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 RiceHere are relevant references from the Books where rice 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 Rice Bazi Brown Paste Purple Red White
I went to the side and removed a bowl from its padded, insulating wrap. Its contents were still warm. It was a mash of cooked vulo and rice. Earlier I had taken Yanina to the kitchen. There, under my supervision, on her chain, kneeling, she had cooked it. There are rice fields on Gor, in the vicinity of Bazi, famed for its teas, but rice is not as familiar on Gor as the grain, sa-tarna. And Pani, as far as I knew, were not found in Bazi, or its environs. To be sure I supposed the rice might be Bazi rice, but I was not sure of that, not at all sure of it. Lords Nishida and Okimoto, each a lesser lord, or daimyo, had eaten of the rice of Temmu. The staple in the Twelve Islands, which is actually far more than twelve, is not Sa-Tarna, but rice. Rice fields, or paddies, are associated with each village. A daimyo or shogun will have suzerainty over various villages, which he protects, and from which he obtains the means to maintain his men. He who controls the rice, it is said, controls the islands. Several rice fields were associated with the holding of Lord Temmu, most north and west of the castle. To reach such fields by land would mean to pass the holding of Lord Temmu. To reach them from the sea, from the north or west, one would have to put into shore, on the other side of the island, negotiate a difficult terrain, and thread one's way through guarded, easily defended passes. By the time one could reach the fields, it was likely the ashigaru of Lord Temmu would be in position. A number of slaves, too, some twenty or thirty, fastened together by the neck, by a long rope, had been given bags of water, bundles of dried parsit, sacks of rice, and such, to convey to the ship. "I hope they will have tarsk," said a man. I hoped that, too, as I was growing weary of rice and parsit. The Pani do raise tarsk, verr, and, of course, vulos. "That is possible," he said. "But one wonders why Lord Yamada, rich with resources, with many ashigaru, with many ships, with many villages and rice fields, with his war well in hand, on the brink of victory, would send a single ship to Brundisium, or even, say, to Kasra or Telnus." "Ichiro, your bannerman," said Lord Temmu, "is familiar with my fields. Confiscate rice, and slay any who might resist, or be unwilling." "It is for the shogun, Lord Temmu," said Lord Okimoto. "I fear," said Lord Nishida "many of our fields have fallen into the hands of the forces of Lord Yamada." "He who controls the fields, the rice, controls the islands," said Lord Okimoto. I recalled the tiny flicker of light I had seen in my flight. It could have been the camp of a patrol or kill squad, but it seemed a tiny fire, not that serving several men, contented, sure of themselves, with rice boiling in the helmet. "Build up the fire," said Nodachi. "I have rice. We will boil it in a helmet. When Tajima tarnsman, has revived, and fed, you must convey him to safety." "For what were they sold?" I asked. "Rice," he said. "Lord Yamada is generous," I said. "He is a great lord," said the Ashigaru. "Much rice?" I said. "Most," he said, "were exchanged for one fukuro of rice, some for two." "That is not much," I said. The most common fukuro of rice, or bag or sack of rice, as I had seen it measured out in the holding, and at the encampments, would weigh less than a half stone. "The slaves were bartered for rice," I said. "Even the slaves of the shogun," said Lord Nishida. "For rice!" I said. "More valuable than gold at present," he said. "We are loading panniers with rice," I said. "Rest now. After dark we will deliver these stores to the holding." Of the fifty-one tarns which had survived the raid on the first encampment, we were utilizing forty. Each would carry two bulging panniers of rice, one on each side of the saddle. "Each of these panniers," I said, "would hold several fukuros of rice." "A starving man would give a Brundisium stater, a tarn disk of Ar, for a cup of rice," said Torgus. And, in better times, one might buy the common fukuro of rice, to its usual measure, for as little as one or two tarsk-bits. "I do not think there is enough rice for us to linger about, hoping to secure it," said Lysander, "and what there may be is heavily guarded." "We have eleven varieties of rice here," said the shogun, "variously prepared, in stews, pastes, and cakes, and variously seasoned, with a dozen sauces and herbs. Hundreds of paddies, like ridged, geometrical lakes, now reflecting the orbs of the moons, dotted the landscape for pasangs about the lands of Lord Yamada. This is also the case about the holdings of many daimyos, and, of course, about local villages, most of which were subject to one daimyo or another. For example, a daimyo's taxation levied on his subject villages, as noted earlier, was usually done in terms of rice, or, if the village was a fishing village in terms of dried fish, or such. My serving dish was shortly empty, and I knew I should withdraw to the kitchen, either to have it layered with more syrupped tospit slices, or supplied with another provender, perhaps rice, white, or brown, or red or purple, from Cos, or a plate of cheeses, from local dairies, served with warmed bread, or prepared after the fashion of Ti, rolled in honeyed tur-pah leaves.
There are rice fields on Gor, in the vicinity of Bazi, famed for its teas, but rice is not as familiar on Gor as the grain, sa-tarna. And Pani, as far as I knew, were not found in Bazi, or its environs. To be sure I supposed the rice might be Bazi rice, but I was not sure of that, not at all sure of it.
My serving dish was shortly empty, and I knew I should withdraw to the kitchen, either to have it layered with more syrupped tospit slices, or supplied with another provender, perhaps rice, white, or brown, or red or purple, from Cos, or a plate of cheeses, from local dairies, served with warmed bread, or prepared after the fashion of Ti, rolled in honeyed tur-pah leaves.
I scooped up a handful of rice paste from the shallow bowl to my right, and held it out, across the table. The slave hurried to me, gratefully, and knelt, and put down her head. I held the rice paste to where she might take if from the palm of my hand. She fed, ravenously. I gathered it might have been several Ahn since the slaves had been fed in the pen. Sumomo gasped. Those at the table looked toward her, surprised. Pertinax reached into his shallow bowl of rice paste, to his right and gathered some of this into his palm. She leaned forward. But he put the paste into his own mouth, and slowly finished it.
My serving dish was shortly empty, and I knew I should withdraw to the kitchen, either to have it layered with more syrupped tospit slices, or supplied with another provender, perhaps rice, white, or brown, or red or purple, from Cos, or a plate of cheeses, from local dairies, served with warmed bread, or prepared after the fashion of Ti, rolled in honeyed tur-pah leaves.
My serving dish was shortly empty, and I knew I should withdraw to the kitchen, either to have it layered with more syrupped tospit slices, or supplied with another provender, perhaps rice, white, or brown, or red or purple, from Cos, or a plate of cheeses, from local dairies, served with warmed bread, or prepared after the fashion of Ti, rolled in honeyed tur-pah leaves.
My serving dish was shortly empty, and I knew I should withdraw to the kitchen, either to have it layered with more syrupped tospit slices, or supplied with another provender, perhaps rice, white, or brown, or red or purple, from Cos, or a plate of cheeses, from local dairies, served with warmed bread, or prepared after the fashion of Ti, rolled in honeyed tur-pah leaves. |       
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