The Tahari
Tahari
The Tribes of the Tahari
"To my right were the lines of the Aretai. The Aretai themselves, of course, with black kaffiyeh and white agal cording, held their center. Their right flank was held by the Luraz and the Tashid. Their left flank was held by the Raviri, and four minor tribes, the Ti, the Zevar, the Arani and the Tajuks.
Tribesman of Gor - 301Aretai
"To my right were the lines of the Aretai. The Aretai themselves, of course, with black kaffiyeh and white agal cording, held their center. Their right flank was held by the Luraz and the Tashid. Their left flank was held by the Raviri, and four minor tribes, the Ti, the Zevar, the Arani and the Tajuks.
Tribesman of Gor - 301Bakahs
"The oasis of Two Scimitars is an out-of-the-way oasis, under the hegemony of the Bakahs, which, for more than two hundred years, following their defeat in the Silk War of 8,110 C.A., has been a vassal tribe of the Kavars."
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Char"This was an oasis of the Char, also a vassal tribe of the Kavars. Its name had been given to it centuries before, when thirsty men, who had moved at night on the desert, had come upon it, discovering it."
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KashaniThere came to that figure, their guards hanging behind them. There came to that parley in the center of the field the pashas of the Ta’Kara and Baka and of the Char and the Kashani; and to riding deliberately, strapped in the saddle, there came Suleiman, high Pasha of the Aretai, with him Shakar, captain fo the Aretai, and their guard, and with them as well, the pashas of the Luraz, Tashid and Raviri , with their guards.
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LurazThere came to that figure, their guards hanging behind them. There came to that parley in the center of the field the pashas of the Ta’Kara and Baka and of the Char and the Kashani; and to riding deliberately, strapped in the saddle, there came Suleiman, high Pasha of the Aretai, with him Shakar, captain fo the Aretai, and their guard, and with them as well, the pashas of the Luraz, Tashid and Raviri , with their guards.
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RaviriThere came to that figure, their guards hanging behind them. There came to that parley in the center of the field the pashas of the Ta’Kara and Baka and of the Char and the Kashani;
and to riding deliberately, strapped in the saddle, there came Suleiman, high Pasha of the Aretai, with him Shakar, captain fo the Aretai, and their guard, and with them as well, the pashas of the Luraz, Tashid and Raviri , with their guards.
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Ta'kara“Kavars,” he said. “Tribesmen. And men of their vassal tribe, the Ta’Kara.” He looked at me closely. “There may soon be war,” he said. “Caravans will be few. Merchants will not care to risk their goods."
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Tajuk"The Tajuks are not actually a vassal tribe of the Aretai, though they ride with them. More than two hundred years ago a wandering Tajuk had been rescued in the desert by Aretai riders, who had treated him well, and had given him water and a kaiila.
The man had found his way back to his own tents. Since that time the Tajuks had, whenever they heard the Aretai were gathering, and summoning tribes, come to ride with them. They had never been summoned by the Aretai, who had no right to do this, but they had never failed to come.
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TashidThere came to that figure, their guards hanging behind them. There came to that parley in the center of the field the pashas of the Ta’Kara and Baka and of the Char and the Kashani; and to riding deliberately, strapped in the saddle, there came Suleiman, high Pasha of the Aretai, with him Shakar, captain fo the Aretai, and their guard, and with them as well, the pashas of the Luraz, Tashid and Raviri , with their guards.
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I knew the light lance, and the swift, silken kaiila. I had learned these with the Wagon Peoples. But I did not know the scimitar. The short sword, now slung over my left shoulder, in the common fashion, would be of little use on kaiila back. The men of the Tahari do not fight on foot. A man on foot in the desert, in warfare, is accounted a dead man.
Tribesmen of Gor" page 39
War cry of the AretaiAretai Victorious!
War cry of the Kavars
Kavars SupremeThe Salt Ubar
I had heard of the Salt Ubar, or the Guard of the Dunes. The location of his kasbah is secret. Probably, other than his own men, only some few hundred know of it, primarily merchants high in the salt trade, and few of them would know its exact location.
Tribesmen of Gor – 207-208 Nominally a sheriff of the Tahari merchants, he, ensconced in his kasbah, first among fierce warriors, elusive and unscrupulous, possesses a stranglehold on the salt of the Tahari, the vital commerce being ruled and regulated as he wills. He holds within his territories the right of law and execution. In the dunes he is Ubar and the merchants bow their heads to him. The Guard of the Dunes is one of the most dreaded and powerful men in the Tahari.
Tribesmen of Gor - 209 We knew, generally, Red Rock, the kasbah of the Salt Ubar and such, lay northwest of Klima, but, unless one knows the exact direction, the trails, this information is largely useless. Even in a march of a day one could pass, unknowingly, an oasis in the desert, wandering past it, missing it by as little as two or three pasangs.
Knowledge of the trails is vital.
None at Klima knew the trails. The free, their masters, had seen to this. Moreover, to protect the secrecy of the salt districts, the trails to them were not openly or publicly marked. This was a precaution to maintain the salt monopolies of the Tahari, as though the desert itself would not have been sufficient in this respect.
Tribesmen of Gor - 243The eating hand and why
I noted that Ibn Saran ate only with the right hand.This was the eating hand, and the scimitar hand. He would feed himself only with the hand which, wielding steel, could take blood.
Tribesmen of Gor- 20Free Men Attire in the Tahari
A merchant passed me, climbing the stones of the street. He wore a striped, hooded, sleeved, loose robe, a djellaba. The striping was that of the Teehra, a district southwest of Tor, bordering on the Tahari.
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Two peasants walked by, in their rough tunics, knee-length, of the white wool of the Hurt."
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The movements of the men of the Tahari are, during the hours of heat, usually slow, almost languid or graceful. They engage in little unnecessary movement. They do not, if they can help it, overheat themselves. They sweat as little as possible, which conserves body fluid. Their garments are loose and voluminous, yet closely woven. The outer garment when in caravan, usually the burnoose, is almost invariable white. This color reflects the rays of the sun.
The looseness of the garments, acting as a bellows in movement, circulates air about the body, which air, circulating, over the body, cools the body by evaporation; the close weave of the garment is to keep the moisture and water, as much as possible, within the garment, preferrably condensing back on the skin.
There are two desiderata which are cruicial in these matters; the first is to minimize perspiration; the second is to retain as much moisture, lost through perspiration, as is possible on the body.
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Samos turned away from the girl. He indicated to me a man who sat at a far end of one of the low tables. He did not drink wine or paga. The man, rare in Port Kar, wore the kaffiyeh and agal.
The kaffiyeh is a squarish scarf, folded over into a triangle, and placed over the head, two points at the side of the shoulders, one in back to protect the back of the neck. It is bound to the head by several loops of cord, the agal.
The cording indicates tribe and district. We went to the man. "This is Ibn Saran, salt merchant of the river port of Kasra," said Samos.
Tribesmen of Gor - 20Sharing of salt Symbolic Brotherhood
"Ride Free," he said.
"I will," I said.
"I can teach you nothing more," he said.
I was silent.
"Let there be salt between us," he said.
"Let there be salt between us," I said.
He placed salt from the small dish on the back of his right wrist. He looked at me. His eyes were narrow.
"I trust," said he, "you have not made jest of me." "No," I said.
"In your hand," he said, "steel is live, like a bird." The judge nodded assent. The boy's eyes shone. He stood back. "I have never seen this, to this extent, in another man." He looked at me. "Who are you?" he asked.
I placed salt on the back of my right wrist. "One who shares salt with you," I said. "It is enough," he said. I touched my tongue to the salt in the sweat of his right wrist, and he touched his tongue to the salt on my right wrist. "We have shared salt," he said.
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Nomads of TahariMeat, hides, and animal-hair cloth are furnished to the oases by the nomads. In turn, from the oases the nomads receive, most importantly, Sa-Tarna grain and the Bazi tea. They receive, as well, of course, other trade goods. Sa-Tarna is the main staple of the nomads. They, in spite of raising herds, eat very little meat. The animals are too precious for their trade value, and their hair and milk, to be often slaughtered for food.
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A nomad boy of fifteen will often have eaten meat no more than a dozen times in his life. Raiders, however, feast well on meat. The animals mean little to them and come to them cheaply.
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Tea is extremely important to the nomads. It is served hot and heavily sugared. It gives them strength then, in virtue of the sugar, and cools them, by making them sweat, as well as stimulating them. It is drunk three small cups at a time, carefully measured.
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Greeting and Farewell of a Tahari, sharing of waterThe noble Samos has been most kind," said Ibn Saran. "His hospitality has been most generous." I extended my hand to Ibn Saran and he, bowing twice, brushed twice the palm of his hand against mine.
"I am pleased to make the acquaintance of he who is friend to Samos of Port Kar," said Ibn Saran. "May your water bags never be empty. May you have always water."
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Sharing their water.I lifted the bag, drinking deeply. I replaced the plug and put back the bag, wiping my mouth on my sleeve. . . In sharing their water I had made myself, by custom of the Tahari, their guest.
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Animals of the TahariKaiila
Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert."
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LeltLelts are often attracted to the salt rafts, largely by the vibrations in the water, picked up by their abnormally developed lateral-line protrusions, and their fernlike cranial vibration receptors, from the cones and poles.
Too, though they are blind, I think either the light, or the heat, perhaps, from our lamps, draws them. The tiny, eyeless heads will thrust from the water, and the fernlike filaments at the side of the head will open and lift, orienting themselves to one or the other of the lamps. The lelt is commonly five to seven inches in length.
It is white, and long-finned. It swims slowly and smoothly, its fins moving the water very little, which apparently contributes to its own concealment in a blind environment and makes it easier to detect the vibrations of its prey, any of several varieties of tiny segmented creatures, predominantly isopods.
The brain of the lelt is interesting, containing an unusually developed odor-perception center and two vibration-reception centers. Its organ of balance, or hidden "ear," is also unusually large, and is connected with an unusually large balance center in its brain.
Its visual center, on the other hand, is stunted and undeveloped, a remnant, a vague genetic memory of an organ long discarded in its evolution.
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SalamandersAmong the lelts, too, were, here and there, tiny salamanders, they, too, white and blind. Like the lelts, they were, for their size, long-bodied, were capable of long periods of domancy and possessed a slow metabolism, useful in an environment in which food is not plentiful.
Unlike the lelts, they had long stem like legs, but the filaments, in the case of the salamanders, interestingly, are not vibration receptors, but feather gills, an external gill system.
Tribesmen of Gor – 247-248
Sand FliesFollowing such rains, great clouds of sand flies appear, wakened from dormancy. These feast on kaiila and men. Normally, flying insects are found only in the vicinity of the oasis.
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SharkWe saw the broad, blunt head, eyeless, white. On the whitish back, near the high dorsal fin, there was a long scar. Part of the dorsal fin itself was rent, and scarred. These were lance marks.
At the top of the food chain in the pits, a descendant, dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas, stood the long-bodied, nine-gilled salt shark.
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VerrKaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert.
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VintI detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying, on the stones, where they had been scattered from my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny, sand-colored, covered them.
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ZadI heard, a short time later, wings, the alighting of one or more large birds. Such birds, broad-winged, black and white, from afar, follow the marches to Klima; their beaks, yellowish, narrow, are long and slightly hooked at the end, useful for probing and tearing. The birds scattered, squawking, as a Kaiila sped past. The birds are called zads.
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ZaditThe zadit is a small, tawny-feathered, sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sand flies and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila, they frequently light on the animals, and remain for some hours, hunting insects. This relieves the kaiila of the insects but leaves it with numerous small wounds, which are unpleasant and irritating, where the bird had dug insects out of its hide.
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Sayings of the Tahari PeoplesYou know the desert?" asked T'Zshal. "The desert is my mother, and my father," said Hassan. It was a saying of the Tahari.
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A good fight, I have heard men of the Tahari say, licking their lips, justifies any cause.
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Invisible chains are those which weigh the most heavily."
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"Within the circle of each mans sword, therein lies an Ubar."
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More real than the law is the heart, "said the girl quoting a proverb of the Tahari.
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"Beware of a silent enemy"
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Geography"It was roughly in the shape of a gigantic, lengthy trapezoid, with eastward leaning sides. At its northwestern corner lay Tor, West of Tor, on the Lower Fayeen, a sluggish, meandering tributary, like the Upper Fayeen, to the Cartius, lay the river Port of Kasra, known for its export of salt."
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The area, in extent, east of Tor, was hundreds of pasangs in depth, and perhaps thousands in length. The Gorean expression for this area simply means the Wastes, or the Emptiness. It is a vast area, and generally rocky, and hilly, save in the dune country.
It is almost constantly windblown and almost waterless. In areas it has been centuries between rains. Its oases are fed from underground rivers flowing southeastward from the Voltai slopes.
The water, seeping underground, eventually, in places, due to rock formation, erupts in oasis springs, or, more usually, is reached by deep wells, some of them more than two hundred feet deep.
It takes more than a hundred and fifty years for some of this water to make the underground journey, seeping hundreds of feet at times beneath the dry surface, moving only a few miles a year, to reach the eases. Diurnal air temperatures in the shade are commonly in the range of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Surface temperature, diurnally, is, of course, much higher in the dune country, by day, if one were so unwise as to go barefoot, the bright sand would quickly cripple a man, abraiding and burning the flesh from his feet in a matter of hours."
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In the Tahari there is an almost constant wind. It is a hot wind, but the nomads and the men who ply the Tahari welcome it. Without it, the desert would be almost unbearable, even to those with water and whose bodies are shielded from the sun. I listened to the caravan bells, which sound is pleasing.
The kaiila moved slowly. Prevailingly, the wind in the Tahari blows from the north or northwest. There is little to fear from it, except, in the spring, should it rise and shift to the east, or, in the fall, should it blow westward.
We were moving through hilly country, with much scrub brush. There were many large rocks strewn about. Underfoot there was much dust and gravel. On the shaded sides of some rocks, and the shaded slopes of hills, here and there, grew stubborn, brownish patches of verr grass.
Occasionally we passed a water hole, and the tents of nomads. About some of these water holes there were a dozen or so small trees, flahdah trees, like flat-topped umbrellas on crooked sticks, not more than twenty feet high;
they are narrow branched, with lanceolate leaves. About the water, little more than muddy, shallow ponds, save for the flahdahs, nothing grew; only dried, cracked earth, whitish and buckled, for a radius of more than a quarter of a pasang, could be found; what vegetation there might have been had been grazed off, even to the roots; one could place one’s hand in the cracks in the earth;
each crack adjoins others to constitute an extensive reticulated pattern; each square in this pattern is shallowly concave. The nomads, when camping at a watering place, commonly pitch their tent near a tree; this affords them shade; also they place and hang goods in the branches of the tree, using it for storage."
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Economy of TahariA great amount of farming, or perhaps one should speak of gardening, is done at the oasis, but little of this is exported. At the oasis will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow; and beans, berries, onions tuber suls, various sorts of melons. a foliated leaf vegetable, called Katch, and various root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, radishes, of the sphere and cylinder varieties.
korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded.
At the oasis, because of the warm climate, the farmers can grow two or more crops a year. Larma and tospits are also grown at the oases, in small orchards. Some rep is grown, for cloth, but most cloth comes to the oases from caravans.
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In the cafes I had feasted well. I had had verr meat, cut in chunks and threaded on a metal rod, with slices of peppers and larma, and roasted; vulo stew with raisins, nuts, onions and honey; a kort with melted cheese and nutmeg; hot Bazi tea, sugared and later, Turian wine.
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I brushed away two sellers of apricots and spices."
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A veiled woman was hawking dates by the tefa.
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Buy melons!" called a fellow next to her, lifting one of the yellowish, red-striped spheres toward me.
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I had nearly stepped into a basket of plums.
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Pomegranate orchards lie at the east of the oasis," I said. "Gardens lie inward. There is even a pond, between two of the groves of date palms."
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I was mildly surprised that the boy had been eating the tospit raw, for they are quite bitter, but, I knew, that the people of the Tahari regions, these bright, hot regions, relished strong tastes and smells.
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Some of the peppers and spices, relished even by children in the Tharai districts, were sufficient to convince an average good fellow of Thentis or Ar that the roof of his mouth and his tongue were being torn out of his head,
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Animal Farming
Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert. They are kept by nomads, who move them from one area of verr grass to another or from one water hole to another, as the holes, for the season, go dry.
Smaller water sources are used in the spring, for these are the first to go dry, larger ones later in the year. No grass grows about these water holes because many animals are brought to them and graze it to the earth.
They are usually muddy ponds, with some stunted trees about, centered in the midst of an extensive radius of grassless, cracked, dry earth."
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Salt MiningIn Gor's geologic past it seems that the salt districts, like scattered puddles of crystalline residue, are what remains of what was once an inland salt sea or several such.
It may be that, in remote times, an arm of Thassa extended here, or did extend here and then, later, in seismic dislocations or continental drift, became isolated from the parent body of water, leaving behind one or more smaller salt seas.
Or it may be that the seas were independent, being fed by rivers, washing down accumulated salt from rocks over millions of square pasangs. It is not known.
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The salt in solution is obtained in two ways, by drilling and flush mining and, in the deeper pits, by sending men below to fetch the brine.
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Some of these deposits are far below the surface of the Tahari. Men live in some of them, for weeks at a time. In other areas, certain of these solid deposits are exposed and are worked rather in the manner of open mining or quarries. In places these salt mountains are more than six hundred feet high.
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Whereas salt may be obtained from sea water and by burning seaweed, as is sometimes done in Torvaldsland, and there are various districts on Gor where salt, solid or in solution, may be obtained, by far the most extensive and richest of known Gor's salt deposits are to be found concentrated in the Tahari.
Tahari salt accounts, in its varieties, I would suspect, for some twenty percent of the salt and salt-related products, such as medicines and antiseptics, preservatives, cleansers, bleaches, bottle glass, which contains soda ash, taken from salt, and tanning chemicals, used on known Gor.
Salt is a trading commodity par excellence. There are areas on Gor where salt serves as a currency, being weighed and exchanged much as precious metals. The major protection and control of the Tahari salt, of course, lies in its remoteness, the salt districts, of which there are several, being scattered and isolated in the midst of the dune country, in the long caravan journeys required, and the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining it without knowing the trails, the ways of the desert.
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At Klima, and other such areas, salt is an industry. Thousands serve there, held captive by the desert. Klima has its own water, but it is dependent on caravans for its foods. These food stores are delivered to scouted areas some pasangs from the compounds, whence they are retrieved later by salt slaves.
Similarly, the heavy cylinders of salt, mined and molded at Klima, are carried on the backs of salt slaves from storage areas at Klima to storage areas in the desert, whence they are tallied, sold and distributed to caravans. The cylinders are standardized at ten stone, or a Gorean 'Weight,' which is some forty pounds.
A normal kaiila carries ten such cylinders, five to a side. A stronger animal carries sixteen, eight to a side. The load is balanced, always. It is difficult for an animal, or man, of course, to carry an unbalanced load.
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Trade
To the oases caravans bring various goods, for example, rep-cloth, embroidered cloths, silks, rugs, silver, gold, jewelries, mirrors, kailiauk tusk, perfumes, hides, skins, feathers, precious woods, tools, needles, worked leather goods, salt, nuts and spices, jungle birds, prized as pets, weapons, rough woods, sheets of tin and copper, the tea of Bazi, wool from the bounding Hurt, decorated, beaded whips, female slaves, and many other forms of merchandise.
The principal export of the oases is dates and pressed-date bricks. Some of the date palms grow to more than a hundred feet high. It takes ten years before they begin to bear fruit. They will then yield fruit for more than a century.
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Meat, hides, and animal-hair cloth are furnished to the oases by the nomads. In turn, from the oases the nomads receive, most importantly, Sa-Tarna grain and the Bazi tea.
They receive, as well, of course, other trade goods. Sa-Tarna is the main staple of the nomads. They, in spite of raising herds, eat very little meat. The animals are too precious for their trade value, and their hair and milk, to be often slaughtered for food.
Tribesmen of Gor – 37-38
Guards for these caravans, incidentally, were usually known by, and retained by, caravan merchants between caravans. They were known men. Tenders and drovers, on the whole, came and went.
Elaborate random selection devices, utilizing coins and sticks, and formulas, were sometimes used by merchants to assure that applying tenders and drovers were selected, if they were not known, by chance. Tenders and drovers were assured that this was to insure fairness.
Actually, of course, as was well known, this was a precaution against the danger of hiring, en bloc, unwittingly, an organized group of men, who might, prior to their hiring, have formed a plan to slay the guards and merchants and make off with the caravan. Tenders and drovers, however, like men generally, were an honest sort.
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PlantsTelekint
The rep-cloth veil was red; it had been soaked in a primitive dye, mixed from water and the mashed roots of the telekint; when he perspired, it had run; his face was stained.
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Veminium
The petals of veminium, the 'Desert Veminium,' purplish, as opposed to the 'Thentis Veminium,' bluish, which flower grows at the edge of the Tahari,
Tribesmen of Gor – 50-51
gathered in a shallow basket sand carried to a still, are boiled in water. The vapor which boils off is condensed into oil. This oil is used to perfume water. This water is not drunk but is used in middle and upper-class homes to rinse the eating hand, before and after the evening meal.
Tribesmen of Gor – 50-51
Verr grass
On the shaded sides of some rocks, and the shaded slopes of hills, here and there, grew stubborn, brownish patches of verr grass. Tribesmen of Gor -71
Cities and Settlements KASRA The red salt of Kasra, so called from its port of embarkation, was famed on Gor. It was brought from secret pits and mines, actually, deep in the interior, bound in heavy cylinders on the backs of pack kaiila."
Tribesman of Gor -20 KLIMA In the distance, below, perhaps five pasangs away, in the hot, concave, white salt bleakness, like a vast, white, shallow bowl, pasangs wide, there were compounds, low, white buildings of mud brick, plastered. There were many of them. They were hard to see in the distance, in the light, but I could make them out. 'Klima,' said Hamid."
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Most salt at Klima is white, but certain of the mines deliver red salt, red from ferrous oxide in its composition, which is called the Red Salt of Kasra, after its port of embarkation, at the juncture of the Upper and Lower Fayeen."
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TORTor, lying at the northwest corner of the Tahari, is the principal supplying point for the scattered oasis communities of that dry vastness, almost a continent of rock, and heat, and wind and sand."
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Tor was, as Gorean cities went, rich, trading city. It was headquarters for thousands of caravan merchants. In it, too, were housed many craftsmen, practicing their industries, carvers, varnishers, table makers, gem cutters, jewelers, carders, dyers of cloth, weavers of rugs, tanners, makers of slippers, toolers of leather, potters, glaziers, makers of cups and kettles, weapon smiths, and many others. Much of the city, of course, was organized to support the caravan trade."
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Oasis CommunitiesThese communities, sometimes quite large, numbering in hundreds, sometimes thousands of citizens depending on the water available, are often hundreds of pasangs apart.
They depend on caravans, usually from Tor, sometimes from Kasra, sometimes even from far Turia, to supply many of their needs. In turn, of course, caravans export the products of the oases."
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The water in an oasis is, of course, at its lowest point. Residences, at an oasis, are built on the higher ground, where nothing will grow. It is the valley, naturally, which, irrigated, usually by hand, though sometimes with clumsy wooden machinery, supports the agriculture. Land, at an oasis, which will grow food, is not wasted on domiciles."
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Oasis of the Battle of Red
the Oasis of the Battle of Red Rock was the last of the major oases of the Tahari for more than two thousand pasangs eastward; it lay, in effect, on the borders of the dreaded dune country
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The oasis which we were entering is named for the Battle of Red Rock, which is a large shelf of reddish sandstone behind the oasis, north by northeast from its lowest point, and center."
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Oasis of FaradShe was bought for two tarsks, from a caravan master named Zad of the Oasis of Farad,” he said.
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Oasis of Four PalmThe march of Hassan had as its object not Red Rock, northwest of Klima, but Four Palms, a Kavar outpost known, to him, which lay far to the south of Red Rock. Unfortunately Four Palms was farther from Klima than Red Rock. On the other hand, his decision seemed to me a sound one.
Red Rock was a Tashid oasis under the hegemony of the Aretai, enemies of the Kavars. Furthermore, between Klima and Red Rock lay the regions patrolled by the men of Abdul, the Salt Ubar, who had been known to me as Ibn Saran.
Beyond this, though Four Palms lay farther from Klima than Red Rock, its route, it seemed, would bring one sooner out of the dune country than the route to Red Rock, and into the typical Tahari terrain of rock and scrub, where some game might be found, occasional water and possible nomadic groups not disposed to hostility toward Kavars."
Tribesmen of Gor - 271
Oasis of Nine WellsI was returning to my compartment in Tor, from the tents of Farouk of Kasra. He was a merchant. He was camping in the vicinity of the city while purchasing kaiila for a caravan to the Oasis of Nine Wells. This oasis is held by Suleiman, master of a thousand lances, Suleiman of the Aretai."
Tribesmen of Gor -60
I had failed to contact them in Kasra, as I had planned, but I had learned that they were in the region of Tor, purchasing kaiila, for a caravan to the kasbah, or fortress, of Suleiman, of the Aretai tribe, master of a thousand lances, Ubar of the Oasis of Nine Wells."
Tribesmen of Gor - 44
They are Aretai,' said one of the drovers. The caravan, I knew, was bound for the Oasis of Nine Wells. It was held by Suleiman, master of a thousand lances. He was high pasha of the Aretai."
Tribesmen of Gor -82
Oasis of the Sand Sleen“Six days ago,” said the merchant, “soldiers, Aretai, from Nine Wells raided the Oasis of the Sand Sleen.” “Six days ago,” said the merchant, “soldiers, Aretai, from Nine Wells raided the Oasis of the Sand Sleen.”"
Tribesmen of Gor - 152
Oasis of the Stones of Silver
It is their intention that Suleiman not receive these goods. It is their intention to divert them, or most of them, to the Oasis of the Stones of Silver.” This was an oasis of the Char, also a vassal tribe of the Kavars. Its name had been given to it centuries before, when thirsty men, who had moved at night on the desert, had come upon it, discovering it.
Dew had formed on the large flat stones thereabout and, in the light of the dawn, had made them, from a distance, seem to glint like silver."
Tribesmen of Gor - 94
Oasis of Two ScimitarsThe oasis of Two Scimitars is an out-of-the-way oasis, under the hegemony of the Bakahs, which, for more than two hundred years, following their defeat in the Silk War of 8,110 C.A., has been a vassal tribe of the Kavars."
Tribesmen of Gor - 151
Buildings and construction in Tahari CommunitiesThe buildings of Tor are of mud brick, covered with colored, often flaking, plasters. But now, in the sun, and the dust, raised by the people in the streets, everything seemed drained of color."
Tribesmen of Gor - 38
The buildings in Tor are seldom more than four stories high, which is about as high as one may build safely with beams and mud brick. Because of the irregular topography of Tor, however, which is a hilly, rocky area, like most of the Tahari terrain, many of the buildings, built on shelves and rises, seemed considerably higher."
Tribesmen of Gor - Page 38
These buildings, on the outside smooth and bleak, save for occasional narrow windows, high, not wide enough to admit a body, abut directly on the streets, making the streets like deep, walled alleys. In the center of the street is a gutter.
It seldom rains in Tor, but the gutter serves to collect waste, which is often thrown into it, through open doors, by slaves.
Within these walls, however, so pressing upon the street, I knew there were often gardens, walled, well-watered, beautiful, and cool, dark rooms, shielded from the heat and sun, many with superb appointments."
Tribesmen of Gor -38
Tor, rather similarly, (compared to an oasis) though few crops were grown within its walls, was built high, about its water, several wells in the deepest area in the city. The architecture of Tor, in concentric circles, broken by numerous, narrow, crooked streets, was a function of the radius from its wells.
An advantage of this municipal organization, of course, though it is scarcely a matter of intentional design, is that the water is in the most protected portion of the city, its center."
Tribesmen of Gor -40
Tor's water, I might mention, was ample to her needs. Though I saw few of them, she boasted many shaded gardens. Water for these gardens, by contract with slave masters, was carried by chains of male slaves and emptied into house cisterns, whence, later, by house slaves, it would be taken in cans and sprinkled carefully, foot by foot, throughout the garden."
Tribesmen of Gor - 40
Much of the city, of course, was organized to support the caravan trade. There were many walled, guarded warehouses, requiring their staffs of scribes and guards, and, in hundreds of hovels, lived kaiila tenders, drovers, and such, who would, at the caravan tables, when their moneys had been exhausted, apply, if accepted, making their mark on the roster, once more for a post with some new caravan.
Guards for these caravans, incidentally, were usually known by, and retained by, caravan merchants between caravans. They were known men. Tenders and drovers, on the whole, came and went. Elaborate random selection devices, utilizing coins and sticks, and formulas, were sometimes used by merchants to assure that applying tenders and drovers were selected, if they were not known, by chance. Tenders and drovers were assured that this was to insure fairness.
Actually, of course, as was well known, this was a precaution against the danger of hiring, en bloc, unwittingly, an organized group of men, who might, prior to their hiring, have formed a plan to slay the guards and merchants and make off with the caravan. Tenders and drovers, however, like men generally, were an honest sort."
Tribesmen of Gor - 40
Black Wine Service in Tahari {Opposite to most other regions of gor }The first girl brings the pot, the second brings the sugars and spoons. This is opposite from other regions of Gor.
Ibn Saran, not taking his eyes from Alyena, lifted his finger. From one side a slave girl, barefoot, bangled, in sashed, diaphanous, trousered chalwar, gathered at the ankles, in tight, red-silk vest, with bare midriff, fled to him, with the tall, graceful, silvered pot containing the black wine.
She was veiled. She knelt, replenishing the drink. Beneath her veil I saw the metal of her collar. I had not thought to have such fortune. She did not look at me. She returned to her place wit the pot of black wine.
Ibn Saran lifted another finger. From the side there hastened to him another girl, a fair skinned, red haired girl. She too, wore veil, vest, chalwar, bangles, collar. She carried a tray, on which were various spoons and sugars. She knelt, placing her tray on the table.
With a tiny spoon, its tip no more that a tenth of a hort in diameter, she placed four measures of white sugar, and six of yellow, in the cup; with two stirring spoons, one for the white sugar, another for the yellow, she stirred the beverage after each measure.
She then held the cup to the side of her cheek, testing its temperature; Ibn Saran glanced at her; she, looking at him, timidly kissed the side of the cup and placed it before him. Then her head down, she withdrew. I did not turn to look back at the first girl, she who held the silvered pot.
Tribesmen of Gor - 88-89
Free Women of the TahariGeneral Descriptions and Facts concerning the Free Woman of the Tahari
Free women, in the Tahari, incidentally, usually, when out of their houses, also measure their stride. Some fasten their own ankles together with silken thongs. Some dare even the chain, though they retain its key.
Free girls, not yet companions, but of an age appropriate for the companionship, sometimes signal their availability to possible swains by belling their left ankles with a single "virgin bell."
The note of this bell, which is bright and clear, is easily distinguished from those of the degrading, sensual bells of the slave.
Tribesmen of Gor -45
Sometimes free girls, two or more of them, as a girlish lark, obtain slave bells and, chaining their ankles, dress themselves in their haiks and go about the city. Sometimes their girlish amusement does not turn out as they expect. Sometimes they find themselves being sold in markets at obscure eases.
Tribesmen of Gor - 45
Clothing worn by the Free Woman of the TahariThe haik, black, covers the woman from head to toe. At the eyes, there is a tiny bit of black lace, through which she may see. On her feet were soft, black, nonheeled slippers with curled toes; they were decorated with a line of silver thread.
Tribesmen of Gor -44
Work by Free Women and slavesFind Aya," I would tell her. "Beg her to put you to work." Aya was one of the slave women of Farouk. Once she dared to say to me, "But Aya makes me do all her work!" "Hurry!" I told her.
Of course Aya exploited her. It was my intention taht she should. But, too, Aya, with her kaiila strap, continued her lessons in Gorean. Too, she taught her skills useful to a Tahari female, the making of ropes from kaiila hair, the cutting and plaiting of reins, the weaving of cloth and mats, the decoration and beading of the leather goods,
the use of the mortar and pestle, the use of the grain quern, the perparation and spicing of stews, the cleaning of verr and, primarily when we camped near watering holes in the vicinity of the nomads, the milking of verr and kaiila.
Too, she was taught the churning of milk in skin bags. "She is making me learn the labors of a free woman," once had complained Alyena to me. I had gestured her to her knees. "You are a poor sort," I told her. "To a nomad I may sell you. In his tent the heavy labors of the free woman will doubtless be yours, in addition to the labors of the slave."
"I would have to work as a free woman," she whispered, "and yet be also a slave?" "Yes," I said. She shuddered. "Sell me to a rich man," she begged.
"I will sell you, or give you, or loan you, or rent you," I said, "to whomsoever I please."
Tribesmen of Gor - 72-73
Slaves of the TahariThe preference for white skinned, blue eyed blonde slaves by Men of the Tahari
There was another reason I had brought Miss Blake-Allen, as we may perhaps speak of her for purposes of simplicity, to the Tahari districts. Cold, white skinned women are of interest to the men of the Tahari.
They enjoy putting them in servitude. they enjoy, on their submission mats, turning them into helpless, yielding slaves. Too, blue eyed, blond women are, statistically, rare in the Tahari districts. Those that exist there have been imported as slaves.
Tribesmen of Gor" page 44
securing a slave at nightWhen finished with her, I would cross Alyena's ankles and, with the walking chain, suitably shortened, chain them together. That way she could not stand. I would throw her her brief djellaba against the desert cold, and order her to a position of sleep. On the mat, toward morning, she would pull the hood over her face, fold her arms and pull up her legs, knees bent; the djellaba came far up her thighs.
Tribesmen of Gor -81
A different way of punishment {not the whip but...}Once she stole a date. I did not whip her. I chained her, arms over her head, back against the trunk, to a flahdah tree. I permitted nomad children to discomfit her. They are fiendish little beggars.
They tickled her with the lanceolate leaves of the tree. They put honey about her, to attract the tiny black sand flies, which infest such water holes in the spring.
Tribesmen of Gor - 81
Garments worn by Tahari slavesAnkle Bells
Following him was a woman, in a black haik. Suddenly I was startled. As she passed me, her stride small and measured, I head the clink of a light chain, the sound of ankle bells. She was a slave beneath the haik, I supposed her collared, naked."
Tribesmen of Gor - 45
Chalwar..she wore the sashed chalwar, a sashed, diaphanous trousered garment, full but gathered in, closely, at the ankles..."
Tribesmen of Gor -105
HaikFollowing him was a woman, in a black haik. Suddenly I was startled. As she passed me, her stride small and measured, I head the clink of a light chain, the sound of ankle bells. She was a slave beneath the haik, I supposed her collared, naked."
Tribesmen of Gor - 45
KurdahThe girl, startled, cried out. She sat within, her knees to the left, her ankles together, her weight partly on her hands, to the right, on the small, silk-covered cushion of the frame.
It was semicircular and about a yard in width at its widest point. The superstructure of the frame rose about four feet above the frame at its highest point, enclosing, as in an open-fronted, flat-bottomed, half globe, its occupant. This frame, however, was covered completely with layers of white rep-cloth, to reflect the sun, with the exception of the front, which was closed with a center-opening curtain, also of white rep-cloth.
The wood of the frame is tem-wood. It is light. It is carried by a pack kaiila, strapped to the beast, and steadied on both sides by braces against the pack blankets. This frame is called, in Gorean, the kurdah. It is used to transport women, either slave or free, in the Tahari. The girl was not chained within the kurdah.
Tribesmen of Gor - 69
Slave ChainsMarch chain
Usually the tallest girls lead the slave chain, the height decreasing gradually toward the end of the chain, where the shortest girl is placed. This was a “common chain,” sometimes called a “march chain” or “trekking chain”;
Tribesmen of Gor -14
Walking chainFollowing him, in a black haik, was a woman. Suddenly I was startled. As she passed me, her stride small and measured, I heard the clink of light chain, the sound of ankle bells.
She was slave. She turned her head, briefly, to look at me; I saw her eyes, dark, through the tiny opening in the haik, through the tiny, black-lace screen, about an inch in height and four inches in width."
Tribesmen of Gor – 44 -45
The use of a light walking chain, tethering the ankles, meant to be worn abroad, accompanying the master, incidentally, is not uncommon in the regions of the Tahari. A beautifully measured gait is thought, in the Tahari, to be attractive in a woman."
Tribesmen of Gor - 45
I paused before a given stall, where light walking chains were being sold. They were strung over racks rather like parrot perches. Without much haggling, I bought one, which seemed to me pretty.
They are adjustable, with rings, from a length as small as two inches, for security, to a stride length of about twenty inches. Two keys are provided, each of which fits both ankle-ring locks."
Tribesmen of Gor - 49
TattooThe captain looked at me. “Sleeve,” he said. I thrust back the sleeve of my shirt, revealing my left forearm. It did not bear the blue scimitar, tattooed on the forearm of a Kavar boy at puberty."
Tribesmen of Gor- 83