Explorers of Gor

by John Norman

  The portage was not easy, and it was not our first. This was the eleventh cataract of the Ua.

  Sometimes we used rollers beneath the canoe, and hauled with ropes.

  The boats of Shaba had been sectioned, to facilitate such portages. He had had numerous strong men to carry the burdens. We had only ourselves, and three slight-bodied female slaves.

  "I can go no further," said Ayari. This was the fourth portage of the day.

  "Let us rest," I said.

  Gently we lowered the canoe. While the others held it I, with rocks, braced it that it might not slip backwards down the grade.

  Trees surrounded us. Overhead bright jungle birds flew. We could hear the chattering of guernon monkeys about.

  "Bring up the supplies," said Kisu.

  "Yes, Master," said the girls, sweating. They went back down the grade some hundred yards to gather up the paddles and sacks, and roped bundles, which contained our various goods. We moved these things separately, usually a hundred or two hundred yards at a time. Kisu and I took turns at the stern. It requires great strength to brace and support the canoe at that point.

  "Shaba passed here," said Kisu, sitting down, wiping the sweat, like river water, from his head.

  "Our portages," I said, "would be much more difficult if he had not preceded us."

  "That is true," grinned Kisu. We generally followed the portage routes determined by Shaba and his scouts. They had located sensible geodesic contours and, in traversing the area, had, because of their larger vessels, cut away various trees, vines, and obstacles.

  I smiled to myself. I had little doubt that we, now, were moving much more swiftly than Shaba. Too, he had lost a week, with the illness of several of his men, a dozen or so, as we had learned, at the village at which we had recently traded.

  I was pleased with the situation. I suspected, from the degree of recovery of the jungle following the passage of Shaba and his men, that he was not more than fifteen or twenty days ahead of us on the river.

  I looked down the grade. Approaching us, in single file, led by Tende, came the slaves, carrying supplies. Last in the line, naked, came the blond-haired barbarian, erect and lovely, balancing on her head, steadying it with her hands, one of the bundles of our supplies.

  In a few Ehn they reached our position on the grade.

  The blond-haired barbarian, carrying her burden, balancing it, steadying it with her two hands, looked at me.

  Our eyes met, and she quickly looked down.

  I saw that she had looked at me as a slave girl at her master. I saw that she now knew herself owned, actually, and truthfully, and that it was I who owned her.

  I was pleased.

  She put down the bundle. She then, like the other girls, who had also discarded their burdens, returned down the grade. These transports of goods took them two trips.

  Ayari was lying on his back, looking up at the sky. Kisu, sitting, was looking down through the trees at the swift, churning water of the river.

  In a few minutes the girls, again, made their way upward. Again they came in a single file. Again the blond-haired barbarian was the last in the line, again, lovely and erect, balancing on her head a bundle, one roped heavily and wrapped in bark cloth.

  "Do not put down your burden," I said to her. I then rose to my feet and went to where she stood, beautiful and obedient. She straightened herself even more, steadying the bundle on her head.

  I walked slowly about her, inspecting the slave beauty of her.

  "You make a lovely beast of burden," I told her.

  "I am a beast of burden, Master," she said. "I am a slave."

  I looked at her, and our eyes met, and she lowered her eyes, frightened. Could I know the truth of her? Could I know how she had confessed herself slave and needful of my touch? Of course not, for I had been asleep, and I could not understand her English. Yet, from the very morning following that night of her secret acknowledgments, five days ago, our relationship had been subtly, deliciously, different. She had begun, from that time, timidly, to look upon me with the vulnerable need of a slave girl. She had, secretly, acknowledged herself slave and mine. It was now merely up to me to do what I wished with her. She lifted her eyes again to mine. For an instant they were frightened. Could I know her secret? Of course not. How could I? Swiftly she again lowered her eyes.

  "Remain as you are," I said. "Do not move."

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  I then, again, walked about her, as before, slowly, considering her again from various perspectives, letting her know herself looked upon, letting her know herself being appraised, being assessed, I inspecting her as one may such as she, as is appropriate for one such as she, a brand-wearer, a beautiful purchasable animal, a lovely item of livestock.

  I then again faced her.

  She kept her eyes down.

  "Yes," I said, "you are a lovely beast of burden."

  "Thank you, Master," she whispered.

  "Carrying the burden, as you are," I said, and, of course, no option had been permitted her, or the other slaves, "lifts and displays the line of your breasts nicely. Doubtless you are aware of that."

  "Yes, Master," she said. "I realize that, Master."

  "You are an exciting slave," I said.

  "A slave hopes to be pleasing."

  "You have nice lines," I said.

  "A slave is pleased, if her master is pleased," she said.

  "You exist to serve, and give pleasure to men," I said. "Perhaps you know that?"

  "Yes, Master."

  "It is true," I said.

  "Yes, Master," she said. "I know that, Master."

  "There are various ties," I said, "for example, the back-cuffed collar, the suspended ring, the saddle tie, and such, which also cunningly accent the line of a girl's beauty."

  "We desire to be pleasing to our masters," she said. "We rejoice if we can give them pleasure."

  "In many such ties, and others," I said, "you are absolutely helpless."

  "We are slaves," she said. "It is appropriate that we should find ourselves fully at the mercy of our masters."

  "It is interesting that you should say that," I said.

  "Master?"

  "As you are from Earth, and are so new to slavery."

  "Yes, Master."

  "It is true, of course."

  "Yes, Master," she said. "I know that, Master."

  "Have you been taught such responses?" I asked.

  "No, Master," she said.

  "They come naturally to you then?" I said. "They come from your own recognitions, from your own understandings?"

  "Yes Master."

  "They arise from your own heart?"

  "Yes, Master."

  "Interesting," I said.

  "Master!" she whispered.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Nothing, Master," she said, quickly. "Forgive me, Master."

  "You may put down your burden," I said.

  "Thank you, Master," she said.

  "Rest now," I told her. "Lie on your stomach, head to the left, with your legs spread, and your hands at your sides, backs of your wrists to the ground, palms facing upwards."

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  I regarded her, she at my feet, she prone as I by my will had put her. How beautiful women are, in all their perspectives and attitudes.

  How desirable they are!

  What red-blooded man would not wish to own them?

  * * * *

  The day had been long and hard.

  We had now made camp. A small stream was nearby, which led into the Ua.

  She stood before me and then, without asking, gently, delicately, untied, and opened, and took from me the shreds of the soiled tunic which I wore. It was muddied and caked with dirt, from the days in the jungle, from the muddy banks of the Ua. As she removed it from me she kissed me softly, tenderly, about the chest and left hip.

  "Are you a trained slave?" I asked her.

  "No, Master," she said.

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bsp; She then knelt before me, holding the tattered, muddied garment against her. "Master's garment is muddied," she said.

  I said nothing.

  Then she leaned forward and kissed me, softly.

  "Does the Earth woman kiss her master?" I asked.

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  Then she leaned forward and again kissed me, softly.

  "Surely you are a trained slave," I said.

  "No, Master," she said, looking up at me. And then she rose to her feet.

  I crouched by the stream and watched her, on her knees, in the fashion of the primitive, owned female, clean and rinse the garment of her master. The proud Earth woman, unbidden, served as my laundress.

  When she had finished with the garment and wrung it much dry, I had her replace it on my body. I would let it finish its drying on my body. Before she tied shut the tunic she kissed me again, softly, this time on the chest and belly, and then again knelt before me, her head down.

  "Gather wood for the fire," I told her.

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  * * * *

  It was now late, and the others were asleep.

  Tende and Alice were already, hands tied behind them, wrist-tethered to the small tree which served us as slave post.

  The blond-haired barbarian regarded me, and then lowered her eyes, and put a bit more wood on the fire.

  It is not always easy to make a fire in the forest. There are commonly two large rains during the day, one in the late afternoon and the other late in the evening, usually an Ahn or so before midnight, or the twentieth hour. These rains are often accompanied by violent winds, sometimes, I conjecture, ranging between one hundred and ten and one hundred and twenty pasangs an Ahn. The forest is drenched. One searches for wood beneath rock overhangs or under fallen trees. One may also, with pangas, hack away the wet wood of fallen trees, until one can obtain the dry wood beneath. Even during the heat of the day it is hard to find suitable fuel. The jungle, from the heat and rain, steams with humidity. Too, like the roof of a greenhouse, the lush green canopies of the rain forest tend to hold this moisture within. It is the fantastic oxygenation produced by the vegetation, conjoined with the humidity and heat, and the smell of plant life, and rotting vegetable matter and wood, that gives the diurnal jungle its peculiar and unmistakable atmosphere, an encompassing, looming, green, warm ambiance which is both beautiful and awesome. The nocturnal jungle is cooler, sometimes even chilly, and the air, a little thinner, a shade less rich, is different, the sun's energy no longer powering the complex reaction chains of photosynthesis. Yet, at night, perhaps one is even more aware of the presence and vastness of the jungle than during the day. In the daylight hours one's horizons are limited by the encircling greenery. In the night, in the darkness, one senses the almost indefinite extension of the jungle, thousands of pasangs in width and depth, about one.

  The blond-haired barbarian stirred the fire with a stick. I watched her.

  One does not make one's camp in the jungle near tall trees. Because of the abundant amount of moisture the trees do not send down deep tap roots, but their root systems spread more horizontally. In the fierce winds which often lash the jungle it is not unusual for these shallowly rooted trees, uprooted and overturned, to come crashing down.

  It seemed she wished to speak, but then she did not speak.

  There is an incredible variety of trees in the rain forest, how many I cannot conjecture. There are, however, more than fifteen hundred varieties and types of palm alone. Some of these palms have leaves which are twenty feet in length. One type of palm, the fan palm, more than twenty feet high, which spreads its leaves in the form of an opened fan, is an excellent source of pure water, as much as a liter of such water being found, almost as though cupped, at the base of each leaf's stem. Another useful source of water is the liana vine. One makes the first cut high, over one's head, to keep the water from being withdrawn by contraction and surface adhesion up the vine. The second cut, made a foot or so from the ground, gives a vine tube which, drained, yields in the neighborhood of a liter of water. In the rain forest some trees grow and lose leaves all year long, remaining always in foliage. Others, though not at the same time, even in the same species, will lose their foliage for a few weeks and then again produce buds and a new set of leaves. They have maintained their cycles of regeneration but these cycles, interestingly, are often no longer synchronized with either the northern or southern winters and springs.

  "Master," said the girl.

  "Yes," I said.

  "It is nothing," she said, looking down.

  In the rain forest we may distinguish three separate ecological zones, or tiers or levels. Each of these tiers, or levels or layers, is characterized by its own special forms of plant and animal life. These layers are marked off by divergent tree heights. The highest level or zone is that of the "emergents," that of those trees which have thrust themselves up above the dense canopies below them. This level is roughly from a hundred and twenty-five feet Gorean to two hundred feet Gorean. The second level is often spoken of as the canopy, or as that of the canopies. This is the fantastic green cover which constitutes the main ceiling of the jungle. It is what would dominate one's vision if one were passing over the jungle in tarn flight or viewing it from the height of a tall mountain. The canopy, or zone of the canopies, ranges from about sixty to one hundred and twenty-five feet high, Gorean measure. The first zone extends from the ground to the beginning of the canopies above, some sixty feet in height, Gorean measure. We may perhaps, somewhat loosely, speak of this first zone as the "floor," or, better, "ground zone," of the rain forest. In the level of the emergents there live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Monkeys and tree urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found in this highest level. In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles, and flies, and so on. In the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and the umbrella bird. Guernon monkeys, too, usually inhabit this level. In the ground zone, and on the ground itself, are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some unflighted, like the grub borer and land gim. Along the river, of course, many other species of birds may be found, such as jungle gants, tufted fishers and ring-necked and yellow-legged waders. Also in the ground zone are varieties of snake, such as the ost and hith, and numerous species of insects. The rock spider has been mentioned, and termites, also. Termites, incidentally, are extremely important to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break down and destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. The termite "dust," thereafter, by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials. In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone. More than six varieties of anteater are also found here, and more than twenty kinds of small, fleet, single-horned tabuk. On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally, than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this should be the case. Perhaps it is because in the rain forest
food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus, there is little temptation for them to transgress the boundaries of their customary prey categories. They will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked or challenged, attack with dispatch. Conspicuously absent in the rain forests of the Ua were sleen. This is just as well for the sleen, commonly, hunts on the first scent it takes upon emerging from its burrow after dark. Moreover it hunts single-mindedly and tenaciously. It can be extremely dangerous to men, even more so, I think, than the Voltai, or northern, larl. I think the sleen, which is widespread on Gor, is not found, or not frequently found, in the jungles because of the enormous rains, and the incredible dampness and humidity. Perhaps the sleen, a burrowing, furred animal, finds itself uncomfortable in such a habitat. There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which frequents the Ua and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water.

  I listened to the noises of the jungle night, the chattering, and the hootings, and the clickings and cries, of nocturnal animals, and birds and insects.

  I glanced to the blond-haired barbarian. It was nearly time to secure her for the night.

  Contrary to popular belief the floor of the jungle is not a maze of impenetrable growth, which must be hacked through with machete or panga. Quite the contrary, it is usually rather open. This is the result of the denseness of the overhead canopies, because of which the ground is much shaded, the factor which tends to inhibit and limit ground growth. Looking about among the slender, scattered colonnades of trees, exploding far overhead in the lush capitals of the green canopy, one is often exposed to vistas of one to two hundred feet, or more. It is hard not to be reminded of the columns in one of the great, shaded temples of Initiates, as in Turia or Ar. And yet here, in the rain forest, the natural architecture of sun, and shade, and growth, seems a vital celebration of life and its glory, not a consequence of aberrations and the madness of abnegations, not an invention of dismal men who have foresworn women, even slaves, and certain vegetables, and live by parasitically feeding and exploiting the superstitions of the lower castes. There are, of course, impenetrable, or almost impenetrable, areas in the jungle. These are generally "second-growth" patches. Through them one can make one's way only tortuously, cutting with the machete or panga, stroke by stroke. They normally occur only where men have cleared land, and then, later, abandoned it. That is why they are called "second-growth" patches; they normally occur along rivers and are not characteristic of the botanical structure of the virgin rain forest itself.