 VegetablesHere are relevant references from the Books where vegetables are mentioned. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban Bean Bean - Black Wine Cabbage Carrots Corn Garlic Katch Kort Maize Mushroom Onion Peas Potato Produce Pumpkin Radish Squash Sul Brown Golden Reddish Tiny Wild Turnip Tur-Pah Wagmeza Wagmu
Initiates do not eat meat, or beans. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 26 Incidentally, it is a teaching of the initiates that only initiates can obtain eternal life. The regimen for doing this has something to do with learning mathematics, and with avoiding the impurities of meat and beans. "This is warmed chocolate," I said, pleased. It was very rich and creamy. "Yes, Mistress," said the girl. "It is very good," I said. "Thank you, Mistress," she said. "Is it from Earth?" I asked. "Not directly," she said. "Many things here, of course, ultimately have an Earth origin. It is not improbable that the beans from which the first cacao trees on this world were grown were brought from Earth." "Do the trees grow near here?" I asked. "No, Mistress," she said. "We obtain the beans, from which the chocolate is made, from Cosian merchants, who, in turn, obtain them in the tropics." A free woman drew back her robes, hastily, frightened, lest they touch an Initiate. It is forbidden for Initiates to touch women, and, of course, for women to touch them. Initiates also avoid meat and beans. I stopped for a moment to watch an amusing race. Several slave girls are aligned, on all fours, poised, their heads down. Then, carefully, a line of beans, one to a girl, is placed before them. She must then, on all fours, push the bean before her, touching it only with her nose. The finish line was a few yards away. "I would have thought," said Marcus, "that Ar might have rejoiced these days to obtain even the services of a lad with a beanshooter." "On such a boor, and barbarian," she said, "the bean garden of a peasant would be wasted."
"Actually," I said to Elizabeth, "this is very rare. Thentis does not trade the beans for black wine. I have heard of a cup of black wine in Ar, some years ago, selling for a silver eighty-piece. Even in Thentis black wine is used commonly only in High Caste homes." "Perhaps it is from Earth?" she asked. "Originally, doubtless beans were brought from Earth," I said, "much as certain other seeds, and silk worms and such, but I doubt very much that the ship I saw last night had in its cargo anything as trivial as the beans for black wine." In Thentis, for example, sleen are used to smell out contraband, in the form of the unauthorized egress of the beans for black wine from the Thentian territories. Steaming black wine, with its trays of sugars and creams, one of which I bore, and liqueurs, some apparently from as far away as Turia, were being served. Black wine is expensive. The plants from which its seeds are obtained apparently grow favorably, perhaps even most favorably, on the slopes of the Thentis Mountains, an area under the jurisdiction of the mountain city of Thentis. The trade in black wine is closely controlled by the so-called "vintners" of Thentis. For example, it is forbidden to take viable black-wine seeds or plants from the vicinity of Thentis. And, as one would suppose, the sale of the roasted seeds from which the black wine is brewed is carefully supervised and regulated. Doubtless some smuggling occurs. Where such plants are found, illegitimately planted, at least from the point of view of the Thentis "vintners," they are uprooted and destroyed. Similarly, smugglers, if apprehended, are often dealt with harshly, by impalement, or servitude in the mines, quarries, or galleys. This policing is commonly done by representatives of the "vintners" of Thentis, but it is sometimes hired out to the caste of Assassins, which constitutes the nearest thing to an international police force on Gor, a force subject neither to the constraints of walls, borders, or Home Stones. Most public eating establishments cannot afford to serve black wine. There are several cases where a female slave has been exchanged for a cup of the beverage. Needless to say, the serving of this beverage at our small collation, or feast, was an indication of the formidable wealth, and widely ranging connections, of Decius Albus, trade advisor to the Ubar of Ar, a man named Marlenus. Whereas the plants from which the seeds, or beans, for black wine are brewed may have been native to Gor, I rather suspected that their world of origin might have lain far away, perhaps on another world.
I saw too, fields, fenced with rocks, in the sloping area. In them were growing, small at this season, shafts of Sa-Tarna; too, there would be peas, and beans, cabbages and onions, and patches of the golden sul, capable of surviving at this latitude. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 81
At the oasis will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow; and beans, berries, onions tuber suls, various sorts of melons, a foliated leaf vegetable, called Katch, and various root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, radishes, of the sphere and cylinder varieties, and korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded. At the oasis, because of the warm climate, the farmers can grow two or more crops a year. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 37
"Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash. "Are you from a Waniyanpi compound?" I asked. The Waniyanpi, slaves of red savages, lived in tiny, isolated agricultural communities. They supplied their masters with corn and vegetables.
"I have peas and turnips, garlic and onions in my hut," said the man, his bundle like a giant's hump on his back.
At the oasis will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow; and beans, berries, onions tuber suls, various sorts of melons, a foliated leaf vegetable, called Katch, and various root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, radishes, of the sphere and cylinder varieties, and korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded. At the oasis, because of the warm climate, the farmers can grow two or more crops a year. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 37
At the oasis will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow; and beans, berries, onions tuber suls, various sorts of melons, a foliated leaf vegetable, called Katch, and various root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, radishes, of the sphere and cylinder varieties, and korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded. At the oasis, because of the warm climate, the farmers can grow two or more crops a year. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 37 I detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying, on the stones, where they had been scattered from my supper the evening before.
They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash. Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 234 The reason that Waniyanpi breeding takes place in a maize field, incidentally, seems to he that, in the medicine beliefs of the red savages, the example of their breeding is supposed to encourage the maize to flourish. Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 157 "Surely you have frightened fleer from the maize, gardened and picked produce," I said. 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. I scanned the skies. "Let us get out of the open," I said. "Let us go to the maize, near the platform." Approaching, along the side of the maize field, coming from the direction of the palisade and buildings in the distance was a group of Waniyanpi. "Where is the other lance?" Pumpkin asked Carrot. "Hidden, near the edge of the maize field," said Carrot. 'Natu' designates corn silk, or the tassel on the maize plant; it can also stand for the hair on the side of the head.
"I am an Alar," Hurtha explained. "Have a stuffed mushroom." I pondered the likely prices of a stuffed mushroom in a black-market transaction in a war-torn district, one turned into a near desert by the predations of organized foragers, in particular, the price of such a mushroom perhaps diverted at great hazard from the tables of Cosian generals. "Have two," said Hurtha. My heart suddenly began to beat with great alarm. "This is a great deal of food," I said, "to have been purchased by seventeen copper tarsks, and two tarsk bits." That was, as I recalled, the sum total of the monetary wealth which Hurtha had brought with him to the supply train, that or something much in its neighborhood. "Oh," said Hurtha, "it cost more than that." "I had thought it might," I said. "Have a mushroom," said Hurtha. "They are quite good." "What did all this cost?" I asked. "I do not recall," said Hurtha. "But half of the change is yours." "How much change do you have?" I asked. "Fourteen copper tarsks," he said. "You may keep them," I said. "Very well," he said. "I am quite hungry, Hurtha," said Boabissia. "May I have some food?" "Would you like to beg?" he asked. "No," she said. "Oh, very well," said Hurtha. He then held out to her the plate of mushrooms. It did not seem to me that she needed to take that many. "Ah, Mincon, my friend, my dear fellow," said Hurtha. "Come, join us?" I supposed he, too, would dive into the mushrooms. Still, one could not begrudge dear Mincon some greed in this matter, for he was a fine driver, and a splendid fellow. We had been with him now four days on the road. To be sure, we had received a late start on each of these days, and each day later than the preceding. It was difficult to get an early start with slaves such as Tula and Feiqa in the blankets. Boabissia, a free woman, must wait for us, of course, while we pleasured ourselves with the slaves. I think she did not much enjoy this. At any rate, she occasionally seemed somewhat impatient. Too, her irritability suggested that her own needs, and rather cruelly, might quite possibly be upon her. Feiqa and Tula, those lovely properties, hovered in the background. I supposed that they, too, would want to be fed. I dared not speculate at what time we might be leaving in the morning. I hoped we could arouse Mincon and Hurtha at least by noon. There was even paga and ka-la-na. Mincon began to pick mushrooms off the plate and feed them to Tula. Did he not know she was a slave? "Thank you, Master," she said, being fed by hand. Sometimes slaves are not permitted to touch food with their own hands. Sometimes, in such a case, they are fed by hand; at other times their food might be thrown to them or put out for them in pans, and such, from which then, not using their hands, on all fours, head down, they must feed, in the manner of she-quadrupeds, or slaves, if it be the master's pleasure. Another mushroom disappeared. Had Tula not had some bread earlier? "Have a mushroom," said Hurtha. Mincon even gave a mushroom to Feiqa. I was watching. He was certainly a generous fellow with those mushrooms. "No, thank you," I said. I wondered if, in the eating of such a mushroom, one became an inadvertent accomplice in some heinous misadventure. "They are good," Hurtha insisted. "I am sure they are," I said. I was particularly fond of stuffed mushrooms. There was no problem for the slaves, of course. No one would blame them, any more than one would blame a pet sleen for eating something thrown his way. Mincon and Boabissia might get off, I thought, watching them eat. After all, they did not know where the food came from. Mincon was a trusted driver, and a well-known good fellow. Boabissia was fresh from the wagons. She might be forgiven. Too, she was pretty. Hurtha, of course, might be impaled. I wondered if I counted as being guilty in this business whether I ate a mushroom or not. I knew where they came from, for example. It would be too bad to be impaled, I thought, and not have had a mushroom, at all. "What are they stuffed with?" I asked Hurtha. "Sausage," he said. "Tarsk?" I asked. "Of course," he said. "My favorite," I said. "I shall have one." "Alas," said Hurtha. "They are all gone." "Oh," I said. "Say," I said, "there seems to be a fellow lurking over there, by the wagons." Hurtha turned about, looking. It was undoubtedly a supply officer. I supposed it would be wrong to put a knife between his ribs. I did, however, for at least a moment, feverishly consider the practicalities that might be involved in doing so. "Ho!" cried Hurtha, cheerfully, to the fellow. The fellow, who was a bit portly, shrank back, as though in alarm, near one of the wagons. Perhaps he was not a supply officer. He did not have a dozen guardsmen at his back, for instance. "Do you know him?" I asked. "Of course," said Hurtha. "He is my benefactor!" I looked again. "Come," called Hurtha, cheerily. "Join us! Welcome!" I feared the fellow was about to take to his heels. "I am sorry the mushrooms are all gone," said Hurtha to me. "That is all right," I said. "Try a spiced verr cube," he suggested. "Perhaps later," I said, uneasily. The portly fellow near the wagon had not approached, nor either had he left. He seemed to be signaling me, or attempting to attract my attention. But perhaps that was my imagination. When Hurtha glanced about he did not, certainly, seem to be doing so. I did not know him, as far as I knew. "They are very good," said Hurtha, "though, to be sure, they are not a match for the stuffed mushrooms." "You asked her a question, beloved daughter," said Lord Yamada. "She responded as best she could. Dismiss her. Permit her to continue serving." He then addressed the other diners. "Note the kelp, the bamboo shoots, the fish, the lotus roots, and mushrooms."
"I have peas and turnips, garlic and onions in my hut," said the man, his bundle like a giant's hump on his back. He trust an onion and a crust of bread into my hands. "Take this," he said. "Dorna the Proud," said the slave, who tumbled onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes and bread into the feed trough. I did not much care for the crusts, and the onions and peas, on which we fed, but I did not expect to be eating them long. I and the others, from our pans, were eating one of our four daily rations of bread, onions and peas. We were passing a water skin about among us. I put down my pan of bread, onions and peas, sliding it under the bench. I might want it later. I reached under my rowing bench. There, dented, its contents half spilled, itself floating in an inch or two of sea found my pan of bread, onions and peas.
"I have peas and turnips, garlic and onions in my hut," said the man, his bundle like a giant's hump on his back. "Point for both," announced the man-at-arms. The food at the table of Cernus was good, but it was plain, rather severe, like the master of the House. I had tarsk meat and yellow bread with honey, Gorean peas and a tankard of diluted Ka-la-na, warm water mixed with wine. I did not much care for the crusts, and the onions and peas, on which we fed, but I did not expect to be eating them long. I and the others, from our pans, were eating one of our four daily rations of bread, onions and peas. The great merchant galleys of Port Kar, and Cos, and Tyros, and other maritime powers, utilized thousands of such miserable wretches, fed on brews of peas and black bread,
"Dorna the Proud," said the slave, who tumbled onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes and bread into the feed trough.
I looked at the four new wagons which had been added to the retinue. The wagon which I had seen earlier, the supply wagon, was now almost empty, the food supplies perhaps being diminished as the peregrination neared its end, and the poles and tenting, of course, being used in the sheltering for the camp. The other four wagons, however, were fully loaded, largely, it seemed, with produce and coarse goods. It is not unusual for a Gorean city to have several villages in its vicinity, these customarily supplying it with meat and produce. These villages may or may not be tributary to the city. It is common, of course, for a city to protect those villages, whether they are tributary to the city or not, which make use of its market. If a village markets in a given city, that city, by Gorean custom, stands as its shield, a relationship which, of course, works to the advantage of both the villages and city, the city receiving produce in its markets, the villages receiving the protection of the city's soldiers. I heard a second wagon being driven from the camp. I thought it might be one of the produce wagons, but, as it later turned out, the treasure freight of the dowry wagon had been divided between two wagons, the produce in one discarded, to lighten the load and make driving swifter. "Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash. "There were many vegetables in the stew," I said to Cuwignaka, pretending not to notice the intensity between Canka and Winyela. Indeed, we had had to eat much of the stew from small bowls, filled by Winyela with a kailiauk-bone ladle. Some larger pieces of vegetable and meat, we had, however, in the informal fashion of the Barrens, taken from the pot on our knives. Canka, perhaps because company was present, or because he wished to further impress her slavery upon her, had fed Winyela. This is occasionally done with a slave. It helps to remind them that they are domestic animals, and that they are dependent for their very food upon their master. I had noticed, during the meal, how she had taken food from his fingers, biting and sucking, and kissing, furtively at them. During the course of the meal she had been becoming more and more excited. Too, I had thought that Canka had given her smaller bits and pieces, and had held on to them more tightly, than was necessary to merely feed her. "That is unusual, isn't it?" I asked. "Yes," said Cuwignaka. "That is produce, for the most part, from the fields of the Waniyanpi." "I had thought it might be," I said. The Waniyanpi were, substantially, agricultural slaves. They farmed and gardened, and did other work for their red masters. "Were men sent forth to the compounds to fetch the produce?" I asked. "The Waniyanpi have delivered it," said Cuwignaka. "It is done that way when it is the great camp which is in question." "I see," I said. During the feasting times, those generally correlated with the coming of the kailiauk, the locations of the great camps of the various tribes were well known. This made feasible the delivery of produce, something which would be correspondingly impractical most of the year, when the tribes had separated into scattered bands, and sometimes even smaller units, with temporary, shifting camps. "Are there Waniyanpi now in camp?" I asked. "Yes," said Cuwignaka, "but they will be leaving soon." "How soon?" I asked. "I do not know," said Cuwignaka. "I met some Waniyanpi," I said. "They were from a place they referred to as 'Garden Eleven.' I wonder if those in camp would be from there." "We do not," said Pumpkin. "We came afoot, dragging travois, laden with our produce, in the charge of a boy." "Surely you have frightened fleer from the maize, gardened and picked produce," I said. "Suls, Turpah, Vangis!" I heard a woman call, sitting amidst baskets, hawking her produce. Doubtless many times she would have held herself a thousand times superior to the poor peasant women, coming in from the villages, in their bleached woolen robes, bringing their sacks and baskets of grain and produce to the city's markets. "I thought you could find no roots." I smiled. "Some were left in the garden," she said. "I remembered them. I came back for them. There was very little left though. Others obviously had come before me. These things were missed. They are poor stuff. We used to use the produce of that garden for tarsk feed." The tenth Ahn was the Gorean noon. The square would be crowded at that time. To be sure, it is crowded in different ways at different times, during the day. In the morning the peasants come in from the countryside and spread out their blankets, and arrange their baskets of produce. I did not think that Dietrich would be starved out. He was holding Torcadino with only some five thousand men, and that many, I thought, might subsist on produce grown within the city, in yards, in torn-up streets, in roof gardens, and such. The civilian population, helpfully, had been for the most part expelled from the city shortly after its capture. An exception had been made, of course, for enslaved women of interest. One of the duties of these women, many of high caste, now enslaved, would doubtless be the tending of the soldiers' gardens. There were, of course, the pans, pots, utensils, lamps, pails, and such, which, on shelves and dangling from poles, she supposed might have suggested the name of the market, but there were also stalls, as well, specializing in many other forms of goods, for example, stalls of fruits and vegetables, and produce of various sorts, In the festival camp there were many forms of merchandise, other than the flesh loot, such as she, of Cosian conquests, merchandise such as produce, meat, leather and metal work, cloth, cabinetry, artifacts, tools, weapons, remedies, wagons, carts, precious stones, and such. We reached the shop of Epicrates well before the bar signifying the end of curfew. In another Ahn or so, some of the smaller gates would open, and many Peasants, with their baskets and sacks of fresh produce, would begin to make their way to the various markets in the city. The Cove of Harpalos was not heavily trafficked, but it was, in effect, the port by means of which several inland villages, bartering the produce of their gardens and orchards, could reach the sea. I descended from the parapet and made my way to the town gate, which had now been opened, to allow the ingress of carts, filled with produce.
"Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.
"Who is the new Tatrix?" I asked. "Dorna the Proud," said the slave, who tumbled onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes and bread into the feed trough.
"Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash.
We permitted Cara to run free. Tina, on the other hand, had been kept in the slave strap and bracelets, except when she was working in the kitchen area, cooking, and peeling suls and such. "She has good legs," said Ottar. We were quite close to them; neither of them saw us. Thyri, in the afternoon, had made many trips to the sul patch. Sul paga is, when distilled, though the Sul itself is yellow, as clear as water. The Sul is a tuberous root of the Sul plant; it is a Gorean staple. I cut at the soil with the hoe, chopping and loosening the dirt about the roots of the sul plant. I cut again at the soil with the hoe, chopping down, loosening the dirt about the roots of the sul plants. I cut again at the soil with the hoe, chopping down, loosening the dirt about the roots of the sul plants. I wanted to throw myself down and weep, but the suls must be hoed. I chopped at the dry earth about the sul plant. I had been twenty days slave at Tabuk's Ford. The peasant hoe has a staff some six feet in length. Its head is iron, and heavy, some six inches at the cutting edge, tapering to four inches where it joins the staff. It is fastened to the staff by the staff's fitting through a hollow, ringlike socket at its termination. A wedge is driven into the head of the staff to expand and tighten the wood in the socket. "Put on your tunic," said Melina to me. "Get a hoe. Go to the sul fields. Hoe suls. Bran Loort will fetch you and bring you back when it is time. Speak to no one." I chopped at the dry earth about the sul plant. I cut down at the suls. I was to say nothing. I was alone in the fields. I lifted the heavy hoe, with the stout staff and great metal blade, again and again. It was terribly hot work, and hard. My back hurt. My hands hurt. My muscles ached. I worked hard, very hard, for I was a peasant's girl. Such girls are not treated gently if they do not do full work. I did nor with to be whipped. "Suls, Turpah, Vangis!" I heard a woman call, sitting amidst baskets, hawking her produce. "We need no more of you refugees here," snapped a woman, a seller of suls at the Teiban Market. He then went about his business. The woman near us, sitting on a blanket on the stones, her basket of suls before her, looked up. "Do you want suls?" she asked. "No," I said. "Be gone, then," she said. I watched a free woman hobble by, carrying a sack of suls on her back. So I followed her through the market, my head down, until we reached a stall, where the Lady Bina I standing beside her, bargained for a stone of suls. It was late in the day, and the prices tend to be lower at such a time. I now had no fear, at least at present, at least until winter, of starving in the forest. Other than Tur-Pah, I could recognize the leafage which betokened Suls, usually found in the open, in drier, sandier soils,
About the beasts' necks, and behind the saddles, hung panniers of grain and sacks of woven netting containing dried larmas and brown suls. Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 36
The principal ingredients of Sullage are the golden Sul, the starchy, golden-brown vine-borne fruit of the golden-leaved Sul plant; Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 44 The Tarn Keeper, who was called by those in the tavern Mip, bought the food, bosk steak and yellow bread, peas and Torian olives, and two golden-brown, starchy Suls, broken open and filled with melted bosk cheese. "See him, the peasant, there, he, the fourth in the line, those men carrying suls!" Ellen did indeed see the figure referred to by her companion, but noted little of interest, or little out of the ordinary. To be sure, the man who was fourth in the line, a line of some ten or eleven men, was a very large man, an unusually large man, but many of those of the Peasants are well built, even massive. His hair was long and unkempt, his tunic ragged. He was bearded. He was partly bent over, as were the others, carrying, tied on a frame, in a large, open, netlike sack, large and bulging, a considerable quantity of suls, these golden-skinned, suls, a common, tuberous Gorean vegetable. They were doubtless on their way, coming from one of the nearby villages, to one of the wholesale sul markets in the city. "There are golden suls," said Lord Yamada "with butter and cream, from our own dairy."
Four docksmen passed, each bearing on his shoulder a bulging, porous, loosely woven sack of reddish suls. Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 81
I heard a snuffling, and grunting, to one side, and stopped. There were three small tarsks there, rooting, only a few paces away. Some tarsks are extremely large, so large that they are sometimes hunted in the open plains with lances, from tarnback, but these were no larger than verr. The boar can be dangerous, with its short temper and curved, slashing tusks, but I saw no boar here, and, in any event, they are most dangerous in the spring, when marking out territory. They were rooting, of course, and this meant food. I waited for a time, and then, when they had drifted on, rooting elsewhere, investigated their rooting place, with its turned, gouged ground. I found some small, tuberous roots which had been missed, or rejected. I did not know what they were, but from the texture of the root and its starchiness, I would have supposed some tiny variety of wild Sul.
One, too, dug him tubers, wild suls, Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 183 I knew enough of the forest within the wands to recognize many things outside them which might be eaten; leafy Tur-Pah, parasitic on Tur trees, of course, but, too, certain plants whose roots were edible, as the wild Sul; and there were flat ground pods in tangles which I could tear open, iron fruit whose shells might be broken between rocks, and autumn gim berries, purple and juicy, perhaps named for the bird, whose cast fruit lies under the snow, the seeds surviving until spring, when one in a thousand might germinate. Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 243 I heard a snuffling, and grunting, to one side, and stopped. There were three small tarsks there, rooting, only a few paces away. Some tarsks are extremely large, so large that they are sometimes hunted in the open plains with lances, from tarnback, but these were no larger than verr. The boar can be dangerous, with its short temper and curved, slashing tusks, but I saw no boar here, and, in any event, they are most dangerous in the spring, when marking out territory. They were rooting, of course, and this meant food. I waited for a time, and then, when they had drifted on, rooting elsewhere, investigated their rooting place, with its turned, gouged ground. I found some small, tuberous roots which had been missed, or rejected. I did not know what they were, but from the texture of the root and its starchiness, I would have supposed some tiny variety of wild Sul.
"I have peas and turnips, garlic and onions in my hut," said the man, his bundle like a giant's hump on his back. "Who is the new Tatrix?" I asked. "Dorna the Proud," said the slave, who tumbled onions, turnips, radishes, potatoes and bread into the feed trough. "They supplement their diets by picking berries and digging wild turnips," said the first lad.
The principal ingredients of Sullage are the golden Sul, the starchy, golden-brown vine-borne fruit of the golden-leaved Sul plant; the curled, red, ovate leaves of the Tur-Pah, a tree parasite, cultivated in host orchards of Tur trees, Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Pages 44 - 45 Besides several of the flower trees there were also some Ka-la-na trees, or the yellow wine trees of Gor; there was one large-trunked, reddish Tur tree, about which curled its assemblage of Tur-Pah, a vinelike tree parasite with curled, scarlet, ovate leaves, rather lovely to look upon; the leaves of the Tur-Pah incidentally are edible and figure in certain Gorean dishes, such as sullage, a kind of soup; Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 217 "Release him!" cried a vendor of Tur-Pah, pushing through baskets of the vinelike vegetable. "There is a large stand of Tur trees, west of the dock, near the wands, well twined with Tur-Pah," said Relia. "Men with climbing tools have freed much of it. It has been drying on racks since yesterday. Soon, about the trunk of a tree, one of two so adorned, or afflicted, I saw, at a height I could reach, thick and coiling, a nest of Tur-Pah. I tore a length of it from the trunk about which it clung, its tiny, sharp roots anchored in the bark, and pulled away several of the heavy fleshy leaves. One would prefer Tur-Pah, certainly on a cool night, boiled in Sullage, or in some stew or even fried, salted, and honeyed, but, too, it is often, perhaps most often, eaten raw. It is the basic ingredient in most Gorean salads. I ladled the grain and vulo soup, seasoned with brown, ground tur-pah, carefully into the bowl. "Tur-pah, tur-pah," called a hawker, moving amongst the wagons.
"Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash. "For the day of breeding the men, hooded and in coffle, are marched between the small communities. On the day of breeding they are led to the selected women, already hooded, tied and awaiting them. The breeding takes place in the wagmeza fields, under the eyes of the masters."
"Many of the tribes permit small agricultural communities to exist within their domains," she said. "The individuals in these communities are bound to the son and owned collectively by the tribes within whose lands they are permitted to live. They grow produce for their masters, such as wagmeza and wagmu, maize, or corn, and such things as pumpkins and squash. |       | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
