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 HairThis is my narrative and relevant references from the Books where Hair is 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 This page is a result of me wondering . . . Do women shave their legs and, yes, do they shave other places too, like their armpits and pubes. There are over 6,000 references to hair . . . or lack thereof. By the time I finished the search, copied out the quotes and formatted this page, I'd invested about 100 hours. I mention this to highlight the expense of time and energy it takes to compile these fun little facts for you. In any event, I found the answer to my question. Here are the only four relevant quotes: In Turia and Ar, it might be mentioned it is not uncommon for a female slave to be depilated. So was the answer yes or no? Turns out the books suggest that the answer is an "either or". Either the slave was shaved or depilated . . . or she was Au Naturale, not shaved at all, hairy. And when they are shaved, the pubic hair is not ever mentioned as being trimmed or shaved and shaped into designs. Finally, it is up to the owner whether the slave is shaved or not. Who does the shaving? Does the slave shave her own legs and underarms and pubes? No, either the master does the shaving or he has is done by someone else. What about all the free women? No, except for her head, there is no mention whatsoever of a free woman shaving . . . anywhere . . . ever. While I was researching my shaving question, I also compiled everything else the series mentions about hair. What I didn't do was quote every single reference to each topic. I also quoted next to no context. So if you want to read more, get your own book and read the surrounding text. Male Color Black Bluish Black Blond Brown Dark Brown Flecked with Gray Brunet Dark Very Dark Dye Gray Red Reddish Red with Blond Stripe Sable Sandy Scarlet Straw White Yellow Type Curly Shaggy Straight Cut Bowl Cut Cosian Delta Veteran Half-Shaven Removed Completely Scraped Shaved Shaven Stripe Sheared Style of Myron, the Polemarkos Unshaven Area Back of Hand Back of Neck Beard Calves Chest Chin Forearm Lack Thereof Mustache Sideburns Side of the Leg Upper Arm Whiskers Care of Barbers' Shop Combed and Glossy Oiled, Scented and Combed Not Stuff In Feathers Ribbons Uses Handle Style Bangs Bound Back - Ponytail Braided Dye Greased High Pompadour Oiled Scented Shiny Top Knot Length Bald Close Cropped Cropped Cropped Short Long Rather Short Shaved Short Short Clipped Shoulders Very Long Wisp Female
Auburn hair is generally thought to be the most prized hair on Gor, but I myself generally prefer brunets. This is not to deny that blondes, suitably enslaved, and desperate to please, are not without interest. Blondes sometimes bring higher prices as their hair color is rarer, but once they are home, in the collar, they are, of course, no more than any other slave. "What is the color of your hair?" he asked, peering at it in the flickering light, in the half darkness. "Auburn, Master," she said. "A natural auburn?" he asked. "Yes, Master," she said. It is not wise for a girl to lie about such things. She may be easily found out. There are penalties, incidentally, for a slaver passing off a girl for an auburn slave when she is not truly so. Auburn hair, as I have indicated, is prized in slave markets. "What color is your hair?" I asked. "It is hard to tell in this light." "Auburn," she said. "A natural auburn?" I asked. "Of course," she said. "That color, particularly when natural, often brings an excellent price in slave markets," I said. I walked slowly behind the Lady Florence. She knelt straight. "Your own hair," I said, "is a rich auburn." "Yes," she said. "Such hair," I said, "is very unusual." "I am fond of my hair," she said. "You might well be," I said. "Such hair would be the envy of many slave girls." "You need not speak of it that way," she said. "Did you know that auburn hair is highly prized in the slave markets?" I asked. The girl laughed at her and with a toss of her auburn hair, bound in the Koora, ran off between the wagons. "Paga, Masters?" asked the auburn-haired paga slave who had approached the table, and knelt. Auburn hair, other things being equal, is likely to raise a girl's price. "You are beautiful," said Seremides. "Thank you, Master," she said. I smiled. It was rare for Seremides to pay a compliment. Perhaps it had to do with the auburn hair.
One in particular I remembered, young, her body like a cheetah, her black hair wild on her brown shoulders, the bangles on her ankles, their sound in the curtained alcove. A marvelous cascade of hair, as black as the wing of my tarn, loosened behind her, falling to the ground. a dark-skinned girl with black hair that fell to her ankles from the desert city of Tor The judge unpinned her white and gold veil and then, with a gentle hand, brushed back her hood revealing her long, lovely black hair. She had high cheekbones, and flashing black eyes, and coal-black hair, now worn high, pinned, over her head. Her hair, a black sheen, loose, fell over her shoulders, and to the small of her back. Her hair was black, and long, and rich, and well displayed against the yellow cushion behind her. "That is not she!" he cried. "The hair is brown, not black, not like the sheen of sable tarn; the complexion is wrong; the eyes are wrong! That is not she!" It was long since I had seen those exquisite features, that olive skin, the green eyes, the sweet lips, that shimmering, glossy torrent of hair as black as the pelt of the black sleen of Anango.
She had extremely dark eyes, and dark hair, even bluish black, which, under the hood of the robes, I could see was drawn back about the sides of her head.
Blond hair and blue eyes, too, in this region, made her a rare specimen. Auburn hair is generally thought to be the most prized hair on Gor, but I myself generally prefer brunets. This is not to deny that blondes, suitably enslaved, and desperate to please, are not without interest. Blondes sometimes bring higher prices as their hair color is rarer, but once they are home, in the collar, they are, of course, no more than any other slave. I helped her unbuckle the hood and felt delighted at the sudden flash of her long blond hair streaking out beside my cheek. Vika regained her composure and straightened herself, tossing her head and brushing back a melody of blond hair which had fallen across her forehead. Her teeth closed on the meat and she cried out in her throat, a gasp, a tiny cry, glad, inarticulate, uncontrollable, and began to bite at the leg, swiftly, tearing at it, her head to one side, the blond hair falling over my wrist. Ivar tore the golden string from her hair, loosening it. It fell behind her, blond, below the small of her back. "Master?" inquired a blonde, briefly tunicked, entering the inner tent. Such a hair color is unusual in the Farther Islands. "Except for several million others," I said. "And, as I understand it, Rask of Treve thought so little of you that he gave you away, literally gave you away, preferring a mere barbarian, and one with blond hair and blue-eyes at that."
"It is my understanding that none here are virgins," I said. "Perhaps the Lady Persinna," she said. "No," said the light blonde bitterly. "I was first opened in a dungeon, where I lay chained in the darkness."
Four were brunets, and two blondes, one a darker blond, one lighter.
Almost at my side stood the blondish girl I had first seen, she who had been primarily effectual in my capture, herself acting as the bait, the lure to which I had been drawn. A tall, blondish girl, some two positions ahead of me and on my left, smiled. "Inge," she said, indicating herself. Near her, bored, was a slender, blondish girl, looking about. Her hair was hung in a hood of scarlet yarn, bound with filaments of golden wire. "Radish is now favorite," said Sandal Thong, indicating a blondish, thick-ankled girl at her left. I recognized her.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Pages 113 - 114
She looked upon me, but did not seem particularly frightened. Her gaze was clear; she had a dark blondish hair and blue eyes; her legs were a bit short, and her ankles somewhat thick; her shoulders were a bit wide perhaps, but lovely.
Her hair was brown and fine, the splendid gray eyes seemed even more clear, and her face, I saw, was beautiful, even more beautiful than I had imagined. I noted that her hair was brown and fine, She threw back her head, her little nose in the air, her brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. She was brown-haired, with long brown hair, and brown-eyed.
She had light-brown hair. The girl had had light brown hair, it seemed. She had had light brown hair and had been excellently curved. Her hair was light brown, much lighter than that of the girl we had encountered to the north, in the Fulvian hills. The one before us now had long, light brown hair, almost blond. It fell about her body, loosely.
Regard the beauty of her face, the fineness of her features, her sweet throat, encircled closely with locked metal, the dark, brown hair, too short now, but it will grow, the loveliness of her shoulders, the softness of her bosom, the narrowness of her waist, the width of her love cradle! Her hair was brown, too, a rich, dark brown. Presumably her master would not permit it to be cut. Long hair is often favored in a slave. There is much that can be done with it, in the furs and elsewhere. She can even be bound with it.
I am a brunet, with very dark brown hair. THer hair was a very dark brown.
Auburn hair is generally thought to be the most prized hair on Gor, but I myself generally prefer brunets. This is not to deny that blondes, suitably enslaved, and desperate to please, are not without interest. Blondes sometimes bring higher prices as their hair color is rarer, but once they are home, in the collar, they are, of course, no more than any other slave. Goreans, male and female, like most of those of Earth stock, from which they are doubtless derived, or derived for the most part, are brunet types. Goreans, male and female, like most of those of Earth stock, from which they are doubtless derived, or derived for the most part, are brunet types. "Yes, Mistress," said a stunning brunet, her face suffused with pleasure, hurrying away from us. Then he snapped his fingers. Through the door, bearing a tray, came a small, exquisite, brunet female slave. T"No," I said, "she is, like most slaves below Torvaldsland, a brunette."
Most Gorean women, like most human females, in general, tend to be short, curvaceous and dark-haired. "Take me back to Ar," said Talena. "I am ready." She stepped from the pile of filthy garments at her feet and stood proudly among the trees, the wind slightly moving her long dark hair. The second girl was tall, fragile and willowy, with slender ankles and large, hurt eyes; she had dark, curling hair that fell about her shoulders and stood out against the white of her garment; I noted that she had dark hair and dark eyes, brown. I held her lovely head with its soft dark hair in my hand gazing on her face, her forehead, her dark, soft eyes, with tears, the marvelous, trembling mouth, and set in her fine nose, delicate and lovely, the tiny golden ring. Near me, across from me, a short girl, with dark hair, very red lips, and bright dark eyes, smiled at me. She was very beautiful in the bit of slave silk. I noted the bells locked on her left ankle. She was slender, dark-haired, dark-eyed. The next girl was a comely wench from Tyros, dark-haired and shapely. I looked back, and gasped. Behind me, standing proudly, insolently, her hands still fastened behind her back, was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, dark-haired, green-eyed, olive-skinned, of medium height, excitingly figured. How beautiful she was, the dark hair, the brief yellow tunic, slit at the hip, kneeling before me. She was weeping with joy, her damp, dark hair about my feet, her lips pressing more, and more, kisses to my feet. She had a fetching love cradle, a narrow waist, and a lovely bosom, delicate features, dark hair, and dark eyes. I recalled the slender, dark-haired beauty, so lofty in the society of Ar, who had been a critic of Talena, and something of a rival in beauty to her. Aetius then, his hand deep in her long, dark hair, jerked her head up, and held it back.
Her hair was short, and very dark. I recalled lovely Phoebe, of Telnus, so slim, with her very dark hair, her very white skin.
She was fairly complected but had extremely dark hair and dark eyes, very red lips; the movement of her exquisite body was a torment to observe; she looked at me with a slight smile, regarding the black of the tunic, the mark of the dagger; her lips were full and magnificently turned, probably a characteristic bred into her; I had no doubt this black-haired, cruelly beautiful woman was a bred Passion Slave. She was one of the most rawly sensuous creatures on which I had ever looked. She had extremely dark hair, almost black. She was slim, and extremely dark-haired, and very white-skinned. Her hair was drawn back behind her head and tied there with a yellow cord. The young woman was slender, and extremely lightly complexioned, and with extremely dark hair and eyes.
But afterwards I was intent on visiting the indoor housing area that I might ascertain the condition of a slave, a particular slave, Cecily, once Miss Virginia Cecily Jean Pym, whom I had collared faraway, on a steel world, concealed amongst asteroids, and, on behalf of my friend and colleague, Pertinax, another, the slender, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed slave, Saru, once Miss Margaret Wentworth.
She was a blond girl with golden hair that fell behind her to the small of her back. Her eyes were blue. and a girl with golden hair, "For years," said Hassan, "I have heard of the Tatrix or Corcyrus, of her tyranny, of her fabled pride and beauty. I found such a woman intriguing. Then, wonder of wonders, she fell. None could find her. I was curious to know what it would be like to have such a woman in my collar, a fair-skinned, golden-haired Tatrix of the north, to make her crawl, and cry and serve, to make her a man's woman." The auctioneer lifted the hair of the slave, displaying it. "Golden hair," he said, "sparkling as ripe Sa-Tarna." She did have "golden hair," which was rare, but surely not unknown. That would probably not be enough to identify her to strangers. "Golden hair" tends to raise prices in the south, but not in the north, where it is more common. "Golden hair," I suspected, had brought more than one girl into the collar, at least in the south. Interestingly, auburn hair is that pelting, so to speak, which tends to be most favored in the markets. I am not sure why that is. It is probably a matter of its rarity, as it tends to be even more rare than "golden hair."
I smiled. I now had an excellent idea what had happened to the lovely, light-haired slave we had seen earlier on a lower landing, she whose tunic was opened and whose hair had been in such disorder.
I threw the switch to the red-haired girl. "Keep order in the camp," I said. I turned to Ilene, and pointed to the red-haired girl. From the side there hastened to him another girl, a fair-skinned, red-haired girl. Only one other person did I see in the room, red-haired Fina, stripped, lying at the gate to her slave alcove; her left wrist wore a slave bracelet; the matching bracelet was closed, locked, about one of the bars of the alcove. Toward me a couple was moving, a bearded sailor and a red-haired paga girl. "Master," said a red-haired girl, reaching forth her hand, timidly, not daring to touch me. The proprietor of the tavern took the red-haired dancing girl by the arm, she crying out, and thrust her in her costume, ten slender silver chains, five before and five behind, depending from her collar, from the sand. Her hair was red, and bound back, rather severely, with a ribbon. He was lifting her sheen of red hair on the point of his lance, moving it in the sun, to see it glisten and reflect the light. He was curious as to such hair. It is extremely rare in the Barrens. Grunt had not permitted her to cut it, or even to trim and shape it. That could be done later. Now he wanted it to grow, and to be, apparently, as long as possible.
Her hair, which was reddish brown, was bound behind her head with a coarse string.
Her hair was brightly red and, when she stood, it fell almost to her knees.
She was extremely lightly complexioned and had very red hair.
SHer hair was very light, the color of summer straw; it was straight and bound simply behind the back of her neck with a small fillet of white wool.
As I watched her yellow hair swept behind her in the wind and regarded the joyful lineaments of her beauty, I was glad that she had not chosen, whatever might be her reason, to clothe herself in the traditional manner. The boy walked about her, and took her hair in his hands. "Look," said he to his sister, "silky, fine and yellow, and long." She, too, felt the hair. I could see, from the carving, and the pigments, that the girl was figured like myself, and was light-skinned, and had yellow hair and blue eyes. "Behold," called Ho-Tosk, "the lovely Lais, graceful and lithe, eyes as blue as the skies of En'Kara, lips as red as the scarlet dina, hair as yellow as ripe sa'tarna. How she will please you!"
The second girl was tall, fragile and willowy, with slender ankles and large, hurt eyes; she had dark, curling hair that fell about her shoulders and stood out against the white of her garment;
Her hair was very light, the color of summer straw; it was straight and bound simply behind the back of her neck with a small fillet of white wool. Targo's other girls, of whom I was one, all wore their hair long and combed, straight. I was hoping my hair would grow swiftly. Lana had the longest hair of all of us. It fell below the small of her back. Her hair was wet and straight, black, damp and matted back from her forehead, on both sides. Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, died in the blood of the Vosk sorp.
Her blue eyes were pale. The hair was thin, stringy.
A girl with an unmarked back, commonly, will bring a much higher price than a comparable wench, if her back be muchly scarred. Men commonly relish a smooth female, except for the brand scar. In Turia and Ar, it might be mentioned it is not uncommon for a female slave to be depilated. Most men prefer soft, smooth slaves. Indeed, in the cities, some slaves are even shaved or depilated. Too, their skirts, and Tupita's, too, and the slave strips, or G-strings, of Tela and myself had been lifted up, or aside, and let fall again, perhaps to see if we were depilated, or shaved, or if such cloth might conceal some defect. Too, when girls are put on slave ships, chained in their wire cages on tiered shelves in a hold, they are commonly shorn, and depilated, completely, to reduce the infestations of ship lice. Some masters, too, prefer a smooth slave, and, in such a case, may have the slave depilated, or have her body hair shaved away. Sometimes the master attends to this himself. This is more common in certain cities than in others.
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 209 Even shorn she seemed to me incredibly beautiful, very frightened, in the brief plastic sheath that was the only garment allotted to female Muls. Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 232 The hair of the below-deck girls, mercifully, is shaved off; indeed, our body hair, too, was shaved off, completely. These precautions prevent, to a great extent, the nesting of ship lice. My hair had begun to grow out, from having been shaved away for the voyage on the slave ship, but it was still quite short; I wore a broad Koora, which, kerchieflike, covered most of my head. "It was not a slave ship, I gather," I said, "else it is likely her head and body hair would have been shaved, to reduce the degree of infestation by ship lice in the hold." In contrast, regard Tiffany, who has the shorn look. Some men like this in a woman. To be sure, her hair is now growing out a bit. This is to be contrasted again, of course, with the shaven head, commonly inflicted only on a girl as a punishment or to protect her from lice in close confinements, such as on a slave ship. Too, their skirts, and Tupita's, too, and the slave strips, or G-strings, of Tela and myself had been lifted up, or aside, and let fall again, perhaps to see if we were depilated, or shaved, or if such cloth might conceal some defect. I looked down at Lady Publia. "Does it seem fair to you," I asked Lady Claudia, "that Lady Publia should have such an advantage over the other women of Ar's Station?" "I do not know," said Lady Claudia. "It does not seem fair to me," I said. "When you were going through our friends' pouches over there, did you find any small knives, such as a hook knife or a shaving knife?" I had a belt knife myself, which was sheathed on the sword belt, to the right, but at the moment I preferred something lighter-bladed, smaller and sharper, if it were available. "One fellow had a shaving knife," said Lady Claudia. "Bring it to me," I said. "What do you want it for?" said Lady Publia, anxiously. In a moment Lady Claudia had returned with the implement. "What are you going to do!" cried Lady Publia. "Hold still," I said. "No!" she wept. "No!" In a few moments I discarded the small knife, throwing it to the side. Lady Publia was lying in the straw, bawling. She clutched her head wildly, in dismay, in disbelief. "Kneel," I said, "facing me." Weeping, Lady Publia obeyed, her hands still on her head. "Now," I said, "if Cosians come on you, you will be on the same footing as the other women of Ar's Station." Tears filled her eyes. I had left her enough hair so that I could get my hand in it, in the scrub of it, so that I might use it as the guard had earlier the hair of Lady Claudia, to control her. Too, thusly, it was now of a convenient length for a Cosian to seize it, should that eventuality occur. It was of about the same length as that of Lady Claudia. The fact that Temione's hair, like that of the other debtor sluts at the Crooked Tarn, had been shaved off, to be sold for catapult cordage, may have been one reason that the burly fellow had not recognized her. I did not doubt that already hundreds of women had passed through the camp, mostly, I supposed, to be shipped or herded to the docks of Brundisium, to be placed on slave ships, chained, their heads and bodies shaved, to be shipped to various destinations. The major reason for cropping the hair of field slaves, both male and female, and certain other forms of work slaves, is to protect them from parasites. For a similar reason the bodies of the women transported on slave ships are almost always shaved, completely. TI touched my own hair, nervously. I, too, of course, could be shorn. Some masters harvest the hair of their slaves every two or three years, understanding this, I suppose, as a part of the productivity of the slave. All the hair on their bodies is removed, to reduce the infestation of parasites. Many women found themselves shorn and shaved, chained, in the holds of slave ships bound for Tyros or Cos whose only crime was their beauty. The most common reason slaves are shorn is for punishment or cleanliness, or both. For example, slaves who work in the tharlarion stables are often shorn, and the girls in the mills, too. Too, when girls are put on slave ships, chained in their wire cages on tiered shelves in a hold, they are commonly shorn, and depilated, completely, to reduce the infestations of ship lice. Some masters, too, prefer a smooth slave, and, in such a case, may have the slave depilated, or have her body hair shaved away. Sometimes the master attends to this himself. This is more common in certain cities than in others. A shaved head not only punishes a girl but marks her out to other slaves as having been a displeasing slave. She is then likely to be the object of much derision and contempt.
He then, holding her hair, sheared it away at the base of her neck. "Put a string on this and put it in the sack," he said to Barus. The girl was sobbing. Kenneth normally did not shear the hair of his stable sluts, even in the fall. He did occasionally use shearing, however, as a disciplinary device. Goreans tend, culturally, to be fond of long hair on a woman. The shorn girl, thus, in her collar, tends to be an object of scorn and ridicule. Girls will go to great lengths to please a man, that they not be shorn. The girls who are regularly shorn are usually slaves who work on the great farms or on the large, commercial hurt ranches, or low girls who are used in large numbers in such places as the mills, or the public laundries and kitchens. Any girl, of course, may be shorn, even a high pleasure slave, if she displeases the master. The girls know that there is always a market for their hair. When a city is under siege, particularly if the siege is prolonged, even free women will often have their hair shorn, contributing it then to the supplies for municipal defense. Considering the usual vanity of Goreans, both male and female, over their appearance, this is a patriotic sacrifice of no little magnitude. It is particularly significant when one understands that the women know very well that if they fall into the hands of the enemy, with their hair shorn, they may expect to be sold into low slaveries, such as agricultural servitudes or those of the mills. An additional advantage of long hair in a female slave, incidentally, is that it gives the master additional power over her, for, as he is the master, it is his decision whether or not she shall be able to keep it. One of the commands a Gorean woman most fears to hear, whether she is a captive or a slave, is "Shear her. It was hot and I rubbed my hand back over my head, feeling there the short, bristly stubble of hair. As he had promised, he had, on the first morning of my captivity, sheared me.
She wore the brief tunic of purple plastic allotted to female Muls in the nest and save for her eyelashes her hair had been completely removed.
'Natu' designates corn silk, or the tassel on the maize plant; it can also stand for the hair on the side of the head.
Yet every part of a female body is beautiful to a Gorean, a hand, a wrist, an ankle, the back of a knee, the turn of a thigh, the sweet, soft hair, almost invisible and delicate, below and behind the ear.
The small hairs on the back of my neck rose. I saw the fine hairs on the back of her neck. The tiny hairs on the back of a girl's neck are very exciting. I observed the small hairs on the back of her neck, her hair thrown forward, and the steel, with its lock, on her neck, snug. The heavy black links were obdurate against the small, soft hairs on the back of her slender, lovely neck. The other guard took her hair in both hands and, by it, pulled her head down, and forward. The back of her neck, with its tiny, fine, golden hair was bared. I felt the edge of the sword at the back of my neck. I felt it above the collar, move against the small hairs on the back of my neck. The hair on my forearms and the back of my neck rose. She put her head to the floor, the palms of her hands down, beside her head. Her hair fell forward, dropping to the sides of her neck. I saw her smaller hair at the back of her neck. She kept her head down, kneeling at my feet. She shook her head a little, bringing her hair forward, exposing the back of her neck, the tiny hairs. Her hair fell to the floor. It was a long, glossy black. It fell on both sides of her neck. I smoothed it a bit. I could then, her hair forward, see the hairs on the back of her neck.
I noted the light hair on her forearms. The hair on my forearms and on the back of my neck rose. The hair on my forearms and the back of my neck rose.
She had tiny, fine hair on the back of her wrists. One could see it, in its golden fineness, extending toward the dark, clasping iron, beneath which it vanished.
I noted that some of the delicate golden hair on her thigh, from the very proximity of the iron, curled and blackened.
Some of the ornately barred, crimson-draped cells, with brass bowls, and rugs, and cushions and lamps, were quite comfortable; some of the cells held more than one occupant; some of the girls were permitted cosmetics and slave silk; generally, however, girls in the pen are raw, totally, save for their collars and brands, as are male slaves; the costumer, the perfumer, the hairdresser then does with them what he is instructed; Turbus Veminius looked after her. He, like many perfumers, and hairdressers and cosmeticians, treated his female clientele almost as though they were slave girls.
Her blond hair was cut very short to protect it from the water, even though, in swimming, such girls often wrapped a long broad strap of glazed leather about their head, in a turban of sorts. She laughed again and disappeared, and I soon heard the sounds of her splashing delightedly in the water. She emerged a few minutes later, having washed her hair and the blue silk gown she wore. Her skin was radiant, the dried mire of the swamp forest at last washed away. She knelt and spread her hair to dry, letting it fall forward over her head and shoulders. Then she began to comb her long dark hair, kneeling very straight as would a Gorean girl. I, following the other girls, washed my hair, as well as my body. Then the girls were called from the water, to dry their hair. Her hair, long and blond, was loose and combed back. She combed, with a broad, curved comb of kailiauk horn, her long, dark hair. The comb was yellow. I threw her a towel that she might wipe her body and long, swirling dark hair, cleaning it. I had knelt beside the pool and, the rope on my neck, washed my hair. Tup Ladletender handed me a wide-toothed comb. I began, with long strokes, to straighten my hair. "Brush your hair," said Ladletender. "Yes, Master," I said. After I had finished, Ladletender retrieved the brush and comb, dropping them in his pouch. My hair then I washed, and dried, and combed and brushed, taking from it the dust of the road leading to Stones of Turmus, and the sweat of the afternoon and early evening. The Lady Melpomene slowly, luxuriantly, delighting in its beauty, and well displaying it for me, combed her hair. She used a comb of kailiauk horn. "The water," I said, "has wrought quite a transformation in you." She was now, substantially, cleaned. Most of the dust and blood, the grime, the dirt and sweat, had been washed away. Her dark hair, wet now, seemed very dark, very shiny. She knelt in the water, removing tangles and snarls from her hair. Her long, dark hair had already been combed with an antique, yellow, stained comb of kailiauk horn. Many Gorean masters, incidentally, shape and trim the hair of their own girls. This is less expensive than having it done in a pen. Too, it is pleasant to cut the hair of a girl one owns. She generally kneels, a wrap of rep-cloth about her shoulders, while this is done. Beneath the wrap of rep-cloth, of course, she is naked and in the position of the pleasure slave. When one is through with the cutting it is then convenient to have her.
Elizabeth Cardwell had been cleaned and her hair combed. The two girls were there, and Aphris was kneeling behind Elizabeth, combing Elizabeth's hair. Kamchak, as I recalled, had recommended a thousand strokes a day. Then, two or three other groups of Tuchuk girls straggled in, each leading some wretched wench who had but hours before owned them. These girls they forced to comb their hair and wash their feet before the tables, performing the duties of serving slaves. These girls they forced to comb their hair and wash their feet before the tables, performing the duties of serving slaves. A box of combs and brushes was brought. Then the girls, in pairs, began to comb and brush one another's hair. Several vied to comb and brush Lana's hair. I was given a comb. Timidly I went to Ute. There were tears in my eyes. I could not even speak her language. I could not tell her I was sorry that I had shirked in the harness, trying to let others work for me. I could not even tell her I was desperately unhappy, that I was lonely. I could not tell her that I wanted her, more than anything, to be my friend. In the stream she had rejected me, turning away from me. I went to Ute, and she turned and looked at me. Timidly, fearing that she might turn away again, I indicated that I wished to be allowed to comb her hair, if I might, if it might please her for me to do so. She looked at me, coldly. Sobbing, I fell to my knees before her, unable to speak to her, and put my head to her feet. Then she was kneeling before me, and lifted my head. There were tears, too, in her eyes. "El-in-or," she said, and kissed me. I wept, and kissed her. Then she turned, still kneeling, and permitted me to comb her hair. When I had finished, she took the comb, and combed mine. I knelt, naked, on the scarlet rug in the tent of the women. I had been washed, and my hair had been combed. The slave girl replaced the glass stopper in a small, ornate bottle of Torian scent. "I shall touch you again," she said, "twice, before you are led forth." Another girl, one of four near me, besides Ena, again knelt behind me and again began to pass the narrow, purple horn comb through my hair. "She is combed," said one of the other girls, laughing. "Aren't you excited," asked the girl combing my hair. One of the girls, she with the purple horn comb, combed the hair, arranging it. After Inge and Rena had finished their work, even to the cleaning of my hair, a guard, summoned, not much pleased, carried me, helpless and in pain, back to the shed for female work slaves. After I had done this, naked, and had washed my body and hair thoroughly, I was again given the tunic of a work slave. They had been permitted to wash themselves, with a bucket of fresh water, and to comb one another's hair. She was behind him, combing her hair with a comb of horn. My hair had been washed twice, and combed with care. "Good," said Tuza. "Much better. Now brush and comb her hair." Hiza located a brush and comb, and I brushed Darla's hair, and Mila combed it. "Of course," she said. "One needs several slaves, some for the care of one's hair, some for the bath, for lotions and creams, some for the care of one's robes and veils, some for dressing one, and so on." We would be washed, fed, rested, brushed and combed, and given fresh tunics. I was in the apartment, the domicile, of Bruno of Torcadino. I had been well washed, my body and hair, and was freshly tunicked. I had been given a comb and brush, which I had put to extensive and welcome use. Brushed and combed, washed and rested, watered and fed, freshly tunicked, I knelt before Ho-Tosk, my master, proprietor of the Golden Chain, in his office.
It seemed strange to me to think of such tarnsmen, such brutal, wild men, caring for such a small pleasantry. Too, I had heard, they were fond of combing the hair of their slave girls. Cities and men, I thought, are so strange, so different. I suspected there were few men as fierce and terrible as those of Treve, dreaded throughout Gor, and yet they enjoyed their wine warmed and were fond of so simple a thing as smoothing the hair of a girl. I found a comb on a nearby vanity. Sheathing my knife and holding her by the back of the neck with my left hand I swiftly, but with some care, combed out her hair. I sat on the bank, watching her work with her hair. She was now combing it out, with her fingers. She would not yet be entitled, of course, to use the common brush and comb slotted for the use of the coffle. The other girls, unless the masters intervened, would vote on whether or not she was to be granted its use. This is a way of encouraging a new girl to be congenial and to participate equitably in the work. One negative vote will keep the brush and comb from a new girl. The suspension of brush-and-comb privileges is also used, upon occasion, by the first girls as a disciplinary measure, within the coffle. In a few moments Ginger returned with the comb and brush. "Give her the comb," I said. I, myself, took the brush, which I placed beside me. Ginger waded into the stream and gave the comb to the new girl. "You do not yet have general comb-and-brush privileges," she informed her. "Unless, of course, the masters order it," she added. "Yes, Mistress," said the new girl, bowing her head to her. Ginger returned to the bank and, somewhat mollified, turned to regard the new girl, who was now combing her hair with the comb of kailiauk horn. "Come here," I said, "and kneel here." She rose from the water, it dripping from her body, and came and knelt on the grass, on the bank of the small stream, where I had indicated. I took the comb from her and laid it to the side. I then took the brush and, kneeling behind her, began to brush out her hair. It is not unusual for Gorean masters to comb and groom slaves, or ornament them personally, much as they might any animal that they owned. It is not unusual for a master to care for a slave's hair. The hair of slaves is usually combed while they are kneeling. Interestingly, masters often comb the hair of their slaves, grooming them. Masters seem to enjoy this, and the slaves, too, tend to relish it, the intimacy and such, though the slave understands that she is being groomed, as her master's animal, much as might be a kaiila or pet sleen.
each wore four golden rings on each ankle and each wrist, locked on, which clashed as they walked or moved, adding their sound to the slave bells that had been fixed on their Turian collars, and that hung from their hair;
About the slave's head was the wreath of blossoms, this of white Lirillium. It is not unusual for slaves to bedeck themselves as they may, and to do so occasionally with flowers, sometimes a garland, sometimes with a mere blossom or two, fixed in the hair.
Their lips were rouged and they wore eye-shadow. Some glistening red substance had been sprinkled on their hair.
Her hair, red, radiant in the sun, had been braided in the fashion of the red savages. It was tied with golden string.
Wound in and about my hair were strands of pearls.
others had twined a colored ribbon about their hair Should she tie her hair with as little as a new ribbon, it must pass his strict inspection. The scytale had been a marked hair ribbon. My hair, longer now, though I had worn it long before, was combed back and tied behind my head with a white ribbon. Her hair was combed back and tied with a white ribbon. I examined, with wonder and pleasure, the girl who stood before me, her small feet, bare, and trim ankles, her calves and thighs, the delicious curves of her body in the loose, scant silk, the loveliness of her slender throat, locked in its collar, the delicacy and beauty of her features, the loveliness of her eyes, sensitive and vulnerable, and the marvels of her dark hair, grown longer now, tied back with a silk ribbon. Her long blond hair was tied back with a yellow ribbon. His hair was bound back with strands of twisted, blue-and-yellow cloth. His caste, even in the town of Kailiauk, was that of the slavers. Her hair was red, and bound back, rather severely, with a ribbon. Her braided hair was tied with red cloth. "Remove her clothing," I said, "even the ribbon binding her hair, and spread her hair out, widely, and brush it behind her shoulders. And kneel her before me, back on her heels, her knees widely spread."
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. I looked at the girl. How proudly and yet how marvelously she stood beside me. I saw that she had picked a talender on the hill, and that she had placed it in her hair. I saw that Thurnock had had her put a flower in her hair, a talender. 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. Thura wore talenders in her hair. Near a piling, small and delicate in the mud, she had found a talender. She bent to pick it up, and fastened it in her hair, for Rim. Cara straightened up, the talender in her hair. She was quite lovely. I rejoiced for Rim. The talender, fixed in her hair, is a slave girl's wordless confession, which, commonly, she dares not speak, that she cares for her master. Rim did not even seem to note the tiny, delicate yellow talender in her hair. What is it to me, if she should, in months, of her own accord, choose to fasten a talender in her hair?" "I will tell her," said Marlenus, "when to put a talender in her hair." He had won her and conquered her, superbly, even insolently telling her when to place a talender in her hair.
They were nearly to the top of the shoot, when the Lady Bina, now cattle, unclothed, a bell on her neck, a tiara fastened in her blonde hair, saw them.
With her hands and hair she tried to stanch the flow of his blood. Her hair and hands were covered with blood. She had stopped the bleeding.
It had been shaved off some weeks ago by the keeper of the Crooked Tarn, to be sold as raw materials for catapult cordage. Women's hair, soft, glossy, silky and resilient, stronger than vegetable fibers and more weather resistant, well woven, is ideal for such a purpose. Some masters harvest the hair of their slaves every two or three years, understanding this, I suppose, as a part of the productivity of the slave. Too, woman's hair is excellent for catapult cordage, as it retains its strength and tensility indefinitely, and that under a variety of weather conditions and temperatures. Similarly, had they been more practiced in the craft to which they were addressing themselves, they might have availed themselves of more costly cordage, woven from, say, women's hair, which is stronger, more resilient, and more weather resistant than common cordage. In the sieges of tower cities on continental Gor, it is not unknown for free women to shear their hair, offering it for use in the defense of their city.
"Bring your hair forward, over your breasts," he said. "Cover yourselves, as best you can." His commands were translated, rapidly and expertly, by Ginger. The two girls complied immediately. They covered themselves, as they could, with their hair. She tossed her head, to throw her hair forward, over her breasts. She had moved her head and her hands for an instant in such a way as to suggest she wished to bring her hair forward, before her, to use it to partially cover her breasts and body, but then she moaned. She could not do so. Her hair, as she had recalled, almost immediately, had been cropped short.
"What is the sixth delight of the hair of a female slave?" he asked.
I regarded her. How beautiful she was! She looked at me. Then, gracefully and decisively, to the music, she unbound her hair. There was applause for this at the table, the gentle striking of left shoulders, for she had done it well, and the significance of a woman's unbinding her hair before a man is well understood on Gor. I stood before him. I think that he found me beautiful. I was face-stripped before him. This is very meaningful to Goreans. His eyes shone. "Let me loosen my hair before you," I whispered.
During the night I had taught her some small things, some techniques, little, simple things, for her mouth and hands, and breasts, her hair, her lips, and feet, and tongue. They might help her, I thought, to survive in Pembe's tavern. "We were taught to kneel, and to crawl, and to move and walk. We were taught the use of our hands, and of our total body, and our hair, and of our mouth and tongue. The hair of slave girls, incidentally, unless shaved or shortened as a punishment, is usually worn long. There is more, cosmetically, which can be done with long hair and such hair, too, is often useful in the performance of intimate duties for her master. Too, of course, it can be balled and thrust in her mouth, for use as a gag, either, say, when one does not wish to hear her for a time, or, perhaps, if one wishes, to silence her cries in the throes of her submission spasms. Too, of course, she may be bound with it. She had been taught uses for various aspects of her body, for example, her tongue and hair. Much can be done with such hair, not merely with respect to enhancing the beauty of the slave, as it may be arranged variously, but also with respect to its uses in the furs. Too, she can be bound with it, and she can be taught to use it in the furs to enhance a man's pleasure.
"Take your hair from behind your left shoulder," I said, "and hold it before, and against, your lips. Part of the hair keep before your lips and against them. Another part of the hair, the center strands, take back between your lips, so that you can feel it on the soft interior surfaces of your lips. A portion of this same hair take then back against your teeth, and a portion of that back, between the teeth. Now purse your lips and, while remaining kneeling, rise from your heels, and lean forward, gently and submissively." And thus began the training of a nameless slave on the plains of Gor.
Too, there are rumors that some shorn hair, taken from slaves, is used for wigs and falls, for free women. Naturally the hair is certified as having been that of other free women. Lastly, it might be noted that the shorn hair of slaves, commonly marketed as the hair of free women, may be used by free women for various cosmetic purposes, such as wigs and falls.
"She's a loud one," he said, shamefacedly. Then, with a shrug in my direction, as if to ask my pardon, he went to the girl and took a handful of her long hair. He wadded it into a small, tight ball and suddenly shoved it in her mouth. It immediately expanded, and before she could spit the hair out, he had looped more of her hair about her head and tied it, in such a way as to keep the expanded ball of hair in her mouth. The girl choked silently, trying to spit the ball of hair from her mouth, but of course she could not. It was an old slaver's trick. I knew tarnsmen sometimes silenced their captives in the same way. She whimpered. Any other sound she might have uttered was stifled by the gag of hair. The auctioneer took handfuls of her long blond hair, from the right side of her head, rolled it into a ball between his palms, and thrust it in her mouth. She stood there. She knew she must not spit out the hair. She knew she was not then to speak. Once I had gagged her, with her own hair, and leather. The hair of slave girls, incidentally, unless shaved or shortened as a punishment, is usually worn long. There is more, cosmetically, which can be done with long hair and such hair, too, is often useful in the performance of intimate duties for her master. Too, of course, it can be balled and thrust in her mouth, for use as a gag, either, say, when one does not wish to hear her for a time, or, perhaps, if one wishes, to silence her cries in the throes of her submission spasms. Too, of course, she may be bound with it. In moments it was necessary to thrust her hair, balled and wadded, into her mouth, and I put my hand, too, over her mouth. Her eyes were wild. She kicked wildly at the pliant, braided black leather, again and again. Then, mercifully, I unbound her limbs and I let her straighten her trembling body in the blankets. With one finger I pulled the wet hair from her mouth. She was gasping, and shuddering.
Most of the hairpieces, and wigs, and such, affected by free women are certified as being from the hair of free women. Most on the other hand, I am reasonably confident, are from the hair of slaves.
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. As Kazrak and I watched, the attendant, puffing and furious, emerged from the wagon, dragging Talena by the hair. I thrust my fist in her hair and she cried out and looked up. Vika trembled against me and in my joy with my fist still in her hair I bent my face to hers and kissed her full on those magnificent lips and she cried out helpless in my arms and wept but did not resist. I seized her by the hair and twisted her head to face me. At that juncture, as I recall, Elizabeth was kneeling on top of the Turian maiden with her hands in her hair pounding her head up and down in the dirt. Then, when they had their hands in one another's hair, kicking, the slave girl suddenly stopped, terrified, not seeing the gleaming, narrow band of steel locked on Elizabeth's throat. With a wrench device each of the cylinders was opened and its occupant drawn forth by the hair and placed on the rocky shelf. Then he reached into the cage and took her by the hair, twisting it. I turned a bit to see that Ho-Sorl had a fist in the hair of each, twisting it, pulling their heads back to him. The auctioneer thrust his hand beneath the hood and, with his fist in her hair, drew her to her knees before the buyers. She took Claudia's hair in her left hand and held the razor-sharp hook knife at her face. His hand was in her hair, pulling her head cruelly back. She turned about, holding her bound wrists to me, that I might unbind them. Instead I took her by the hair and walked her, bent over, beside me, sliding the chain along with us, backward, until I came to a branching in a hall. By the hair the auctioneer pulled her head up and back so that her features might be observed by the men. Some masters like the ponytail hairdo on a slave, which, on Gor, is usually spoken of as the "leash," or "hair leash," for, by it, a girl may be conveniently seized and controlled. He then took my hair in his hand, and conducted me through certain passages, and then, arresting his journey, he put me to all fours before a small cage, one of several, some already occupied, and opened the gate. I crawled within, and then turned to look up at him.
There is no difficulty, of course, in distinguishing between boots of the sort common with white riders and moccasins, the almost universal footwear of the red savages. They are worn even in the winter. In the winter they are often lined, for insulation and warmth, with hair or dried grass.
He then, with his right hand, brushed hair across her face and mouth, and drew her to him, thrusting his lips across the hair to hers.
"Do not vomit," said the other man. "Or, if you must, wait for the sawdust on the block. If you soil the ramp, or the stairs, you will lick up and feed on your own discharge, and the residue you will mop with your hair. You will then, your stomach empty, be washed, whipped, and brought again to the ramp. With this understanding in place, you will not vomit, not now, will you?"
Vika was still crying a bit, but I took her hair and wiped her face and told her to stop her noise. She took her hair in her right hand and, gently, wiped the grease from my mouth. I pulled her up to me, and, in the dim light of the alcove, filtering through the red curtain from the slatted grilles in the roof of the main room, wiped her mouth with her hair. I took a bit of her hair and, gently, wiped her mouth. When I had finished feeding her I gently dabbed her mouth with her hair, being careful not to disarrange the slave's lipstick with which her sweet, full lips had been adorned. I extended my fingers to her and she, gently, licked the grease from them. I then dried my hands on her hair, and she knelt back, kneeling on the broad carpeted dais before me, in the position of the pleasure slave. It is not unusual, incidentally, for slave girls, particularly for those who may not have proved superbly pleasing, as yet, to discover that their hair, even while it is still on them, is expected, like themselves, to serve various lowly, domestic purposes. For example, when a girl, serving at a banquet, hears the command, "Hair," she knows she is to go to the guest and kneel, and lower her head, that her hair may be used as a napkin or wiping cloth, by means of which the free person, either male or female, may remove stains, crumbs or grease from his hands. "My fingers are greasy," I said. "Yes; Master," she said, and, putting down her head, she began to lick the palms of my hands, as I held them out to her, and then about my hands, and then to run her tongue down between my fingers and the hands, and then, not touching them with her own hands or fingers, carefully and delicately, to kiss and suck my fingers individually. She then extended her head towards me and I dried my hands and fingers on her long blond hair. He gestured to a slave to kneel beside him and put down her head, that he might use her long hair to wipe his hands. "Napkin!" called a fellow. He had just rinsed his hands in a hand bowl. He now had his hands lifted from the bowl, water falling from them. A slave rushed to him, on whose hair he dried his hands. In conversation, he paid her no attention. Some men have their slaves kneel nearby, and put their heads down, and then they wipe their hands on the hair of their slaves, but this is rare and generally disparaged. It is stupid to soil a lovely property. A slave is much more attractive when she is clean and well groomed. Also, there is much that can be done with hair in the furs.
"You will return to the kitchen, and return naked, with a pan of water, and no rags," he said, "and clean this mess." "No rags?" she said. "Your hair will do," he said. "How shall I clean this knife?" asked Talena. "Clean it later," said Vas of Anango. I gather she must have held the knife in such a way that it could not be well seen. "No," said Talena. "It is soiled with the blood of slaves. It must be cleaned now." "I shall wipe it clean on your hair!" cried Vas of Anango, and he must have rushed to her side.
Similarly a girl's hair, if sufficiently long, may be used for the washing and cleaning of floors. In this she is usually on her hands and knees, and naked and chained. The hair is used in conjunction with the soap and water, in the appropriate buckets, being dipped in, and wrung out, and rinsed, and so on.
Tyrtaios reached within his tunic, and handed a folded paper to the beast with the device, who put the device to one side, near the fire and perused the paper. I saw it only briefly. To me the script, which was cursive, was unintelligible, little more than claw marks, but, affixed to the paper, there were two seals, one which seemed no more than a patch of hair, interwoven with silver thread, and the other was in the script of the Pani, in which they transcribe their Gorean, much as the tribesmen of the Tahari write their Gorean in their own unusual letters, or signs.
"No," said Kamchak, taking her hair and giving her head a friendly shake, "I would not have sold you for all the gold in Turia." Kamchak thrust his fist affectionately into the hair of Aphris of Turia and twisted her head to him. I put my hand in her hair, and, roughly, affectionately, shook her head. I put my hand, with rough gentleness, in her hair, holding it. I felt his hand, roughly, but affectionately, in my hair, as one might hold an animal.
One or two girls I noted lay on the flooring mesh, their heads near the bars separating them from the males, their hair cruelly tied to the bars. The guard, then, pulling me by the hair, dragged me to one side of the cage. He stood me there, facing the interior of the cage, and took my hair and knotted it about one of the crossbars of the cage, about a foot above my head. He then took Inge to the opposite side of the cage, put her standing against the wall of bars there, facing me, and similarly fastened her in place. Only standing below this pole, alone on the cart, her skins knotted about her neck, her wrists bound behind her back, her hair fastened over the pole, holding her in place, was a beautiful panther girl, stripped, her weapons, broken, lying at her feet. I recognized her as one of the girls of Verna's band. I cried out with pleasure. Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 213 Her hands were tied, by her long black hair, behind the back of her neck. Her hair had been twisted about her throat, knotted, and then, with the two loose strands, thick, themselves twisted, looped about her wrists, her hands had been secured. His hand was on her body, and she, writhing, weeping, with her heels, pushing herself, back scraping on the bark, climbed almost a foot up the slanting trunk, before he, through her veil, kissed her, leaving a stain of blood on the silk, and, with his hands, knotted her hair about the trunk of the tree, then leaving her. She was, weeping, on her knees at the tree, trying to undo the knots in her hair which bound her to it, which knots, being on the other side of the trunk, she could not see. With my knife I cut a length of her hair, about a foot in length, and crossed and tied together her ankles. I tied the blond girl by her hair to a slender palm and strode back to the nets. The hair of slave girls, incidentally, unless shaved or shortened as a punishment, is usually worn long. There is more, cosmetically, which can be done with long hair and such hair, too, is often useful in the performance of intimate duties for her master. Too, of course, it can be balled and thrust in her mouth, for use as a gag, either, say, when one does not wish to hear her for a time, or, perhaps, if one wishes, to silence her cries in the throes of her submission spasms. Too, of course, she may be bound with it. 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. If she is naked, she might even be bound with short lengths of her own hair. Two or three horts of hair suffice to tie her thumbs behind her back, and another two or three will suffice to tie her two large toes together. Each had long hair, and, by the hair, I fastened them together, knotting them, head to head, close to one another.
"Some free women have themselves sheared, to sell their hair," said another. They make a practice of it, much as they might sell their hair to hair merchants or to the weavers of catapult ropes.
The girls were not of the Tahari, and so dried the men's feet with their hair. She then returned to where he stood on the sand, talking with men, and, crouching down, or kneeling or standing, as was most efficient at the time, lovingly, kissing him meanwhile, softly and timidly, wiped his body clean of sand and sweat with her long hair. "Yes," he said. I resisted an impulse to kneel before him, begging to lick the blood from the blade, begging him then to dry it in my hair. "Girl," said Peisistratus, in English, "the floor is still damp." She put down her head and, using her hair, dried the floor, as she could. The vat master, not pleased, had toweled tears from her cheeks. Her hair was damp where she had tried to use it for the same purpose. "A command need not be repeated, Master," she said, and leaped to her feet and sped to the officer. Before him, she knelt down, sobbing, and kissed his feet, over and over, and then dried them with her hair.
I tied the goblet in her hair and sent her back for more.
Most of the hairpieces, and wigs, and such, affected by free women are certified as being from the hair of free women. Most on the other hand, I am reasonably confident, are from the hair of slaves. Too, there are rumors that some shorn hair, taken from slaves, is used for wigs and falls, for free women. Naturally the hair is certified as having been that of other free women. The wigs of many free women are often from the hair of slaves, though it is certified as having had a free origin. Lastly, it might be noted that the shorn hair of slaves, commonly marketed as the hair of free women, may be used by free women for various cosmetic purposes, such as wigs and falls.
The bondage knot is a simple looped knot tied in the girl's hair and worn at the side of her right cheek or before her right shoulder. I took a long set of strands of her dark hair, some inch and a half in thickness. I loosely knotted them at the right side of her cheek. "The bondage knot," she whispered. Numbly, slowly, lifting her arms, the blade between her arms, her fingers trembling, she tied the bondage knot in her own hair. "I would tie the bondage knot in my hair for you," I said. I then, slowly, gracefully, kneeling before him, looking up at him, tied the bondage knot in my hair, it then hanging beside my right cheek. Had he been her master, in private compartments, she would not have hesitated to permit such an inadvertence, or she might have tied the loose bondage knot in her hair, on the left, as a mute plea for attention. How often one hopefully ties the bondage knot in one's hair! There are many ways in which a slave can beg, small movements, tiny sounds, glances, an expression, kneeling and kissing, fastening the bondage knot in one's hair, crawling, fetching a whip and dropping it at one's feet, signifying submission, and so on.
Her hair was hung in a hood of scarlet yarn, bound with filaments of golden wire.
Through the opening came a young girl, somewhat younger than myself, with blond hair bound back. Her hair, which was reddish brown, was bound behind her head with a coarse string. There was the girl, warm-eyed Linna, who had been kind to me, whose auburn hair was knotted with coarse string, who wore the gray collar of a state slave of Tharna. Her hair was very light, the color of summer straw; it was straight and bound simply behind the back of her neck with a small fillet of white wool. the Koora, a strip of red cloth, matching the Curla, is wound about the head, to hold the hair back, She wore a brief leather skirt, slit on the right side to allow her the saddle of the kaiila; her leather blouse was sleeveless; attached to her shoulders was a crimson cape; and her wild black hair was bound back by a band of scarlet cloth. The red band of the Koora bound back her hair. Both, interestingly, wore long, rather graceful white gowns, and had their hair bound back with bands of white silk. Her hair was bound back with a bit of purple rep-cloth. More importantly, about her forehead, tying back her dark hair, was a strip of rep cloth, brown, of the same material as the work tunic. I knew this meant that she had authority among the girls. Ena was high girl in the camp, but I suspected that Ute might be first among the work slaves. Her hair was bound back with a white woolen fillet. She was beautiful, his slave. Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, died in the blood of the Vosk sorp. Their kirtles of white wool, smudged and stained with grease, fell to their ankles; they hurried about; they were barefoot; their arms, too, were bare; their hair was tied with strings behind their heads, to keep it free from sparks; their faces were, on the whole, dirty, smudged with dirt and grease; they were worked hard; Most slave girls wear their hair long and loose, though sometimes it is held back with a headband or tied behind the head with a string or ribbon, in a ponytail. Her dark hair was bound back with a yellow, silk talmit. Samos took from his robes a long, silken ribbon, of the sort with which a slave girl might bind back her hair. Her hair was held back by a leather band. I looked down at the red-haired girl. The man in the broad-brimmed hat lifted her hair, displaying it to me. "It is long enough to braid," he said. "If one wished it," I said. I myself tended to prefer, on the whole, long, loose hair on a slave, tied back, if at all, with a headband or, behind the head, with a cloth or string. Some masters like the ponytail hairdo on a slave, which, on Gor, is usually spoken of as the "leash," or "hair leash," for, by it, a girl may be conveniently seized and controlled. Her body was slim, her hair was long, bound behind the back of her head with the black cord.
The girl's hair was still bound, knotted, on her head; it had not yet even been loosened, as that of a slave girl.
Her hair had been braided and looped over her right shoulder; it was hard in the light to determine its color. Tuchuk women, unveiled, in their long leather dresses, long hair bound in braids, tended cooking pots hung on tem-wood tripods over dung fires. She was not as the other women of the Wagon Peoples I had seen, the dour, thin women with braided hair, bending over the cooking pots. They were stripped and slaves, but, each morning, they would still braid one another's long, blond hair. Behind me, swiftly, one of the girls wound my hair into a single braid and then, coiling it, fastened it at the back of my head with four pins. There were other good looking wenches, too, in the crowd, generally blond girls, as are most of the northern girls, many with braided hair. Her hair, long, was braided. It was tied with golden string. The stake in this challenge was the young man's sister, a comely, blond lass of fourteen, with braided hair. Children, too, I noted, those not in cradles, greased, their hair braided, their bodies and clothing ornamented, in splendid finery, like miniature versions of the adults, some riding, some sitting on the skins stretched between travois poles, participated happily and proudly, or bewilderedly, in this handsome procession. Her hair, red, radiant in the sun, had been braided in the fashion of the red savages. It was tied with golden string. Her hair, sometimes braided, was now, as usual, unbraided. She, like most other slave girls, whether of the red savages or not, wore it long and loose. Among the red savages, of course, free women commonly braid their hair. The lack of braiding, thus, usually, draws an additional distinction between the slaves and free women of the red savages.
The hair of the female state slave of Ar, incidentally, is normally cut rather short and brushed back around the head; the common slave girl, on the other hand, normally has rather long hair, which is unbound. Their hair, in state fashion, had been cut short, shaped, and combed back around the head. They were both beautiful, in the gray livery, with their hair brushed back about their heads, with the gray collars, with the matching gray bands with its five simple bells locked about their left ankles. Her blond hair was lifted from the sides and back of her head by a comb of bone and leather, like an inverted isosceles triangle, the comb fastened by a tiny black ribbon about her neck and another such ribbon about her forehead.
Behind me, swiftly, one of the girls wound my hair into a single braid and then, coiling it, fastened it at the back of my head with four pins. her hair was worn high, wrapped about a comb, matching the brooches, of the horn of kailiauk; the fact that her hair was worn dressed indicated that she stood in companionship; Near him, beside the high seat, sat his woman, Bera, her hair worn high on her head, in a kirtle of yellow wool with scarlet cape of the fur of the red sea sleen, and, about her neck, necklaces of gold. I felt bondage strings on her throat. I did not know if it was Thimble or Thistle. In touching the hair I knew it was not Poalu, whose hair was bound high on her head, in the usual fashion of her people. This hairdo here, on Crystal, with the bun in the back, is favored by many free women of the scribes. It, too, however, like the upswept hairdo has not been outlawed for slaves. Its apparent severity contrasts nicely with sexiness required of the slave. She may be freed of its severity, and brought into the natural modality of her yielding and submissive femininity, with as little as a single tug, thusly.
The girl's hair was still bound, knotted, on her head; it had not yet even been loosened, as that of a slave girl. I took her hair and put it back, behind her shoulders. In that way it was out of the way. Shackled as she was she would find it difficult to get it back again before her body. If necessary, of course, it could be bundled and knotted at the back of her neck.
The usual Gorean position on the matter is that toenails and fingernails are not, say, red by nature and thus should not be made to appear as if they were. They also tend to frown on the dyeing of hair. The reservations about hair coloring are particularly acute in commercial situations. One would not wish to buy a girl thinking she was auburn, a rare and muchly prized hair color on Gor, for example, and then discover later that she was, say, blond. Against such fraud, needless to say, the law provides redress. Slavers will take pains in checking out new catches, or acquisitions, to ascertain the natural color of their hair, one of the items one expects to find, along with fingerprints and measurements, and such, on carefully prepared slave papers. The hair of kajirae who are up for sale, incidentally, is never dyed, or, if dyed, that is made clear to the buyers. A buyer who regards himself as defrauded can be, as I understand it, extremely disagreeable. I might note, in passing, that in many slave markets, the single, most prized color of hair seems to be auburn. That hair color is highly prized in a kajira. An itinerant vendor, then, if desiring to defraud buyers and raise the price of a kajira, is more likely to have her hair dyed auburn than blond. Goreans want to know what they are buying. An auction house in Venna was once burned down, she had heard, when it was discovered that it had sold women with dyed hair, especially as the house had not called this to the attention of the buyers. In the courts the owner's claim of inadvertence was viewed skeptically. I supposed Constantina's hair must be a natural blonde, as Goreans tend to be very strict about such things. Few slavers will try to pass off a girl as being, say, blonde or auburn-haired, if that is not the natural hair color of the slave. In some cases their stock has been confiscated by the city and their establishment burned to the ground. If a girl with dyed hair is brought to Gor her head is normally shaved in the pens, that it may grow back in its natural color. If a barbarian slave is brought to the markets and she has dyed hair, this is made clear to possible buyers, and is commonly taken as a defect. Sometimes her head is shaved. If it is thought the girl did this of her own will on her own world, dyed her hair or had it dyed, it is taken as evidence of her deceitful and meretricious nature, and, accordingly, the rightfulness of embonding so duplicitous and worthless a creature. Masters, incidentally, take seriously the moral character of their slaves, and commonly regard themselves responsible for its supervision and improvement, by the whip if necessary. Interestingly, to me at least, a slaver who misrepresents merchandise, for example, claiming former high caste for a girl who was actually formerly of low caste, or who tries to pass off a dyed blonde for a natural blonde may be banished and ruined, his goods confiscated, his house burned to the ground. On your world, honesty, truth and such, are obviously of great moment. Still, I have heard rumors that some free women dye their hair. They may do as they wish, of course, for they are free. A house can be burned if it misrepresents its merchandise. Goreans dislike deceit. If a girl's hair color is not natural, that must be made clear. Often a girl is whipped, and her head is shaved, that the hair may grow back in its natural color. "And had your hair been dyed," he said, "your head would have been shaved. Goreans prefer natural women, the fully naked slave, so to speak. A slave dealer who falsifies his merchandise can be mobbed, and his emporium burned." A dealer's house can be burned to the ground for as little as not making clear the natural hair color of a slave. What I most remarked about him was what appeared to be very unusual hair. It was long, and bound back, tightly. It was red like flame, but parted with a broad band, or stripe, of blond hair on the left side. I would have supposed that such an individual, with such hair, would have sought to conceal its oddity from public view. Surely it would have been simple enough to dye one's hair or even shave one's head.
Elizabeth's puttering about, dusting, a cloth about her hair, serving me with these small domesticities, was a sight I relished.
Her glistening black hair was high on her head, and held in place with a long comb. Her hair was high on her head, and held in place by pins and an ornate comb.
Her dark hair was coiffured loosely and high upon her head. It was bound with a braided yellow cord, strong enough to hold her wrists, should she be bound with it. If the cord were jerked loose the hair would fall, unbound, to the small of her back. More than fifty slave girls, their hair coiffured high on their heads, clad in sleeveless, classic gowns of white silk, were aligned on the walk nearest the wall containing the iron door, that leading within to the halls of the fortress.
She had high cheekbones, and flashing black eyes, and coal-black hair, now worn high, pinned, over her head. Then, still kneeling, she raised her hand, head back, insolently to her hair, to remove from it one of the ornate pins, its head carved from the horn of kailiauk, that bound it.
"Kneel beside the cistern," I said. "Knot your hair behind your head, that it not drag in the water. The garments must be soaked, and twisted, and kneaded, and beaten on the stone, again and again. One soaks the garments, one beats them. It is not easy work. It is hard work. It takes time. Begin." He had a rolled knot of hair at the back of his head, as did Lord Nishida. In this I gathered they shared some status, or station. Her dark hair was knotted at the back of her neck.
for slave women, among the Wagon Peoples, are not permitted to braid, or otherwise dress their hair; it must be, save for the Koora, worn loose. Her clothing was stained with dust and her hair hung loose and tangled. the distinction between the free woman and the slave girl, save that the hair of the latter must needs be unbound; He did not permit her, of course, to bind or dress her hair; it must be worn loose; that alone, naturally, was sufficient to mark her slave among the wagons. Her black hair was quite marvelous, long and unbound, falling as it did over her shoulders; Her hair, long and blond, was loose and combed back. The hair of all was unbound. Their hair was loose, in the fashion of bond-maids. Her hair was wild, long, loose behind her, behind the thrown-back hood of the burnoose. Their hair is usually worn long and loosely. The hair of slave girls is commonly worn long and loose, unbound. "Crawl to the side, Slave," I said to Talena. Her lips formed the words, "Yes, Master," and then she, head down, tunicked, hair loose about her, crawled away, to the side.
"Brush back your hood," said Samos. She did so and, putting back her head, drew forth and freed, with both hands, long, golden tresses, which she arranged before her. They were in two plaits, one before each shoulder; they hung almost to her knees. "Unbind your hair," said Samos. She unplaited her hair and, with her head down, shook it loose, and smoothed it. She then, again, lifted her head. The leader, who was also blond, with long braided hair, in two plaits, dangling to the small of her back, was the largest of the four women.
In contrast, regard Tiffany, who has the shorn look. Some men like this in a woman. To be sure, her hair is now growing out a bit. This is to be contrasted again, of course, with the shaven head, commonly inflicted only on a girl as a punishment or to protect her from lice in close confinements, such as on a slave ship.
My hair was longer now, as it had not been cut on Gor, save to trim and shape it. It now fell below my shoulders, and swirled behind me, shaped into the "slave flame." "And this cut," said the woman, herself a slave, though permitted a brief tunic, "is called the slave flame. See how it comes down the back, swirling." She illustrated this with a kneeling girl whose hair had been cut, trimmed and shaped in this fashion. When she had exited the kennel I had seen that the hair, despite its length, had been cut in the "slave flame." That is unusual. The "slave flame" is usually used with medium-length hair, just behind the shoulders.
A girl, a slim brunette in the gray livery of a state slave, one owned by the city of Ar, her hair clipped in the uniform fashion imposed on such slaves, head down that she not meet the eyes of a free person, was slipping past, and I reached out and knotted my fist in her hair.
"This," she said, moving to the next girl, "is an upswept fashion. It appears sophisticated. It is a hairdo favored by some free women, but it is not outlawed for slaves. Its pretentiousness, suggesting superciliousness and arrogance, contrasts nicely with the actual reality of the slave. The girl who wears this must watch her step, lest the master grow impatient with her. If you are permitted, to wear this hairdo, make certain that you, after an initial resistance, if he permits it, yield to him as a particularly low and helpless girl. Upswept hairdos are usually reserved for free women, or high slaves. They are a mark of status. To be sure, one of the reasons for permitting a hairdo of that sort to a slave is the master's pleasure in undoing it, in loosening it, thus reminding even the high slave that in his arms, ultimately, she, the high slave, is yet a slave, and as much or more than the lowest girl in the most remote village. Her master had also ordered her to put up her hair, with combs, in an upswept hairdo.
She entered the water gracefully, her hair bound in a towel, luxuriating in the multicolored foams of beauty. She gestured and I brought the towel, kissing it, which I then wrapped about her head, that her hair not be dampened. I then, gently, dried her hair, and wrapped a towel about it.
A slave girl was brought, a slim girl, in yellow Pleasure Silk, with short black hair, dark eyes, high cheekbones. Their hair, in state fashion, had been cut short, shaped, and combed back around the head. At that time my hair was cut short. Her hair was short, and very dark. She had dark hair, short but full, which fell about her face. Her hair had been cut short.
"I do not trust men," said another of the Panther Women, Hiza, whose dark hair was cut as closely as that of a metal worker. (for reference)
The girl on the left had her hair cut rather short; the slavers would, in all probability, not permit her to continue to wear her hair in that fashion; The hair of the female state slave of Ar, incidentally, is normally cut rather short and brushed back around the head; the common slave girl, on the other hand, normally has rather long hair, which is unbound.
My hair had begun to grow out, from having been shaved away for the voyage on the slave ship, but it was still quite short; I wore a broad Koora, which, kerchieflike, covered most of my head. Her hair had been cut quite short, probably as a punishment.
Her blond hair was cut very short to protect it from the water, even though, in swimming, such girls often wrapped a long broad strap of glazed leather about their head, in a turban of sorts.
The second girl was tall, fragile and willowy, with slender ankles and large, hurt eyes; she had dark, curling hair that fell about her shoulders and stood out against the white of her garment; her hair had been cut at the shoulders Her hair, glistening, fell to her shoulders. She disengaged the fillet and shook her hair free. It fell about her shoulders. "Unbind her hair," I said. He did so, and her hair fell about her shoulders, and there was a cry of pleasure from my men. Her hair, dark-brown, was of shoulder length.
My hair was longer now, as it had not been cut on Gor, save to trim and shape it. It now fell below my shoulders, and swirled behind me, shaped into the "slave flame."
Her hair came half way down her back.
She was a blond girl with golden hair that fell behind her to the small of her back. Her eyes were blue. Her hair was dark, and fell to the small of her back; Her hair was glossy and black, and her master had had her cut it at the small of her back. Her hair, a black sheen, loose, fell over her shoulders, and to the small of her back. Her blond hair, unbound, swirled below the small of her back. Her blue eyes regarded me, contemptuously. He ripped the snood of scarlet yarn from the slender blond girls hair. Her hair, now loose, fell behind her to the small of her back. He then tore away the ribbons and comb of bone and leather that had so intricately held the hair of the larger blond girl, she in black velvet. Her hair was even longer than that of the more slender girl. Ivar tore the golden string from her hair, loosening it. It fell behind her, blond, below the small of her back. The hair of both Lola and Tela was long, falling well to the small of their backs. My hair was now long. It was now below the small of my back. This is not untypical. Many of the others had hair even longer. Her hair was long and loose. Not even a string had been given to her to dress it. It flowed about her shoulders, and behind her even to the small of her back.
"Your hair," he said, "is far from slave long, but I have seen many barbarians whose hair, in their first sale, was no longer, or not much longer." Many masters prefer long hair in a slave, hair which is "slave long," as it is not only lovely but is often useful, as well, in the furs, for delighting and tantalizing a master. A slave's hair, like every particle of her body, belongs to the master. Most masters prefer hair "slave long" on their properties. "Her hair," I said, "is slave long." Indeed, it fell behind her almost to her ankles. Perhaps it had never been cut.
I helped her unbuckle the hood and felt delighted at the sudden flash of her long blond hair streaking out beside my cheek. "Take me back to Ar," said Talena. "I am ready." She stepped from the pile of filthy garments at her feet and stood proudly among the trees, the wind slightly moving her long dark hair. He looked at her unshaved head and long, beautiful hair with disgust. Tuchuk women, unveiled, in their long leather dresses, long hair bound in braids, tended cooking pots hung on tem-wood tripods over dung fires. I had seen her before, of course, as had Kamchak, but it was startling still to see her thus in the firelight, her hair was long and silken black, her eyes dark, the color of her skin tannish. She wore yellow Pleasure Silk, and, beneath her long black hair, on her throat, I glimpsed a silverish Turian collar. Each evening five lovely, long-haired, uncollared serving slaves would come to her cell, to bathe her and perfume her, to prepare her for love. Her black hair was quite marvelous, long and unbound, falling as it did over her shoulders; At last, sometimes immediately permitted, sometimes not, she had removed the pins from her hair. Her hair was beautiful, rich, long and black. As she knelt, it fell back to her ankles. They were stripped and slaves, but, each morning, they would still braid one another's long, blond hair. Targo's other girls, of whom I was one, all wore their hair long and combed, straight. I was hoping my hair would grow swiftly. Lana had the longest hair of all of us. It fell below the small of her back. On her throat, half concealed by her long blond hair, was a collar of steel, the steel of Ar. Her hair, long and blond, was loose and combed back. There was a long silence, of some Ihn, and then, at a nod from Hura, who threw her long black hair back and lifted her head to the moons, the drum began again its beat. Her hair was long and dark. The red-haired girl had thrown Ilene's long dark hair forward, that it not provide any shielding from the switch. Her hands were tied, by her long black hair, behind the back of her neck. Her hair had been twisted about her throat, knotted, and then, with the two loose strands, thick, themselves twisted, looped about her wrists, her hands had been secured. she lay on her back; her head was down, her dark hair, long, wild, was in the dirt and reeds, Her hair, long, was braided. It was tied with golden string. She was whimpering with cold, her head hanging down, over Gorm's back; her long hair fell to the back of his knees. She stood on the thick, rounded block; it was about a yard high, and five feet in diameter; she was dark-haired, long-haired; she had a short, luscious body, thick ankles; her hands were on her hips. She had a beautiful face, blue eyes, long, loose blond hair. She wore a long gown, white. She threw back the hood. She shook loose the long, blond hair. She had long, black hair. Most Gorean slave girls have long hair. Her eyes were strikingly blue, and bright, lively; her hair, long, blond, streamed behind her. She had long, dark hair. The boy walked about her, and took her hair in his hands. "Look," said he to his sister, "silky, fine and yellow, and long." She, too, felt the hair. Her hair was black, and long, and rich, and well displayed against the yellow cushion behind her. The girl who cared for me had long, hair, almost black. Most slave girls wear their hair long and loose, though sometimes it is held back with a headband or tied behind the head with a string or ribbon, in a ponytail. Their hair is usually worn long and loosely. Her hair was wild, long, loose behind her, behind the thrown-back hood of the burnoose. I threw her a towel that she might wipe her body and long, swirling dark hair, cleaning it. She was brown-haired, with long brown hair, and brown-eyed. Presumably her master would not permit it to be cut. Long hair is often favored in a slave. There is much that can be done with it, in the furs and elsewhere. She can even be bound with it. Aetius then, his hand deep in her long, dark hair, jerked her head up, and held it back.
Her hair was very long and dark.
No man who has seen a woman in Pleasure Silk, or watched her dance, or heard the sound of a belled ankle or watched a woman's hair, unbound, fall to her waist can long live without the possession of such a delicious creature. Behind him stood a blond slave girl, naked, her hair falling to her waist. She was dark-haired, incredibly beautiful. Her dark hair swirled behind her to her waist.
Her hair was brightly red and, when she stood, it fell almost to her knees. Whereas long hair is commonly favored in slaves, it is seldom that a slave is brought to the block with ankle-length hair. On the other hand, Gorean free women often have quite long hair, in which they take great pride. It is not unusual that it might reach to the back of their knees.
Her long, lovely, blond hair fell behind her, even to her calves.
a dark-skinned girl with black hair that fell to her ankles from the desert city of Tor "We have an excellent item from Besnit, blond, whose hair comes to her ankles." "Her hair," I said, "is slave long." Indeed, it fell behind her almost to her ankles. Perhaps it had never been cut.
The girl had black hair, swirling and long, beautiful, which had never been cut, and flashing black eyes, high cheekbones. I looked at her, from her small feet, to her ankles and calves, her sweet thighs, the sweet belly of her, her waist, and marvelous breasts, her shoulders, and arms and hands, her fair throat, chained, her lovely lips, her sensitive, delicate features, her deep, vulnerable eyes, and the marvelous wealth of her dark, cascading hair, perhaps never cut, except for shaping, since she had been brought to Gor. In her hair, which was long, and perhaps had never been cut, wound and curled high on her head, was a tall, jade comb. Male
He was an unkempt, strong-looking lad, with cheerful blue eyes and a mop of hair like the mane of a black larl. His hair, long and black beneath the band of blue and yellow silk, was combed and glossy. He was a large-wristed strong man with long, black hair. In a moment, to a thunder of kaiila paws on the turf, racing between the lines of stakes, scattering sand, there came a great number of riders, their black hair swirling behind them, "The ugly one?" asked Phyllis. "The one with the black hair and the scar on the side of his face?" "I do not think he is ugly," I said, "but I think you mean the same one as I. He does have black hair and there is a scar on the side of his face." He had long black hair, and gray eyes. His hair, long and black, did not seem well cared for. It was dirty, not well combed. It was tied behind his head with a band of blue and yellow silk. They had long, shaggy black hair. He shook his shaggy black hair. His hair was black and shaggy.
His skin was dark, reddish like copper; his hair was bluish black, roughly cropped; his eyes bore the epicanthic fold.
The helmet straps, the leather inside, and the blond hair of the soldier were soaked with his blood. A young man, blondish-haired with blue eyes, unscarred, bumped against the girl's stirrup in the press of the crowd. the last was a very large man, broad of back and shoulder, bearded and with long blond hair, a Warrior; There, huddled against the inside of the investing wall, naked, wrapped in a warrior's cloak, near the watch fire, sat the boy. He had been ungagged, and unbound. He looked up at us. He had blond hair, and blue eyes. I looked at the boy, the blondish hair and the frank, earnest eyes, blue, pleading. I saw a blond giant from Torvaldsland, with braided hair, in shaggy jacket; Most of the men at the thing were free farmers, blond-haired, blue-eyed and proud, men with strong limbs and work-roughened hands; many wore braided hair; He had blue eyes, and was blond haired. His hair came to his shoulders. Of the five contestants I knew well whom I would have first chosen, had I had a choice in such matters, to get his hands on me, a blond, shaggy haired young giant, with freckled wrists, whose hair clung about his shoulders. "Where are the merchant tables," I asked a fellow from Torvaldsland, with braided blond hair and shaggy jacket, eating on a roast hock of tarsk, "where the odds on the Kaissa matches are being given?" His hair was blond, long, and uncombed, his beard poorly cut, The stranger was a tall, blond-haired, young man.
Suddenly a small figure burst through the door of the tavern, stumbling and rolling down the stairs, crying out. It bounded to its feet, like a small, hunched animal, with a large head and wild brown hair. He was a short man, with close-cropped, brown hair, a squarish face. He had brown hair, and brown eyes; the hair, long, was tied behind his head with a string of rence cloth. The Caucasian had shaggy, brown hair and the Oriental had had his head shaved, except for a topknot of black, shiny hair. His hair was brown, and cut short at the back of his neck. He was smoothly shaven. His jaw was square, his eyes clear. The hair and eyes of Mirus, as those of most men, were brown.
"Your hair is dark," he said, "brown or black. It is hard to tell in the light." "It is a dark brown, surely bordering on black," I said. "I have often dyed it so, when it seemed judicious. In this way one minimizes the likelihood of recognition or discovery. Too, to be frank, so simple an artifice also tends to reduce unpleasant observations, insults, jokes, altercations, and such, sometimes seeming to require attention, with or without the sword."
His hair was cut rather short, and was brown, flecked with gray.
Goreans, male and female, like most of those of Earth stock, from which they are doubtless derived, or derived for the most part, are brunet types.
The other man with them was a young man, dark-haired and eyed, a simple man-at-arms, perhaps not more than twenty. His hair was dark and clipped short; his face intelligent, but hard. He was dark haired, dark eyed, handsome. Then they forced him again to his knees, and thrust his dark, shaggy head down to the tiles before our sandals. He was tall and well-built, with dark hair and eyes. "He is of a smitten village, Nicosia, on Chios?" said Nicomachos, dark-haired, and impatient of manner, First Captain of Sybaris, High Officer of Cos, Admiral of the Fleet of the Farther Islands, Thera, Chios, and Daphna, He was a man of medium height with short, dark hair. He was lithe, dark-haired, tall, and strong.
The man was tanned, dark-haired, very dark-haired, large, strong. He wore chains. His hands were manacled behind him. A coppery face poked itself outside the tent. It was a very broad face, with high cheekbones, and very dark, bright eyes, a face framed in cut, blue-black hair, with bangs across the forehead.
Accordingly, for the next few days, I remained with Kazrak and bided my time. I dyed my hair black and acquired the helmet and gear of an Assassin. Across the left temple of the black helmet I fixed the golden slash of the messenger. In this disguise I freely wandered about the camp, observing the siege operations, the appointment of the compounds, the marshaling of troops. I stayed four days in the rooms above the shop of Dina of Turia. There I dyed my hair black and exchanged the robes of the merchant for the yellow and brown tunic of the Bakers, to which caste her father and two brothers had belonged. Harold, after the Tuchuks had entered the city, insisted on squiring the young woman home whom he had encountered under the wagon, and, for good measure, the wine vendor and potter as well. I accompanied him, stopping only long enough to rip away most of the upper portions of the baker's tunic and rinse the dye from my hair in a street fountain. I had no wish to be brought down with a Tuchuk arrow in the streets as a Turian civilian. I was not much afraid of being recognized. I had dyed my hair black, I had not been in Ar in several years. I wore the habiliments of the Caste of Assassins. "The impostor dyed his hair, or wore a wig," I said. "Most likely a wig." "They would never have seen the real hair of Bosk of Port Kar," said Clitus. "I trust that my hair, before I dyed it, was not so," I said. Often, particularly in my childhood, I had had to reprove peers for critical, even uncomplimentary, remarks on my hair. These aesthetic discussions had often resulted in bruises and bloody noses. "Your hair is dark," said Alan. "I have kept it so for months," I said. I had kept my hair dyed since taking ship to Jad.
Centius of Cos, on the other hand, was an older man; no one knew how old; it was said the stabilization serums had not taken their full effect with him until he had seen fifty winters; he was slight and gray-haired; The first was of medium height with a touch of gray hair at the temples.
My name is Tarl Cabot. The name is supposed to have been shortened in the fifteenth century from the Italian surname Caboto. As far as I know, however, I have no connection with the Venetian explorer who carried the banner of Henry VII to the New World. Such a connection seems unlikely for a number of reasons, among them the fact that my people were simple tradesmen of Bristol, and uniformly fair-complexioned and topped with a blaze of the most outrageous red hair. A panel in the wall slid sideways, and a tall red-haired man, somewhere in his late forties, dressed much as I was, stepped through. To another human, of course, my hair alone, which is a shaggy, bright red, would have been a clearly recognizable feature, but Priest-Kings, as I may have indicated, tend to have extremely casual visual discrimination and are, moreover, I would gather; color blind. A big red-haired fellow and a smaller dark-haired fellow had bet on which of them would take Slave Beads. "It is from there the raiders ultimately derive," he said, "they and their pitiless, monstrous captain, with hair so wild and red, like blood and fire, he whose name even strong men may hesitate to speak." "What is his name?" I asked. "Bosk," said he, "Bosk of Port Kar." "I do not think you are truly Bosk of Port Kar," said Aktis. "How so?" I asked. "Your hair," he said. "Bosk of Port Kar has red hair, like flame and blood. I saw him at Nicosia." "I have, of course, never seen him," said Iris, "but I have heard he has unusual hair, hair like flame, with a band of blond hair on the left side."
What I most remarked about him was what appeared to be very unusual hair. It was long, and bound back, tightly. It was red like flame, but parted with a broad band, or stripe, of blond hair on the left side. It was the young swordsman, Alan, of the red company, he of the unusual hair, so red with the incongruous slash of blonde, he of remarkable blade skills, who had been called to my attention by Seremides weeks ago.
A large man, broad-shouldered, yet lithe, with large hands, a broad face, grayish blue eyes and unruly, shaggy, windswept reddish hair, stood at the rail. "And who is its captain?" I asked, referring to the man who had spoken with us, the lean, strong, reddish-haired man, so like an animal, clearly of the warriors. He frightened me. "That is Bosk, of Port Kar," said one of the girls.
I was terribly frightened. I had not understood his face could be so strong. He was powerful. He had a large head. The eyes were darkly fierce, his hair a pelt of shaggy sable.
Out of the robes then popped the sandy-haired head of the scribe, his pale blue eyes twinkling on each side of that sharp needle of a nose. "Tarl of Ko-ro-ba!" cried a voice, and I saw a small man, thin with a wisp of sandy hair across his forehead, press through the ragged band of rebels that confronted us. I swept him off his feet and spun him around and the robes flew from his head and Torm of the Caste of Scribes cried aloud in joy and that sandy hair whoofed in the wind There were four of us at the wall at this time, myself, lean Lord Nishida, Nishida of Nara, who had commanded at Tarncamp ponderous Lord Okimoto, Okimoto of Asuka, who had commanded at Shipcamp and sandy haired Pertinax, once of Earth, student of Nodachi, swordsman.
"They roundly and repeatedly proclaimed the glory of their vile, fierce, merciless, scarlet-haired captain," he said.
With a rattle of chains a small man with a wisp of straw-colored hair across his forehead snaked past the others and stood before me. My hair was no longer now the same. The sea, the wind and the salt, and, I suppose, the changes in my body, as I had matured, and learned with bitterness the nature of the world, and myself, and men, had changed it. It was now, I thought, not much different from that of other men, as I had learned, too, that I was not much different, either, from others. It had turned lighter now, and more straw colored.
He was a dour, hard-bitten man with white hair cropped short. His eyes were almost covered with a white, shaggy, inverted bowl of hair, matted with twigs and leaves. His face was pale and lined, and his hair was white. The slumped figure, that of a small man, naked, white-haired, stinking, skeletal, haggard, covered with sores, awakening, cried out in misery, whimpering. There, slumped in a marble chair, was an indolent figure, yet indolent as is the satisfied beast of prey. About his left shoulder he wore the knotted ropes of Port Kar; his garment was simple, dark, closely woven; the hood was thrown back revealing a broad, wide head, close-cropped white hair; and of the much older, almost legendary master of Cos, gentle, white-haired Centius, Samos, with his short-cropped, white hair, sprang angrily to his feet, and spun to face me.
My opponent was not Andreas, but a squat, powerful man with short-clipped yellow hair, Kron of Tharna, of the Caste of Metal Workers. I saw that the once close-cropped hair was now a shaggy yellow. I regret that among them was not the dour, magnificent, yellow-haired Kron of Tharna, of the Caste of Metal Workers, who had been my friend. It was a large, broad man, with yellow, shaggy hair. I smiled. Huge, yellow-haired Thurnock, he of the peasants, master of the great bow, wished to play Kaissa with me. Thurnus was a shaggy haired fellow, with yellow hair, big, broad-shouldered, large-handed, clearly in his bones and body of the peasants.
He had bright, dark eyes, and curly black hair. In his ears were rings. His beard, too, was curly and black, even ringleted. In it ribbons were tied. About at the same time, coming toward us, down the street, following the other party by several yards, was a large, graceful fellow, blond and curly-haired, who was astoundingly handsome, almost unbelievably so.
I saw that the once close-cropped hair was now a shaggy yellow. To another human, of course, my hair alone, which is a shaggy, bright red, would have been a clearly recognizable feature, but Priest-Kings, as I may have indicated, tend to have extremely casual visual discrimination and are, moreover, I would gather; color blind. It was a large, broad man, with yellow, shaggy hair. They had long, shaggy black hair. The eyes were darkly fierce, his hair a pelt of shaggy sable. Save for the strip that had been shaved, his hair was black, and shaggy. He shook his shaggy black hair. I noted one of the men of Torvaldsland. He was of incredible stature, perhaps eight feet in height and broad as a bosk. His hair was shaggy. His hair was black and shaggy. His eyes were very dark, his hair dark, shaggy, long. Of the five contestants I knew well whom I would have first chosen, had I had a choice in such matters, to get his hands on me, a blond, shaggy haired young giant, with freckled wrists, whose hair clung about his shoulders. A large man, broad-shouldered, yet lithe, with large hands, a broad face, grayish blue eyes and unruly, shaggy, windswept reddish hair, stood at the rail. The Caucasian had shaggy, brown hair and the Oriental had had his head shaved, except for a topknot of black, shiny hair.
"Bejar accepts the proposals of Samos," said a captain, a dark-skinned man with long, straight hair,
"I almost did not recognize him, for the humans in the Nest commonly, both men and women, though not now always, shave themselves completely, in accord with traditional practices of sanitation in the Nest.
His hair was tangled and matted; it had been sheared at the base of his neck. It was a large, broad man, with yellow, shaggy hair.
The Supreme Initiate was an emaciated, incredibly tall man, with smooth-shaven, bluish, sunken cheeks and wild, prophetic eyes. In the next flash of lightning I saw the white robes of an Initiate, the shaven head and the sad eyes of one of the Blessed Caste, servants it is said of the Priest-Kings themselves. I shivered, thinking of the blade and my throat. "Your touch is light," I said. The Initiates, hundreds of them, knelt in long lines to the crags of the Sardar, to the Priest-Kings. I saw their shaven heads, their faces distraught in the bleak white of their robes, their eyes wide and filled with fear, their bodies trembling in the robes of their caste. Kutaituchik lifted his head and regarded us; his eyes seemed sleepy; he was bald, save for a black knot of hair that emerged from the back of his shaven skull; his head, like that of many merchants, had been shaved; The Player, as I have mentioned, was rather old, not extremely old but rather old. His face was pale and lined, and his hair was white. He was smooth shaven. Ho-Tu was a short, corpulent man, broad-shouldered, stripped to the waist. He had quick black eyes set in a shaven head, the threads of a mustache dangled at the sides of his mouth. There was also a man in the green of the Caste of Physicians, standing at one side, writing notes on a slip of record paper. He was a large man, smooth-shaven. Then two guards, gigantic fellows, brawny, stripped to the waist, their heads shaven save for a knot of hair behind the crown, stood behind the barred gate to the cell. His hair was brown, and cut short at the back of his neck. He was smoothly shaven. His jaw was square, his eyes clear. His head was shaven, except for a swirling knot of jet-black hair just behind and below the crown. Initiates commonly wear white and have their heads shaved.
"You did well," said a man next to me, half-shaven. There were two others with him, tall, half-shaven, ragged, angular-looking fellows.
I looked about the room. The men were sleeping. It was dirty and littered. They were unshaven.
The whiskers had been scraped from his face, probably by the blade of the broad, double-headed wood ax bound on top of the bundle.
Strangely, a broad swath had been shaven lengthwise on their head. Lana saw this and shrieked out, hooting at them across the water. The men did not even look at us, moving slowly across the current toward Laura. I looked at Ute. "That means they are men who were taken by women," said Ute. They shave the heads of their male slaves in that fashion to humiliate them. And that, too, is the way they sell them, that all the world may know that they fell slave to females, who then sold them." The man's head had, some weeks ago, been shaven, a two-and-one-half-inch stripe, running from the forehead to the back of his neck.
"Did you notice the haircut of that young fellow we just passed?" I asked. "Yes," he said. "It is done in the style of Myron, the Polemarkos."
Certain gangs of youths, young ruffians, roamed the streets, affecting Cosian garments and haircuts.
"And, too, interestingly," he said, "it seems that some of those lads who were "Cosians" now wander about under quite different colors, now affecting beards and hair styles reminiscent of those once associated with veterans, hirsute and shabby, returned from the delta."
His eyes were almost covered with a white, shaggy, inverted bowl of hair, matted with twigs and leaves.
He had long whiskery sideburns which flared merrily from his muffinlike face.
Mintar closed his eyes and opened them and pulled on his beard. Before me, on a rough throne of piled rocks, sat Marlenus, his long hair over his shoulders, his great beard reaching almost to his sword belt. I looked upon him with loathing, despising him. How ugly he was, with his fierce beard, the narrow eyes, the ear gone from the right side of his face. "What do you want for that slave?" asked a captain, a tall man with a small, carefully trimmed beard. Toward me a couple was moving, a bearded sailor and a red-haired paga girl. He had bright, dark eyes, and curly black hair. In his ears were rings. His beard, too, was curly and black, even ringleted. In it ribbons were tied. He was bearded, fierce-eyed, wolf-eyed, and mighty of mien. Ho-Tosk, burly and bearded, was sitting behind a small work table, on which were papers. Then a door opened, several feet down the corridor, to my left, and a young man, blond, brush bearded, of medium height, clad in a house tunic and sandals, emerged, and then stood in the corridor, regarding me. "Surely your oarsman is mistaken," said Archelaos, fingering the twin strings of his beard, governor of Thera, his palace on the ridge of Sybaris, overlooking the harbor, crowded with its hundreds of ships. "He is clean-shaven," said the second man. "So are many men of many castes," I said. The relevance of this small exchange, if any, had to do with the fact that it is extremely rare for a Gorean warrior to have a beard long enough to be grasped by a foe, a beard by means of which a throat might be jerked to a knife. There are, of course, many varieties of facial hair which do not involve courting that particular hazard. Sometimes, of course, in certain units, presumably in the interests of uniformity, discipline, group appearance, group identification, and such, regulations are imposed governing such matters. Marlenus slowly shook his long-haired, bearded head. The second time, we were briefly impeded in our journey was by two heavily bearded men, armed with swords of seemingly poor balance and quality, who, happily, soon left one in little doubt as to their intentions. He pulled a little at his now-trimmed, sharp-edged, dark beard, and adjusted the folds of his golden robe. I addressed myself primarily to the scribes, but I spoke largely for the benefit of the tall, brush-bearded figure, in a dark cloak, who stood nearby, but somewhat in the shadows, away from the light of the small tharlarion-oil lamp. His dark beard was short and well trimmed, perhaps too well trimmed for the Sea Sleen. The light of our small campfire was reflected in Thurnock's heavy, unkempt beard.
The whiskers had been scraped from his face, probably by the blade of the broad, double-headed wood ax bound on top of the bundle. My host did not speak but led the way with a merry stride, an almost constant curl of smoke from his little round pine encircling his bald pate and muttonchop whiskers and drifting back down the passage. He wore white robes, stained with wine, swollen with fat, bordered in laced gold. His face was heavy, coarse, pitted where whiskers, one by one, had been pulled from it by tweezers. He was balding, and wore upon his head a crown of grape leaves, from the famed grapes of the terraces of Cos. I sensed in him intelligence, vanity, wealth, cruelty and power.
Ho-Tu was a short, corpulent man, broad-shouldered, stripped to the waist. He had quick black eyes set in a shaven head, the threads of a mustache dangled at the sides of his mouth. Genserix, broad-shouldered and powerful, in his furs and leather, with his heavy eyebrows, his long, braided blond hair and long, yellow, drooping mustache, looked up from the fire, about which we sat. He, too, like Genserix, had long, braided hair and a yellow mustache. He had a mustache, like string, and narrow eyes. He had a drooping mustache.
A slender straggling wisp of hair dropped languidly from the fat chin.
The hair on the back of my neck lifted, short, stiff. I felt cold. I knew, of course, the legends. The hair on my neck stood on end. The hair rose on the back of my neck. The hair rose on the back of my neck. Then the small hairs on the back of my neck stiffened, and I felt chilled. The hair suddenly rose on the back of my neck and forearms. I reached out and took the stone into my hands. As I did so, I caught my breath, and the hair rose on my forearms and the back of my neck. The answer was clear and the hair on the back of my neck and on my forearms rose.
He was bare-chested, and hairy; I put my tear-stained cheek against the hardness of his chest, holding, him. I could feel the hair on his chest between his body and the softness of my cheek. The chest of one was hairy, that of the other was smooth. My eyes met those of one fellow, a large, corpulent man, stripped to the waist, very hairy, with crossed belts running across his chest.
I licked at the hair on the upper arm of Tellius. "Please, Master," I begged him.
She thrust her lips greedily to the back of his left hand, biting at the hair there.
"No, Master," I said, putting my head down, beginning to kiss him on the side of the leg, deeply, pulling, sucking, at the hair a tiny bit.
I delicately put my lips to his calves, feeling the hair beneath my lips, and kissed him.
The hair suddenly rose on the back of my neck and forearms. I reached out and took the stone into my hands. As I did so, I caught my breath, and the hair rose on my forearms and the back of my neck. The answer was clear and the hair on the back of my neck and on my forearms rose.
His back was broad and the muscles of his arms and shoulders were large and powerful. There was little hair on his body.
An open barbers' shop, with five stools, was to one side. The stools were all occupied. Three fellows were having their hair cut; one was being shaved, with a shaving knife; another was having his beard trimmed.
His hair, long and black beneath the band of blue and yellow silk, was combed and glossy.
Near him, in places of honor, at a long, low table, above the bowls of yellow and red salt, on each side, sat many of the high men of Turia, clad in their finest robes, their hair oiled, scented and combed for the banquet.
His hair, long and black, did not seem well cared for. It was dirty, not well combed. It was tied behind his head with a band of blue and yellow silk.
Feathers were in their hair, and tied, too, in the silken hair of their beasts. Feathers, each one significant and meaningful, in the codes of the Kaiila, recounting their deeds and honors, adorned their hair.
My hair, longer now, though I had worn it long before, was combed back and tied behind my head with a white ribbon.
One of the tarnsmen of Marlenus thrust his hand in my hair and forced my lips down to his sandal. Then the large man with missing teeth seized Hup's hair and pulled up the head, to expose the throat, holding in his right hand a small, thick, curved blade, the hook knife of Ar, used sheathed in the sport of that name, but the knife was not now sheathed. The girl's hands were in my hair and she yanked my head back. The girl thrust her hands into my hair and threw back my head. Suddenly, her hands in my hair, she thrust her lips savagely down on mine The kitchen master, in fury, grabbed him by the hair and raised his arm to thrash him. When the guard removed his hand from the slave's hair, he straightened his back, and regarded us. The man cried out with rage, trying to struggle to his feet, fighting his chains. The guards, their hands in his hair, forced him back to his knees. A guard's hand held my hair, keeping my head in place. I then took him by the hair and thrust the side of his head into the wall. He slumped down, unconscious.
Beside him, to my joy, I saw the impudent features of Andreas, that sweep of black hair almost obliterating his forehead. A coppery face poked itself outside the tent. It was a very broad face, with high cheekbones, and very dark, bright eyes, a face framed in cut, blue-black hair, with bangs across the forehead.
The man was stripped to the waist, a brawny fellow wearing buckled leather wrist straps, his hair bound back on his head with a band of gray cloth. The hair of both was bound back with a band of cloth. He had brown hair, and brown eyes; the hair, long, was tied behind his head with a string of rence cloth. Then I saw Lysias, his hair tied behind his neck with the scarlet string, rise. Now, behind him, similarly clad in skins, their hair bound back with tawny strips of panther hide, were four or five other men, men doubtless of his band. Some carded bows, two carried spears. The hair of both men was long; the hair of the man behind was tied back with a narrow piece of folded cloth. He, too, wore a headband, tying back his blue-black hair. My hair, longer now, though I had worn it long before, was combed back and tied behind my head with a white ribbon. "At a time of such happiness," said a fellow, his long dark hair bound back with a beaded leather talmit, "you need not even be killed for having come to our camp uninvited."
I saw a blond giant from Torvaldsland, with braided hair, in shaggy jacket; Four huge men of Torvaldsland, in long cloaks, clasped about their necks, heads down, bearded, with braided hair, entered, bearing on their shoulders a platform of crossed spears. Most of the men at the thing were free farmers, blond-haired, blue-eyed and proud, men with strong limbs and work-roughened hands; many wore braided hair; "Where are the merchant tables," I asked a fellow from Torvaldsland, with braided blond hair and shaggy jacket, eating on a roast hock of tarsk, "where the odds on the Kaissa matches are being given?" In a few Ehn Cuwignaka, sweating, elated, his braided hair behind him, returned his lathered kaiila to our side.
I dyed my hair black and acquired the helmet and gear of an Assassin. There I dyed my hair black and exchanged the robes of the merchant for the yellow and brown tunic of the Bakers, to which caste her father and two brothers had belonged. I accompanied him, stopping only long enough to rip away most of the upper portions of the baker's tunic and rinse the dye from my hair in a street fountain. I had dyed my hair black, I had not been in Ar in several years.
Indeed, sometimes a young fellow will have his hair greased and braided, and will dress himself in finery and paint, and simply ride about the camp, parading, in effect, before his fellow villagers, and, in particular, the maidens. Children, too, I noted, those not in cradles, greased, their hair braided, their bodies and clothing ornamented, in splendid finery, like miniature versions of the adults, some riding, some sitting on the skins stretched between travois poles, participated happily and proudly, or bewilderedly, in this handsome procession.
"Do not reach for your weapons," said Grunt. "He is Fleer," he added. "How do you know?" I asked. "The hair," said Grunt, "is worn in the high pompadour, combed back." "Like Corn Stalks," I said. The fellow's hair came down his back, flowing even over the spine of the kaiila. He was riding bareback. He carried a long, feathered lance, and a small, round shield, a war shield, on which were inscribed medicine signs. The warrior who had spoken was Fleer. This could be told at a glance from the hair, which was worn in a high combed-back pompadour.
Near him, in places of honor, at a long, low table, above the bowls of yellow and red salt, on each side, sat many of the high men of Turia, clad in their finest robes, their hair oiled, scented and combed for the banquet. The long black hair of each was oiled and combed carefully.
Near him, in places of honor, at a long, low table, above the bowls of yellow and red salt, on each side, sat many of the high men of Turia, clad in their finest robes, their hair oiled, scented and combed for the banquet.
The Caucasian had shaggy, brown hair and the Oriental had had his head shaved, except for a topknot of black, shiny hair.
He was not bearded, save for the trace of a tiny wisp of hair that marked each side of his chin, almost like a streak of dirt. His hair was long, and bound in a knot behind his head in Mongol fashion. Two strands of hair still marked his chin in parallel streaks and on the back of his head his long hair was still bound in a Mongol knot. Kutaituchik lifted his head and regarded us; his eyes seemed sleepy; he was bald, save for a black knot of hair that emerged from the back of his shaven skull; The Caucasian had shaggy, brown hair and the Oriental had had his head shaved, except for a topknot of black, shiny hair. Then two guards, gigantic fellows, brawny, stripped to the waist, their heads shaven save for a knot of hair behind the crown, stood behind the barred gate to the cell. His head was shaven, except for a swirling knot of jet-black hair just behind and below the crown. The hair of each was drawn behind the head and fastened in a ball or top knot. This was the case with many of the Pani, not all.
His cheeks were red and his head bald. His head was totally devoid of hair, even to the lack of eyebrows.
The Caucasian had shaggy, brown hair and the Oriental had had his head shaved, except for a topknot of black, shiny hair.
With a rattle of chains a small man with a wisp of straw-colored hair across his forehead snaked past the others and stood before me.
Two men, tunicked, stepped to the side, and a third man, sturdy, with cropped hair, approached, robed in blue and yellow, carrying a whip.
I saw that the once close-cropped hair was now a shaggy yellow. He was a short man, with close-cropped, brown hair, a squarish face. He was short, small, with close-cropped brown hair. Mip was a chipper fellow, and a bit dapper considering his caste and his close-cropped hair, for his brown leather was shot with green streaks, and he wore a Tarn Keeper's cap with a greenish tassel; most Tarn Keepers, incidentally, crop their hair short, as do most Metal Workers; work in the tarncots and in training tarns is often hard, sweaty work. There, slumped in a marble chair, was an indolent figure, yet indolent as is the satisfied beast of prey. About his left shoulder he wore the knotted ropes of Port Kar; his garment was simple, dark, closely woven; the hood was thrown back revealing a broad, wide head, close-cropped white hair; Men in the fields wore short tunics of white wool; some carried hoes; their hair was close cropped; about their throats had been hammered bands of black iron, with a welded ring attached. Air, by means of a small bellows, pumped by a thrall boy, in white wool, collared, hair cropped, was forced through a tube in the bottom of each. The air above the canisters shook with heat. He wore a lounging robe. He was a powerfully built man, with white, closely cropped hair.
He was a dour, hard-bitten man with white hair cropped short. Samos, with his short-cropped, white hair, sprang angrily to his feet, and spun to face me.
My opponent was not Andreas, but a squat, powerful man with short-clipped yellow hair, Kron of Tharna, of the Caste of Metal Workers. His hair was dark and clipped short;
"Why do you wish to find Grunt?" asked the driver, a young man with shaggy hair, cut short across the base of his neck. He was a man of medium height with short, dark hair.
His hair was cut rather short, and was brown, flecked with gray.
He had blue eyes, and was blond haired. His hair came to his shoulders. Of the five contestants I knew well whom I would have first chosen, had I had a choice in such matters, to get his hands on me, a blond, shaggy haired young giant, with freckled wrists, whose hair clung about his shoulders.
I saw a massive, lionlike head, with wild long hair and a beard as unkempt and magnificent as the crags of the Voltai itself. Before me, on a rough throne of piled rocks, sat Marlenus, his long hair over his shoulders, his great beard reaching almost to his sword belt. He was not bearded, save for the trace of a tiny wisp of hair that marked each side of his chin, almost like a streak of dirt. His hair was long, and bound in a knot behind his head in Mongol fashion. His hair, long and black beneath the band of blue and yellow silk, was combed and glossy. Then he shook away his hood, letting his long hair stream behind him over the white fur of the collar. He was a large-wristed strong man with long, black hair. In a moment, to a thunder of kaiila paws on the turf, racing between the lines of stakes, scattering sand, there came a great number of riders, their black hair swirling behind them, His long black hair was now tied behind his head. the last was a very large man, broad of back and shoulder, bearded and with long blond hair, a Warrior; He had brown hair, and brown eyes; the hair, long, was tied behind his head with a string of rence cloth. I smiled to myself, looking upon the bearded, dour countenance of the officer, his long hair tied behind his head with scarlet string. He had long hair, and wore a tunic of red and yellow silk. I gazed upon the Ubars, squat, brilliant Chung; narrow-faced, cunning Eteocles; tall, long-haired Nigel, "Bejar accepts the proposals of Samos," said a captain, a dark-skinned man with long, straight hair, He had long black hair, and gray eyes. His hair, long and black, did not seem well cared for. It was dirty, not well combed. It was tied behind his head with a band of blue and yellow silk. It was said that he was a fierce, long-haired man, a tarnsman, a warrior. They had long, shaggy black hair. Marlenus stood for a moment in the light of the torches, and then he threw back his head, with his long hair, and laughed. We saw thralls, too, in the crowd, and rune-priests, with long hair, in white robes, a spiral ring of gold on their left arms, about their waist a bag of omens chips, pieces of wood soaked in the blood of the sacrificial bosk, slain to open the thing; The hair of both men was long; the hair of the man behind was tied back with a narrow piece of folded cloth. His eyes were very dark, his hair dark, shaggy, long. Marlenus slowly shook his long-haired, bearded head.
"Do not reach for your weapons," said Grunt. "He is Fleer," he added. "How do you know?" I asked. "The hair," said Grunt, "is worn in the high pompadour, combed back." "Like Corn Stalks," I said. The fellow's hair came down his back, flowing even over the spine of the kaiila. He was riding bareback. He carried a long, feathered lance, and a small, round shield, a war shield, on which were inscribed medicine signs.
Wagons caught afire. I saw defenders unchaining screaming girls. One's hair was afire. The girls huddled under the wagons, many of them burning. I saw a defender forcing the head of the girl whose hair burned into the dirt, extinguishing the flames. The man's head had, some weeks ago, been shaven, a two-and-one-half-inch stripe, running from the forehead to the back of his neck. Now, weeks later, tiny, dark hair was well reasserting itself. It was not my fault that my hair had been shaved off, nor that I was not blond or auburn-haired, like herself. Those hair colors tend to bring higher girl-prices. She then removed her hands from her hair. Behind her, her hair came, falling, to the sweetness of her shoulder blades. This was a bit short for the hair of a Gorean slave girl. Their hair, as is required by most masters, is usually somewhat long. There is more that can be done with long hair, both with respect to adding variety to the girl's appearance and in the furs, than with short hair. Sometimes the girl is even tied in her own hair. Most importantly, perhaps, long hair is beautiful on a girl, or surely, at least, on many girls. Too, many masters enjoy unbinding it, before ordering a girl to the furs. Unbinding a girl's hair, on Gor, incidentally, is culturally understood as being the act of one who owns her. A free woman, captured, whose hair her captor unbinds, usually the first time by the stroke of a knife, a precaution against poison pins and other devices, knows full well by this act that she will soon be made his slave. Most were kneeling and stripped, and secured with hair ties. Long hair is enforced on most Gorean slaves by their masters. It is aesthetically beautiful and much, from the point of view of diverse coiffures, revealing new dimensions of the slave's loveliness, may be done with it. Too, as is well known among masters and slaves, its application, in the expression and pursuance of a slave's submission and service, can do much to enhance and deepen a master's pleasures; it is erotically useful. Too, in the absence of more customary restraints, such as, say, binding fiber or graceful, steel shackles, it may serve as a bond. The commercial value of long hair might also be mentioned. Aside from the obvious fact that it might improve the price of a girl in her sale or resale, it can also be sheared and sold. Free women sometimes buy hair for wigs or falls, and, although the hair they purchase is always certified as coming only from free women, there is little doubt that it is often taken from female slaves. Too, interestingly, female hair is prized for catapult ropes. It is not only stronger and more resilient than hemp but it possesses better properties of weather resistance, being less affected by moisture and temperature changes. When a city is under siege, particularly if the siege is prolonged, even free women will often have their hair shorn, contributing it then to the supplies for municipal defense. Considering the usual vanity of Goreans, both male and female, over their appearance, this is a patriotic sacrifice of no little magnitude. It is particularly significant when one understands that the women know very well that if they fall into the hands of the enemy, with their hair shorn, they may expect to be sold into low slaveries, such as agricultural servitudes or those of the mills. Sometimes, as time passes, the foremen in such places come to realize that they have an incredible beauty in their power. They often hide such women from their superiors, keeping them for themselves. An additional advantage of long hair in a female slave, incidentally, is that it gives the master additional power over her, for, as he is the master, it is his decision whether or not she shall be able to keep it. One of the commands a Gorean woman most fears to hear, whether she is a captive or a slave, is "Shear her." I saw the frightened eyes of another girl, her wrists lifted, bound together with hair, thrown before her face. The hair that bound them hung free before the wrists, dangling from them, in jagged strands, marking where it had been hastily cut free from the hair of the girl before her in a holding coffle. Her own hair, similarly, had been cut short, closely, at the back of her neck, where the girl behind her, with swift strokes of a blade, had been freed. Too, documents were found recording the purchase of quantities of slave hair, at suitable prices, some even within the city of Corcyrus itself. This hair, as was attested to by witnesses, had been represented to the public as that of free women, with appropriate prices being expected. Hair, incidentally, is a common trade item in Gorean markets. It is used for various purposes, for example, for insect whisks, for dusters, for cleaning and polishing pads, for cushionings, decorations and ropes, particularly catapult ropes, for which it is highly prized. It is not unusual, incidentally, for slave girls, particularly for those who may not have proved superbly pleasing, as yet, to discover that their hair, even while it is still on them, is expected, like themselves, to serve various lowly, domestic purposes. For example, when a girl, serving at a banquet, hears the command, "Hair," she knows she is to go to the guest and kneel, and lower her head, that her hair may be used as a napkin or wiping cloth, by means of which the free person, either male or female, may remove stains, crumbs or grease from his hands. Similarly a girl's hair, if sufficiently long, may be used for the washing and cleaning of floors. In this she is usually on her hands and knees, and naked and chained. The hair is used in conjunction with the soap and water, in the appropriate buckets, being dipped in, and wrung out, and rinsed, and so on. Hair incidentally, is not used for the application of such things as waxes or varnishes, because of the difficulty of removing such substances from the hair. Such a mistake could necessitate a shearing and a lowering of the market value of a girl for months. For similar reasons, a girl's hair, even within a cloth, if it is still on her, is seldom used for such purposes as buffing and polishing. Hair is common, of course, as a stuffing for pads used for such purposes, for example, for the purposes of cleaning, buffing and polishing. We took the combs and knelt, letting the blankets fall about our waist, and combed our hair. I think it pleased the men to see us do this. Gorean men relish women, and enjoy watching them, even in the performance of such simple, homely acts as combing their hair. To be sure, we were bare-breasted, and slaves, and obeying. We had not been asked to form a combing circle, probably because they were willing to permit us to remain in the vicinity of the fire. There were too few of us to circumscribe the fire. We would have had to withdraw from the fire, or most of us. In the combing circle we kneel in a circle, each girl combing the hair of the girl in front of her. Making us comb our hair before we were fed, incidentally, is typical of the manner in which Gorean men treat female slaves. The woman is to be presentable and beautiful, before she is permitted food. How much darker, I noted, did my hair, and that of the other brunets look, when it was wet. The combs were of yellow wood, and had long teeth. The entire comb, including the teeth, was about five inches square. There are various hairdos in which such combs are worn in the hair. Usually, however, the hair of slaves is worn long, and loose, or confined only in some simple way, as with a ribbon or woolen fillet. Some masters like the ponytail hairdo on a slave, which, on Gor, is usually spoken of as the "leash," or "hair leash," for, by it, a girl may be conveniently seized and controlled. Upswept hairdos are usually reserved for free women, or high slaves. They are a mark of status. To be sure, one of the reasons for permitting a hairdo of that sort to a slave is the master's pleasure in undoing it, in loosening it, thus reminding even the high slave that in his arms, ultimately, she, the high slave, is yet a slave, and as much or more than the lowest girl in the most remote village. The loosening of a woman's hair on Gor in an extremely sensuous, meaningful act. "Who loosens her hair?" is a way of asking, in effect, who owns her. I rose to my feet and pressed her back to the tiles, and pulled her wrist chain down, lifting up her feet. I then slipped the wrist chain behind her feet and ankles, and pulled it up, behind her back. This held her hands rather behind her, at her sides. I then put her again to her knees. "Sir?" she asked. "You do have auburn hair, don't you?" I said. "She does have auburn hair," I informed him. "It may be hard to see in this light." "Then shave it off, and sell it," he laughed. "The keeper might do that," I said. Lady Temione moaned, helplessly. This was, of course, a genuine possibility, particularly in this area at this time. Women's hair, long and silky, plaited into heavy ropes, is ideal for the cording of catapults. It is far superior, for example, to vegetable fibers. It is also superior, in length and texture, to the hair of sleen and kaiila. By now, the hair of slaves in Ar's Station, and doubtless the hair of most of her free women as well, donated in the case of the latter as a contribution to the defense effort, would have been shaved off, or, perhaps, cropped short. If the keeper did decide to shave off, or crop, the hair of the Lady Temione, and, for that matter, the others, the Lady Amina, the Lady Rimice, and so on, he would presumably sell it to suppliers to the Cosians. Under the current conditions, of course, it would be difficult to get such materiel into Ar's Station. Indeed, in a sense, that was the same problem I faced, finding a way into Ar's Station. Her blond hair, too, had been cropped. In these times, I suspected there would be few unsheared slave girls in Ar's Station, and probably, too, few unsheared free women. In the case of the slave girls, of course, their hair would simply be taken from them. The hair of the free women, on the other hand, would presumably have been donated, as a contribution to the defense of the city. I took my knife and, from the back of her head, gathered together a large handful of her long dark hair, and then cut it off, close to the scalp. I then, using this hair, bound her hands together behind her back. "You have not earned a use," I said. I then cut another gout of her hair from the back of her head and used it to tie the flute about her neck. I did not crop the hair about her head with the knife, rather in the manner of shaving it off, as is sometimes done as a punishment for female slaves. I did no more than take the two gouts. To be sure, these two gouts, thick as they were, cleared an irregular space of several square inches of the back of her head. This cleared area, though not evident from the front, was only too obvious from the back. It would doubtless occasion much merriment upon its discovery by her chain sisters, as she was a beauty, and might be envied by them. Too, given her personality, I suspected that they would be likely to find her plight even more amusing. Perhaps she could wear a scarf for a time, or have her hair shortened or tied in such a way as to conceal or minimize the rather liberal extent of this local cropping. One advantage of shaving a girl's head, incidentally, is the duration of the punishment. It is recalled to her, for example, every time she touches her head or sees her reflection. By the time it has grown out, and even by the time that it begins to grow out a little, she has usually determined to do all in her power to be such that her master will permit her to keep her hair. If he wishes, or thinks it judicious, of course, he may keep her with a shaved head. It might also be noted that certain slaves, rather as an occupational mark or precaution, for example, girls working in foundries and mills, often have their heads shaved. Too, it is common to shave a girl completely if she is to be transported in a slave ship. This is to protect her against vermin of various sorts, in particular, lice. The nudity of the imprisoned slave, I supposed, aside from the usual purposes of such, such as to protect clothing from being soiled, to help her keep in mind that she is a slave, and such, as to prevent the possible use of clothing to secure the latch. The shaved-headedness of them, aside from the usual purpose of such, which is punishment, would doubtless be to prevent the attempt on their part to secure the gate by means of their hair. Shaved-headedness, of course, is not always a punishment. It is sometimes done for hygienic purposes, as on slave ships, and for safety purposes, as in factories. Too, a girl's head may be shaved simply to obtain the hair, which may then be sold. For example, our shorn hair may be sold to jobbers who deal with the manufacturers of artillery and siege equipment. Our "pelting," as it is sometimes referred to in the trade, is apparently considerably superior to hempen strands for use as catapult cordage. Slave girls, it might be mentioned, normally have long hair, as it is very beautiful, and much may be done with it, both cosmetically, so to speak, and in the furs. Too, we may even be bound with it. Whereas long hair is commonly favored in slaves, it is seldom that a slave is brought to the block with ankle-length hair. On the other hand, Gorean free women often have quite long hair, in which they take great pride. It is not unusual that it might reach to the back of their knees. When they are enslaved it is commonly shortened, considerably. There are various reasons for this, as I understand it, for example, the slave learns that she is no longer a free woman, that her hair, its length, dressing, and such, is now at the disposal of masters, that the distinction between her and the free woman is to be clearly drawn, even in a matter as simple as hair, and that the envy of the free woman is not to be aroused at the sight of hair in a slave which might be the pride of a free woman. Too, the shorn hair is of value in a number of ways, not only for wigs, falls, and such, but, too, interestingly, because it makes the best cordage for catapults, far superior to common hemp, and such. Too, I supposed, if one wished to alter the appearance of a free woman, or, more likely, a former free woman, for some reason, perhaps to afford her something in the nature of a disguise, her hair might be shortened. Interestingly, auburn hair is that pelting, so to speak, which tends to be most favored in the markets. Long hair is favored in slave girls, for several reasons. Doubtless the first reason is aesthetic, as such hair is lovely in a girl. Certainly long hair tends to raise the price of a slave. Too, in the furs, much can be done with long hair to please a master, it brushing against him, and such. Too, as in leading, long hair makes it easier to control the slave. Indeed, sometimes a slave is bound with her own hair. Too, of course, a girl, if only in her vanity wishes to retain her hair, and will do much to keep it. A shaved head not only punishes a girl but marks her out to other slaves as having been a displeasing slave. She is then likely to be the object of much derision and contempt. Lastly, it might be noted that the shorn hair of slaves, commonly marketed as the hair of free women, may be used by free women for various cosmetic purposes, such as wigs and falls. Woman's hair, too, makes the best catapult cordage, being resilient, strong, and weather-resistant. Indeed, when a city is besieged, even free women may donate their own hair for such a purpose. |       
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