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 Slave SisterThis is my narrative and relevant references from the Books where I discuss what one slave girl calls another. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban I had a question on this topic some time ago, the topic came up again in "Have A Question?" and it has also been a topic in places like Second Life and even Real Life. What does one slave girl call another? I used the word sister to search the whole series. And I really did expect to find many instances where this word is used by one girl to address another. But I was surprised to find . . . that just is not the case. Numerous girls, many, many times, in referring to other slaves, used terms such as kennel sister, chain sisters, sister slaves, pole sisters, coffle sister, collar sisters and sisters in bondage. But the use of "Sister" is simply not prevalent (in fact, almost nonexistent). However, finally, in book 34, I found this quote: My analysis of the overall theme of the books is that, even though the word sister is rarely used in a quoted sentence, using the term to address another girl would be acceptable. In other cases, girls referred to each other by name. Here is one example: Other times the term Slave was used, as in these examples: And another term is the word Slut, as shown here:
Here are supporting references where the word Sister is used in context: I suddenly realized, climbing the ramps of Laura toward the compound, leashed, under guard, carrying a jar of wine on my head, balancing it with my right hand, among my sisters in bondage, breathing the fantastic air of Gor, that I was happy. "I, and my five sisters in bondage, serve twenty men." "Are they easy to please?" asked Arlene. "No," said Constance. "Do you think me any the less conquered than Janice and Alice, my white sisters in bondage?" she asked. "Extinguish the lamps, my lovely sisters in bondage," said Aynur, pleasantly. "We are all sisters," she said. "I am no more than they." "You have pronounced yourself a slave," said Mahpiyasapa, wonderingly. "Yes, Master," she said. "Now," said Mahpiyasapa, "you are a slave, even if you were not before." "And you are low girl here," he said, "so you will address your chain sisters as 'Mistress' as well." "Yes, Master!" I cried. "No," laughed Corinna, "I am Gorean, and many of my Gorean collar sisters would look down on me for even speaking to an Earth-girl slave. The name 'Corinna' was put on me that I might see myself as no better than the lowliest of slaves. Too, I think my noble master, Peisistratus, finds the name sexually stimulating on a Gorean girl." I frankly see no reason to believe that the women of Earth, in general, are either better looking or not when compared with their Gorean sisters, nor, of course, that they are better or worse than we. "Allison," said Astrinax, "suppose that one of your sister slaves, in the kitchen, had been given a candy, perhaps as a tip from a customer, from waiting on the tables." "Thank you, Master," she breathes, licking and kissing the hand which has deigned to bestow so precious a gift upon her. How proud she is then, the possessor of so rare a treat, and how envied she will be amongst her chain sisters! Too, such garmenture is unflattering, and likely to solicit ridicule from one's sister slaves. My hopes of acquiring a suitable master had been muchly dashed after the burning of the gambling house, and my translation, with that of my chain sisters, to the Tarsk Market. Had they thought to sway a Gorean male? Had they no sense of the discipline under which their chain sister had been placed? "Would you not like, kajira," said Trachinos, "to have a pretty anklet? You might then be the envy of your sister slaves." More often I was given a harsh scolding before the other girls, concluded with a stroke or two of the switch. The point of this was more to demean and humiliate me before my sister slaves than really hurt me. I knew that Chloe was not happy that our first girl should be a barbarian. Indeed, I had gathered, from remarks by our Gorean chain sisters in the quarters, that such an appointment was rare. Even I was uncomfortable, though my slave fires had not yet begun to rage in the manner of several of my chain sisters. "Only a self-centered, simple, shallow, naive little brute," he said, "a trivial, selfish little beast, of inferior character, who would steal a candy from a sister slave, if it might be done with impunity." Her vaunted declaration, however, had brought her only derision and mockery from her chain sisters. How lost she was amongst us, so isolated and alone, reduced from her former status, and despised by her sister slaves. There was laughter from several of the other cages, and I gathered that the girl from Asperiche was not popular with her chain sisters. "Be still," said a coffle sister. She was still reserved with me, and regarded me with condescension, but would no longer strike me, or speak to me as she had originally, perhaps if only because doing so would offer her chain sisters an excellent, and welcome, pretext for administering, given the recent past, another unpleasant lesson in civility. How terrified had been several of my chain sisters even to think of being embarked on such a vessel. "I trust I will be permitted a tunic," I said. "It is not likely," he said. "Then I would be humiliated before my sister slaves," I said. For example, two of my friends, sister slaves, kennel sisters, Relia and Janina, I thought were quite beautiful. Surely, I thought, her gowning would be likely to produce contempt and amusement amongst her kennel sisters, if not actual envy and hostility. Several of her kennel sisters laughed. Such things, doubtless, would make her resented amongst her chain sisters, but, too, they would not seem to me indications of madness, and certainly not, if there were any ground for possible airs or pretensions. She struggled but was helpless in the hands of her chain sisters, two of whom maintained their grip on her arms, one on each side. And now, I thought will certain slaves regale their sisters in the pens with accounts of their value, how they were bartered for a measure or two of rice? "You sought to achieve an advantage over your sister slaves," I said, "who must display themselves as commanded, uniformly." "Why are not men, male slaves, or beasts, bosk or tharlarion, used to turn the mill?" I had asked one of my chain sisters. I thrust then, again, with a rattle of chains, harder, against the pole. My pole sisters laughed. "Mistress!" cried the girl to my left, alarmed. "The barbarian is ill, she is stricken, she has fainted!" Instantly my chain sisters stopped turning the mill. "How brave she is," marveled one of my chain sisters. I saw that the kitchen master, and my sister slaves, even Fina, understood no more of this than I. . . . Why are you not, amongst the porticoes and colonnades, chatting and gossiping with your collar sisters, seeking news, a word dropped in the tiers of the Central Cylinder becoming common knowledge by nightfall, not comparing collars and masters, not complaining about the recent quality of the tunic cloth, not whispering delightedly of the intrigues and doings of free women, and so on." The slaves are at the disposal of the men, as one would expect, but I, as a private slave, a status envied by my collar-sisters, was reserved to my master. "You are a barbarian," she sobbed. "So I am a thousand times less than you," I said, "but we are sister slaves. Do you think the collar is on your neck less than mine?" Interestingly, I feared not only the views of the free, but those of my sister slaves. Surely several of my sister slaves were more attractive than I, though, to be sure, much depends on the interests and tastes of a given master. I was even a barbarian. "What a fool she is," said one of my sister slaves. To my amazement my two sister slaves were freed of their chains in the hold and brought to the deck. I, as were my chain sisters, was now in a brief, wrap-about yellow tunic. "Yes, Master," I said, "I know." I was pleased that I knew this, at least, for I was acutely conscious of my ignorance of thousands of things Gorean. I was often derided by my chain-sisters, if I may use the term, for my ignorance. "Slave," I said. "Master?" she said. "While we wait for our tea to cool," I said, "perhaps you might, amongst your various duties, fill a pan with water, and take it outside the tavern, and cast it into the gutter, following which you might return and inform us if you have noted anything unusual in the vicinity." "Yes, Master," she said, and withdrew. "Withdraw," I said, "and encourage your chain sisters to leave the floor." What kajira is not eager to impress her collared sisters with the latest of her household's well-kept secrets? "My sisters now have the freedom of the deck of the Dorna," she said. Many native Gorean kajirae do not much care for their barbarian sisters. "Stay away from the bars!" screamed the slave who had seemed so prudishly, or intolerantly, opposed to the light-hearted banter and play of her collar sisters. After a time, some five or ten slaves returned to the enclosure, in water to their waist or thighs. They kept well to the center of the enclosure, away from the bars. Our sisters are brave," I said. "They are stupid," she said. I am sure that it had not escaped his attention that the original request had been uttered by Calla. I supposed that beautiful women, even slaves, were more likely to have their requests acceded to than those of their plainer sisters. The man was clearly ready to allow us to remain on deck. I hoped we would be permitted to do so. The house slaves commonly look down on the field slaves with contempt, feeling themselves far superior to their benighted sisters toiling in the fields and the field slaves, for their part, tend to despise their loftier sisters as smug, pampered she-urts undeserving of their soft lot. The fellow to whom the white-clad slave had addressed herself made his way, in the light of the White Moon, to the end of our coffle where he released calla. "Girl," said he to her, "pick four sisters, fellow chain-daughters, and follow me into the palace. We are going upstairs to do some shopping." "Yes, Master," said the slave. "Let me be marked. I beg to be marked!" "Now," said Gordon, "let her be greeted by her sister slaves." Surely I was under no obligation to disabuse others of mistaken assumptions, particularly if by so doing I would be likely to fare less well at the hands of sister slaves, who tend to be contemptuous of barbarians, or, worse, given what I knew and wished I did not know, place my life in jeopardy. "One encounters barbarians on Gor. Some rich men collect them. They add variety to a pleasure garden. And do not worry so much about your sister slaves. They will have their sport, spoil your gruel, hide your blanket, tell their jokes, ventilate their jealousies and annoyances, for a time, but, a bit later, they will see you as no more than another collar sister, one who will sell for a little more or a little less than themselves." "That seems to me mysterious. Now, I shall report what we have seen to the Shipment Master, in case he is unaware of it, and you may now, much to the chagrin of your collar sisters, have the exquisite pleasure of imparting to them the anomaly of the misplaced ul." To possess knowledge not known to other slaves, and to impart such knowledge, perhaps furtively and secretly, bit by bit, and especially prematurely, commonly, exponentially, enhances the status, prestige, and importance of a slave amongst her collar sisters, especially if it is knowledge, gossip, or such, which Masters would presumably wish have withheld from them. "I, with my follower, my colleague and associate, Mira," she said. "Your worthless collar sister," he said. "Yes, Master," she said, "I, followed by my worthless collar sister, Mira - escaping many dangers and fierce uls, discovering a formidable enemy lying in wait for your fleet of barges, transporting the goods of the noble Master Tenalian, put aside all thoughts of personal safety and, at great personal risk, in the lonely, vast, trackless, watery wilderness of the delta, imperiled by tharlarion, quicksand, serpents, sharks, and Rencers, fought my way to your side, to bring you intelligence without which you would surely have been destroyed." "Might have been sorely discomfited," suggested the barge-master. "Forgive the detail, Master," she said, "but I wish it to be clear, for my sake and that of simple truth, the extent of the risk, sacrifice, hardship, and heroism involved in my saving the barges, and, doubtless, many lives, including that of my collar sister, Mira." "We have some understanding, however imperfect," said the barge-master, "of what was involved." "Thus Master," she said, "I am confident that I may depend upon your sense of honor, so prized by you as an officer, and your recognition of fittingness, so precious to you as a man of probity and judgment, to express your appreciation of my deed, and recompense me accordingly." "What of your collar sister?" he asked. "She, too, surely," said Temione. "You are Mira?" he said. "If it pleases, Master," I said. "I fear your collar sister was displeasing," he said. I shuddered. "Do not damage your new collar-sister," warned the floor manager who had signed the receipt. "Masters," they called, "patronize the Red Whip! Fine food and better paga. Rooms set aside for kaissa and stones. See our dancers. Hear our musicians. Our alcoves are plush and well furnished. Our eager, needful girls beg to be taught the meaning of their collars! Welcome, noble Masters. Are we and our sisters not of interest?" I noted a sudden freshness, or liveliness, in the solicitations of my collar-sisters below, on either side of the entrance. A tavern's man had emerged from the tavern. I made it a point not to look at him. "Enter noble Masters," I called to those below. "Sample the delights of the Red Whip! Sample the delights of the Red Whip!" I also put my hand and arm out between the bars. Shortly thereafter, happily, he returned inside. Whereas this seeming reduction in status may at first have stung her vanity somewhat, this annoyance was far more than compensated for by a substantial reduction in the scorn and abuse to which many of her collar-sisters had been wont to subject her. I cast about wildly for a moment, panic-stricken, my mind blank, and then blurted out the first name that came to mind, certainly an obvious Earth name, even one familiar, that of a former fellow worker at the observatory and, later, a chain sister. "Eileen Bennett!" I said. "I cried out my needs in my sleep," she said. "I could not help it. I was beaten awake by my outraged sisters. I was confronted. I confessed the power and constancy of obsessive thoughts, the recurrent, insistent pleading of a deep, secret self." "Go, Mira, Xanthe," said Rupert of Hochburg, gesturing in the direction in which the Panther Girls had fled, "your sisters may need care; you may be needed." He commonly kept me on all fours, and, when we went about, on a leash. I gathered that this was to simplify and ease my custody. How much easier this made it to have me in view and at hand! My sister slaves found this durance imposed on me amusing. "Thank you," I said to Xanthe, "for your concern, for all that you have done." "It is nothing," she said. "We are collar-sisters." "Your fourteen chain sisters are Gorean," I said. "Plead for their help." "They will not help me," she said. "Because you are a barbarian?" I said. "Yes," she said. |       | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
