|
 TiesThese are relevant references from the Books where Ties are mentioned. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban "He who ties a woman owns her," is a Gorean saying. This is not every instance of the word tie. In other words I did not include every time it is mentioned a girl had her wrists tied behind her back. Instead I included times were ties are described. This page is closely related to Knots. You can find that page here. Click a heading to jump down to that topic. Tie Arousal Tie Behind-the-Neck Tie By His Will Tie Capture Tie Coffle Tie Comfortable Tie Common Tie Control Tie Discipline Tie Double Tie Frontal Tie Gag Tie General Tie Hair Tie Handle Tie Hands-Behind-the-Back Tie Hands-Over-the-Head Tie High-Security Tie Humiliating Tie Immobilizing Tie Invisible Tie Leading Tie Leash Leashed-Legs Tie Open-Legged Tie Passion Tie Pleasure Tie Punishment Tie Security Tie Shaming Tie Slave Bow Tie Slave Tie Stimulation Tie Stock Tie Tahari Tie Tharnan Tie Unpleasant Tie Waist Tie Yoke Tie
I flipped one of the thongs about her wrists, then again, then turned a double opposite overhand, with a twist following the first overhand. "My," she said, wiggling her wrists, "you tied that quickly." I did not tell her, of course, but Warriors are trained to tie that knot, and most can do it in less than three Ihn. "I wouldn't struggle," I said. "Oh!" she said, stopping, pinched. "You will tighten it," I said. "It is an interesting knot," she said, examining her bound wrists. "What do you call it?" "It is a Capture Knot," I said. "Oh," she said. "It is used for binding slaves and such," I remarked. "I see," she said. Then, because the baskets in which they were to be transported did not have covers, the girls were placed in pairs, head to feet. The throat of each in each pair was tied to the ankles of the other. This is a device used, when transporting slaves in open baskets, to prevent one from struggling to her feet and in flight throwing herself over the side of the basket. It is said that only a man knows how to tie a Turian camisk on a girl properly. There are many such sayings on Gor. They were tied alternately, in a common manner for securing slave girls, the lashed ankles of one tied to the throat of the next. An additional utility of the collar, though it did not count as one of its four common purposes, was that it made it easier to put the girl in various ties. For example, one can use it to tie her hands before her throat, or at the sides or back of her neck. One can use it with, say, rope or chain, to fasten girls together. One can tie her feet to her collar, and so on. If the feet are tied to the collar the knot is always in the front, so that the pressure will be against the back of the girl's neck and not the front. The purpose of such a tie is to hold the slave, not choke her. If the girl is permitted a sleeping garment it is commonly short, front-opening, and fastened with a single tie. It is an efficient tie. It is known to the slavers of the cities, and to the men of the cities, of course, as well as to the savages of the Barrens. The girl is made to sit down, with her legs apart. She is then made to put her arms inside her legs. The left wrist is then taken under the left leg and placed against the outside of the left ankle, where, on the outside of the ankle, it is tied tightly in place. The right wrist is then treated similarly, passing under the right leg and being tied tightly on the outside of the right ankle. This makes the girl quite helpless. It also makes it impossible for her to close her legs. The new girl was short and lusciously bodied. She wore a brief, silken slave tunic, fastened with a single tie at her bosom. A single tug frees the tie and allows the garment to be parted for the view and pleasures of a master. "Tie them," said the leader of the brigands, "kneeling, left ankle to right ankle, right ankle to left ankle." In a moment this was done. They were knelt, back to back. Two cords are used. One cord fastens the first girl's left ankle to the other girl's right ankle, the same cord looped tight about both ankles, binding them closely together. The other cord, similarly, fastens her right ankle to the other's left ankle. It is a lovely, efficient tie, fastening both girls helplessly in a posture of submission. In this tie they will not leap to their feet and flee away. They will remain, waiting, where they have been placed. "This cord," said Marcus, "may function as a slave girdle. Such may be tied in several ways. You, as a slave, doubtless know the tying of slave girdles." I smiled. Marcus would know, of course, that Phoebe would not be likely to know much, if anything, of such matters. Only recently she had been a free woman, though, to be sure, one who had been long kept, languishing, it seemed, and, of course, incompletely fulfilled, in the status of a mere captive. Only a few weeks ago had she been branded and collared, and thusly liberated into total bondage. "No, Master," said Phoebe. "I am not trained, save in so far as you, and before you, Master Tarl, have deigned to impart some understandings to me." "I am not a professional slave trainer," said Marcus, "or costumer or cosmetician, but I will show you two of the most common ties. Others you might inquire of, when the opportunity permits, of your sister slaves." "Yes, Master," she said. "Also," said Marcus, sizing up the slim beauty before him, "we can always, if we wish, extend our repertoire of ties by experiment." Marcus looped the cord and put it over her, so that the loop hung behind her back and two loose ends before her. Marcus now, roughly, took the forward ends of the cord, where they dangled before her, and put them back, beneath her arms, through the back loop, and drew them forward where he tied them, snugly, beneath her breasts. "There are, of course, numerous other ways in which to tie slave girls," said Marcus. He then, whipping a short length of binding fiber from his pouch, with two simple loops, and a double knot, a warrior's capture knot, tied her hands together. Phoebe was quite beautiful in the tunic. It was adjusted on her by a slave girdle, in one of its common ties. The girl looked at her master, piteously. I heard the sound of a lash, and sobs. A girl was being disciplined. She was tied on her knees, her wrists over her head, tied to a horizontal bar between two poles. I gathered that she had been displeasing. There are many arrangements for the keeping of slaves, bars, harnesses, and such. I will mention two simple ones, first, the short, hollow tube, usually used with a sitting slave, whose wrists are tied, the thong then passing through the tube to emerge at the far end, where it is used to secure her ankles, and, second, the longer pole, drilled four times, used with a prone or supine slave, in which it is impossible for her to rise to her feet. Her ankles are fastened some six inches or so from one end, and she is then, of course, secured, in one fashion or another, back or belly to the pole, as the master might please, at suitable intervals, by the wrists, belly and neck, the pole usually extending some six inches or so beyond her head. The slave girdle too, tied high on her, crossed, emphasized the loveliness of her small breasts, I was pleased for Marcus. I had used capture knots. She knew herself helpless. I supposed it was the first time she had ever been bound. "May I speak?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "I am tied as a slave is tied, am I not?" she asked. "As slaves are sometimes tied," I said. Their belly silks, low on their hips, consisted each of two narrow rectangles. This is more common. These silks, in their case, were hemmed over a belly cord, which was fastened at the left hip. The cord must be tied in such a way that it may be easily tugged loose. The other, more elaborate, was a "Turian camisk." It is rather like an inverted "T" where the bar of the "T" has beveled edges. The foot of the "T" ties about the neck and the staff of the "T" goes before one, and then, between the legs, is drawn up snugly behind and tied closed in front where the beveled edges of the bar of the "T," wrapped about the body, have been brought forward, meeting at the waist. It may also have side ties, if permitted, strings that tie behind the back, to better conceal, in one sense, and, in another, better reveal the figure. "Put your hands behind your back," said the soldier in charge of the small coffle. "Now hold your left elbow with your right hand, and your right elbow with your left hand." This pins the arms back, the forearms parallel to the ground. Sometimes arms are tied in this position. Gorean boys, she knew, especially boys in the villages, were taught to tie slaves. It was something they were supposed to know. They would use the village slaves for practice, the bonds inspected, and approved, or revised, by their fathers, or other older males. Though she was a young woman and they were little more than boys, they had tied her well. "You will find thongs at the trestle," said the slave marshal. "Tie her left wrist to her left ankle, the right wrist to the right ankle." That had been, however disturbing, little more than a brief transition between the attitude of a prone, bound prisoner, and that of a wrist-tied, standing prisoner. "I fear," I said, "I may have tied you too tightly." "You were commanded," she said. "Would you have tied me so?" I asked. "No," she said. "But I would have tied you well. You would have been absolutely helpless." That is how masters tie slave girls, not cruelly, but perfectly. One does not tie to hurt, which is stupid and gratuitous, one would not even tie a beast so, but to secure, with perfection. The best ties have their psychological dimension. Pain is to be avoided. It is unnecessary, and distractive. What is important is that the girl understands perfectly that she is controlled, that she is absolutely helpless, that she is fully at the mercy of another. That is what it is to be tied as a slave girl.
Ellen lay quietly, in consternation, not daring to move. In the hood she did not know what time it was. She did not know how long she had slept. The grass on which she lay had been pressed down by her body. It had not been damp with dew when she had first knelt upon it. She moved her small, bound wrists pathetically, helplessly. "Oh!" she said, inadvertently, for she had moved. Why has he tied me like this, she asked herself, but dared not move, lest the answer be made even more clear to her. But how the master heated me, she thought, angrily, with the cruelty of an arousal tie, a stimulation tie!
I had been taught two or three of the most common examination positions in the training house, one of which I assumed, a bit unsteadily, feet widely spread, hands clasped behind the back of the head, head up, and back, looking upward. A woman may be examined in any position, of course, and it is not unknown for a potential buyer to instruct her to assume a variety of positions. Obviously a given item of merchandise may be displayed in any number of ways. It is difficult to move when one's feet are widely spread. One remains in place, and feels helpless. With the hands clasped together, behind the head, the hands are immobilized, and there is nothing to interfere with the customer's vision, or the assessments of his touch. The breasts are also lifted, as is the behind-the-neck tie or the behind-the-neck braceleting.
This type of position, it might be mentioned, is also used by Gorean masters with the woman facing forward, where he can see her face, but with her hands tied, say, before her or behind her, or at her collar, bound either with actual thongs or, most cruelly "by his will," that form of "tie" in which a woman must keep her hands in a given position, for example, holding them as if bound, or, say, keeping them on her hips or clasped behind the back of her neck. If she breaks such a position, of course, she is subject to terrible discipline. She must then, as he lies slothful and recumbent beneath her, at his ease, observing her, perhaps amused, writhe upon command and thus serve, and eventually cap, his volcano. Later he taught me this sort of thing first-hand. He used the collar tie and, mercifully with real thongs.
She could not move her hands together. They were held apart, by her waist. The current position of her left hand was just above her left hip, and of her right hand, just above her right hip. A single narrow cord bound her. The tie is accomplished as follows: One wrist is tightly encircled by the cord and bound within it, about eighteen inches in from one end of the cord. The longer length of the same cord is then taken about her belly and the other wrist is then tied within it, on the other side of her body, leaving some eighteen inches of cord on the other side of the tie. The cord is then drawn back about her belly and the two free ends tied together behind her back, this being done in such a way that the bond is quite snug. The result is that her hands are held apart, on opposite sides of her body, and that neither hand can reach a knot, either at a wrist or behind the back. This tie, it might be noted, positions a girl's hands quite near areas of likely predation by a captor. But, too, because of it, perhaps to her acute frustration, so near, and yet so far, she finds that she is absolutely incapable of interfering with any attentions to which he chooses to subject her. The waist tie, too, of course, in a female, given her marvelous beauty, the flaring excitements of her hips and breasts, cannot be slipped. It is a common capture tie.
It was a double coffle line; the last girl is placed on it first; the double line is knotted about her neck and then the two strands are taken forward; the fifth girl was next neck-knotted into the line and the two strands taken forward again, and so on; when the first girl is put in the coffle, the two strands are then taken forward again and knotted about the left-hand, rear upright of the sled; this way the only free ends of the bond, by means of which it might be untied, knotted together, fall at the left hand of the driver, and are easily within his view. This is a useful coffle tie when the girls' hands are not tied behind their backs.
Pertinax then bent to the slave and, with the leash, tied her ankles together. She had, thus, been placed in a variation of the most common slave tie which is simply, usually with two short thongs, ropes, straps, laces, or such, to bind the slave hand and foot. This is a comfortable tie but, in it, the slave is bound helplessly, and efficiently. A less pleasant version of this tie is to pull back the ankles and tie them, rather closely, to the hands, behind her.
Fina, in a moment, was kneeling to one side, her wrists tied behind her back, and fastened to her crossed, bound, ankles. She could not rise to her feet. It was a quite common tie. It is often used in training, to accustom women to kneeling before men. She had first been put on her stomach. The hands are tied behind the back first, and then the ankles tied, and brought up, behind, and fastened to the bound wrists. The woman is then put to her knees.
Gorean men are sometimes ingenious in the ties to which they subject slave girls. Different ties, of course, have different purposes. One may generally distinguish among such things as control ties, discipline ties and pleasure ties. These ties are not mutually exclusive, of course.
Gorean men are sometimes ingenious in the ties to which they subject slave girls. Different ties, of course, have different purposes. One may generally distinguish among such things as control ties, discipline ties and pleasure ties. These ties are not mutually exclusive, of course.
"Perhaps she was with a girl who was abducted for enslavement," said Samos, "and was simply, as it was convenient, put in a double tie with her and brought along."
In a moment my wrists were tied together, behind my back. This accentuates the figure, more than a frontal tie. Too, it is stimulatory, as the captive is more helpless, and more vulnerably displayed.
An advantage of a lock-gag is, of course, that the slave, while totally unable to speak, may yet attend to whatever other duties her master may set her. To be sure, a simple tie gag, which the slave is forbidden to remove, has the same effect.
With the belly thong, presumably her hands would be tied closely, tightly, at the small of her back. This is an excellent, general tie.
Aya was not pleased to find the girl hair-tied by the tree, the bag of churned verr milk lying to one side in the dust. Most were kneeling and stripped, and secured with hair ties. They were fastened, for the most part, in two different forms of hair ties. In one, the wrists of one woman were bound before her body, lifted and raised, in the hair of the woman before her. Another woman's wrists, then, would be bound in her hair, and so on. Some of these women were coffled in lines, and others in circles, the last woman's hair serving to bind the wrists of the first woman. The other form of hair tie had the hands of a woman tied behind her back to the hair of the woman who, her head lowered, knelt behind her. Once again, some were secured in lines, and others in circles, the hands of the last woman being tied in the hair of the first. This second form of hair tie, done in lines, incidentally, resembles a common coffle arrangement, achieved with a set of relatively short thongs, each about five feet in length. The first woman's hands are bound behind her back with one end of such a thong and then the other end is taken up and knotted about the neck of the woman behind her; this woman's hands are then bound behind her with another thong, its free end then being taken up and bound about the neck of the woman behind her, and so on. An advantage of this coffle arrangement is that women may be easily taken from it, and added to it.
"Put her in the handle tie," I said. "Yes, Captain," said the man, grinning. Her fur boots were pulled off and her ankles were linked by leather thongs; she had good ankles; the leather permitted them a separation of some twelve inches; the tether on her wrists then was taken between her legs and lifted up and behind her, where its loose end was tied about her neck. The linking of the ankles prevents the slipping of the handle tie, and controls the length of her stride when she is put in it. A given pressure on the handle tie, exerted through the strap at the back, permits it to function as a choke leash; a different pressure permits her to be hurried along on her toes. The handle tie is usually, of course, reserved for naked slave girls. "Oh," she said. The original thongs on her ankles, which had served as leather ankle shackles, I had had removed. She still wore, however, the tether on her wrists, the loose end of which had been taken up behind her and tied about her neck, the handle portion of the handle tie. I slipped my fist into the handle of the tie she wore and, looping it about my fist twice, tightening it, thrust her before me toward the door of the hall.
We had then tied their hands behind their backs and prepared to turn them over to the nearby Ashigaru. Also profoundly sexually stimulatory to the female is the hands-behind-the-back tie. This increases their sense of vulnerability and helplessness, which, in turn, given the pervasive natural ratios of dominance and submission, and the female's understanding of herself, that she is a slave, stimulates, enhances, and intensifies their slave reflexes, nicely readying them for their conquest and use. An ideal tie for a woman is the wrists tied behind the back. In this way she is not only helpless but extremely vulnerable, unable to fend caresses away from the soft terrain of her defenseless beauty. Too, this tie, her arms held back, accentuates several attractions of that very beauty.
The aesthetic aspects, too, are obvious, for such ties, as is the case, for example, with the hands-over-the-head ties, have a tendency to call attention to, accentuate, and enhance certain aspects of a woman's beauty.
We had kept the girls in high-security ties only for the first two days upon Ngao. Then we had been far out on the lake, much farther away from the shores than any canoe would be likely to travel. After the first two days we had, for another two days, kept them merely in left-ankle and throat coffle. On the fifth day they were merely in throat coffle. On the sixth day we had relieved them of even that bond.
At their hands we are trained and dominated. But, is it strangely, we can find a fittingness, and a reassurance and comfort in being despised, in being demeaned, in performing humble tasks, the scrubbing of a floor, the polishing of boots, the tidying of a room, the laundering of a tunic, the bringing of the master's sandals to him, crawling, in our teeth. And we can beg for the most humiliating and shaming of ties and chainings.
"Bend over, at the waist," said he. I did so, and he took the double strand of the rope looped about my wrists and brought it forward, between my legs, and then looped it up again, separating the strands, passed one over my collar and then tied it to the other. In this fashion was my head held down. This is a not uncommon tie. It may also function to keep a kneeling girl's head down. It is useful in learning deference. A similar tie, but one which immobilizes the slave, utilizes a short tether running from her bound ankles to the front of her collar. In these ways any pressure which might be exerted is exerted at the back of the neck.
Many are the cultural expectations imposed upon the free woman. Is she not more of a slave than a slave? Abundant are her limitations; narrow are the corridors permitted for her movements; stout are the bonds of convention wherein she is bound. Can she fail to sense the invisible ties which bind her?
The leash had been pulled up behind her, forcibly, fiercely, tightly, snugly. One hand had kept her on her knees. "Please, no!" she sobbed. And it was then tied closely, securely, to her bound wrists. "No, Master, please, no, Master! Please have mercy, Master!" But he had none, as she knew he would not. This is sometimes used as a leading tie.
He then removed my weapons, discarded my cloak, and bound my hands behind my back. He then lifted the same strand of rope up from my bound wrists, knotted it about my neck, and threw the remainder forward, where, grasped at the center, it would constitute a leash, and, beyond the center, doubled, might serve as a prisoner or slave lash. All this was done with the same length of rope. Many times I had seen this simple, economical form of tie before, but usually it had been imposed on stripped females of the enemy, arriving at war camps. "The rope," said Hemartius, "may serve as a leash, as well." "Use the wrists-to-collar-to-leash tie," I said.
"Put her in the wagon," said Kenneth, "kneeling position, leashed-legs tie." "Yes, Master," I said. Telitsia looked up at me. Her hands were bound behind her back. There were tears in her eyes. She lifted her lips to mine. I kissed her. I then lifted her into the wagon, kneeling her on the boards. Her breasts were loose and sweet within her small garment. It was high on her thighs. I then, using the leash, passing it before her body and between her legs, crossed and bound her ankles, thus fastening her in that same kneeling position in which I had originally placed her. She could not rise and the fastening on her collar kept her head down. It is a standard submission tie on Gor for a female slave.
I pulled back her right wrist a bit and tied it to her right ankle. I left her about six or seven inches of slack between wrist and ankle. "This is a common open-legged tie," I said. "It is not good for general security, but it is a good, and familiar, slave tie." I then fastened her left wrist to her left ankle, as I had done with her right wrist and ankle. "When finished with you," I said, "I might simply bind your wrists behind you and tie your ankles together. That is a familiar and effective security tie. If you had not been sufficiently pleasing I might pull up your bound ankles and tie them to your wrists. Your neck, of course, might always be tied to a stake, or bound to a tree." I then stood up and stepped back, to observe my handiwork. "An advantage of this tie," I said, "is that a girl may kneel in it comfortably for hours, perhaps beside a master's chair, while he works, and is not yet ready for her." She pulled a little, almost surreptitiously, at the leather on her wrists, leading back to her ankles. "Is this all?" she asked, timidly. "I see that there are potentialities of this tie which, as yet, you have not discerned," I said. I then took her by the hair and threw her forward on the blankets, on her belly. "Struggle," I told her. She did so, helplessly. Then she ceased her struggles. "An interesting perspective on a woman," I said. "Too, bound in this position she is seldom in doubt as to the fact that she is a slave. Too, in time, it can be quite painful." She groaned, and I, mercifully, thrust her to her side. She looked up at me, frightened. "Whereas this tie," I said, "is not good for general security, it is quite adequate for specific security, namely, security in a specific situation, in this case, in the presence of the master or a keeper. For example, under observation, you cannot very well employ your right hand in the attempt to undo the knot on your left ankle. If the tie, of course, is accomplished with chains, then it is also adequate for a general security, an aesthetic and delicious general security, a chain neck leash being added, naturally, to restrict movement." I then put her on her back. Her knees were drawn up and her hands held helplessly at her sides. "Now," I said, "I think you can see one of the main virtues of this tie. The woman is quite helpless, absolutely, and there is not the least impedance to the master's approach."
Simply leaving a woman alone, bound, perhaps for the time put out of one's mind, say, neglected or forgotten, is sexually charging for her. And there are hundreds of passion ties.
Gorean men are sometimes ingenious in the ties to which they subject slave girls. Different ties, of course, have different purposes. One may generally distinguish among such things as control ties, discipline ties and pleasure ties. These ties are not mutually exclusive, of course.
On the other hand, the cords were not coarse. I, or things such as I, would not likely to be burned or cut in it, even if we struggled. It was not woven of those terrible ropes, sometimes used in punishment ties, in which a disobedient slave might find herself swathed from head to foot, ropes within which, in misery, she scarcely dares to move.
I pulled back her right wrist a bit and tied it to her right ankle. I left her about six or seven inches of slack between wrist and ankle. "This is a common open-legged tie," I said. "It is not good for general security, but it is a good, and familiar, slave tie." I then fastened her left wrist to her left ankle, as I had done with her right wrist and ankle. "When finished with you," I said, "I might simply bind your wrists behind you and tie your ankles together. That is a familiar and effective security tie. If you had not been sufficiently pleasing I might pull up your bound ankles and tie them to your wrists. Your neck, of course, might always be tied to a stake, or bound to a tree." I then stood up and stepped back, to observe my handiwork. "An advantage of this tie," I said, "is that a girl may kneel in it comfortably for hours, perhaps beside a master's chair, while he works, and is not yet ready for her." She pulled a little, almost surreptitiously, at the leather on her wrists, leading back to her ankles. "Is this all?" she asked, timidly. "I see that there are potentialities of this tie which, as yet, you have not discerned," I said. I then took her by the hair and threw her forward on the blankets, on her belly. "Struggle," I told her. She did so, helplessly. Then she ceased her struggles. "An interesting perspective on a woman," I said. "Too, bound in this position she is seldom in doubt as to the fact that she is a slave. Too, in time, it can be quite painful." She groaned, and I, mercifully, thrust her to her side. She looked up at me, frightened. "Whereas this tie," I said, "is not good for general security, it is quite adequate for specific security, namely, security in a specific situation, in this case, in the presence of the master or a keeper. For example, under observation, you cannot very well employ your right hand in the attempt to undo the knot on your left ankle. If the tie, of course, is accomplished with chains, then it is also adequate for a general security, an aesthetic and delicious general security, a chain neck leash being added, naturally, to restrict movement." I then put her on her back. Her knees were drawn up and her hands held helplessly at her sides. "Now," I said, "I think you can see one of the main virtues of this tie. The woman is quite helpless, absolutely, and there is not the least impedance to the master's approach."
At their hands we are trained and dominated. But, is it strangely, we can find a fittingness, and a reassurance and comfort in being despised, in being demeaned, in performing humble tasks, the scrubbing of a floor, the polishing of boots, the tidying of a room, the laundering of a tunic, the bringing of the master's sandals to him, crawling, in our teeth. And we can beg for the most humiliating and shaming of ties and chainings.
"No," said Mirus. "Tie her wrists before her body, and then put her to the grass and tie her ankles together. I wish to fasten her hands to the thongs on the left saddle ring and her ankles to the thongs on the right saddle ring, that she may thus lie bound, hand and foot, belly up, before me." The knots were jerked tight on Ellen's wrists. The belly-up binding position is often used on long rides, or tarn flights, as it is reliably secure and the captive, or slave, is constantly under surveillance, conveniently at hand, completely in view. It is also useful as the captor, or master, may then caress the captive or slave, if only to while away the time. By the time that camp is made a free woman is commonly begging for the brand and collar, and a slave will be beside herself, writhing and gasping, moaning, crying out, begging, with need, pleading that he will be merciful, that he will deign, if only briefly, to attend to the collar of her. "Did you hear me?" inquired Mirus. The rope was then lifted and a length of it looped twice about the slave's neck and knotted there. In this fashion a single rope may be used for both binding and leashing. This is not all that unusual on Gor. One end secures the slave's wrists, the center collars her, and the remainder, the free end, serves as a leash or tether. It may also be used, of course, if one wishes to immobilize her, to fasten her ankles together. Her ankles may be simply bound or, if one wishes, tied closely to her wrists. That tie is sometimes spoken of, properly or not, as the "slave bow." It may be called that simply because the slave's wrists and ankles are bound together, and this bends her body, in a natural bow, or it may be called that because of a supposed analogy with exhibitory slave bows, in which, for example, on a slave block, a slave might be bent backward, or knelt, and her head drawn by the hair back to the floor, and so on. These exhibition bows are often utilized in showing the slave, as they accentuate the delights of her figure. There are a number of "tethering slave bows," of course, for example, for fastening a slave over a saddle, a wheel, a piece of furniture, or such. These diverse uses and meanings, of course, are not mutually exclusive, because a slave might well be displayed in a "tethering slave bow." Some conjecture that the original meaning of 'slave bow' has to do with exhibition. Accordingly, it is their speculation that the "tethering slave bows" are derivative from that primary usage, that of exhibition. This would make sense because the "tethering slave bows" certainly do exhibit the slave, as well as rendering her helpless. Others seem to feel that the basic meaning is that of a form of secure and revelatory binding, in which the slave is helplessly and delightfully displayed, and that the exhibitory usages of the expression are secondary, being founded upon, and derivative from, this more basic, original usage. On the other hand, as most suppose, and as seems most plausible to the slave, these usages may very well have been developed independently, both based on the obvious consequences on the slave's body of a certain form of handling or manner of binding. There seems to be some division among Goreans on this matter. And doubtless it is not of great importance.
He, as she knelt, pulled her wrists behind her, crossed them, and bound them together. He then crossed her ankles and, with the same length of fiber, bound them to her wrists. Fulvius had earlier tied me in much the same manner. It is a common slave tie. In it the female is fastened in a position of subservience, cannot rise to her feet, is well displayed, cannot defend herself, and is utterly helpless. Continuing toward the infirmary I passed a small punishment area. There were several such in the camp. Such areas interestingly, are seldom used. That they exist seems more than sufficient for most girls. In this one there was a woman chained by the neck to a post. Other than this she was sitting with her back to the post in a common slave tie, her arms down between her thighs, her left wrist passing under her left calf and tied on the outside of her left ankle, the right wrist passing under the right calf and tied on the outside of the right ankle. I have seen this tie used even in the Barrens, by the red savages on their white female slaves. The woman looked at me in terror. She feared, I suppose, that I was he who had come to mete out her punishment. She may have been waiting for Ahn, in ignorance not only of he who was to administer her punishment but also, probably, even of what the punishment was to be. In the tie I have mentioned, incidentally, the woman is not only rendered totally helpless but her sense of vulnerability is considerably increased. In it she cannot close her legs. This latter aspect, of course, is a feature of several popular slave ties. It would be quite unpleasant, she supposed, to be bound naked, hand and foot, in such a conveyance, one's ankles perhaps lashed closely to one's wrists, a simple, popular, but extraordinarily effective and secure slave tie, and kept in the basket in one way or another, perhaps by a secured lid, or perhaps merely by ropes or a harness run through the wicker. He had not tied her as she might have been tied, had she been a slave. In such a case she might have been knelt, and her head held down, even to the dirt, by the leash, shortened, drawn back and fastened to her crossed, bound ankles. The thought of the former Miss Pym, now the pet of Lord Pyrrhus, crossed Cabot's mind. She was a slave. And he thought she might look well, tied as might have been a slave, bent, leash-knelt, her small hands, too, as the blonde's, fastened behind her, though, in her case, as she would have been knelt, high. The slave at his feet was no longer gagged, but she was bound hand and foot. Slaves are often bound, or braceleted, or chained, or fastened in one way or another. There is, of course, a great variety of slave ties, and they have little in common other than the fact that in them the slave is absolutely helpless, and left in no doubt as to the fact that she is a bound slave. We slipped the narrow rectangles of cloth, with their simple, centered, circular openings, over our heads, and then wrapped the long leather thong twice about our waist, and knotted it at our left hip. The knot is to be a simple bowknot, so that it may be easily loosened by a man's casual tug. It is at the left hip because most men are right handed. The length of the thong, or cord, or binding fiber, whatever is used, is intended to allow for a variety of slave ties, or tetherings, hand and foot, or whatever the master may please. The tie in which she had been placed was an efficient and familiar slave tie. In it the slave leash is utilized. The slave is knelt. Her head is to the floor and the leash is taken back, before and under her body, and then used, tautly, to tie her ankles together. By the taut leash her head is held in place, tightly, down to the floor. Her wrists were left as they had been, tied behind her back. One has then, before one, a helpless, aesthetically attractive, compact slave package or bundle, so to speak. It is a tie in which a woman is in little doubt that she is a slave. Pertinax then bent to the slave and, with the leash, tied her ankles together. She had, thus, been placed in a variation of the most common slave tie which is simply, usually with two short thongs, ropes, straps, laces, or such, to bind the slave hand and foot. This is a comfortable tie but, in it, the slave is bound helplessly, and efficiently. A less pleasant version of this tie is to pull back the ankles and tie them, rather closely, to the hands, behind her.
But how the master heated me, she thought, angrily, with the cruelty of an arousal tie, a stimulation tie!
These yoke ties, incidentally, are not to be, confused with a stock tie, or a stock yoke. This is normally a pair of hinged planks, with matched, semicircular openings in the planks. The girl's
"What are you doing?" she asked. I would use a standard Tahari tie. "Tarl?" she asked.
I looked down at Ina. She could not look up at me, for I had tied her on her knees, with her head down. In this particular tie, the Tharnan tie, as it is sometimes called, the ankles are crossed and bound and the head is tied down, fastened by a short tether running back to the ankles. Any pressure in this tie is, as usual, of course, at the back of the neck, not at the fragile, vulnerable throat. It can be used with chain collars, and such. The hands, as a last touch, are simply tied together behind the back.
I recalled one had been in the vicinity of Pertinax's hut, when Constantina, who had annoyed me, had been put outside, gagged and bound, hands tied behind her, feet crossed, pulled up, and fastened closely to her hands, on the leaves. It is an unpleasant tie. The punishments are up to the keepers, and may be various, ranging from whippings and switchings, to a reduction in rations, to unpleasant ties, of which there are a great number.
She could not move her hands together. They were held apart, by her waist. The current position of her left hand was just above her left hip, and of her right hand, just above her right hip. A single narrow cord bound her. The tie is accomplished as follows: One wrist is tightly encircled by the cord and bound within it, about eighteen inches in from one end of the cord. The longer length of the same cord is then taken about her belly and the other wrist is then tied within it, on the other side of her body, leaving some eighteen inches of cord on the other side of the tie. The cord is then drawn back about her belly and the two free ends tied together behind her back, this being done in such a way that the bond is quite snug. The result is that her hands are held apart, on opposite sides of her body, and that neither hand can reach a knot, either at a wrist or behind the back. This tie, it might be noted, positions a girl's hands quite near areas of likely predation by a captor. But, too, because of it, perhaps to her acute frustration, so near, and yet so far, she finds that she is absolutely incapable of interfering with any attentions to which he chooses to subject her. The waist tie, too, of course, in a female, given her marvelous beauty, the flaring excitements of her hips and breasts, cannot be slipped. It is a common capture tie.
She knelt before me, stark naked. She wore an improvised girl-yoke. This consisted of a stout branch, about two inches thick, and some five feet in length, drilled at the center and near the extremities. It fits behind the back of the girl's neck. A long, single thong of rawhide fastens the girl in place. Her left wrist is thonged and then the thong is passed through the drilled aperture in the left end of the yoke. Her wrist is pulled tight to the yoke. The same thong is then taken behind the yoke and passed through the center hole, whence, after having been knotted, to prevent slippage to the left, and having been looped about the girl's neck, usually some five times, and having been knotted again, to prevent slippage to the right, it is returned through the same hole, whence it is taken behind the yoke to the hole drilled at the right-hand extremity of the apparatus. It is passed through that hole and then, of course, is used to fasten the girl's right wrist in place, tightly against the yoke. When this action is completed then, as you can see, the whole package is neatly tied. The knots near the throat bands, in preventing slippage, serve two functions; they hold the girl's wrists against the yoke and, at the same time, prevent any undue stress from being placed on the throat bands. The function of the throat bands is to hold the girl's throat in the yoke, securely and perfectly, not to cause her discomfort, nor to strangle her. Gorean men are not fools in tying women. Longer yokes, such as this, incidentally, are commonly used for marches. Confined as she is, with her arms extended, a girl can exert almost no leverage to free herself. Smaller yokes, some two to two and a half feet in length, similarly constructed, can be used for other purposes, such as enjoying a girl in the furs. Afterwards she can always be kenneled or chained. A soft, braided leather rope, a trade rope, cored with wire, some fifteen or twenty feet in length, was looped some five times about the girl's left ankle, and tied, thence being run to the axle of the nearby wagon to which she was tethered. This is a useful sanitary provision as the girl, then, need not sit or lie too near to her own wastes. The wire coring in the rope, of course, tends to discourage the attempt to chew through the bond. Light chains, sheathed in silk, or satin or velvet, incidentally, have this utility as well, as well as their intrinsic strength, more than adequate for the securing of a female. Three separate thongs, incidentally, two short and one long, are sometimes used for this type of securing of the female. In this way of doing things each wrist is tied in the center of one of the short thongs. The two free ends of the short thong are then taken back through the hole and, once through the hole, are simply knotted, heavily. This knot cannot, of course, be drawn back through the small drilled hole by the girl. Her wrists are thus held in place. One end of the longer thong is taken through the center aperture and that thong is then looped about the girl's throat, usually, again, some five times, and then returned through the center aperture. Once through the aperture it is knotted together, heavily, with the other end of the thong. Again, of course, this knot, a heavy one, prevents the thongs from slipping back through the narrow aperture. The girl's neck is thus held closely to the yoke. This, too, of course, is an effective way of securing a girl. Indeed, there is, in my opinion, normally little to choose from between these two yoke ties. Which is preferred may well depend on matters so trivial as the nature and lengths of the binding material available, for example, ropes, cordage, binding fiber, twisted silk, thongs or straps. If there is a preference, perhaps it would be for the single-bond tie. It is stout, and, in its unity, aesthetically attractive. Second only to the absolute helplessness of the female in her ties, in the Gorean mind, is the attractiveness of her bonds. They should be used to enhance her beauty as Well as to imprison it with absolute perfection. These yoke ties, incidentally, are not to be, confused with a stock tie, or a stock yoke. This is normally a pair of hinged planks, with matched, semicircular openings in the planks. The girl's wrists and neck are placed appropriately between the planks, aligned with the semicircular openings. The planks are then closed and tied or locked shut. Her neck and wrists, then, of course, helplessly, are fixed in place. They find themselves enclosed in effective and perfect constraints. This yoke is sometimes placed on a girl while she is on her back. If the planks are sufficiently wide the girl cannot see what the man is doing to her. She can only feel it. Similar sensations may be induced in a woman by putting her in a slave hood. She may then either be bound or not, as the master pleases. |       
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