood before her.
"Play," I told the musicians.
The Love Dance of the Newly Collared Slave Girl has many variations, in the different cities of Gor, but the common theme is that the girl dances her joy that she will soon lie in the arms of a strong master.
The musicians began to play, and to the clapping and cries of Turnock and Clitus, Thura and Ula danced before them.
"Dance," said I to Midice.
In terror the dark-haired girl, lithe, tears in her eyes, she so marvelously legged, lifted her wrists.
Now again Midice danced, her ankles in delicious proximity and wrists lifted again together back to back above her head, palms out. But this time her ankles were not as though chained, nor her wrists as though braceleted; rather they were truly chained and braceleted; she wore the linked ankle rings, the three-linked slave bracelets of a Gorean master; and I did not thing she would now conclude her dance by spitting upon me and whirling away.
She trembled. "Find me pleasing," she begged.
"Do not afflict her so," said Telima to me.
"Go to the kitchen," said I, "Kettle Slave."
Telima turned and, in the stained tunic of rep-cloth, left the room, as she had been commanded.
The music grew more wild.
"Where now," I demanded of Midice, "is your insolence, your contempt!"
"Be kind!" she cried. "Be kind to Midice!"
The music grew even more wild.
And then Ula, boldly before Clitus, tore from her own body the silk she wore and danced, her arms extended to him.
He leaped to his feet and carried her from the room.
I laughed.
Then Thura, to my amazement, though a rence girl, dancing, revealed herself similarly to the great Thurnock, he only of the peasants, and he, with a great laugh, swept her from her feet and carried her from the room.
"Do I dance for life?" begged Midice.
I drew the Gorean blade. "Yes," I said, "you do."
And she danced superbly for me, every fiber of her beautiful body straining to please me, her eyes, each instant, pleading, trying to read in mine her fate. At last, when she could dance no more, she fell at my feet, and put her head to my sandals.
"Find me pleasing," she begged. "Find me pleasing, my Master!"
I had had my sport.
I sheathed the blade.
"Light the lamp of love," I said.
She looked up at me, gratefully, but saw then my eyes. Her test was not yet done.
Trembling she fumbled with the flint and steel, to strike sparks into the moss bowl, whence by means of a Ka-la-na shaving the lamp might be lit.
I myself threw down, in one corner, near a slave ring, the Furs of Love.
The musicians, one by one, each with a silver tarsk, stole from the room."
~Raiders of Gor, pages 115 to 117~

"I have calculated this figure from the Weight, a Gorean unit of measurement based on the Stone, which is about four Earth pounds. A Weight is ten Stone. The Weight and Stone, incidentally, are standardized through the Gorean cities by Merchant Law, the only common body of law existing among the cities. The official “Stone,” actually a solid metal cylinder, is kept, by the way, near the Sardar. Four times a year, on a given day in each of the four great fairs held annually near the Sardar, it is brought forth with scales, that merchants from whatever city may test their own standard “Stone” against it.
The Gorean foot, interestingly, is almost identical to the Earth foot. Both measures doubtless bear some distant relation to the length of the foot of an adult human male. The Gorean foot is, in my estimation, just slightly longer than the Earth foot; based on the supposition that each of its ten Horts is roughly one and one-quarter inches long, I would give the Gorean foot a length of roughly twelve and one-half inches, Earth measure." ~Raiders of Gor, pages 127 & 128~

"I had discovered, to my pleasure, that the girl Luma, whom I had saved from Surbus, was of the Scribes. Her city had been Tor.
Being of the Scribes she could, of course, read and write.   "Can you keep accounts?" I had asked her.
"Yes, Master," she had responded.
I had made her the chief scribe and accountant of my house.   Each night, in my hall, before my master’s chair, she would kneel with her tablets and give me an accounting of the day’s business, with reports on the progress of various investments and ventures, often making suggestions and recommendations for further actions. This plain, thin girl, I found, had an excellent mind for the complicated business transactions of a large house. She was a most valuable slave.
She much increased my fortunes.
I permitted her, of course, but a single garment, but I allowed it to be opaque, and of the blue of the Scribes. It was sleeveless and fell to just above her knees. Her collar, however, that she might not grow pretentious, was of simple steel. It read, as I wished, I BELONG TO BOSK.
Some of the free men in the house, particularly of the scribes, resented that the girl should have a position of such authority. Accordingly, when receiving their reports and transmitting her instructions to them, I had informed her that she would do so humbly, as a slave girl, and kneeling at their feet. This mollified the men a good deal, though some remained disgruntled. All, I think, feared that her quick stylus and keen mind would discover the slightest discrepancies in their columns and tally sheets, and, indeed, they seemed to do so. I think they feared her, because of the excellence of her work and because, behind her, stood the power of the house, it’s Captain, Bosk of the Marshes."
~Raiders of Gor, pages 130 & 131~

“When,” I asked, “High Lady, will you drink the wine of the Free Companionship with Lurius, noble Ubar of Cos?”
“I shall return first to Tyros,” she said, “where I shall be made ready. Then, with treasure ships, we shall return in festive voyage to the harbor of Telnus, where I shall take the arm of Lurius and with him drink the cup of the Free Companionship.”
~Raiders of Gor, page 180~

“The talender is a flower which, in the Gorean mind, is associated with beauty and passion. Free Companions, on the Feast of their Free Companionship, commonly wear a garland of talenders.”~Raiders of Gor, pages 216-217~

“The talender is a flower which, in the Gorean mind, is associated with beauty and passion. Free Companions, on the Feast of their Free Companionship, commonly wear a garland of talenders.”
~Raiders of Gor, page 216~

“Sometimes slave girls, having been subdued, but fearing to speak, will fix talenders in their air, that their master may know that they have at last surrendered themselves to him as helpless love slaves.”
~Raiders of Gor, page 217~

"Port Kar does not recognize the Free Companionship, but there are free women in the city, who are known simply as the women of their men."
~Raiders of Gor, page 295~

~Memorable Passages~