The short answer to your question is no, this cannot be confirmed via quote.
But let's reason on this. . . .
If you read what is written, and do not add more words, we find that the Mamba tribe was destroyed. Certainly at least all but wiped out.
There was only one group of the Mamba people. Notice page 399 says "Within THE stockade of the Mamba people". All the Mambas lived within a single stockage / village. So this could not possibly have been hundreds certainly not thousands of Mambas.
And the Chieftain of the Mamba people was killed by Kisu during the ant attack. Notice pages 403 and 404 it says "THE Chieftain of the Mamba people". It does not say the Chieftain of THIS tribe of the Mamba people.
Based upon what is written and what the small people said in reference, this tribe of Mambas is all there were. And the small people even mention that this is their country. They would know, better than anyone, if there were more Mamba people.
Obviously a few of the Mambas escaped the destruction of their village. Could we now say some of these trekked through the jungle, moved into cities and took up Caste?
Look at a map of Gor and imagine, let's say, a dozen Mambas somehow decided to leave the jungle and go north, survived the trip across the equator and the Plains of Sanchez finally arriving at Brundisium to the west or Torcadino to the east.
Or they trekked south, somehow crossed over the Ta-Thassa mountains and happened to find Turia.
Either way, they would have no conception of city life, what to do, how to integrate, or even how to communicate.
But, COULD it happen? Sure, in the wild world of make-believe Gor, anything is possible.
Following now are all the references to the Mamba People:
"Tarl," whispered Ayari.
"Yes," I said.
"We must leave this village," he said.
. . .
"What is wrong?" I asked.
"I have been looking about the village in the darkness," he whispered.
"Yes?" I said.
"I have found the refuse dump," he said.
"Within the walls?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"That is strange," I said. Normally a village would have its refuse dump outside the walls.
"I thought it strange, too," said Ayari. "I took the liberty of examining it."
"Yes?" I said.
"It contains human bones," he said.
"That is doubtless why it is kept within the walls," I said.
"I think so," said Ayari. "That way strangers will not see it before, unsuspecting, they enter the village."
"They seemed friendly fellows," I said. They were, however, I admitted to myself, not the most attractive lot I had ever seen. Their teeth had been filed to points.
"I never trust a man," said Ayari, "until I know what he eats."
"Where are the men of the village?" I asked.
"They are not asleep," said Ayari. "They are gathered in one of the huts."
"I shall awaken Janice and Alice," I said. "Awaken Kisu and Tende."
"I shall do so," he whispered.
In a few Ehn, our things in hand, we crept from the village. By the time we heard men crying out in rage, and saw torches on the shore, we were safely on the river.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 382 - 384
"Kisu!" I called, alarmed. "Ayari! Tende! Alice!"
Unmistakably in the small camp I saw the signs of struggle. Too, on the ground, I saw shed blood.
"They are gone," said the leader of the small men. "They were taken by the Mamba people, those who file their teeth."
The word 'Mamba' in most of the river dialects does not refer to a venomous reptile as might be expected, given its meaning in English, but, interestingly, is applied rather generally to most types of predatory river tharlarion. The Mamba people were, so to speak, the Tharlarion people. The Mamba people ate human flesh. So, too, does the tharlarion. It is thus, doubtless, that the people obtained their name.
"How do you know it was the Mamba people?" I asked.
"They came through the forest on foot," said the leader of the small people. "Doubtless they were following you. Doubtless they wished to surprise you."
"How do you know it was they?" I asked.
"We saw them," said one of the men.
"It is our country," said another. "We know much of what occurs here."
"Did you see the attack?" I asked.
"We did not wish to be too close," said another man.
"We are a small people," said another. "There were many of them, and they are large."
"We saw those of your party being led away," said another man.
"They were then alive," I said.
"Yes," said another man.
"Why did you not tell me of these things sooner?" I asked.
"We thought you knew of the attack," said one of the men, "and had fled, thus escaping."
"No," I said. "I was hunting."
"We will give you meat, if you wish," said one of the small men. "Our hunting earlier today was successful."
"I must attempt to rescue those of my party," I said.
"There are too many of the Mamba people," said one of the small men. "They have spears and knives."
"I must make the attempt," I said.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 393 - 394
"How many men may I have?" I asked.
"Two or three will be sufficient," said the leader of the small men, "but because we are so fond of you, I, and nine others, will accompany you."
"That is perhaps generous," I said, "but how do you propose that the camp of the Mamba people be stormed with so few men?"
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 398 - 399
Within the stockade of the Mamba people there was much light and noise. I could hear the sounds of their musical instruments, and the pounding of their drums. Within the stockade, too, we could hear the chanting of the people and the beating of sticks, carried in the hands of dancers.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 399
Within the stockade of the Mamba people there was much light and noise. I could hear the sounds of their musical instruments, and the pounding of the drums. Too, we could hear, within, the sounds of chanting and the beatings of the sticks carried in the hands of the dancers.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 401
Inside the stockade, given the feast of the village, the column would widen, spreading to cover in its crowded millions every square inch of earth, scouring each stick, each piece of straw, hunting for each drop of grease, for each flake of flesh, even if it be no more than what might adhere to the shed hair of a hut urt.
When I heard the first scream I hurled my rope to the top of the stockade, catching one of the palings in its noose.
I heard a man cry out with pain.
I scrambled over the stockade wall. A woman, not even seeming to see me, crying out with pain, fled past me. She held a child in her arms.
There was now a horrified shouting in the camp. I saw torches being thrust to the ground. Men were irrationally thrusting at the ground with spears. Others tore palm leaves from the roofs of huts, striking about them.
I hoped there were no tethered animals in the camp. Between two huts I saw a man rolling on the ground in frenzied pain.
I felt a sharp painful bite at my foot. More ants poured over the palings. Now, near the rear wall and spreading toward the center of the village, it seemed there was a growing, lengthening, rustling, living carpet of insects. I slapped my arm and ran toward the hut in which, originally, our party had been housed in this village. With my foot I broke through the sticks at its back.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 402 - 403
"Ants!" cried Ayari.
Alice cried out with pain.
We could hear them on the underside of the thatched roof. One fell from the roof and I brushed it from my shoulder.
Tende screamed, suddenly, bitten.
"Come this way," I told them. "Move with swiftness. Do not hesitate!"
We struck aside more sticks from the rear of the hut and emerged into the rustling darkness behind it.
People were fleeing the village. The stockade gate had been flung open. One of the huts was burning.
"Wait, Kisu!" I cried.
Alice cried out with misery.
Kisu, like a demented man, ran toward the great campfire in the center of the village. There, in the midst of people who did not even seem to notice him, he wildly overturned two great kettles of boiling water. Villagers screamed, scalded. The water sank into the earth. Kisu's legs were covered with ants. He buffeted a man and seized a spear from him.
"Kisu!" I cried. "Come back!" I then ran after him. A domestic tarsk ran past, squealing.
Kisu suddenly seized a man and hurled him about, striking him repeatedly with the butt of his spear, beating him as though he might be an animal. He then kicked him and drove him against the fence. It was the chieftain of the Mamba people. He drove the butt of the spear into the man's face, breaking his teeth loose. Then he thrust the blade of his spear into his belly and threw him on his face beside the wall. Again and again Kisu, as though beside himself with rage, drove the spear blade down into the man's legs until the tendons behind the knees were severed. He then, almost black with ants himself, shrieking, bit from the man's arm a mouthful of flesh which he then spat out. The chief, bleeding, cried out with misery. He lifted his hand to Kisu. Kisu turned about then and left him by the wall. "Hurry, Kisu!" I cried. "Hurry!" He then followed me. We looked back once. The chieftain of the Mamba people rolled screaming at the wall, and then, scratching and screaming, tried to drag himself toward the gate. The villagers, however, in their departure, had closed it, hoping thereby to contain the ants.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 403 - 404
