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 FlowersHere are relevant references from the Books where flowers 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 Flower Blue Climber Brush Dina Exotic Flaminium Golden Cup Larma Lirillium Rence Shrub Talender Teriotrope Tor Tree Tundra Veminium Water
Talena and I swore to honor that day as long as either of us lived. I have tried to keep that promise, and I know that she has done so as well. That night, that glorious night, was a night of flowers, torches, and Ka-la-na wine, and late, after sweet hours of love, we fell asleep in each other's arms. Saphrar looked on the girl. He took from a silken pouch lying before him on the palanquin a small glass, with glass petal edges like a flower, mounted on a silver stem about which curled silver leaves. Besides the trees there were numerous shrubs and plantings, almost all flowered, sometimes fantastically; among the trees and the colored grasses there wound curved, shaded walks. The masses of flowers and vegetation in Saphrar's Pleasure Gardens filled the air with mingled, heavy sweet fragrances. Also the fountains had been scented and the pools. Harold left the walk and stepped carefully to avoid trampling a patch of talenders, a delicate yellow flower, often associated in the Gorean mind with love and beauty. He made his way across some dark blue and yellowish orange grass and came to the buildings set against one wall of the gardens. Flowers had been scattered in the canal, and others were thrown on our ships as we passed. I lifted my hand to the crowds. Flowers fell about me. I looked at the girl bound on the prow, my prize. I accepted the acclaim of the wild throngs. The wild crowds screamed and shouted, and threw flowers, and the flagship, oars dipping, in stately fashion, took her regal path, ram's crest dividing flowers in the water, between the buildings lining the great canal. I stood among the falling flowers, my hand lifted to the crowds. A cart was passing, flanked by huntsmen and slaves, bearing their burdens of gourds, flowers, nuts and fruits. But now it did not seem that she would stand beside me among falling flowers on the bow of the Tesephone, on some great holiday declared in Port Kar, as we returned in triumph to that city, making our way through its flower-strewn canals, beneath the windows and rooftops of cheering throngs. She rose easily from the curule chair and stood before me. She held the opened collar before me. It was slender but sturdy, steel, enameled with white, decorated with tiny flowers in pink, a collar suitable for a woman's girl. There was printing in the enamel, tiny, exact. The tundra at this time of year belies its reputation for bleakness. In many places it bursts into bloom with small flowers. Almost all of the plants of this nature are perennials, as the growing season is too short to permit most annuals to complete their growing cycle. In the winter buds of many of these plants lie dormant in a fluffy sheath which protects them from cold. Some two hundred and forty different types of plants grow in the Gorean arctic within five hundred pasangs of the pole. None of these, interestingly, is poisonous, and none possesses thorns. During the summer plants and flowers will grow almost anywhere in the arctic except on or near the glacial ice. The air was soft and gentle. I could smell flowers in the gardens. In their left arms they cradled the baskets of flower petals. With their right hands they reached into the baskets of petals, to cast them on the walk, in the path of Miles of Vonda and of the men disembarking from the Tuka. The symbolism of the casting of such petals is perhaps reasonably clear. Feminine, and soft and beautiful, they are cast before the tread of men. Is the token in this not obvious? Men are the masters, the conquerors and victors. Beneath their feet, theirs, surrendered, lie the petals of flowers. In this we may see a lovely gesture, one of both welcome and submission, and one in which the order of nature is beautifully and sensitively acknowledged. But, of course, there are many ways in which the order of nature may be acknowledged. Another is that in which the woman, naked and collared, branded, under a man's whip, writhes at his feet to the beating of drums. A girl may be "set off," of course, and beautifully, even if, technically, she is not clothed. She may be garbed, for example, in netting, as the "Hunter's Catch"; or she may be bedecked in jewels and leather, and shimmering chains, dancing under a whip in a tavern in Port Kar; or she may have flowers intertwined in her chains, as when she is awarded to a victor in public games in Ar. The alarm bar was ringing in Victoria, but now in token of victory. There were crowds upon the concourse. Garlanded, white-clad maidens could be seen. At the front edge of the concourse, near the wharves, pirates, in rows, stripped and bound, lay on their bellies. Maidens cast flowers upon them, and some of these maidens, from their own heads, placed garlands upon the brows of the victors. "And I shall also depend upon you for decorations, that the house may appear festive, lamps and ribbons, and flowers, and such." I looked upwards, and about the room. The multicolored ribbons were festive; the lamps were lovely; and the flowers, abundant and colorful, mostly larma blossoms, Veminia and Teriotrope, were beautiful and fragrant. Lola had done well. "And in the cities," she said, "it is so beautiful, the towers, the bridges and sunsets, the people, the flower stalls, the market places, the smells of cooking." I particularly enjoyed the public gardens. Given the plantings flowers in them, of one sort or another, are in bloom almost all of the year. Here, too, are many winding and almost secluded paths. In them, combined, one finds color, beauty and, in many sections, if one wishes it, privacy. I knew few of the flowers and trees. Drusus Rencius, to my surprise, whenever I was in doubt, could supply me with the name. Goreans, it seemed, paid attention to their environment. It means something to them. They live in it. How few children of Earth, I thought, are taught the names and kinds of the trees and shrubs, the plants, the insects and birds, which surround them constantly. I was also surprised to find that Drusus Rencius seemed genuinely fond of flowers. I would not have expected, given my Earth background, that a man of his obvious power and competence could care for anything, and so deeply, as innocent, delicate and soft as a flower. It is not unusual on this world, incidentally, for men to prize such things as flowers. The table, long, with sparkling linen, polished silver, candles and flowers, was in the same room. About the slave's head was the wreath of blossoms, this of white Lirillium. Cestiphon's chosen sign for his females, the petal of a flower, was on the collar. There would thus be no doubt as to whom she belonged. "Can you arrange flowers," he asked. "Properly?" "No," she said. After a lean dark winter spring is welcome. The shed doors are opened, the vessels on their rollers emerge, into the light, as though awakening, and the rigging, refitting, caulking, and painting begins. It is lovely when, later, the ships, wreathed with flowers, to singing and music, are brought to the water. At first, from several hundred yards away, we had thought them only inexplicable mounds in the sea, hills of flowers uncannily forced upward by the riot of growth, vines upon vines. Then we learned the tendrils had clasped and climbed, and covered the works of men. The odor of these enormous fields of growth, alive, rocking and swaying in the sea, with their ubiquitous, massive blossoms, yellow, and purple, which had struck me one night some weeks ago as so pervasive, striking, and unpleasant, was doubtless as physically present as ever, but, interestingly, one now scarcely noticed it, excepting with an effort of attention. The odor, in time, became a lulling odor, and, no longer noted, but invariably present, tended to produce a sense of lethargy. I noted, again, the perfume of the garden, so sweet, pervasive, and heavy. I wondered if it did not have its role to play in this strange place. I could see two other derelicts from where I stood, smothered in flowers. "The flowers are beautiful," I said. "And perhaps deadly," said Cabot. "A slow poison?" I said. "Let us hope not," he said. "The flowers?" I said. "I think so," said Cabot. "They are beautiful," I said. "Yes," said Cabot. "They are beautiful." He then went to the rail, and lowered himself to the waiting ship's boat, and I followed him. How fortunate we were, how privileged, how generous the master! Many free persons, doubtless, had never tasted a Turian liqueur, not to speak of that of Falnus. "Enough, enough," said Kleomenes. "Thank you, Master!" we breathed. It was like a sweet burning drop of liquid fire, flavored with flower herbs and, detectably, tospit and larma. My master had taken much pleasure from his slave in the garden. Her feelings were unimportant, but how could she forget the grass, the smell of flowers, the wind in the leaves overhead, the strength of his arms, her helplessness, his hands, his touch, his lips, his caresses, his tongue, forcing her to endure a hundred intimacies, some anticipated, some unexpected, some imperious, some beautifully subtle. That place, I gathered, quiet and secluded, with its soft grass and flowers, might be a private place, a very private place, one reserved for a master's different feasting. Many Goreans, I suppose, might seem callous, heartless, or cruel to many of Earth, but they commonly, as those of Earth often do not, love their world, love growing things, trees, grass, flowers, and the world itself, the day and night, the seasons, the wind and sky, the stars, the sound of water in brooks, and live animals, birds, and such. They care for their world and the living things within it. Perhaps this is foolish, but it is a common Gorean way. Who is to say which way is best? Or does it matter? But Goreans will kill for their way. The forest floor is far from uniform. It has its thousand rises and falls, its heights and valleys, its fallen timbers and rotting wood, its scarred, blackened trunks and scorched, lightning-fired wastes, its scattered boulders, its bare places, its flowered meadows and blossoming thickets, its crags and cliffs, its rills, and streams and rivers, its rock-cupped ponds, its galleries of tall trees with quiet aisles of leaves between them, its jumbled barriers of nigh-impenetrable brush, its innumerable geodesics, and textures. "It seems to have something to do with prestige or such. The status is putatively higher. One would expect such women to be treated with more esteem and deference than a common slave. One would not expect them to be collared, or publicly stripped, or such. Too, they are often highly trained, in music, singing, dancing, conversation, the serving of tea, the arranging of flowers, and such." "Why can there not be grace and beauty in all things," he said, "the curve of a spoon, the touch of ink on silk, the arrangement of flowers, such things?" "Beauty need not have use," he said. "It is its own justification, of course the scent of the flower, the marking of the petal." "True," I said. "But nature has its contrivances. The color of the blossom, the marking of the petal, the scent of the flower attract tiny predators whose labors, unbeknownst to themselves, profit the very hosts whom they despoil." "But the flower is still beautiful," he said. "Of course," I said. "But one must not overlook less contemplative beauties," he said. "There are some beautiful things, even quite beautiful things, of which one might ask of what value would they be without use?" "The female slave," I said. "Certainly," he said. "Even barbarians understand that. Consider the women your coins fetch from the auction block. What is the value of that beauty if it is not put to use, if it is not enjoyed, ravished, owned, and mastered?" "True," I said. "What value would be that beauty without use?" "What, indeed?" I said. "Indeed," he said, "if such beauty were limited to mere contemplation, it would be less beautiful, even annoying, for it would issue in little but torment, and frustration." "True," I said. "In such respects it is quite unlike the sunset, and the flower," he said, "on which we are content to gaze with rapturous equanimity." "Quite unlike," I said. "But slaves come in many colors," said Tajima, adding, "as do flowers." I could smell the fragrance of flowers. As the lanterns were of diversely colored paper the room was aglow with a medley of illuminations, and yet the colors did not clash but each seemed to enhance the other. I was reminded of the architecture of the plantings, the sequences of flowers, in the garden outside with their music of aromatic notes. I sat in the shade, on a bench, near the small bridge which spanned the tiny brook wending its way amongst the rocks, the tiny terraces, the shrubberies, the flowers, and trees of the garden. I listened to the brook. I smelled the flowers in the garden. "Yes, noble one," said the gardener, startled. He was standing, pinching off the tips of new branches on the Blue Climber, a vinelike plant with large blue bracts amongst its common leaves, and small yellow flowers, clinging to the railing of the small bridge in the shogun's garden. This minor pruning stimulates new branching. Another path lay through flowers; it was this path, from the courtyard gate, which was being utilized by the recently emerged group, that now approaching the stands. "What is a Home Stone?" inquired Haruki. "It is the meaning, the difference," I said , "that for which men will kill, that for which men will die." "It is very important?" said Haruki. "Very much so," I said. "It is hard to understand," said Haruki. "It is less to be defined than cherished," I said. "It is as the garden?" said Haruki. "Yes," I said "and as Thassa, as fields of Sa-Tarna, as the crags of the Voltai, the skerries of bleak Torvaldsland, the steaming flower-strewn basin of the Ua beyond Schendi, the gleaming stars of the sky." "It is I who am honored, gardener san," said the magician. "Flowers are beautiful and those who love and tend them are themselves of most noble mien." "Let us repair to the garden," suggested Nodachi. "Why?" asked Lord Yamada. "I think it would be a good place to die, amidst the flowers and trees," said Nodachi. "Let us consider matters, here, on the raked sand," said Lord Yamada, "that we may not risk trampling flowers." The bridge, entwined with the blue climbers, arched in a lovely manner, for a length of some thirty-five or forty feet over a narrow, decorative pond, on the surface of which bloomed white and yellow water flowers, rising from flat, green pads; below, in the pond, which was shallow, one could see the slow movements of colorful fish. Blades of glaives thrust up at us, striking wood, splintering railings, tangling in the vinous blue climbers. Men slipped and fell in the pond, in the muddy water, amidst the disturbed white and yellow flowers. "Dark games are afoot," he said. "Withdraw from them," I said. "What is life without its games?" he said. "Surely these games are not yours," I said. "I choose my games," he said. "And you find zest in this, excitement?" I said. "Surely," he said. "What games can compare to those of blood and steel?" "Those of flowers, and love," I said. "They are often intertwined," he said. "Did you not think it strange that a display slave should be loose in the streets of Ar, not on a chain following a borne palanquin, not reclining on flower petals or luxurious furs, on the steps before a curule chair, not shut within a pleasure garden?" "Join with us," said Decius Albus, "and you may swill the ka-la-na of Naxos with the same abandon as vat paga." "That," said Kurik, "would be desecration, like uprooting flowers." "Welcome, noble friends," called out Decius Albus, hurrying forward, under the shading latticework through which the afternoon sun stroked the laden tables with a melody of light and shade. Certain streets in Ar, in certain districts, are similarly sheltered from the sun, though with vines clinging to the latticework, and then, usually, here and there are stands of fruits and vegetables lining the walls. I was familiar with one such street, the Street of Dinas, near the theater of Elbar, for I had shopped there. Frequently assignations take place in such streets, which, in their way constitute lovely, extended bowers, half lit even in the noonday sun. Some, such as the Street of Dinas, are fragrant with flowers. "But," he said, "if I could achieve a master stroke, if I could ignite a blaze of glory visible across the seas, even to the towers of Cos, I could no longer be ignored. I would be summoned to Cos. They would send a hundred-oared ship for me, decked with flowers, to bring me to the harbor of Jad. Lurius himself, with a retinue of a thousand, would greet me at the dock." "There will be a parade," said the bystander. "There will be banners and streamers on the houses, perfume in the air, flowers cast by free maidens in the streets." "See the ribbons and streamers from the windows," said Sakim, "the flowers, the observers lining the roofs." "You missed the free maidens casting flowers," said Clitus. "There will be more toward the end," said Thurnock. "Here, friend Sakim," said Clitus, "are more free maidens, joyously dancing in flowing garments, casting flowers, mostly dinas, talenders, and veminium, before the wheels of the final float. Do not miss these." "Like many kajirae," she said, "I am fond of beautiful things, like flowers, and I wandered about this morning, to my delight, in the great flower market of Ar, and was struck by the switch only twice."
"Your name is Haruki," I said. "Yes, noble one," said the gardener, startled. He was standing, pinching off the tips of new branches on the Blue Climber, a vinelike plant with large blue bracts amongst its common leaves, and small yellow flowers, clinging to the railing of the small bridge in the shogun's garden. This minor pruning stimulates new branching. The bridge, entwined with the blue climbers, arched in a lovely manner, for a length of some thirty-five or forty feet over a narrow, decorative pond, on the surface of which bloomed white and yellow water flowers, rising from flat, green pads; below, in the pond, which was shallow, one could see the slow movements of colorful fish. Blades of glaives thrust up at us, striking wood, splintering railings, tangling in the vinous blue climbers. "Let us inspect the state of the blue climbers," said the shogun. "They are doing nicely," said Haruki.
Her gleanings of fuel from the grasslands near the camp, primarily cord and flower brush, had been supplemented with some of the wood carried in the wagon. Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 651
I had seen the design at the tip of the iron. It was a small flower, stylized; it was circular, about an inch and a half in diameter; it was not unlike a small rose; it was incredibly lovely and delicate. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 52 my own brand was the "dina"; the dina is a small, lovely, multiply petaled flower, short-stemmed, and blooming in a turf of green leaves, usually on the slopes of hills, in the northern temperate zones of Gor; in its budding, though in few other ways, it resembles a rose; it is an exotic, alien flower; it is also spoken of, in the north, where it grows most frequency, as the slave flower, it was burned into my flesh; in the south, below the Gorean equator, where the flower is much more rare, it is prized more highly; some years ago, it was not even uncommon for lower-caste families in the south to give the name 'Dina' to their daughters; that practice has now largely vanished, with the opening and expansion of greater trade, and cultural exchange, between such cities as Ko-ro-ba and Ar, and the giant of the southern hemisphere, Turia. In the fall of the city of Turia, some years ago, thousands of its citizens had fled, many of them merchants or of merchant families; with the preservation of the city, and the restoration of the Ubarate of Phanias Turmus, many of these families returned; new contacts had been made, new products discovered; even of those Turians who did not return to their native city, many of them, remaining in their new homes, became agents for the distribution of Turian goods, and for the leathers and goods of the Wagon Peoples, channeled through Turia. That in the north the lovely dina was spoken of as the "slave flower" did not escape the notice of the expatriated Turians; in time, in spite of the fact that "Dina" is a lovely name, and the dina a delicate, beautiful flower, it would no longer be used in the southern hemisphere, no more than in the northern, as a name for free women; those free women who bore the name commonly had it changed by law, removed from the lists of their cities and replaced by something less degrading and more suitable. Dina, in the north, for many years, had been used almost entirely as a slave name. The reason, in the north, that the dina is called the slave flower has been lost in antiquity. One story is that an ancient Ubar of Ar, capturing the daughter of a fleeing, defeated enemy in a field of dinas there enslaved her, stripping her by the sword, ravishing her and putting chains upon her. As he chained her collar to his stirrup, he is said to have looked about the field, and then named her "Dina." But perhaps the dina is spoken of as one slave flower merely because, in the north, it is, though delicate and beautiful, a reasonably common, unimportant flower; it is also easily plucked, being defenseless, and can be easily crushed, overwhelmed and, if one wishes, discarded. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Pages 61 - 62 I wore, incised in my thigh, resembling a small, beautiful rose, the dina, the slave flower. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 70 On my thigh I wore one of the most beautiful brands, the dina, the slave flower. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 79 "Dina," said the girl with the bruise to me. She had called me that because of my brand, the Dina, or Slave Flower. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 126 "What is your brand?" he asked. "The Slave Flower, the Dina? I cried. "I have heard Dinas are good," he said. "We are fabulous, Master!" I laughed. "We are Slave Flowers." "Your nipples," he said, "are swollen. Your skin is like a field of scarlet dinas." There were trees, and grass, in the small courtyard, and flowers, mostly talenders, and dinas, some veminium. A tiled walk wound its way through the vegetation. Flowering shrubbery was about. Here and there, there were small, concealed nooks in the garden. In one corner, there was a small reservoir, with a slatted wooden lid. My master swirled the tiny ruby lake enclosed within its crystal shores, observed it, and then took its scent, as though it might have been a tiny bouquet of dinas. He then barely touched it to his lips. "Welcome, noble friends," called out Decius Albus, hurrying forward, under the shading latticework through which the afternoon sun stroked the laden tables with a melody of light and shade. Certain streets in Ar, in certain districts, are similarly sheltered from the sun, though with vines clinging to the latticework, and then, usually, here and there are stands of fruits and vegetables lining the walls. I was familiar with one such street, the Street of Dinas, near the theater of Elbar, for I had shopped there. Frequently assignations take place in such streets, which, in their way constitute lovely, extended bowers, half lit even in the noonday sun. Some, such as the Street of Dinas, are fragrant with flowers. "Here, friend Sakim," said Clitus, "are more free maidens, joyously dancing in flowing garments, casting flowers, mostly dinas, talenders, and veminium, before the wheels of the final float. Do not miss these."
Besides the designs there were also, growing from planting areas recessed here and there in the marble walkway, broad-leafed, curling plants; vines; ferns; numerous exotic flowers; it was rather beautiful, but in an oppressive way, and the room had been heated to such an extent that it seemed almost steamy; I gathered the temperature and humidity in the room were desirable for the plantings, or were supposed to simulate the climate of the tropical area represented. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 203
There was a shallow bowl of flowers, scarlet, large-budded, five-petaled flaminiums, on the small, low table between us. He reached out with his large hand and took one of the flowers. He held it in the palm of his hand. His hand began to close. "If you were this flower," asked Marlenus, "and you could speak, what would you do?" "I suppose," I said, "if I were such a flower, I would beg for mercy." "Yes," said Marlenus. "Verna," I said, "is strong willed. She is extremely proud, extremely intelligent." "Excellent," said Marlenus. His hand closed more on the flower. "Such women," said Marlenus, "once conquered, make the most abject and superb slaves." He dropped the flower back into the shallow bowl, among other, unthreatened, buds. I slipped from the tent. I looked back once. I saw, to one side, a bowl of scarlet, five-petaled flaminiums.
"I think it will rain today," I said. "No, noble one," he said. "How do you know?" I asked. "The petals of the golden cup are open," he said, "the zar swarm is not aflight, the lavender leaves of the scent tree do not curl."
I looked upwards, and about the room. The multicolored ribbons were festive; the lamps were lovely; and the flowers, abundant and colorful, mostly larma blossoms, Veminia and Teriotrope, were beautiful and fragrant. Lola had done well.
This garland was woven of shrub flowers, a white Lirillium, and was in width some seven or eight inches. Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 375 About the slave's head was the wreath of blossoms, this of white Lirillium.
I cut again, dropping the tufted, flowered head of the rence stem into the water, and then I tossed the stem onto the raft of rence, with the piles of others. I cut another rence stem, cut away the tufted, flowered head, and threw the stem onto the raft. Then, about the eighth Gorean hour, Telima had ordered me to the pole, where she bound me and placed on my head the garland of rence flowers. I stood numb at the pole, while Telima unbound me. "Do not remove the garland of rence flowers," said she. We had come now to the hull of the fourth barge, and we had come to her as silently as a rence flower might have drifted to her side.
This garland was woven of shrub flowers, a white Lirillium, and was in width some seven or eight inches. Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 375 We continued on our way, occasionally crossing a rivulet of water on a small, railed wooden bridge between flowering shrubs and patches of bright flowers, some of which were terraced amongst steps of rocks. Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 159
In the distance, perhaps some forty pasangs away, I saw a set of ridges, lofty and steep, rearing out of a broad, yellow meadow of talenders, a delicate, yellow-petaled flower, often woven into garlands by Gorean maidens. In their own quarters, unveiled Gorean women, with their family or lovers, might fix talenders in their hair. A crown of talenders was often worn by the girl at the feast celebrating her Free Companionship. While I fed on the tarn's gift, the Tatrix stood near the edge of the rocky shelf, gazing out on the meadow of talenders. They were beautiful, and their delicate fragrance was wafted even to the harsh ledge. She held her robes about her and watched the flowers, like a yellow sea, roll and tipple in the wind. I thought she seemed a lonely figure, rather forlorn and sad. "Talenders," she said to herself. I was squatting beside the meat, my mouth chewing, filled with raw flesh. "What does a woman of Tharna know of talenders?" I taunted her. In those days it had been a portion of the Rites of Submission, as practiced in Tharna, to strip and bind the captive with yellow cords and place her on a scarlet rug, the yellow of the cord being symbolic of talenders, a flower often associated with feminine love and beauty, the scarlet of the rug being symbolic of blood, and perhaps of passion. Harold left the walk and stepped carefully to avoid trampling a patch of talenders, a delicate yellow flower, often associated in the Gorean mind with love and beauty. The talender is a flower which, in the Gorean mind, is associated with beauty and passion. Free Companions, on the Feast of their Free Companionship, commonly wear a garland of talenders. Sometimes slave girls, having been subdued, but fearing to speak, will fix talenders in their hair, that their master may know that they have at last surrendered themselves to him as helpless love slaves. To put talenders in the neck ropes of the girl at the prow, of course, was only mockery, indicative of her probable disposition as pleasure slave. "And the flowers," said the girl, "are talenders. They are a beautiful flower. They are often associated with love." "They are very pretty," I said. "Some free women do not approve of slaves being permitted to wear talenders," she said, "or being permitted to have representations of them, like these, on their frocks. Yet slaves do often wear them, the masters permitting it, and they are not an uncommon motif, the masters seeing to it, on their garments." "Why do free women object?" I asked. "They feel that a slave, who must love whomever she is commanded to love, can know nothing of love." There were trees, and grass, in the small courtyard, and flowers, mostly talenders, and dinas, some veminium. A tiled walk wound its way through the vegetation. Flowering shrubbery was about. Here and there, there were small, concealed nooks in the garden. In one corner, there was a small reservoir, with a slatted wooden lid. "Here, friend Sakim," said Clitus, "are more free maidens, joyously dancing in flowing garments, casting flowers, mostly dinas, talenders, and veminium, before the wheels of the final float. Do not miss these."
I looked upwards, and about the room. The multicolored ribbons were festive; the lamps were lovely; and the flowers, abundant and colorful, mostly larma blossoms, Veminia and Teriotrope, were beautiful and fragrant. Lola had done well.
"I, too, think it is a tor shrub," I said. The shrub has various names but one of them is the tor shrub, which name might be fairly translated, I would think, as, say, the bright shrub, or the shrub of light, it having that name, I suppose, because of its abundant, bright flowers, either yellow or white, depending on the variety. It is a very lovely shrub in bloom. It was not in bloom now, of course, as it flowers in the fall.
About a hundred and fifty yards away, over several small roofs and domes, all within the vast compound that was the House of Saphrar of Turia, I saw the high walls of what was undoubtedly a Pleasure Garden. I could see, here and there, on the inside, the tops of graceful flower trees. I now saw him leap to the wall and, scarcely looking about, run along and then leap to the swaying trunk of one of the flower trees and descend swiftly to the darkness of the gardens. I had no difficulty finding Harold. Indeed, coming down the segmented trunk of the flower tree, I almost landed on top of him. He was sitting with his back to the tree, puffing, resting. And so we sat with our backs against the flower tree in the House of Saphrar, merchant of Turia. I looked at the lovely, dangling loops of interwoven blossoms which hung from the curved branches of the tree. I knew that the clusters of flowers which, cluster upon cluster, graced those linear, hanging stems, would each be a bouquet in itself, for the trees are so bred that the clustered flowers emerge in subtle, delicate patterns of shades and hues. Besides several of the flower trees there were also some Ka-la-na trees, or the yellow wine trees of Gor; there was one large-trunked, reddish Tur tree, In a short while Harold, carrying the struggling Hereena, retraced our steps to the central hall and descended the steps of the porch and returned by means of the curving walks between the shrubs and pools to the flower tree by means of which we had originally entered the Pleasure Gardens of Saphrar of Turia. Making our way up the flower tree with Hereena, who fought like a young she-larl, was not easy. I went part way up the tree and was handed the girl, and then Harold would go up above me and I would hoist her up a way to him, and then I would pass him, and so on. Occasionally, to my irritation, we became entangled in the trailing, looped stems of the tree, each with its richness of clustered flowers, whose beauty I was no longer in a mood to appreciate. At last we got Hereena to the top of tree. The mindar is adapted for short, rapid flights, almost spurts, its wings beating in sudden flurries, hurrying it from branch to branch, for camouflage in flower trees, and for drilling the bark of such trees for larvae and grubs. Strangers will reprimand us, and even strike us, if we do not hold ourselves well. In a sense, I suppose, we are part of the beauties of the city, an aspect of its scenic delights, part of the attractions of the area, as might be her flower trees and brightly plumaged birds. And suppose that we were not that rare. Think of the flower trees, the brightly plumaged birds!
The tundra at this time of year belies its reputation for bleakness. In many places it bursts into bloom with small flowers. Almost all of the plants of this nature are perennials, as the growing season is too short to permit most annuals to complete their growing cycle. In the winter buds of many of these plants lie dormant in a fluffy sheath which protects them from cold. Some two hundred and forty different types of plants grow in the Gorean arctic within five hundred pasangs of the pole. None of these, interestingly, is poisonous, and none possesses thorns. During the summer plants and flowers will grow almost anywhere in the arctic except on or near the glacial ice.
The atmosphere of the pool was further charged with the fragrance of Veminium, a kind of bluish wild flower commonly found on the lower slopes of the Thentis range; the walls, the columns, even the bottom of the pool, were decorated with representations of Veminium, and many of the plants themselves were found in the chamber. I smelled Veminium oil. The petals of Veminium, the "Desert Veminium," purplish, as opposed to the "Thentis Veminium," bluish, which flower grows at the edge of the Tahari, gathered in shallow baskets and 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. "What about 'Veminia'?" I asked. The Veminium is a small, lovely Gorean flower, softly petaled and blue. "That is a slave name," she said. "That is what I was called in the house of Oneander of Ar." I looked upwards, and about the room. The multicolored ribbons were festive; the lamps were lovely; and the flowers, abundant and colorful, mostly larma blossoms, Veminia and Teriotrope, were beautiful and fragrant. Lola had done well. "It was more likely two Ahn," I said. There was little active fire now. Stalks of Veminium broken beside the road had now dried. "Come to the Veminium!" said the second. The veminium is a delicate, five-petaled blue flower common in both the northern and southern hemispheres of Gor. "We are not so expensive!" The use of the veminium, as a name for the tavern, given the widely spread range of the flower was perhaps supposed to suggest affordable beauty. The second and the third girls were the ones who were bare-breasted. "It is a lovely day," he said. "Might I be privileged to accompany you? In the lower gardens the veminia are in bloom." "Of course," she said. There were trees, and grass, in the small courtyard, and flowers, mostly talenders, and dinas, some veminium. A tiled walk wound its way through the vegetation. Flowering shrubbery was about. Here and there, there were small, concealed nooks in the garden. In one corner, there was a small reservoir, with a slatted wooden lid. "Here, friend Sakim," said Clitus, "are more free maidens, joyously dancing in flowing garments, casting flowers, mostly dinas, talenders, and veminium, before the wheels of the final float. Do not miss these."
"Your name is Haruki," I said. "Yes, noble one," said the gardener, startled. He was standing, pinching off the tips of new branches on the Blue Climber, a vinelike plant with large blue bracts amongst its common leaves, and small yellow flowers, clinging to the railing of the small bridge in the shogun's garden. This minor pruning stimulates new branching. |       
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