 GrassHere are relevant references from the Books where grass 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 Grass Dark Blue Knife Lavender Marsh Tawny Verr Violet Yellowish Orange Turf
I was more pleased on the second day and made camp in a grassy veldt, dotted with the Ka-la-na trees. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 73 In the far distance I could see the silver wire I knew must be the great Vosk, could see the abrupt shift from the grassy plains to the Margin of Desolation. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 146 I awakened naked in the wind-swept grass, beneath that blazing star that is the common sun of my two worlds, my home planet, Earth, and its secret sister, the Counter-Earth, Gor. Surprisingly, though the pasang stones told me I was close to Ko-ro-ba, stubborn tufts of grass were growing between the stones, and occasional vines were inching out, tendril by tendril, across the great stone blocks. "I think we can kill you," said Thorn, plucking a stalk of grass and meditatively chewing on it, regarding me all the while. For a long time I, and the others, stood there in the windy night, almost knee-deep in the flowing, bending grass, and watched the knoll, and the stars behind it, and the white moons above. Even the autumn grass itself bent and shook in brown tides toward Turia, shimmering in the sun like a tawny surf beneath the fleeing clouds above; it was as though the unseen wind itself, frantic volumes and motions of simple air, too desired its sanctuary behind the high walls of the far city. Yet the prairie itself was not afire, only the fields of peasants, the fields of men who had cultivated the soil; the prairie grass, such that it might graze the ponderous bosk, had been spared. The kaiila of these men were as tawny as the brown grass of the prairie, save for that of the man who faced me, whose mount was a silken, sable black, as black as the lacquer of the shield. The wagon of Kutaituchik, called Ubar of the Tuchuks, was drawn up on a large, flat-topped grassy hill, the highest land in the camp. Although it was late in the afternoon the sun was still bright. The air was chilly. There was a bit of wind moving the grass. But she was kissing me and by my arms was being lowered to the grasses of the spring prairie. In the space between the two lines of stakes, for each pair of facing stakes, there was a circle of roughly eight yards in diameter. This circle, the grass having been removed, was sanded and raked. The wagon girls, watching this, some of them chewing on fruit or stalks of grass, jeered. With these he hurriedly conferred and then I saw him lift his arm and red war lanterns were moved on ropes to the top of poles, and to my amazement, aisles seemed to open in the densely packed bosk before the men, herdsmen and herd sleen moving the animals back to clear long grassy passages between their lumbering, shaggy hulks. Besides the trees there were numerous shrubs and plantings, almost all flowered, sometimes fantastically; among the trees and the colored grasses there wound curved, shaded walks. In the morning, before dawn, we awakened and fed on dried bosk meat, sucking the dew from the prairie grass. I awoke in the morning, near dawn. It was very cold, and gray and damp. I was terribly hungry. My body was stiff, and ached. I wept. I sucked dew from the long grass. Around me, soft, undulating, glistening with dew in the dim light, I could see nothing but grassy fields, seemingly endless fields, rolling and rolling, sweeping away from me on all sides toward horizons that might be empty. The sun had now begun to climb in the sky and the air turned warmer. It showered once or twice but I did not much mind. The air was bright and clear, the grass green, the sky a full blue with bright, white clouds. The grass felt good to my bare feet. It seemed I could feel each blade. I wanted to be free, too, to dance, to cry out, to claw at the moons, to throw myself on the living, fibrous, flowing grass, to writhe with these women, my sisters, to writhe with them in the frenzy of their need. Again, some eight to ten feet away, not speaking, he stood. We were alone, in the high grasses of the field. I could feel the grass at my calves, the sun on my face and arms and legs, the warm, fresh, root-filled earth beneath my bare feet. I stood in the bright, knee-high grasses of that windblown, flowing field. I felt the sun on my body, the grass touching my calves. My feet felt beneath them the black, warm, root-filled, living earth of Gor. The Ka-la-na thicket was yellow in the distance, the peasants standing at its edge, not moving. The sky was deep, and blue, and bright with sunlight. I inhaled the fresh, glorious air of the planet Gor. How beautiful it was! I lifted myself again to my elbow. It was a chilly morning. Dew covered the grass and leaves. Everywhere drops glistened. Then the ship turned a bend between the cliffs, and, to my astonishment I saw a dock, of rough logs, covered with adzed boards, and a wide, sloping area of land, of several acres, green, though strewn with boulders, with short grass. I saw four small milk bosk grazing on the short grass. The bond-maids, Thyri and Aelgifu among them, fled, like a frightened herd of tabuk, across the short, turflike green grass, to the gate of the palisade, to be put to work. I opened my eyes, seeing the grass blades not inches from my face, wide, blurred. I opened my mouth, delicately, and felt the grass brush my lips. I bit into a blade and felt the juice of the grass, on my tongue. I gathered they must be asking after whatever it was they sought. They had covered the area thoroughly, even turning aside long grass with the blades of their spears. The newcomer then moved back a few paces. He crouched down. He picked up a stalk of grass, and began to chew on it. Then he threw me on my stomach at his feet, and I lay there. My wrists were crossed and bound behind me in slender, braided leather. My ankles, too, were crossed and bound in that simple, secure fastening. I felt the grass under my body; I felt it brush my left side, as the wind moved it. I kept my toes pointed. "We are going to pick moss and grass," she said. Moss is used as wicks for the lamps. Grass, dried, is used for insulation between the inner soles of the boots and the bottom of the fur stockings in the winter. "I must check the runners on my sled," called Imnak. Karjuk stood still, waiting. It was only some two pasangs away, ahead of us, and nearing us. But, in a moment its message was taken up from behind us, some four Pasangs down the workway, west, leading toward Ushindi. It would then, swiftly, station to station, be transmitted back to the grass palace of Bila Huruma. I looked up at the high, conical ceiling, of interwoven branches and grass, of the court of Bila Huruma. It was some seventy feet over my head. The room itself, a great round room, was a hundred feet in width. I could always leave the room, of course, by kicking and tearing through the grass wall at any point of my choosing. Sobbing, gasping, she plunged splashing through the shallow water and clambered onto the mud and grass of the bank. "Can we see the boundary from here?" I asked. We were now at the crest of a hill. "Not clearly, but it is out there," he said, pointing to our right. "See," he asked, "the low hills, the grassy hills, at the horizon?" The grass was to the knees of the kaiila. It came to the thighs of the slave girls, in brief one-piece slave tunics, of brown rep-cloth, with deep cleavages, in throat coffle, bearing burdens on their heads. I watched Grunt and Pimples, with the three kaiila, his mount, the kaiila drawing the travois and my own pack beast, wending their way away, through the tall grass. Our kaiila shifted beneath us, on the grassy rise. The grass here came to the knees of the kaiila. It would have come to the thighs of a girl. I knelt, naked, save for the collar of Canka, in the tall, dry grass. "We send them into the villages, upon occasion, some of them," said the first lad, "to work, if there is a call for them, or to deliver roots and berries which they have gathered to the women. Too, of course, they are useful in twisting grass for tinder and gathering wood and kailiauk chips for fuel. These things, then, too, they must deliver to the villages." We then, the grass to our waist, dragging the travois on which Hci lay, and other articles, surmounted a rise, surveying the maize fields below us, the buildings and palisade of the compound beyond them. The fact that we did not have kaiila had, it seemed, worked to our advantage. Several times in the past few days we had seen solitary Kinyanpi scouts in the sky. Each time we had hidden in the deep grass. I dropped to the grass beside her and put my left hand in her hair, pulling her head back to the grass. I pulled it back, and held it, in such a way that she must look back, and up, at the sky. I broke off a long stalk of grass. I began to tease her with the stalk of grass. "Oh, please, stop, Master!" she begged. "I will do anything! I will do anything!" "But you must do anything, anyway," I said. "You are a slave." "Yes, Master!" she cried. I desisted in touching her body lightly, unexpectedly, here and there, with the stalk of grass. "Do you think you can yield well?" I asked. "Yes, Master! Yes, Master!" she gasped. I put the stalk of grass to the side. "Kiss," I said. In the grass now, standing, some yards away, frightened, the grass to her waist, was a young girl, some sixteen or seventeen years of age, blond. She, like the young man, wore the garb of the Waniyanpi. I lay on the slope of a ditch, as it ascended to a road. There was a trickle of water at my feet. The grass was very green here, because of the water. "Doubtless I am to be exercised in the tall grass or in the brush," she said. My shadow was small on the hot, sloping sand in front of me. Here and there a hardy, rough grass, or a patch of weeds, thrust up from the sand. The sun was still bright. It was in the late afternoon. The sky was very blue. A soft wind moved between the dunelike hills, stirring the rough grass. I tried to rise up a bit on my knees, but, tied as I was, wrists to ankles, I could not do so. I could see little more than the high grass from where I was. I saw a heavy, bootlike sandal, the sort worn by warriors, which can sustain long marches over stony soils, which provides protection from the slash of course grasses and strike of leech plants, nudge Dorna. Ellen, looking back, could see the wake of the wagon wheels in the tall grass. She saw Selius Arconious near the wagon. Fel Doron was standing in the wagon bed, scanning the endless grass about them. The sky was a bright blue. A gentle wind stirred stalks of grass. "It is interesting," said the spokesman, "that out of the hundreds of wagons leaving the festival camp at Brundisium, and days later, in the vastness of these grasslands, the Cosians managed to locate you." The grasslands are commonly dry, but this was in the spring, and storms sometimes erupt, and, when they do, it is often with a sudden rage, a blackening of the sky, a rising of wind, a rushing of clouds, a shattering of lightning, a beating, pounding, of fierce, torrential rains. In the grasslands the most common fuel is woodlike brush. Some peasants, out of a village, use tightly twisted ropes of grass, but one needs a good deal of this, as it burns very quickly. Some kindling, bits of wood, branches and such, was also carried, the larger branches bundled, in the wagon. This had been gathered not far from the festival camp. As this material was not readily available in the grasslands, it tended to be conserved, to be used when local fuel was difficult to obtain. The slave watched them disappear in the long grasses. They did not look back. The grass was long and soft in the area, abundant, and green and flowing, in the soft wind. "Lita," said Cabot, "hurry to our camp, set out provisions for our guests, and later arrange bowers for them, sheltered beds of moss, grass and leaves, that they may sleep softly." Certainly she tried to put herself frequently before Cabot, and had even brushed against him piteously, more than once, but he had simply thrust her away, that she might continue her labors, gathering wood, fetching water, arranging beddings of grass, and preparing their small meal. Then Cabot saw the head, which now lifted from the tall grass, several feet ahead of them. He might have preferred a field on Gor, with long green grass, with the wind rising from the east, in the morning, "And there are two mattresses, filled with grass," he said. One seldom sheaths an unclean sword, and, one supposes, one would be reluctant to return such a blade to a clean sash, as well. In the field, leaves, and grass, may be used. He then took me by the hair, forced my head down to his hip and then, I in leading position, he drew me beside him deeper into the courtyard, and then, in a concealed place, on the thick, soft, flowing grass, so rich and deep so living, threw me to his feet. I washed my body with wet grass and leaves, wiping away dirt. We climbed under the wagon, in the slack of chain allowed, and stretched out, on our stomachs, our bodies damp from the water Kurik had poured upon us, on the soft grass. "Their feet are not wrapped, not protected, as are ours," I said to Paula. "Do not be concerned," said Paula. "We were protected, as the stones are hot, and we were following the wagon, which holds to the road. The coffle is marched to the side of the road, on the dirt, the soft grass." The vast sprawling fair, its perimeters changing day by day, as new tents were pitched and stakes drawn on older ones, like cells in a body, was like a transient canvas behemoth, its body breathing, expanding and contracting. This monstrous creature had appeared as though from nothing, and, in a few days, it would vanish as quickly, leaving behind little more than torn, trampled grass, memories, bleakness, and desolation. Large patches and tracks of grass were gone, patches where tents had been pitched, tracks where streets had been formed. One supposes that the quiet of the village of Zeuxis, on Daphna, must have been disconcerting to the enemy. They had approached it, this group, some four hundred we conjectured, cautiously, as inconspicuously as possible, and had then, say a hundred yards from the gate, crouching down in the grass, waited for the signal of attack, and then the rushing forward, the shouting, and the brandishing of weapons. The gate, with its two leaves, was open, but this was not unusual, given the time of day, about noon, the tenth Ahn. What was unusual was the lack of activity in, and around, the enclosure. At that point there was a quick, shrill, piercing blast on a whistle and the corsairs, shouting, leapt up from the grass and, led by the figure in the red wig, stormed toward the opened gate. A few Ehn later the flames at the gate, from the bundles of brush, grass, and straw, had lessened. "Between the beach and Zeuxis," I said, "there is much tall grass." This suggested that there were few, if any, of the scarlet caste amongst the corsairs. Had there been I would have expected a point with flankers to the side, proceeding through the grass, each of whom would be in contact, by sound or visual signal, with the column itself. Perhaps, however, the corsairs, puzzled as they might have been by the lack of contact with the village raiders, now pinned within the palisade of the burned village, did not believe anything might be seriously amiss. I expected the enemy, at least initially, to be unwilling to enter a locale in which it could scarcely see its way, given the high, mazelike grasses. What I did expect to take place, and what did take place, with various disorganized groups of the raiders, other than simple, precipitate flight, was either forming shield rings, circles of shields, which, in effect, immobilizes the group, or counterattacks in which the beleaguered group rushes into the grass, on one or both sides, shields forward, to close with the archers. In this situation the archers withdraw, usually in such a manner as to encourage the now-confident enemy to follow them into a trap, where swordsmen are waiting for them, swordsmen in groups likely to outnumber the pursuers. "Xanthos," I said. The son of Seleukos, headman of the village of Seleukos, recently pillaged and burned, with two of his village cohorts, crouching down in the grass, were within whispering range. From where we knelt or crouched in the grass, but yards from the road, we could hear the voices of the men in the column, conversing, cursing, bantering, complaining. That being that case, their heads lifted and their attention directed upward, they should constitute easy, close, stationary targets for the first volley of arrows from my men, rising from the grass and firing. "Close the road," I said. "I do not think they will care to traverse it. Should any enter the grass, give way before them, and lead them to the waiting swords. If others, avoiding the road, decline engagement, follow them and harass them. See that few reach the beach. But I expect that most, learning the danger of the road, will withdraw into the palisade." "We had best withdraw," said Thurnock, "vanishing into the high grass, being as though we never existed."
He made his way across some dark blue and yellowish orange grass and came to the buildings set against one wall of the gardens. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 219
I was miserable with cold, in the predawn air. My legs began to ache. The coarse grass, knife grass, cut at my ankles.
Instantly I stopped, my heart sinking. I turned, of course, immediately, and fell to my knees, putting my head down to the lavender grass, as was its color here, in this portion of the garden, the palms of my hands down, too, on the grass, beside my head. I was kneeling in the garden, on the lavender grass, as it was in that part of the garden, my head down, the palms of my hands on the grass. I continued to kneel before him, on the lavender grass, my head down to the grass, my palms upon it, as well.
We tied them hand and foot, gagging them with choking wads of marsh grass, forced into their mouths and fastened in place with wide strips of leather. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 263 I thrust my way through submerged marsh grass. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 267
"All right," said Thurnock, "we will paint her green, the green of Thassa, green as night is to the sleen, green as high, tawny grass is to the larl."
The beast had been taken southeast of Ar, while moving southeast. Such a path would take it below the eastern foothills of the Voltai and to the south. It was incredible. "Who would enter such a place?" asked Samos. "Caravans, crossing it," I said. "Nomads, grazing their verr on the stubble of verr grass." On the shaded sides of some rocks, and the shaded slopes of hills, here and there, grew stubborn, brownish patches of verr grass.
"You are aware, of course," I mentioned, "that the Pleasure Gardens of so rich a man as Saphrar of Turia may contain a large number of female slaves not a might be trusted to keep silent and some of whom will undoubtedly notice something as unusual as two strange warriors wandering about among the shrubs and ferns?" "That is true," said Harold, "but I do not expect to be here by morning." He picked up a stalk of a patch of violet grass, one of several hues used in such gardens, and began to chew on it. "I think," said he, "an hour or so will be sufficient – perhaps less."
He made his way across some dark blue and yellowish orange grass and came to the buildings set against one wall of the gardens. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 219
At the last instant, the lances of four riders but a hand's breadth from my body, the enraged, thundering kaiila, hissing and squealing, at a touch of the control straps, arrested their fierce charge, stopping themselves, tearing into the deep turf with suddenly emergent claws. There was a thunder of kaiila paws on the worn turf and Conrad, with his red lance, nipped the tospit neatly from the tip of the wand, the lance point barely passing into it, he having drawn back at the last instant. The bond-maids, Thyri and Aelgifu among them, fled, like a frightened herd of tabuk, across the short, turflike green grass, to the gate of the palisade, to be put to work. The hall of Ivar Forkbeard was a longhouse. It was about one hundred and twenty feet Gorean in length. Its walls formed of turf and stone, were curved and thick, some eight feet or more in thickness. Arlene struck down at her and, suddenly, they again were locked together, tearing and scratching at one another on the trodden turf. "Put the turf knife in the pit," I said. "Yes, Master," she said. She placed the turf knife in the pit, through the hole we had left at its entrance. The turf knife is a wooden-bladed, paddlelike tool. It is used to cut and saw sod and, when the handle is held in the right hand and the blade is supported with the left, it may be used, also, rather like a shovel, to move dirt. The disrupted turf, seeded, refreshed by rain, would gradually renew itself as had the fairgrounds near the town. |       
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