Bazi Plague

"Few would deny that the caste of Initiates are parasites," said Portus Canio, who held no great brief for that caste. Supposedly the caste of Initiates praised Priest-Kings, offered regular and special sacrifices, interceded with them on behalf of men, interpreted their will to men, and such. Famines, plagues, floods, storms, meteors, comets, eclipses, earthquakes, lightning, and such would all receive their interpretations, and would be dealt with by means of prayers, spells, mystic signs, the brandishing of fetish objects, the ringing of anointed, consecrated bars, and such. Ritual performances, ceremonies, and such, abounded. Most cities had their temples. High Initiates might receive gold from Ubars, low Initiates copper from the poor."
Prize of Gor     Book 27     Page 571

I was pleased to note that my own caste, that of the Warriors, was accorded the least status; if I had had my will, the warriors would not have been a High Caste. On the other hand, I objected to the Initiates being in the place of honor, as it seemed to me that they, even more than the Warriors, were nonproductive members of society. For the Warriors, at least, one could say that they afforded protection to the city, but for the Initiates one could say very little, perhaps only that they provided some comfort for ills and plagues largely of their own manufacture.
Tarnsman of Gor     Book 1     Page 62

There were also considerations to the effect that the rune-priests would be distressed if the oaths were broken, and that the gods, too, might not look lightly upon such a violation of faith, and might, too, more seriously, evidence their displeasure by such tokens as blights, plagues, hurricanes and famines.
Marauders of Gor     Book 9     Page 189

Two men from the desk of the nearest wharf praetor, he handling wharves six through ten, a scribe and a physician, boarded the ship. The scribe carried a folder with him. He would check the papers of Ulafi, the registration of the ship, the arrangements for wharfage and the nature of the cargo. The physician would check the health of the crew and slaves. Plague, some years ago, had broken out in Bazi, to the north, which port had then been closed by the merchants for two years. In some eighteen months it had burned itself out, moving south and eastward. Bazi had not yet recovered from the economic blow. Schendi's merchant council, I supposed, could not be blamed for wishing to exercise due caution that a similar calamity did not befall their own port.

The scribe, with Ulafi, went about his business. I, with the crew members, submitted to the examination of the physician. He did little more than look into our eyes and examine our forearms. But our eyes were not yellowed nor was there sign of the broken pustules in our flesh.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 117 - 118

She was skillful and, I suspected, from the use of the hands and beads, had been trained in Ianda, a merchant island north of Anango. Certain figures are formed with the hands and beads which have symbolic meaning, much of which was lost upon me, as I was not familiar with the conventions involved. Some, however, I had seen before, and had been explained to me. One was that of the free woman, another of the whip, another of the yielding, collared slave. Another was that of the thieving slave girl, and another that of the girl summoned, terrified, before the master. Each of these, with the music and followed by its dance expression, was very well done. Women are beautiful and they make fantastic dancers.

One of the figures done was that of a girl, a slave, who encounters one who is afflicted with plague. She, a slave, knows that if she should contract the disease she would, in all probability, be summarily slain. She dances her terror at this. This was followed by the figure of obedience, and that by the figure of joy.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 133 - 134

The paga attendant, he who was closest to me of the crowd, was looking at me, intently. I did not understand this. He edged uneasily backward. I did not understand this. I had not threatened him.

"A silver tarsk to the man who can find me that girl," I said.

The black girls looked at one another. "She was only a pot girl," said one of them.

"A silver tarsk," I said, repeating my offer, "to he who can find me that slave."

"Look at his eyes," said the paga attendant, backing away another step.

She could not have been gone long. I must hunt her in the streets.

Suddenly the dancer on the sand threw her hands before her face, and screamed. Then she pointed at me.

"It is the plague!" she cried. "It is the plague!"

The paga attendant, stumbling, turned and ran. "Plague!" he cried. Men fled from the tavern. I stood alone by the wall. Tables had been overturned. Paga was spilled upon the floor.

The tavern seemed, suddenly, eerily quiet. Even the paga girls had fled.

I could hear shouting outside, in the streets, and screaming. "Call guardsmen!" I heard. "Kill him," I heard. "Kill him!"

I walked over to a mirror. I ran my tongue over my lips. They seemed dry. The whites of my eyes, clearly, were yellow. I rolled up the sleeve of my tunic and saw there, on the flesh of the forearm, like black blisters, broken open, erupted, a scattering of pustules.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 135

"Master!" cried Sasi.

"Do not fear," I said to her. "I am not ill. But we must leave this place quickly."

"Your face," she said. "It is marked!"

"It will pass," I said. I unlocked her bracelets and slipped them into my pouch.

"I fear I may be traced here," I said. "We must change lodgings."

I had left the paga tavern by a rear door and then swung myself up to a low roof, and then climbed to a higher one. I had made my way over several roofs until I had found a convenient and lonely place to descend. I had then, wrapped in the discarded aba of Kunguni, made my way through the streets to the Cove of Schendi. Outside, from the wharves and from the interior of the city, I could hear the ringing of alarm bars.

"Plague!" men were crying in the streets.

"Are you not ill, Master?" asked Sasi.

"I do not think so," I said.

I knew that I had not been in a plague area. Too, the Bazi plague had burned itself out years ago. No cases to my knowledge had been reported for months. Most importantly, perhaps, I simply did not feel ill. I was slightly drunk and heated from the paga, but I did not believe myself fevered. My pulse and heartbeat, and respiration, seemed normal. I did not have difficulty catching my breath. I was neither dizzy nor nauseous, and my vision was clear. My worst physical symptoms were the irritation about my eyes and the genuinely nasty itchiness of my skin. I felt like tearing it off with my own fingernails.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 136

"If I am caught, and it is thought that I have the plague," I said, "you will doubtless be exterminated before I am."

"Let us not dally," she said.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 137

"My pursuit of you was foiled," I said, "by the results of the drug you placed in my paga."

"The drug," said Shaba, "was a simple combination of sajel, a simple pustulant, and gieron, an unusual allergen.

Mixed they produce a facsimile of the superficial symptoms of Bazi plague."

"I could have been killed," I said, "by the mob."

"I did not think many would care to approach you," said Shaba.

"It was not your intention then that I be killed?" I asked.

"Certainly not," said Shaba. "If that was all that was desired, kanda might have been introduced into your drink as easily as sajel and gieron."

"That is true," I said.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 154 - 155

"Do not fear," I said to Pembe. "It was only a passing indisposition."

His hands shook.

"Look," I said. "See. I do not have the plague."

"Your skin," said he, "is truly clear, and, too, your eyes."

"Of course," I said.

"You are well?" he asked, uncertainly.

"Of course," I said.

"Welcome to the Golden Kailiauk," he said, relieved.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 170

"Fear the ruined bodies before you, between us, at your very feet," said Tiskias. "Be away! Dread the contagion. It spreads more swiftly than the Bazi plague. Even now it reaches out for you."
Treasure of Gor     Book 38     Page 655