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 PlantsHere are relevant references from the Books where plants 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 Aquatic Bamboo Clover Kelp Pepper Plant Broad-Leafed Curling Carpet Lake Schendi Death Sea Water Sa-Tarna Seaweed Vegetation Weed
Sharks will follow food wherever it may be found, as in following a ship for days, to feed on discarded garbage, but most tend to stay in shallower water, where sunlight can nourish rooted, aquatic plants, which can nourish small fish, which, in turn, can nourish larger fish, such as sharks.
Their outburst earned them a cry of rage from the Pani woman in charge of the slave hut, who tore away their sheets, and gave them several stinging strokes of a bamboo switch. . . . This innocent ignorance was not without its consequences, of course, and the girls were often subjected to castigation, scorn, kicks, slappings, and the stroke of the bamboo switch. Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 406 I blocked the swift, lashing, whiplike blow of the supple bamboo. "You asked her a question, beloved daughter," said Lord Yamada. "She responded as best she could. Dismiss her. Permit her to continue serving." He then addressed the other diners. "Note the kelp, the bamboo shoots, the fish, the lotus roots, and mushrooms." "Would you care to meet me in a dojo," said Tajima "with bamboo whips?"
I set her down on a bed of green clover. Beyond it, some hundred yards away, I could see the border of a yellow field of Sa-Tarna and a yellow thicket of Ka-la-na trees. I sat beside the girl, exhausted. I smiled to myself, the proud daughter of the Ubar in all her imperial regalia quite literally stank, stank of the swamps and the mud and of the perspiration exuded beneath that heavy covering, stank of heat and fear. "You have saved my life again," said the daughter of the Ubar. I nodded, not wanting to talk about anything. "Are we out of the swamp?" she asked. I assented. This seemed to please her. With an animal movement, contradicting the formality of her garments, she lay backward on the clover, looking up at the sky, undoubtedly as exhausted as I was. Moreover, she was only a girl. I felt tender toward her. "I ask your favor," she said. "I will show you how I treat the most treacherous wench on all Gor," I exclaimed, releasing her wrist. With both hands I wrenched the veil back from her face, thrusting my hand under it to fasten my fist in her hair and then, as if she were a common tavern girl or camp slut, I dragged the daughter of the Ubar of all Gor to the shelter of the Ka-la-na trees. Among the trees, on the clover, I threw her to my feet.
"You asked her a question, beloved daughter," said Lord Yamada. "She responded as best she could. Dismiss her. Permit her to continue serving." He then addressed the other diners. "Note the kelp, the bamboo shoots, the fish, the lotus roots, and mushrooms."
Telima had prepared a roast tarsk, stuffed with suls and peppers from Tor. There is little market in simple Laura for the more exquisite goods of Gor. Seldom will one find there Torian rolls of gold wire, interlocking cubes of silver from Tharna, rubies carved into tiny, burning panthers from Schendi, nutmegs and cloves, spikenard and peppers from the lands east of Bazi,
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. Telima was Gorean to the core. I myself would always be, doubtless, at least partly, of Earth. I held her. There could never be, I told myself, any question of sending this woman to Earth. In that overcrowded desert of hypocrisies and hysterical, meaningless violences, she would surely wither and blacken, like some rare and beautiful plant of the marshes uprooted and thrust down among stones to die. Too, like the roof of a greenhouse, the lush green canopies of the rain forest tend to hold this moisture within. It is the fantastic oxygenation produced by the vegetation, conjoined with the humidity and heat, and the smell of plant life, and rotting vegetable matter and wood, that gives the diurnial jungle its peculiar and unmistakable atmosphere, an encompassing, looming, green, warm ambience which is both beautiful and awesome. 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. Initially, I fear this familiarity frightened him; even now he would not converse with me, other than in some brief harmless way, or in response to some simple question about his work or the plantings; he would turn away, and busy himself elsewhere. "The richest fishing is in shallower water," I said, "where light can nourish plants, and fish come to feed on the plants, and larger fish come to feed on smaller fish." "I have seen brush on at least one living island," I said. "The men do that," she said. "Some soil, some seeds, some plants. That is done to fool strangers into thinking that the living island is an ordinary island. Too, for those who are familiar with these islands, it makes clear that a given island is spoken for, that it is claimed."
Besides the designs there were also, growing from planting areas recessed here and there in the marble walkway, broad-leafed, curling plants; Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 203
I then rose to my feet and walked a few yards away, to a fan palm. From the base of one of its broad leaves I gathered a double handful of fresh water. I returned to the girl and, carefully, washed out the wound. She winced. I then cut some leaves and wrapped them about it. I tied shut this simple bandage with the tendrils of a carpet plant.
"Steady, Lita," soothed Cabot. "See the jaws. It is herbivorous, probably a grazer on lake plants, perhaps a threat to small fish."
Most Goreans, I was sure, certainly those of the First Knowledge, knew little of forbidden weapons. There were rumors, whispers, stories, of course, of lightning sticks, tubes of fire, bows which cast quarrels so swift and small one could not even see them in flight of metal rocks which burst apart like ripe pods in the Schendi death plant and such.
Still we were far from shore, and the sea sleen, as other forms of predatory sea life, tends to range the fishing banks, so to speak, shallower waters closer to shore where sea plants can get sunlight, these plants then forming the basis of a rich marine ecology. The Parsit, as many similar fish, require vegetation, and vegetation requires light, and thus, typically, such fish school off banks, in shallower water, where light can reach plants tenaciously rooted, say, some dozens of yards below in the sea floor. The mystery of the parsit was solved, of course, as this wilderness of efflorescent plant life in the sea, floating like a vast park of life, drew myriads of small creatures, and these would draw the parsit, and the parsit would draw the shark, the grunt, and the unusual tharlarion.
In the boat were two wide, shallow, wooden buckets, each half filled with wet, glistening leeches, taken from the water, often from the stems of water plants, such as rence. Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 365
Economically, the base of the Gorean life was the free peasant, which was perhaps the lowest but undoubtedly the most fundamental caste, and the staple crop was a yellow grain called Sa-Tarna, or Life-Daughter. Interestingly enough, the word for meat is Sa-Tassna, which means Life-Mother. Incidentally, when one speaks of food in general, one always speaks of Sa-Tassna. The expression for the yellow grain seems to be a secondary expression, derivative. The Older Tarl and I may have drunk too much of that fermented brew concocted with fiendish skill from the yellow grain, Sa-Tarna, and called Pagar-Sa-Tarna, Pleasure of the Life-Daughter, but almost always "Paga" for short. I doubted that I would ever touch the stuff again. After a journey of an hour or so Nar stopped and pointed ahead with one of his forelegs. About three or four pasangs distant, through the thinning swamp trees, I could see the verdant meadows of Ar's Sa-Tarna land. "Let's go," I said to the girl, and I made for the fields of Sa-Tarna. The daughter of the Ubar followed, some yards behind. I set her down on a bed of green clover. Beyond it, some hundred yards away, I could see the border of a yellow field of Sa-Tarna and a yellow thicket of Ka-la-na trees. We traveled together through the night, making our way through the silvery yellow fields of Sa-Tarna, fugitives under the three moons of Gor. As we flew, many were the fields of charred Sa-Tarna we saw below us. Here and there the mount of a tarnsman boasts a golden harness. On market day I saw a peasant, his sack of Sa-Tarna meal on his back, whose sandals were tied with silver straps. "Who are you?" asked the girl, her accent suggesting the Sa-Tarna fields above Ar and toward the Tamber Gulf. I passed fields that were burning, and burning huts of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna granaries, I was astonished, for this girl was dressed not as a Gorean, not as a girl of any of the cities of the Counter-Earth, not as a peasant of the Sa-Tarna fields or the vineyards where the Ta grapes are raised, not even as a girl of the fierce Wagon Peoples. Four caravans had fallen spoils to the fierce, swiftly striking tarnsman of Treve. And his men had fired dozens of fields, destroying Sa-Tarna grains. The smoke of two of these fields had been visible even from the high bridges of Ko-ro-ba herself. The northern Sa-Tarna, in its rows, yellow and sprouting, was about ten inches high. The growing season at this latitude, mitigated by the Torvaldstream, was about one hundred and twenty days. This crop had actually been sown the preceding fall, a month following the harvest festival. It is sown early enough, however, that, before the deep frosts temporarily stop growth, a good root system can develop. Then, in the warmth of the spring, in the softening soil, the plants, hardy and rugged, again assert themselves. The yield of the fall-sown Sa-Tarna is, statistically, larger than that of the spring-sown varieties. "Good," said the Forkbeard. He climbed to his feet. He knocked the dirt from the knees of his leather trousers. "Good," he said. Sa-Tarna is the major crop of the Forkbeard's lands, but, too, there are many gardens, and, as I have noted, bosk and verr, too, are raised. "What crop," asked Ivar Forkbeard, who wore a hood, of the platform, "do the Kurii most favor in their agricultural pursuits?" I saw the ears of the Kur lie swiftly back against its head. Then it relaxed. Its lips drew back from its fangs. "Sa-Tarna" it said. The men in the field grunted their understanding. This was the staple crop in Torvaldsland. It was a likely answer. "I have here," called Svein Blue Tooth, "a bucket of Sa-Tarna grain. This, in token of hospitality, I offer to our guest." The Kur looked into the bucket, at the yellow grain. I saw the claws on the right paw briefly expose themselves, then, swiftly, draw within the softness of the furred, multiple digited appendage. "I thank the great Jarl," said the beast, "and fine grain it is. It will be our hope to have such good fortune with our own crops in the south. But I must decline to taste your gift for we, like men, and unlike bosk, do not feed on raw grain." She cried out. The heavy, round-ended pestle, some five feet in height, more than five inches wide at the base, dropped. It weighed some thirty pounds. When it dropped, the heavy wooden bowl, more than a foot deep and eighteen inches in diameter, tipped, Sa-Tarna grain spilled to the ground. "But what are you doing here?" asked Bran Loort, suddenly, shrewdly. "It is time to harvest the Sa-Tarna." "I am looking for men," he said, "to aid in the harvest." I stepped aside as a string of eight peasants, with bundles of Sa-Tarna grain on their shoulders, made their way down toward the wharves. "I am the courier of Ragnar Voskjard!" I called. "We are sent ahead, the scout ships of his fleet!" We had only four ships with us, and three were, substantially, empty. Tasdron had arranged them in Victoria, on the pretense of fetching a consignment of Sa-Tarna from Siba, to be brought to the Brewery of Lucian, near Fina, east of Victoria, with which brewery he occasionally did business. "The Council of Captains must meet in two days," said Samos. "It is proposed that the Sa-Tarna quay in the south harbor be extended. What division of this will be borne by public expense remains moot. Too, if this license be granted, an exploitable precedent may be set. Already there is talk among the merchants in rep-cloth and the lumber and stone merchants." "Another possibility," Samos was saying, "would be a loan to the Sa-Tarna merchants, at a reduced rate of interest. Thus we might avoid the precedent of a direct subsidy to a sub-caste. To be sure, we might then encounter resistance from the Street of Coins. Tax credits would be another possible incentive." There were some five wagons approaching the city, in a line. Each was being drawn by two strings of harnessed male slaves, about twenty slaves in each string. "Those are Sa-Tarna wagons," said Drusus, "bringing grain to the city." "What is the news, Tina?" I asked. "About what?" she asked. "About anything," I said. "There is not much," she said. "There is some fear for the Sa-Tarna crop, because of the great deal of rain. "It is a sack!" she cried. "Only a sack!" That was true. It was a long, yellow, closely woven Sa-Tarna sack. If there could have been any doubt about it such doubts would have been dispelled by the thick, black, stenciled lettering on the bag, giving a bold and unmistakable account of its earlier contents, together with their grind and grade, and the signs of the processing mill and its associated wholesaler. "It seems the Priest-Kings are grinding flour," laughed a man near me. "It would seem so," I said. This was a reference to an old form of grinding, for some reason still attributed to Priest-Kings, in which a pestle, striking down, is used with a mortar. Most Sa-Tarna is now ground in mills, between stones, the top stone usually turned by water power, but sometimes by a tharlarion, or slaves. In some villages, however, something approximating the old mortar and pestle is sometimes used, the two blocks, a pounding block strung to a springy, bent pole, and the mortar block, or anvil block. The pole has one or more ropes attached to it, near its end. When these are drawn downward the pounding block descends into the mortar block, and the springiness of the pole, of course, straightening, then raises it for another blow. More commonly, however, querns are used, usually, if they are large, operated by two men, if smaller, by two boys. Hand querns, which may be turned by a woman, are also not unknown. The principle of the common quern is as follows: it consists primarily of a mount, two stones, an overhead beam and a pole. The two stones are circular grinding stones. The bottom stone has a small hub on its upper surface which fits into an inverted concave depression in the upper stone. This helps to keep the stones together. It also has shallow, radiating surface grooves through which the grindings may escape between the stones, to be caught in the sturdy boxlike mount supporting the stones, often then funneled to a waiting receptacle or sack. The upper stone has two holes in it, in the center a funnel-shaped hole through which grain is poured, and, near the edge, another hole into which one end of the turning pole is placed. This pole is normally managed by two operators. Its upper portion is fitted into an aperture in the overhead beam, which supplies leverage and, of course, by affording a steadying rest, makes the pole easier to handle. The principle of the hand quern is similar, but it is usually turned with a small wooden handle. The meal or flour emerging from these devices is usually sifted, as it must often be reground, sometimes several times. The sifter usually is made of hide stretched over a wooden hoop. The holes are punched in the hide with a hot wire. Ellen was then, bound as she was, eased, feet first, into a long, burlaplike sa-tarna sack, which was tied shut over her head. She could see to some extent through the loosely woven cloth. As Tyrtaios made his way forward, he passed a slave girl, making her way aft, a small sa-tarna pannier on her back. The rations of Gorean warriors, in the field, I am told, are often austere. A small sack of grain, commonly Sa-Tarna, the Life Daughter, is often carried in the pack, or at one's belt. Two handfuls of this, the hands cupped together, may then be dampened in a spring, or stream, and eaten. I leaned against the heavy horizontal pole, chest high, inserted through the large, conical stone. It, like its two similar poles, passed through the stone and emerged on the other side. This produced, given the penetrations, the effect of six poles, against which weight might be pressed, this turning the heavy stone. The miller's man, at intervals, from his ladder, would pour the grain, sa-tarna, the "life daughter," into the opening on the top of the stone, and the stone, when turning, would press down upon it, and grind it, the resultant flour, by means of three descending troughs, being gathered in waiting sacks. Once, when I was laboring in a field, sickle in hand, with others, harvesting sa-tarna, a great shadow, as of a cloud, raced across the golden grain. "I would prefer to die in a field at harvest time amidst ripening, golden sa-tarna," said Thurnock, "but this will do." "Behold the golden sa-tarna," said Thurnock, walking beside me, leading the first tharlarion. "Is it not beautiful?" "Sa-tarna", in Gorean, means "life-daughter." It is the major grain crop of continental Gor. "Yes," I said, viewing the large circle of tillage. "But I would prefer that it was not in our way." Whereas there are certainly rectangular and square fields of sa-tarna, these are commonly found away from villages. Village fields tend to radiate out from the villages, rather like triangles. In this way, the holdings are not isolated and vulnerable. The village, which is usually palisaded, has its Home Stone, and the individual dwellings within the palisade are likely to have their own Home Stones, as well. There is a Gorean saying to the effect that in the holding of his Home Stone even the least of men is a Ubar. Goreans tend to be individualistic but each village usually keeps one or two fields which are seeded and tilled in common. Villagers who might find themselves, through no fault of their own, truly needy, have first call on the produce of such fields. Generally, however, the produce is shared amongst all the villagers.
There is often not enough food under any conditions, particularly in northern Torvaldsland, and famine is not unknown. In such cases men feed on bark, and lichens and seaweed. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 55 Salt, incidentally, is obtained by the men of Torvaldsland, most commonly, from sea water or from the burning of seaweed. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 187 Whereas salt may be obtained from sea water and by burning seaweed, as is sometimes done in Torvaldsland, and there are various districts on Gor where salt, solid or in solution, may be obtained, by far the most extensive and richest of known Gor's salt deposits are to be found concentrated in the Tahari. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 208 Many fish in these tropical waters are poisonous to eat, a function of certain forms of seaweed on which they feed. The seaweed is harmless to the fish but it contains substances toxic to humans. The river fish on the other hand, as far as I know, are generally wholesome for humans to eat. Indeed, there are many villages along the Kamba and Nyoka, and along the shores of Lake Ushindi, in which fishing is the major source of livelihood. Not much of this fish, however, is exported from Schendi. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 109 It was very pleasant near the shore, with the smell of Thassa, with the cool, penetrant air, the sense of the salt of her churning waves, the sound of the surf, the incoming tide, the wash of sea weed on the shore, Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 74 "It is barren," said Thurnock. "It seems so," I said. "There is some clutter, some brush, debris, dried seaweed, driftwood, such things."
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. For several Ehn I was able to keep to the thickest of the rence. In such places, one could see no more than a few feet ahead. Sometimes I heard soldiers about. Twice they passed within feet of me. The raft tangled sometimes in the vegetation. Once I had to draw it over a bar. Once, to my dismay, I had to move the raft through an open expanse of water. Then, to my elation, I was again in the high rence. The Parsit, as many similar fish, require vegetation, and vegetation requires light, and thus, typically, such fish school off banks, in shallower water, where light can reach plants tenaciously rooted, say, some dozens of yards below in the sea floor. The banks are usually within two or three hundred pasangs of land masses. Thus the jubilation of the men.
Weeds were growing between cracks in the stone flooring of the highway, and the ruts of the tharlarion carts had all but disappeared. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 113 He had then stumbled down the beach, falling twice, until he came to the shallows and the sand, among driftwood, stones and damp weed, washed ashore in the morning tide. Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 242 There were weeds and grass growing about the interior perimeter of the low board fence encircling the market. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 125 "Would you like to be a naked slave of peasants, a community slave, in a peasant village," I asked, "and wear a rope collar, and be taught to hoe weeds and pull a plow, and spend your nights in a sunken cage?" "Let Gloria pull a plow, let her hoe weeds, let her carry water on a great farm," said one of the girls. |       
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