 Runaway SlaveThes are relevant references from the Books where a Runaway Slave 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 But all in all I do not know if the brand is used for its psychological effect or not. Perhaps it is merely a device for merchants who must have some such means for tracing runaway slaves, which would otherwise constitute a costly hazard to their trade. The punishment of a runaway slave is often grievous, sometimes culminating in death. Small straight bows, of course, not the powerful long bow, are, on the other hand, reasonably common on Gor, and these are often used for hunting light game, such as the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae, the yellow-pelted, single-horned Tabuk, and runaway slaves. "Bind the slave," he said. Tina was thrown to her stomach in the sand, and bound hand and foot. She was then held by the arms before their leader. "You are a runaway slave girl," he said. "I do not envy you. " She shuddered. "Is this the first time you have attempted to escape?" he asked. "Yes, Master," she whispered. "Perhaps then," said he, "you will not be hamstrung. Perhaps then you will only be lashed." "I promise I will not run away, Master," I said. I stood on the shifting piece of wreckage. "I am well aware of the penalties for a runaway slave girl," I said. "Bring an ankle rack," said Ulafi to one of the guardsmen. One was brought. "Put her in it," said Ulafi. The guardsman removed his neck strap from her throat, freeing, too, her ankles. He untied her hands. Lifting her under the stomach he held her ankles near the rack; another guardsman placed her ankles in the semicircular openings in the bottom block and then swung shut the top block, with its matching semicircular openings, over them. He secured the top block, hinged at the left, to the bottom block, with a metal bolt on a chain, thrust through the staple on the lower block, over the hasp, swung down from the upper block. The guardsman who had held the girl then ceased to support her. She made a little cry. The weight of her upper body was then on the palls of her hands, her arms stiff. Her ankles were locked in the rack. This helped to support her weight. Her ankles protruded behind the rack. Her feet were small and pretty. She looked about, helplessly. "Bring the scimitar of discipline," said Ulafi. This was brought by a guardsman. Ulafi showed the heavy, curved blade to the girl. She looked at it with horror. "You should not have runaway, little white slave," he said. "No, no!" she said, in English. He went behind her and, gently, that he not cut her, laid the blade upon her ankles. "No, no!" she cried. "Please, don't! Please, don't! I will be good! I will be good!" She tried to turn her head, to look behind her. "I will not run away again!" she cried. "Please, please," she whimpered, "do not cut off my feet." Ulafi handed the scimitar to one of the guardsmen. He then went to the girl's head, taking the dagger from his sash. She was trembling in misery. Ulafi pointed to the high desk of the praetor. Then he looked at her. "Kajira?" he asked. The girl had lied before the desk of the praetor. She had denied being a Kajira, a slave girl. She twisted her head upward, toward the praetor's desk. "Forgive me. Forgive me!" she begged. "Kajira?" asked Ulafi. "Yes, yes," she sobbed. Then she cried out, "La Kajira! La Kajira!" This was a bit of Gorean known to her. 'I am a slave girl.' Ulafi, with his dagger, but not cutting her, put it first to her right ear, and then to the side of her small nose, and then to the left ear. "Don't hurt me," she begged. "I'm sorry I lied! Forgive me, forgive me! La Kajira! La Kajira!" Ulafi stood up, replacing the dagger in his sash. The girl had now learned that her feet might be cut off for running away, that her ears and nose might be cut from her for lying. She was still an ignorant girl, of course, but she now knew a little more of what it might be to be a slave on Gor. "Release her from the rack," said Ulafi. The rack was opened and the girl collapsed, shuddering, on the wharf. Ginger went to the girl and thrust up the tunic. "See these tendons," she asked, "at the back of each knee?" "Yes, Mistress," said more than one girl. She laid the switch, cool and green, across the tendons. The Swedish girl shuddered. "It is a common punishment for a runaway girl," said Ginger, "that these tendons are severed. The girl, then, can never stand again, but must, if she is permitted to live, drag herself about by her hands. Sometimes such girls are gathered up by masters and used as beggars, on street corners." "No," he said, "I know nothing about a runaway blond slave." I nodded. Runaway slaves, incidentally, are extremely rare on Gor. That is the sort of absurdity which even the most stupid girl is likely to try no more than once. It is not merely that Gorean masters tend not to be tolerant of such behavior in their female slaves, but that there is really nowhere to run. The society is tightly knit, the girl is marked, and so on. The girl is extremely likely to be returned promptly in chains to her rightful master, to be subjected in terror to the consequences of his displeasure, or, if not, to be kept or sold for the pleasure or profit of others, usually to serve them then in a custody far more severe, fearful and arduous than that which was her former lot. The slave girl on Gor soon learns, if she does not already know, the categoricality of her condition, that it is for all practical purposes, and for all realistic possibilities, inescapable, inalterable and absolute. "You are a runaway," said the first. "No!" cried Ellen. "Be grateful if we do not hamstring you," said the second. Ellen regarded him with horror. Ellen, frightened, shuddered, considering the uses to which trained sleen might be put, such as tracking, hunting, herding, guarding, killing. She knew they were sometimes sent after runaway slaves, usually with the kill command after an escaped male slave, commonly with the herding command for a female runaway, that she may be returned, stumbling, gasping, exhausted, helpless and driven, bleeding, scratched, lacerated, back to the feet of her master, where she might clutch his ankles and beg weepingly that she not be now fed to those tyrannical, inexorable beasts who have ushered her so swiftly and unerringly back to her fate, the mercies of her master. The entire society accepts and demands her bondage. It will go to great lengths to search for her, and return her to her master. The best she might hope for would be to exchange one bondage for another, and doubtless for one far worse than that from which she fled, for she would be recognized as a runaway, and, quite possibly, would be prominently branded as such, the mark seared into her forehead. For a slave girl herself, a chain daughter, there is no escape, given her garmenture, the collar, the brand, and the entire culture, which is arrayed to remand her into the authority of the free. At best she might come into the keeping of a new master, and then, as a caught runaway, be subjected to a far more heinous, confining, and terrifying bondage than that from which she had fled. And at worst she might be torn to pieces by pursuing sleen or be hamstrung, to spend the rest of her life pulling herself about by her hands, being whipped, and living on garbage, and serving as an object lesson for other slaves. A first attempt at escape is usually punished only by a severe whipping. After all, not every girl, early in her collaring, can be expected to understand the impossibility of escape. "She is in flight," said another woman's voice. "Yes!" said another. "She is a runaway slave!" said yet another. "Let the tendons behind her knees be severed," said another. "Let her feet be cut off," said another. "She will not run away again," said another. I was not sure why I had run. I trusted that when my inevitable recapture occurred, I marked, slave clad, and collared, as it must, I would not be hamstrung or have my nose and ears cut off. I did not think that that would happen. That would substantially lower my price. |       
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