by John Norman
In the central hall of the sales barn of Ram Seibar, which is open to thepublic, there are twenty-one blocks. Twenty of these are subsidiary blocks, orside blocks. These occur, aligned, ten to a side, along the walls, to the leftand right, as one enters. They are spaced rather evenly, in order not to suggestdistinctions among them. Too, they are placed a few feet out from the walls. Atone's convenience, then, one may walk entirely about them. They are about a yardhigh and five feet in diameter. In the center of each there is an iron ring. Thecentral block, which must be ascended by stairs, lies at the far end of the hallas one enters, opposite the door. It is about seven or eight feet in height andsome twenty feet in diameter. Girls are seldom auctioned from the side blocks.
Occasionally fixed prices are set on them. If this is the case the price isusually written on their body, either with a grease pencil or a lipstick.
Usually, however, of course, they find themselves being bargained for. The girlusually hopes that her master will pay enough for her to convince him that sheis of at least minimal value, and will not pay so much that he will be angrywith the merchant, for in such a case he is almost certain to take hisdissatisfaction out on her lovely hide. "Side-block girl," in the argot of theslave girl, like "pot girl' and "kettle-and-mat girl," is a term ofdisparagement. It must be admitted there is more prestige in being auctionedfrom a major, or central, block than there is in being casually purchased from aside block. One might as well be sold off a slaver's public shelf, in a city, orout of a cage, or kneeling in the mud outside a village, from a "slaver'snecklace." To be sure, a girl who is once sold off a side block may, in time,her femininity blossoming under the discipline of the whip and the harshtutelage of masters, become a treasure, a slave so beautiful and desirable thatmen will pay fortunes to have her at their feet. I wandered over to the leftwall to look at some of the side blocks.
"I shall take this one," I beard a fellow say, and so simply was the girl sold.
She was one of the few girls on whom Ram Seibar had set a fixed price. It waswritten on her back in lipstick, forty copper tarsks. She was one of the few whohad been freshly branded. Her wrists were crossed and bound before her, in cruelloops of rawhide, and, by a tight loop encircling her body, cutting into herflesh, held tightly before her. Ibis was to prevent her from tearing at thebrand. Hers were stained with tears. She, like the other girls on the sideblocks, was fastened on her block. Uniformly they wore collars and chains, thechains some five feet in length and attached to the block rings. She saw moneychange hands. She knew she had been sold. She looked at her master, andshuddered. She saw that he was handsome.
When one girl was sold from a block a new one was put in her place.
"How can you sell an unbranded woman?" asked a fellow of a slaver's man,indicating a freckled, fairly complexioned, red-haired barbarian kneelingfrightened on a nearby block, the palms of her hands down on the wood. The blackiron of her collar, and the chain, contrasted nicely with the lightness andtexture of her skin.
"Is she worth fifty tarsks to you?" asked the slavers "Yes," said the fellow, slowly.
Immediately the slaver's man removed a long piece of rawhide, about four feet inlength, from his belt. He took the girl's hands behind her, and, crossing themwith one end of the rawhide, fastened them tightly, together. He then looped therawhide about her belly, jerked it tight, and tied it to her bound wrists. Thegirl looked behind herself, frightened, her hands fastened closely at the smallof her back. With a key he opened the girl's collar and placed it, with itschain, on the block. He then seized the girl by the arms and slid her from theblock, into the waiting arms of an attendant. "Fifty tarsks for this freckled,little she-tarsk," he said. "This will be the buyer," he said, indicating thefellow who had expressed an interest in the girl. The attendant nodded and,throwing the girl over his shoulder, left.
"Pick her up in ten Elm, at the front entrance," said the slaver's man to theprospective buyer. "She will be branded."
The man nodded, and turned away.
I smiled to myself at the artifice involved in this transaction. The sale,technically, would not take place until after the young woman was branded. Iwatched her being carried out through a side entrance. I wondered if she knewshe were being carried to the iron. This lot of barbarians, which I guessed asbeing in the neighborhood of seventy or eighty girls, had been, as nearly as Icould determine, delivered only last night or this morning. Even now themajority of them had not been marked. This was a function, of course, of thebrief amount of time they had been in the possession of Ram Seibar. It takestime to bring an iron to branding heat and the iron, of course, its head sinkingand searing, burning, into the girl's flesh, marking her, loses heat rapidly. Agiven iron, accordingly, must be reheated before being reapplied. This situationis further complicated by the fact that the iron, normally, is cleaned followingeach application, a procedure which further reduces its heat. The cleaning isimportant for the precision and clarity of the next marking. Thus, in effect,each girl is marked with a new, fresh iron.
The most common brand site in a Gorean slave girl is the outer side of the leftthigh, closely beneath the hip. In this brand site the identificatory mark isthus placed high enough to be covered by the brief cloth of a common slave tunicand is available for convenient and immediate inspection if the tunic is lifted.
The time it takes to brand several women can be reduced by the common expedientof heating several irons, but most iron masters will not work with more than twoor three irons at a given time. Similarly, in a given house, normally only onefellow, at a time, attends to the branding. The rapidity with which the girlswere being placed on sale, incidentally, is not unusual at the perimeter. Thisis, I think, in part a response to buyer pressure and, in part, the result of anunwillingness on the part of most perimeter slavers to devote time, or muchtime, to such niceties as diet, exercise and training. They reason, I suppose,that the master can manage, feed and train the girl, once he owns her, accordingto his own pleasures.
"I shall take this one," said a short, stocky, broad-shouldered fellow, in awide-brimmed hat. "She has strong legs. Have her branded and put with theothers."
The slaver's man nodded. They did not even discuss price. I gathered that alimited-lot price must have been agreed upon earlier, perhaps with Ram Seibarhimself. The slaver's man did not seem hesitant to deal with him. I gathered hewas well known in the area. He had bought more than one girl. Though the girlshe purchased were comely, he did not seem, particularly, to be interested inthat. He seemed to be buying them for some other reason.
As one girl, a branded one, was sold from a block down the way another girl, ablonde, was brought forward and flung on her hands and knees on the vacatedblock. A slaver's man then locked the collar on her, with its chain, running tothe block ring. She looked about herself, frightened. A fellow reached forth totouch her thigh. She struck at his hand and scrambled back. "Don't! Don't!" shecried, in English. Almost instantly a slaver's man, a whip raised, was upon her.
The men about the block stepped back, watching, as she, on her side, andtwisting, writhed under her lashing. The slaver's man then folded back theblades of the whip, under their clip, and hooked the whip, by its butt ring, onhis belt. He then knelt her on the block, posing her. When the fellow againreached forth to touch her she did not resist. She had learned that she was thesort of woman whom men might touch when and as they pleased.
She contrasted interestingly with another girl, an auburn-haired girl, on thenext block. The auburn-haired girl, cooperating and without the leastresistance, assumed various postures and attitudes, following the indications ofthe various men about her block. She even permitted herself, without the leastresistance, to be posed, and by hand, for their interest. She knelt now on theblock, back on her heels, her knees spread, her back straight, her head back,her hands behind the back of her head. I had little doubt but what the situationof both of these girls would become even more clear to them once they werebranded.
"Noble Sirs!" called a
voice, that of the fellow in the soiled blue-and-yellowshirt who had, earlier, been advertising the sale outside the compound. "NobleSirs," he called. "We are ready for the final auction of the evening!"
This announcement was greeted with a murmur of interest and the men in the hallbegan to move toward the front of the room, to the vicinity of the centralblock. It was near the central block that the fully clothed, apparently lovelyyoung woman was strung up by the wrists. She, it seemed, had been saved forlast. During the course of the evening, from time to time, at irregularintervals, some fifteen or sixteen girls had been offered, in open bidding, tothe crowd. Some of these, at least initially, had been clothed, though often inlittle other than panties and a brassiere. I had stayed to see this woman soldfor I was curious to see if she was as beautiful as the delicate lineaments ofher face suggested. She was a fairskinned, slender, willowy girl. She appearedto be sweetly breasted, with a small waist and lovely, flaring hips, doubtlessnestling a luscious love cradle. She had, small wrists and ankles. They wouldlook well in shackles. I saw that her eyes, when she opened them, in pain andterror, to look out on the crowd, were blue. Her hair was red, and bound back,rather severely, with a ribbon. She squirmed a moment in the bonds, and thenhung still, near the central block. Her body, from what I could see of it, andjudge of it, showed promise. It might prove adequate, I speculated, even forthat of a pleasure slave.
I glanced back, and particularly to the left, at some of the side blocks. Theside blocks were now deserted, the men having drifted forward, except by theiroccupants, now forgotten, kneeling or crouching upon them, their necks in theircollars, fastened by their chains to the block rings. I smiled to myself. Someof the merchandise looked angry; no longer were they the centers of attention;they, though naked and chained, and on slave blocks, had been simply put frommind; they must remain behind, alone, precisely where they were, chained, whilemasters chose to ignore them, bestowing their attention on an item of at leasttemporarily greater interest. Already the merchandise was exhibiting the vanityof slaves. But let them rest content for, when the auction was done, mendoubtless would drift back to their perusal; they would then be again subjectedto the close scrutiny of masters; they would then be examined again, andclosely, to see if they might be of any interest.
"I believe we are ready to proceed," called the gross, corpulent fellow in thesoiled blue-and-yellow shirt. With his kaiila quirt he indicated the suspendedgirl. "We have here the last item to be put up for auction this evening, afairskinned, red-haired barbarian beauty."
"We do not know if she is a beauty or not," called a man. "Strip her! ' "But I hasten to assure you," continued the slaver's man, giving no heed to thefellows enthusiastic contribution, "that the market will remain open for yetanother Ahn following this auction. You are then invited to reconsider with aneye for prospective purchase the trinkets and baubles strewn forth for yourdelectation upon our side blocks."
"On with it!" cried a man. "Let us see her!"
"We have saved this barbarian beauty for last," said the slaver's man. "She willmake a fitting conclusion to the auctions of this evening, such a splendidevening at the house of Ram Seibar! Behold her! Is your interest not whetted?"
I could see, by glancing around, that the interest of several of the men wasindeed whetted.
"Even clothed," laughed the auctioneer, "is your interest not whetted?"
"That it is!" laughed more than one man.
"Let us see her!" called another.
That the woman was being sold last in the auctions does not indicate, per se,that she was the most beautiful. On the other hand, it was undeniable that shewas quite beautiful. Several of the girls I had seen auctioned off during thecourse of the evening, incidentally, had been quite extraordinary.
This woman, at any rate, was surely among the most beautiful. Some of the girlsauctioned earlier had also presented to the buyers initially clothed, to oneextent the other, their clothing then being removed, sometimes sardonically andceremoniously, during the course of their sale. This was the only woman,however, who had been presented before the buyers strung up by the wrists.
"A fair-skinned, red-haired barbarian beauty," called the auctioneer, "highlyintelligent, exquisitely refined and of delicate sensibilities, a woman on herown world doubtless of class and station — but on this world, our world of Gor,only a meaningless piece of slave meat, a girl who will learn to wear a collar,a girl who will learn to serve and obey, a girl who will learn to please, a girlwho will learn that she belongs, and rightfully, to men!
"Let us see her!" called more than one man.
The auctioneer signaled to an attendant who, from aside of the hall, broughtforth a shallow copper bowl, some two feet in diameter, filled with slendercylinders of oil-impregnated wood. In a moment, with a fire-maker, of flint andsteel, he had ignited this wood. The girl looked at it. I do not think, at thattime, she clearly understood its significance.
"Let us see her!" called a man.
"But, of course!" called the auctioneer. He hung the long black kaiila quirt onhis belt.
The woman looked out on the crowd, miserably. She did not understand, fully, Iam sure, what was going to be done to her. She was a barbarian, her freedom onlyrecently terminated. She spoke no Gorean. She had been brought into the hall andstrung up so cruelly by the wrists only after completion of the earlierauctions. Too, I had little doubt that her masters had kept her ignorant oftheir occurrence. She knew little more than the fact that she was beingdisplayed before men, though for what reason and to what end, I conjectured, shescarcely dared speculate.
"Shall we begin?" inquired the auctioneer of the crowd. "Shall we see if she isany good?"
"Yes! Yes!" more than one man. I smiled to myself the auctioneer knew hisbusiness.
"But first," said the auctioneer, "behold the absurdity of these garments. Theyseem to be a cross between the garments of a free woman and those of a slave."
Most obviously, from what I could see, the woman wore an attractive officedress, of a sort, which is often implicitly prescribed, particularly by femaleexecutives, for subordinate female employees regarded as too feminine to beconsidered for the executive class. "That is very pretty, Jane. I like to seeyou wear things like that." "Yes, Miss Tabor." This is also a useful way, ofcourse, for the female executive to make it a clear to their male colleaguesthat such women, unlike themselves, are only females.
It was a long, brown, white-flecked shirred shirtdress, of some soft, smoothsynthetic material, of mid-calf length. It had small, red, round buttonssecuring the long, exciting frontal closure and appearing, too, at the cuffs. Italso had a brown, white-flecked, matching tie belt. About her throat was asingle string of pearls, doubtless simulated, or they would have been removedfrom her by her first captors. She wore stockings or pantyhose. On her feet wereblack, shiny, high-heeled dress sandals, each secured, apparently, by a single,narrow black ankle strap. The fact that she was dressed as she was led me tobelieve that the woman worked in business and that she had been taken by theslavers on her way home from work. I think she could forget about the office. Inthe future she would have other duties.
"Are these the garments of a free woman or of a slave?" asked the auctioneer.
"Of a slave," shouted men. "Remove them!"
The Goreans probably regarded them as the garments of a slave because of theirsmoothness and prettiness. Too, the shirred quality of the dress would permit itto move, and swirl, excitingly about her body, if she chose to move in certainways. Too, the lower portions of her calves and her pretty ankles were revealedby the dress. That she wore slave garments was probably also suggested to themby the transparency and sheerness of the coverings on her legs and, of course,from the Gorean view, her footwear, so slight and pretty, with the black anklestraps, was such that it would be likely to be affected only by a woman beggingfor the collar.
"She came to us this way," said the auctioneer. "I myself have not yet seenher."
"Let us see her," called a man.
"Of course!" laughed the auctioneer. He then went to the suspended girl and,thrusting up the ropes on her ankles, unbuckled the narrow, ankle-encirclingblack straps of her high-heeled dress sandals. He drew them from her feet andheld them up, together, in his right hand. "Note the straps" he said. "We arefamiliar with such straps, are we not?"
Several of the men laughed. They resembled the small black straps, buckled, withwhich one occasionally binds the wrists and ankles of slaves, before, or while,one amuses oneself with them.
He then drew the large, triangular-bladed knife from the beaded sheath on hisbelt and slashed the straps and uppers of the sandals, discarding them then inthe flaming copper bowl at the side.
"She has pretty feet," he said. He then resheathed his dagger and, extending hishand, locked his fingers about the string of pearls on the girl's throat. Shecried out as he jerked them from her neck. "She has a pretty neck, too," he saidbending her head back by the hair.
"Yes," said a man.
He then released her hair and, stepping forward, again addressed himself to thecrowd. "Doubtless some Master will won find something more suitable with whichto enclose that lovely neck than a string of pearls, he speculated.
There was laughter.
«Further,» said the auctioneer, lifting the pearls, "these pearls have beenexamined. They are false. She wore false pearls.
There was an ugly response in the crowd. Goreans have a rather primitive senseof honesty.
"What should be her punishment?" asked the auctioneer.