Cultures 2
Alar Free Men
Alar Men are fair complexioned, blond-haired and blue-eyed. They are thought to be in appearance like the Nordic people of earth. Alar men are described as having a drooping mustache and wear their hair braided. Their bodies are often very broad shouldered , powerful and described in one quote below as tall. The men wear clothing made from furs and leathers.
Genserix
Genserix, broad-shouldered and powerful, in his furs and leather, with his heavy eyebrows, his long, braided blond hair and long, yellow, drooping mustache, looked up from the fire, about which we sat.
Mercenaries of Gor -43
Hurtha
Do not mind Parthanx and Sorath," said a tall, broad shouldered fellow sitting cross-legged beside me. He, too, like Genserix, had long, braided hair and a yellow mustache. Too like Genserix, he was blue-eyed. Many of the Alars are fair in complexion, blond-haired and blue-eyed. "They jest. They are the camp wits," he explained."
Mercenaires of Gor -43
"I am Hurtha," said the blond fellow beside me. "You must not think of us as barbarians. Tell us about the cities."
"What would you like to know?" I asked. He would be interested, I assumed in such matters as the nature of their walls, the number of gates, their defenses, the strength of garrisons, and such.
"Is Ar as beautiful as they say?" he asked. "And what is it like to live there?" "It is very beautiful," I said. "And although I am not a citizen of Ar, nor of Telnus, the capital of Cos, it is doubtless easier to live in such places than among the wagons. Why do you ask?"
"Hurtha is a weakling, and a poet!" laughed Sorath.
"I am a warrior, and an Alar," said Hurtha, "but it is true that I am fond of songs."
"There is no incompatibility between letters and arms," I said. "The greatest soldiers are often gifted men."
"I have considered going abroad, to seek my fortune," he said.
"What would you do?" I asked.
"My arm is strong," he said, "and I can ride."
"You would seek service then with some captain?" I said.
"Yes," he said, "and if possible with the finest."
"Many are the causes on Gor," I said, "and so, too, many are the captains."
"My first appointments," he said, "might be with anyone."
"Many captains," I said, "choose their causes on the scales of merchants, weighing their iron against gold. They fight, I fear, only for the Ubar with the deepest purse."
"I am an Alar," said Hurtha. "The cities are always at war with us. It is always the fields against the walls. No matter then which way I face, nor whom I strike, it would be a blow, against enemies."
" I am a mercenary, of sorts," I said, "but I have usually selected my causes with care."
"And one should," agreed Hurtha, "for otherwise one might not improve one’s fortunes."
I looked at him.
"Right," said Hurtha, "if that is what you are interested in, seems to me a very hard thing to understand. I am not sure there is really any such thing, at all. I have never tasted it, nor seen it, nor felt it. If it does exist, it seems likely to me that it would be on both sides, like sunlight and air. Surely no war has been fought in which both sides have not sincerely claimed, and presumably believed, for one reason or another, that they were right. Thus, if right is always on both sides, one cannot help but fight for it. If that then is the case, why should one not be paid as well as possible for the risks he takes?"
"Have you ever tasted, or seen, or felt honor?" I asked.
"Yes," said Hurtha. "I have tasted honor, and seen it, and felt it, but it is not like tasting bread, or seeing a rock, or feeling a woman. It is different."
"Perhaps right is like that," I said.
"Perhaps," said Hurtha. "But the matter seems very complex and difficult to me." "It seems so to me, too," I said. "I am often surprised why it seems so easy to so many others."
"Yes," said Hurtha.
"Perhaps they are more gifted than we in detecting its presence," I speculated.
"Perhaps," said Hurtha, "but why, then, is there so much disagreement among them?"
"I do not know," I admitted."
Mercenaries of Gor – 48-49
Besides the ax Alars are fond of the Alar sword, a long, heavy, double-edged weapon. Their shields tend to be oval, like those of the Turians. Their most common mount is the medium-weight saddle tharlarion, a beast smaller and less powerful, but swifter and more agile, than the common high tharlarion. Their saddles, however, have stirrups, and thus make possible the use of the couched shock lance. Some cities use Alars in their tharlarion cavalries. Others, perhaps wisely, do not enlist them in their own forces, either as regulars or auxiliaries. When the Alars ride forth to do battle they normally have their laager behind them, to which, in the case of defeat, they swiftly retire. They are fierce and redoubtable warriors in the open field. They know little, however, of politics, or in siege work and the taking of cities. In the cities, normally one needs only to close the gates and wait for them to go away, compelled eventually to do so by the needs of their animals.
Mercenaires of Gor - 45
"Too," he said. "I purchased this splendid sword," He unsheathed it and swung it about. He handled it lightly. It nearly decapitated a passing wagoner. It was a long, cutting sword, of the sort called a spatha among the wagons. It is more useful than the gladius , from the back of a tharlarion, because of its reach. He also carried among his things the short, stabbing sword, similar to gladius, and doubtless related to it, called by his people the sacramasax. It is much more useful on foot, particularly in close combat."
Mercenaires of Gor" page 66
Hurtha threw his things into the wagon. Among them was the heavy, single bladed Alar war ax. In the dialect of the Alars, if it is of interest, this particular type of ax is called the francisca. Among those, too, who have learned to fear it, it is often referred to by that name.
Mercenaires of Gor - 71Alar Free Women
I have seen tharlarion who could handle an ax better than that," she said. Sorath reddened, angrily. It was apparently a free woman of the Alars, only she was not dressed as were the other women of the camp, in their coarse, heavy, ankle-length woolen dresses. She wore rather the garmenture of a male, the furs and leather. At her belt there was even a knife. She was strikingly lovely, though, I supposed, given her mien and attitude, she would not have taken such an observation as a compliment. She was about the same size as Feiqa, though perhaps a tiny bit shorter, and like Feiqa, was dark-haired and dark-eyed. I thought they might look well together, as a brace of slaves."
Mercenaries of Gor - 53
"Fight, Sorath," taunted the woman. "He is an outsider. Are you not an Alar?" "Be silent, woman," said Genserix, angrily.
"I am a free woman," she said. I may speak as I please."
"Do not seek to interfere in the affairs of men," said Genserix.
She faced the group, standing on the other side of the fire. Her feet were spread. On her feet were boots of fur. Her arms were crossed insolently upon her chest. "Are there men here?" she asked. "I wonder."
There was a rumble of angry sounds from the gathered warriors. But none did anything to discipline the girl. She was, of course, free. Free women, among the Alars, have high standing.
"Do you think you are a man?" inquired one of the warriors.
"I am a female," she said, "but I am not different from you, not in the least." There were angry murmurs from the men.
"Indeed," she said, "I am probably more a man than any of you here."
"Give her an ax," said Genserix.
An ax, a typical Alar ax, long handled, armed with its heavy iron blade, was handed to the girl. She took it, holding it with difficulty. It was clear it was too heavy for her. She could scarcely lift it, let alone wield it. "You could not use that blade, even for chopping wood," said Genserix.
"What is your name?" I asked her.
"Tenseric," she said.
"That is a male’s name," I said.
"I chose it myself," she said. "I wear it proudly."
"Have you always been called that?" I asked.
"I was called Boabissia," she said, "until I came of age, and chose my own name."
"You are still Boabissia," said one of the warriors.
"No!" she said. "I am Tenseric."
"You are a female, are you not?" I asked.
"I suppose so," she said, angrily. "But what is that supposed to mean?"
"Does it mean nothing?" I asked.
"No," she said. "It means nothing."
"Are you the same as a man?" I asked.
"Yes!" she said.
There was laughter from the warriors about the fire. "It takes more than fur and leather, and a dagger worn pretentiously at one’s belt, to make a man." I said.
She looked at me with fury.
"You are a female," called one of the men. "Be one!"
"No!" she cried.
"Put on a dress!" called another of the men.
"Never!" she cried. "I do not want to be one of those pathetic creatures who must wait on you and serve you!"
"Are you an Alar?" I asked.
"Yes!" she said.
‘No," said Genserix. "She is not an Alar. We found her, years ago, when she was an infant, beside the road, abandoned in blankets, amidst the wreckage of a raided caravan." ...............................
"We took the child in, and raised it," said Genserix. "We named it Boabissia, a good Alar name."
"You are not then really of the wagons," I said to the girl. "Indeed, you are quite possibly a female of the cities."
Mercenaries of Gor – 54-55
She looked at me in fury. "I am an Alar," she said.
Some of the warriors laughed.
"It seems more probable to me that you are a woman of the cities," I said.
"No!" she said. "No!"
"Consider your coloring," I said, "and your shortness, and the darkness of your hair and eyes. Consider, too, the suggestion of interesting female curvatures beneath your leather and fur." Most of the Alar women are rather large, plain, cold, blond, blue-eyed women. "You remind me of many women I have seen chained naked in slave markets."
Mercenaires of Gor –56-57
"I have never seen you in a dress before," he said.
"So?" she asked.
"It is nothing," he said. "It is only that I am surprised to see you thusly." Boabissia was not in furs and leather. She now wore one of the simple, corded, belted, woolen, plain, widely sleeved, ankle-length dresses of the Alar women. It was brown. She had belted it snugly, and had, too, drawn its adjustment cording snugly from its loop about the back of her neck down to her breasts where she had crossed it and then taken it back, both cords, between and under her breasts, again to her belt, tying it closely at the sides of her body. This is not uncommon among Alar women. Even though they are free they are apparently not above reminding their men that they are females. It is a simple arrangement, but not unattractive. It covers almost everything, with seeming modesty, but in such a way, that it is likely to lead a man to think in terms of removing it. Boabissia, however, was presumably unaware of these things. From her point of view, she had probably done nothing more than to garb herself in the accustomed manner of the Alar woman. Even so, however, putting herself in a dress, in itself, seemed to represent some sort of considerable change in her. She wore, too, as she had last night, her dagger in her belt.
Mercenaries of Gor- 72
"Are you wearing that dress in the manner of the Alar woman?" he asked. "Yes," she said, reddening.
It was not winter now, but only Se’Kara. Accordingly all she now wore would be the dress. Beneath it she would be naked.
Mercenaries of Gor -74Hospitality of the Alar
I did not strike him hard enough to break the vertebrae. He slipped to his knees, vomiting, and then, stunned, half paralyzed, fell forward. I then stood behind him, the handle grasped at the ready, near its end. From such a position one can, rather with impunity, with an unarmed handle, break the neck to the side or crush the head. Had the handle been armed, of course, one might, from such a position, sever the backbone or remove the head. Sorath was fast. I was faster.
"Do not kill him!" said Genserix.
"Of course not," I said. "He is one of my hosts," I stepped back from Sorath. "You fought very well," said Genserix.
"Sorath is very good, don’t you think?" asked Hurtha.
"Yes," I said. "He is quite good."
"Your prowess proves you well worthy to be a guest of the Alars," said Genserix. "Welcome to our camp. Welcome to the light and heat of our fire."
"Thank you," I said, tossing aside the handle.
"Thank you," I said. "I am grateful for your welcome. I thank you, too, for the food and drink I have received here, for the heat and light of your fire, and for your fellowship. I thank you for your hospitality. It is worthy of the best things I have heard of Alars. I would now like, if I may, in my own way, and of my own free will, as it will now be clearly understood, to do something for you, something that will help, in a small way, to express my appreciation."
Genserix and his warriors looked at one another, puzzled.
I turned to Feiqa. "Strip," I said.
"Master?" she asked.
"Must a command be repeated?" I inquired.
"No, Master!" she cried. In an instant she was bared.
"Stand," I said. "Lift your arms over your head." Instantly she complied. She was then very beautiful, standing thusly in the light of the fire, before the barbaric warriors of Genserix, in the Alar camp.
"Such women," I said, "may be purchased in the cities." There were appreciative murmurs as the men drank in the fire-illuminated beauty of the naked slave.
"Dance," I told Feiqa.
"I do not know how to dance, Master," she moaned.
"In every female there is a dancer," I said.
"Master," she protested.
"I know you are not trained," I said.
"Master," she said.
"There are many forms of dance," I said. "Music is not even necessary. It need not even be more than beautiful movement. Move before the men, and about them, Move as seductively and beautifully as you can, and as a slave, saying, crawling, kneeling, rolling, supine, prone, begging, pleading, piteous, caressing, kissing, licking, rubbing against them."
"Do I have a choice, Master?" she asked.
"No," I said, "absolutely not."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Would you prefer your pretty flesh to be lashed from your bones?" I asked. "No, Master!" she said.
"And as the evening progresses, and as men might desire you," I said, "you will please them, and fully."
Mercenaries of Gor – 59-60lack of slaves among the Alar{and why?}
Feiqa danced.
The men cried out with pleasure, many of them joining in the song, and keeping time with their hands. I was incredibly proud of her. How joyful it is to own females and have absolute power over them! Seldom, indeed, I imagined, did the rude herders of the Alars have such a vision of imbonded loveliness in their camp, and in their arms. Such delicious females were not allowed in their camps, I gathered. The free women did not permit them. They probably had them hidden in wagons, until they could be sold off, or killed.
Mercenaries of Gor -60
"Are there such women as these in the cities?" asked Hurtha, indicating Feiqa. "Thousands," I informed him. "Surely we should study siege work," smiled Hurtha. Feiqa shrank back a bit. "Such women may be bought in the cities," I said, "in slave markets, from the houses of slavers, from private dealers. Surely you could have such among the wagons, if you wished. You could have strings brought out to be examined, or accepted, on approval. I see no problem in the matter." Interestingly, I had noted few, if any, slaves among the wagons. This was quite different from the Wagon Peoples of the far south. There beautiful slaves, in the scandalously revealing chatka and curla, the kalmak and the koora, tiny rings in their noses, were common among the wagons. "You mentioned, as I recall, that slavers among others, came occasionally to the wagons." "Yes," he said, "but usually to buy our captures, picked up generally in raids or fighting." "Why are there so few slaves among the wagons?" I asked. "The free women kill them," said Hurtha."
Mercenaires of Gor-50Ritual of Alar Birth
I
heard the sudden, hesitant, choking cry of the newborn infant. ................
The sound came from one of the wagons..........................................
The bawling was now lusty.
"It will live," said one of the men, a sitting warrior near us. Genserix shrugged. That would remain to be seen. ........................
"It is a son," said one of the women coming from the wagon, nearing the fire. "Not yet," said Genserix. .............................
The woman who had come to bear tidings to Genserix now turned about and returned to the wagon. ..................................
I could hear movement in the nearby wagon. A woman climbed into it carrying cloths and water. I heard the child crying again. ..................
A woman now descended from the wagon, carrying a small object. She came near to the fire and Genserix motioned for her to put the object down, to lay it on the dirt before him, between himself and the fire. She did so. He then crouched down near it, and gently, with his large hands, put back the edges of the blanket in which it was wrapped. The tiny baby, not minutes old, with tiny gasps and coughs, still startled and distressed with the sharp, frightful novelty of breathing air, never again to return to the shelter of its mother’s body, lost in a chaos of sensation, its eyes not focused, unable scarcely to turn its head from side to side, lay before him. The cord had been cut and tied at its belly. Its tiny legs and arms moved. The blood, the membranes and fluids, had been wiped from its small, hot, red, firm body. Then it had been rubbed with animal fat. How tiny were its head and fingers. How startling and wonderful it seemed that such a thing should be alive. Genserix looked at it for a time, and then he turned it over, and examined it further. Then he put it again on its back. He then stood up, and looked down upon it.
The warriors about the fire, and the woman, and two other women, too, who had now come from the wagon, looked at him.
Then Genserix reached down and lifted up the child. The women cried out with pleasure and the men grunted with approval. Genserix held the child up now, happily, it almost lost in his large hands, and then he lifted it up high over his head.
"Ho!" called the warriors, standing up, rejoicing. The women beamed.
"It is a son!" cried one of the women.
"Yes," said Genserix. "It is a son!"
"Ho!" called the warriors. "Ho!"
"What is going on?" asked Feiqa.
"The child has been examined," I said. "It has been found sound. It will be permitted to live. It is now an Alar. Too, he has lifted the child up. In this he acknowledges it as his own."
"I rejoice in your happiness," I said to Genserix, who had now resumed his place by the fire.
Genserix declined his head briefly, smiling, and spread his hands, expansively. ..............................
"Let rings be brought!" called out Genserix. ............................
Rings were then brought, heavy rings of silver and gold, large enough for a wrist or arm, and Genserix distributed these to high retainers. From the same box, he then distributed coins among the others. Even I received a silver tarsk. There were treasures among the wagons, it seemed. The tarsk was one of Telnus. In this small detail I suspected there might be found evidence of the possible relationship between the movements of Cos and the coming of the Alar wagons to the Genesian Road."
Mercenaries of Gor" page 43-50
Alar Camps
The laager of the Alars, like that of similar folks, is a fortress of wagons. They are ranged in a closed circle, or concentric, closed circles, draft animals, and women and children within. Also, not unoften, depending on the numbers involved, and particularly when traversing, or sojourning in, dangerous countries, verr, tarsk, and bosk may also be found within the wagon enclosure. Sewage and sanitation, which might be expected to present serious problems, do not do so, because of the frequent moving of the camps.
Mercenaires of Gor - 43The Scars of Men
Genserix then handed the child to one of the warriors. He then drew his knife. "What is he going to do?" gasped Feiqa.
"Be quiet," I said.
Genserix then, carefully, made two incisions in the face of the infant, obliquely, one on each cheek. The infant began to cry. Blood ran down the sides of its face, about the sides of its neck and onto its tiny shoulders. "Let it be taken now," said Genserix, "to its mother."
The woman who had brought the child to the side of the fire now took up the blanket in which it had been wrapped, and, wrapping it again on its folds, took it then from the warrior, and made her way back to the wagon.
"These are a warrior people," I said to Feiqa, "and the child is an Alar. It must learn to endure wounds before it receives the nourishment of milk."
Feiqa shrank back, frightened to be among such men.
On the face of Genserix, and on the faces of those about us, the males, were the thin, white, knife-edge lines, the narrow scars, by which it might be known that each had, in his time, undergone the same ceremony. By such scars one may identify Alars.
Mercenaires of Gor -47Red Savages of the Barrens
The Red Savages, as they are commonly called on Gor, are racially and culturally distinct from the Red Hunters of the north. They tend to be a more slender, longer-limbed people; their daughters menstruate earlier; and their babies are not born with a blue spot at the base of the spine, as in the case with most of the red hunters. Their culture tends to be nomadic, and is based on the herbivorous, lofty kaiila, substantially the same animal as is found in the Tahari, save for the wider footpads of the Tahari beast, suitable for negotiating deep sand, and the lumbering, gregarious, short-tempered, trident-homed kailiauk. To be sure, some tribes do not have the kaiila, never having mastered it, and certain tribes have mastered the tarn, which tribes are the most dangerous of all."
Savages of Gor - 35
A bewildering complexity of tribal languages is spoken in the Barrens," I said," most of them unintelligible to native speakers of the others.
Savages of Gor - 59
Although there are numerous physical and cultural differences among these people they are usually collectively referred to as the red savages. This is presumably a function of so little being known about them, as a whole, and the cunning, ruthlessness and ferocity of so many of the tribes. They seem to live for hunting and internecine warfare, which seems to serve almost as a sport and a religion for them. Interestingly enough most of these tribes seem to be united only by a hatred of whites, which hatred, invariably, in a time of emergency or crisis, takes precedence over all customary conflicts and rivalries. To attack whites, intruding into their lands, once the war lance has been lifted, even long-term blood enemies will ride side by side. The gathering of tribes, friends and foes alike, for such a battle is said to be a splendid sight. These things are in virtue of what, among these peoples, is called the Memory.
Savages of Gor -35
Many tribes, apparently, would not deal on a face-to-face basis with whites. This had to do with the hatred and suspicion fostered by that tradition called the Memory. Too, it was often difficult to control their young men. Although small trading groups were welcomed in the country of the Dust Legs, such groups seldom penetrated the more interior territories. Too many of them had failed to return.
Savages of Gor - 148
Grunt was unusual in having traded as far east as the country of the Fleer and the Yellow Knives. Too, he had entered, at least once, the country of the Sleen and the Kaiila. Some of these territories, apparently, had scarcely been penetrated since the days of the first white explorers of the Barrens, men such as Boswell, Diaz, Bento, Hastings and Hogarthe."
Savages of Gor - 148The welfare of the tribe is more important than that of the individual.
"In the beliefs of the red savages the welfare of the whole, that of the tribe, takes precedence over the welfare of the individual. In the thinking of the red savage the right to diminish and jeopardize the community does not lie within the prerogatives of the individual."
Blood Brothers of Gor -11Tribes
Dust Legs
Fleer
Blue-Sky Riders (a warrior society of the Fleer)
Kaiila (Cutthroat)
- Bands: Isbu (Little Stones), Casmu (Sand), Isanna (Little-Knife), Napoktan (Bracelets or Mazahuhu) and Wismahi (Arrow-Head).
- Yellow-Kaiila Riders (a sub-group the Kaiila)
All Comrades - Fighting Hearts (a warrior society of the Yellow Kaiila)
Isbu Band (a sub-warrior society of the All Comrades)
Kailiauk
Sleen
Sun Lances (a warrior society of the Sleen)
Yellow Knives
Urt Soldiers (a warrior society of the Yellow Knives)
Kinyanpi (Flighted Ones)
Dust Legs
It is unusual, is it not, for the Dust Legs to be on the rampage?" I asked. I had understood them to be one of the more peaceful of the tribes of the Barrens. Indeed, they often acted as intermediaries between the men of the settlements and the wilder tribes of the interior, such as the Yellow Knives, the Sleen, and Kaiila.
Savages of Gor- 85
This was a perimeter tribe, which, on the whole, was favorably disposed towards whites. Most trading was done with Dust Legs. Indeed, it was through the Dust Legs that most of the goods of the interior might reach civilization, the Dust Legs, in effect, acting as agents, and intermediaries.
Savages of Gor-148
"It is clean work," said Grunt, "the work of Dust Legs." This tribe I knew, in its various bands, was regarded as the most civilized of the tribes of the Barrens. In the eyes of some of the other tribes they were regarded as little better than white men."
Savages of Gor - 159
Fleer
Although small trading groups were welcomed in the country of the Dust Legs, such groups seldom penetrated the more interior territories. Too many of them had failed to return. Grunt was unusual in having traded as far east as the country of the Fleer and the Yellow Knives.
Savages of Gor – 148
Blue-Sky Riders
Kaiila
Kaiila"I drew an imaginary line across my throat with my right index finger. I had seen Corn Stalks make this sign in his talk with Grunt. Grunt's eyes clouded. "It is the sign for the Kaiila," he said, "the Cutthroat Tribe."
Savages of Gor -245
The normal distributions, given food supply and such, of the bands of the Kaiila are usually rather as follows. First, understand that there exists the Kaiila River, flowing generally in a Southwestward direction. At a given point, high in the terriotory of the Kaiila tribe, it branches into two rivers, which are normally spoken of as the Northern Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila. The Snake, flowing in an almost southern direction, is a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The land of the Napoktan, or the Bracelets band of the Kaiila, is east of the Snake, and north of the Northern Kaiila, and the Kaiila proper. The Wismahi, or Arrowhead and of the Kaiila, holds the more northern lands in and below, to some extent, the fork of the Kaiila. The Isbu's land are the more southern lands between the Northern and Southern branches of the Kaiila. The lands of the Casmu, or Sand Band of the Kaiila, lie to the west of the Isanna, and to the north and west of the Isbu, above the descending Northern branch of the Northern Kaiila."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24
Bands of the Kaiila
The Casmu numbered in the neighborhood of on thousand; the Wismahi one of the smaller bands numbered about five or six hundred. The Isbu was the largest band, containing between sixteen and seventeen hundred members. The Napoktan, which had arrived at the camp only yesterday, was the smallest of the bands of Kaiila numbering between some three and four hundred members. These bands, within their own territories, are often divided into separate villages or encampments. In a given encampment usually under a minor chief, there is seldom more than two or three hundred individuals. Indeed sometimes encampments contains only seven or eight families."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 25
Casmu
The lands of the Casmu, or Sand Band of the Kaiila, lie to the west of the Isanna, and to the north and west of the Isbu, above the descending Northern branch of the Northern Kaiila.
Blood Brothers of Gor -24
The Casmu numbered in the neighborhood of one thousand;"
Blood Brothers of Gor -25
Isanna Band
The Isanna was the Little-Knife Band of the Kaiila. They came from the countries around Council Rock, north of the northern fork of the Kaiila River and west of the snake, a tributary to the Northern Kaiila."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24
The Isanna Kaiila number between some seven and eight hundred."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 25
Wismahi
...the Wismahi one of the smaller bands numbered about five or six hundred."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 25
The Wismahi, or Arrowhead and of the Kaiila, holds the more northern lands in and below, to some extent, the fork of the Kaiila."
Blood Brothers of Gor -24
Isbu
The Isbu's land are the more southern lands between the Northern and Southern branches of the Kaiila."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24
The movement of this group of animals had been reported in the camp of the Isbu Kaiila, or the Little-Stones band of the Kaiila"
Blood Brothers of Gor - 8
Napoktan
The land of the Napoktan, or the Bracelets band of the Kaiila, is east of the Snake, and north of the Northern Kaiila, and the Kaiila proper."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24
The Napoktan, which had arrived at the camp only yesterday, was the smallest of the bands of Kaiila numbering between some three and four hundred members."
Blood Brothers of Gor -25
Yellow-Kaiila Riders
Two societies are represented among the Kaiila here," said Grunt. "Most belong to the All Comrades, and on belongs to the Yellow-Kaiila Riders . The fellow in the back with his war shield in its case is a member of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders . That may be told by the stylized yellow kaiila print, outlined in red, on the flanks of his beast, over horizontal bars.
Savages of Gor-314
All Comrades (Fighting Hearts)
Two societies are represented among the Kaiila here," said Grunt. "Most belong to the All Comrades, and on belongs to the Yellow-Kaiila Riders . The fellow in the back with his war shield in its case is a member of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders . That may be told by the stylized yellow kaiila print, outlined in red, on the flanks of his beast, over horizontal bars.
Savages of Gor-314
Kailiauk
The Kailiauk is a tribe federated with the Kaiila. They speak closely related dialects."
Savages of Gor- 234
Sleen
It is unusual, is it not, for the Dust Legs to be on the rampage?" I asked. I had understood them to be one of the most peaceful of the tribes of the Barrens. Indeed, they often acted as intermediaries between the men of the settlements and the wilder tribes of the interior, such as the Yellow Knives, the Sleen and Kaiila.
Savages of Gor -85
Sun Lances
The Sun Lances," said Grunt, "a warrior society of the Yellow Knives.
Savages of Gor- 314
Yellow Knives
It is unusual, is it not, for the Dust Legs to be on the rampage?" I asked. I had understood them to be one of the most peaceful of the tribes of the Barrens. Indeed, they often acted as intermediaries between the men of the settlements and the wilder tribes of the interior, such as the Yellow Knives, the Sleen and Kaiila.
Savages of Gor - 85
Urt Soldiers
The painted prints on the flanks of the kaiila of the Yellow Knives?" I asked. The sign of the Urt Soldiers", said Grunt, "a society of the Yellow Knives.
Savages of Gor- 314
Kinyanpi (Flighted Ones)Warfare
The red savage does not take an industrial or arithmetical approach to warfare. He would rather rescue one comrade than slay ten of the enemy. This has to do with the fact that they are members of the same tribe and, usually, of the same warrior society. They will have known one another almost all of their lives; as children and boys they have played together and watched the kaiila herds in the summer camps together; they may even have shared in their first kailliauk hunt; now, as men, they have taken the warpath together; they are comrades, and friends; each is more precious to the other than even a thousand coups.
Savages of Gor - 47
in actual warfare itself large-scale conflicts almost never occur. The typical act of war is the raid, conducted usually by a small group of men, some ten to fifteen in number, which enters enemy country, strikes, usually at dawn, and makes away, almost at soon as it came, with scalps and loot, sometimes, too, a woman or two of the enemy is taken; men of most tribes are fond of owning a woman of the enemy; male prisoners are seldom taken; because of their camaraderie and the sporting aspect of their warfare a group of red savages will usually refuse to follow even a single enemy into rock or brush cover; it is simply too dangerous to do so; similarly the red savages will almost never engage in a standing fight if they are outnumbered; often, too, they will turn their backs on even an obvious victory if the costs of grasping it seem too high; sometimes, too, a large number of red savages will retreat before an unexpected attack of a small number of enemies; they prefer to fight on their own terms and at times of their own choosing; too, they may not have had time to make their war medicine.
Savages of Gor -48
It is a belief of the red savages that if they are unworthy, or do not speak the truth, that their shield will not protect them, it will move aside or will not turn the arrows and lances of enemies. Many warriors claim to have seen this happen. The shields, too, are made of the hide of the kailiauk from the thick hide of the back of the neck, where the skin and musculature are thick, to support the weight of the trident and turn the blows of other tridents, especially in the spring buffetings, attendant upon which follows mate selection.
Savages of Gor – 50-51
Kaiila lance
The kaiila lance is used in hunting kailiauk as well as in mounted warfare. It is called the kaiila lance because it is designed to be used from kaiilaback. It is to be distinguished in particular from the longer, heavier tharlarion lance, designed for use from tharlarionback, and often used with a lance rest, and the smaller, thicker stabbing lances used by certain groups of pedestrian nomads. The kaiila lance takes, on the whole, two forms, the hunting lance and the war lance. Hunting lances are commonly longer, heavier and thicker than war lances. Too, they are often undecorated, save perhaps for a knot of the feathers of the yellow, long-winged, sharp-billed prairie fleer, or, as it is sometimes called, the maize bird, or corn bird, considered by the red savages to be generally the first bird to find food. The point of the hunting lance is usually longer and narrower than that of the war lance, a function of the depth into which one must strike in order to find the heart of the kailliauk. The shafts of the kaiila lances are black, supple and strong; they are made of tem wood, a wood much favored on Gor for this type of purpose. Staves for the lances are cut in the late winter, when the sap is down. Such wood, in the long process of smoking and drying over the lodge fire, which consumes several weeks, seasoning the wood and killing any insects which might remain in it, seldom splits or cracks. Similarly, old-growth wood, or second-growth wood, which is tougher, is preferred over the fresher, less dense first-growth, or new-growth, wood.
Savages of Gor – 42-43
These lances are used in a great variety of ways, but the most common method is to thrust one's wrist through the wrist loop, grasp the lance with the right hand, and anchor it beneath the right arm. This maximizes balance, control and impact. With the weight of a hurtling kaiila behind the thrust such a lance can be thrust through the body of a kailiauk. To be sure, the skillful hunter will strike no more deeply than is necessary, and his trained kaiila will slow its pace sufficiently to permit the kailiauk to draw its own body from the lance. This permits the lance to be used again and again in the same hunt."
Savages of Gor- 43
Tarn lance
The tarn lance, it might be mentioned, as is used by the red savages who have mastered the tarn, is, in size and shape, very similar to the kaiila lance. It differs primarily in being longer and more slender.
Savages of Gor-43
Stealing Kaiila
first actual war parties, though common, are formed less often than parties for stealing kaiila; in this sport the object is to obtain as many kaiila as possible without, if possible, engaging the enemy at all; it is a splendid coup, for example, to cut a kaiila tether strap which is tied to the wrist of a sleeping enemy and make off with the animal before he awakens; killing a sleeping enemy is only a minor coup; besides, if he has been killed, how can he understand how cleverly he has been bested; imagine his anger and chagrin when he awakens; is that not more precious to the thief than his scalp;
Savages of Gor 47-48
Scalps and mutilation
The tops of the skulls, and parts of the tops of the skulls, in the back, of several of the bodies were exposed. It was here that the scalp and hair, in such places, had been cut away. These things could be mounted on hoops, attached to poles, and used in dances. They could be hung, too from fringes, lodge poles, and parts of them, in twisted or dangling friges, could decorate numerous articles, such as shields and war shirts."
Savages of Gor -160
I do not understand all the cutting," I said, "the slashing, the mutilation." "That sort of thing," said Grunt, "is cultural, with almost all of the tribes. The tradition is an ancient one, and is largely unquestioned. Its origins are doubtless lost in antiquity." "Why do you think it is done?" I asked. "There are various theories," said Grunt. "One is that it serves as a warning to possible enemies, an attestation of the terribleness of the victors as foes. Another is that the practice is connected with beliefs about the medicine world, that this is a way of precluding such individuals from seeking vengeance later, either because of inflicted impairments or because of terrorizing them against a second meeting."
Savages of Gor- 160The Barrens
They are not, truly, as barren as the name would suggest. They are barren only in contrast, say, with the northern forests or the lush land in river valleys, or the peasant fields or meadows of the southern rain belts. They are, in fact, substantially, vast tracts of rolling grasslands, lying east of the Thentis Mountains. I have suspected that they are spoken of as the Barrens not so much in an attempt to appraise them with geographical accuracy as to discourage their penetration, exploration and settlement. The name, then, is perhaps not best regarded as an item of purely scientific nomenclature but rather as something else, perhaps a warning. Also, calling the area the Barrens gives men a good excuse, if they should desire such, for not entering upon them. To be sure, the expression 'Barrens' is not altogether a misnomer. They would be, on the whole, much less arable than much of the other land of known Gor. Their climate is significantly influenced by the Thentis Mountains and the absence of large bodies of water. Prevailing winds in the northern hemisphere of Gor are from the north and West. Accordingly a significant percentage of moisture-laden air borne by westerly winds is forced by the Thentis Mountains to cooler, less-heated air strata, where it precipitates, substantially on the eastern slopes of the mountains and the fringes of the Barrens. Similarly the absence of large bodies of water in the Barrens reduces rainfall which might be connected with large-scale evaporation and subsequent precipitation of this moisture over land areas, the moisture being carried inland on what are, in effect, sea breezes, flowing into low pressure areas caused by the warmer land surfaces, a given amount of radiant energy raising the temperature of soil or rock significantly more than it would raise the temperature of an equivalent extent of water.
The absence of large bodies of water adjacent to or within the Barrens also has another significant effect on their climate. It precludes the Barrens from experiencing the moderating effects of such bodies of water on atmospheric temperatures. Areas in the vicinity of large bodies of water, because of the differential heating ratios of land and water usually have warmer winters and cooler summers than areas, which are not so situated. The Barrens, accordingly, tend to be afflicted with great extremes of temperature, often experiencing bitterly cold winters and long, hot, dry summers.
Savages of Gor- 64Free Men Clothing
Clothing and Ornamentation
The Red Savages, as you may not know," Said Grunt to me, though doubtless he was speaking primarily for the benefit of the Hobarts, "Are rather strict about the privilege of wearing the breechclout." "Oh?" I said. "Yes," Said Grunt. "It is not permitted to Women, even to their own women, nor, of course, is it permitted to slaves." "I understand," I said. The breechclout of the Barrens, incidentally, consistes of a single piece of narrow material. This may be of tanned skin but, not unoften, is of soft cloth. It is held in place by a belt or cord. It commonly goes over the belt or cord in the back, and down and between the legs, and then comes up, drawn snuglytightm, over the belt or cord in the front. In cooler weather it is often worn with leggings and a shirt. In warmer weather, in camp, it is uually the only thing that a male will wear. "For a slave, or a prisoner, to wear a breechclout might be regarded as pretentious or offensive," Said Grunt, "an oversight or indiscretion calling for Torture or, say, for being set upon by boys on Kaiila, with war clubs.
Savages of Gor - 165-166
Look," said Grunt, pointing to the right. A rider, a red savage, was approaching rapidly. He wore a breechclout and moccasins. About his neck was a string of Sleen claws. There were not reathers in his hair and neither he nor his animal wore paint. Too he did not carrry lance and shield. He was not on the business of war. He did have a bowcase and quiver, at the thong on his waist was a beaded sheath, from which protruded the hilt of a trade knife."
Blood Brothers of Gor -9
I drew on my tunic and slipped into my moccasins.
Blood Brothers of Gor -23
Foods specific to the Red Savage
Kailiauk
The red savages depend for their very lives on the kailiauk" said Kog. "He is the major source of their food and life.His meat and hide, his bones and sinew, sustain them. From him they derive not only food but clothing and shelter, tools and weapons."
Savages of Gor- 50
Pemmincan- wakapapi
"Wakapapi said Cuwignaka to me. This is the Kaiila word for pemmican. A soft cake of this substance was pressed into my hands. I crumbled it. In the winter, of course such cakes can be frozen solid. One then breaks them into smaller pieces, warms them in one's hands and mouth, and eats them bit by bit. I lifted the crumbled pemmican to my mouth and ate of it. There are varies ways in which pemmican maybe be prepared, depending primarily on what one adds into the mixture, in the way of herbs, seasonings and fruit. A common way of preparing it is as follows. Strips of kailiauk meat, thinly sliced and dried on poles in the sun, are pounded fine, almost a powder. Crushed fruit, usually chokecherries, is then added to the meat, the whole then is mixed with and fixed by, kailiauk fat, subsequently usually being divided into small flattish rounded cakes." Blood Brothers of Gor -46
Chokecherries
Wakapapi said Cuwignaka to me. This is the Kaiila word for pemmican. A soft cake of this substance was pressed into my hands. I crumbled it. In the winter, of course such cakes can be frozen solid. One then breaks them into smaller pieces, warms them in one's hands and mouth, and eats them bit by bit. I lifted the crumbled pemmican to my mouth and ate of it. There are varies ways in which pemmican maybe be prepared, depending primarily on what one adds into the mixture, in the way of herbs, seasonings and fruit. A common way of preparing it is as follows. Strips of kailiauk meat, thinly sliced and dried on poles in the sun, are pounded fine, almost a powder. Crushed fruit, usually chokecherries, is then added to the meat, the whole then is mixed with and fixed by, kailiauk fat, subsequently usually being divided into small flattish rounded cakes."
Blood Brothers of Gor page 46
Maize or corn
Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains, she said. The individuals in these communities are bound to the soil and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.
Savages of Gor-233
Pumpkins
I>Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains, she said. The individuals in these communities are bound to the soil and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.
Savages of Gor-233
Squash
Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains, she said. The individuals in these communities are bound to the soil and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.
Savages of Gor-233FREE WOMEN OF THE RED SAVAGES
Women, too, in thier shirtdresses and knee-length leggings, and beads, bracelets andarmbands, and colorful blankets and capes, astride their kaiila, riding as red savages ride, participated in this barbaric parade.
Some of these rode kaiila to which travois were attached. Some had cradles slung about the pommels of their saddles. These cradles, most of them, are essentially wooden frames on which are fixed leather, open-fronted enclosures, opened and closed by lacings, for the infant. The wooden frame projects both above and below the enclosure for the nfant. In particular it contains two sharpened projections at the top, like picket spikes, extending several inches above the point where the baby's head will be located. This is to protect the infant's head in the event the cradle falling, say, from the back of a running kaiila. Such a cradle will often, in such a case, literally stick upside down in the earth. The child, then, laced in the enclosure, protected and supported by it, is seldom injured.
Such cradles, too, vertically, are often hung from a lodge pole or in the brances of a tree. In the tree, of course, the wind, in is rocking motion, can lull the infant to sleep. Older children often ride on the skins stretched betwen travios poles. Sometimes their fathers or mothers carry them before them, on the kaiila. When a child is about six, if his family is well-fixed, he will commonly have his own kaiila. The red savage, particularly the males, will usually be a skilled rider by the age of seven. Bareback riding, incidentally, is common in war and the hunt. In trading and visiting, interestingly, saddles are commonly used. This is perhaps because they can decorate lavishly, adding to one's apperance, and may serve, in virtue of the pommel, primarily, as a suppot for provisions, gifts and trade articles.
"It is a simply splendid," said Cuwignaka, happily.
"Yes," I said.
Children, too, I noted, those not in cradles, greased, their hair braided, their bodies and clothing ornamented, in splendid finery, likeminiature versions of the adults, some riding, some sitting on the skins stretched between travois poles, participated happily and proudly, or bewilderedly, in this handsome procession.
Blood Brothers of Gor-25-26
He had spoken to a girl who was standing near the stirrup of another girl, mounted on a kaiila. The standing girl, to whom Cuwignaka had spoken, had come with the Isanna. She had come walking at stirrup of the mounted girl. She wore a rather plain shirtdress, with knee-length leggings and moccasins. Her braided hair was tied with red cloth. There were glass beads about her neck. She was quite lovely. The girl on the kaiila, too, was very lovely, indeed, perhaps even more lovely than she afoot. but her beauty, in any event, was much enhanced by her finery. Her dress was a soft-tanned hide, almost white, fringed into which, about the breasts and shoulders, were worked intricate patterns of yellow and red beading. Her leggings and moccasins were similarly decorated. Her braided hair, glossy and long, was bound with silver string. Two golden bracelets adorned her left wrist. She wore two necklaces of beads, and another on which were threaded tiny, heavy tubes and pendants, spaced intermittently, of silver and gold. Across her forehead hung a tiny silver chain on which were tiny silver droplets.
Blood Brothers of Gor -27
You are in the presence of a free man," I said, indicating Cuwignaka.
Swiftly she fell to her knees, and put her red hair to the dust. Her hair, sometimes braided, was now, as usual, unbraided. She, like most other girls, whether of the red savages or not, wore it long and loose. Among the red savages, of course, free women commonly braid their hair. The lack of braiding, thus, usually, draws an additional distraction between slaves and free women of the red savages. The most common distraction, of course, is skin color, the slaves almost always being white and the free persons almost invariably being red. "Forgive me, Master," she said to Cuwignaka.
Blood Brothers of Gor- 69
He is permitting her a dress of soft tabuk skin," said Cuwignaka, "creamy white and soft-tanned, though, to be sure, of slave length. Too, he has given her beads and moccasins. He had braided her hair. He has painted her face, for the time of the feasts."
"Marvelous," I said. It is not unusual for a master to care for a slave's hair. Too, they will, upon occasion, groom kaiila and tie streamers and ribbons in their long manes. That he had painted her face was also impressive. Usually, among the Kaiila, it is free women who are permitted face paint, and then, commonly only at times of great festivals. This paint is commonly applied by the woman's mate.
Blood Brothers of Gor -118
Bloketu wore an unfringed, unornamented shirtdress. It was extremely simple and plain. It contrasted markedly with the exquisite, almost white, soft-tanned tabukhide dress, with its beats and finery, worn by her mistress. She, too, had not been given knee-length leggings, of the sort common with the women of the red savages, or moccasins. Her feet were wrapped in hide. Blood Brothers of Gor- 382slave clothing
About her throat, narrow, sturdy and closely fitting, was a steel collar. I stepped back that I might see her better. She wore a short, fringed, beaded shirtdress. This came up high on her thighs. It was split to her waist, revealing the sweetness and loveliness of her breasts. It was belted upon her with a doubly looped, tightly knotted rawhide string. Such a string is more than sufficient, in its length, and in the strength and toughness, to tie a woman a number of ways. She was barefoot. About her left ankle there was, about two inches high, a beaded cuff, or anklet. Her garb was doubtless intended to suggest the distinctive, humiliating and scandalously brief garment in which red savages are sometimes pleased to place their white slaves."
Savages of Gor -102animals of the barrens
Kaiila
Their culture tends to be nomadic, and is based on the herbivorous, lofty kaiiila substantially the same animal as is found in the Tahari, save for the wider footpads of the Tahari beast, suitable for negotiating deep sand, and the lumbering, gregarious, short-tempered, trident-horned kailiauk. To be sure, some tribes do not have the kaiila, never having mastered it, and certain tribes have mastered the tarn, which tribes are the most dangerous of all.
Savages of Gor -35
Kailiauk
The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty-five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a- single arrow.
Savages of Gor - 142
The red savages depend for their very lives on the kailiauk" said Kog. "He is the major source of their food and life.His meat and hide, his bones and sinew, sustain them. From him they derive not only food but clothing and shelter, tools and weapons.
Savages of Gor –50
Herlit
Herlit, a large, broad winged, carnivorous bird, sometimes in Gorean called the Sun Striker, or, more literally, though in clumsier English, Out-of-the-sun-it-strikes, presumably from its habit of making its descent and strike on prey, like the tarn, with the sun above and behind it.
Savages of Gor -142riding the kaiila
To be sure, these folk are superb riders. A child is often put on kaiilaback, its tiny hands clutching the silken neck, before it can walk. Sometimes a strap dangles back for a few feet from the throat loop. This is to be seized by the warrior who may have been struck from his mount, either to recapture the beast or, using the strap, being pulled along, with the momentum of the racing steed, to vault again to its back. This strap, incidentally, is used more often in hunting than in warfare. It could be too easily grasped by an enemy on foot, with the result of perhaps impeding the movement of the kaiila or even causing it to twist and fall. Needless to say, it is extremely dangerous to fall from one's kaiila in hunting kailiauk, because one is often closely involved with numerous stampeding beasts, or the given beast one is pursuing may suddenly turn on one."
Savages of Gor - 47
Kaiila bridle
The bridle used by the red savages, incidentally, usually differs from that used by the white men. The most common form is a strap, or braided leather tie, placed below the tongue and behind the which two reins, or a teeth, tied about the lower jaw, from single double rein, a single loop, comes back over the beast's neck. The jaw tie, serving as both bit and headstall, is usually formed of the same material as the reins, one long length of material being used for the entire bridle.
Savages of Gor- 163rivers of the barrens
Kaiila River
First, understand that there exists the Kaiila River, flowing generally in a southwestward direction."
Blood Brothers of Gor -24
At a given point, high in the territory of the Kaiila tribe, it branches into two rivers, The Northers Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila.
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24
Snake River
The Snake, flowing in an almost southern direction, is a tributary of the Northern Kaiila."
Blood Brothers of Gor - 24