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 Level Of Slave TrainingHere are relevant references from the Books where the Level of Slave Training 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 Untrained Slow In Lessons Poorly Trained Semi-Trained Well Enough Trained Well Advanced Training Further Training Properly Trained Fully Trained Perfectly Trained Refreshed Southern Girl vs Northern Girl
An ordinary girl, of low caste, comely but untrained, might, depending on the market, sell for as little as five or as many as thirty tarn disks. "Are these truly silver masks of Tharna?" I asked Kron, skeptically. "Yes," said he. "Good, aren't they?" "How did they learn this?" I asked. He shrugged. "It is instinctive in a woman," he said. "But they are untrained of course." I laughed to myself. Kron of Tharna spoke as might any man of any city of Gor - other than a man of Tharna. "Why are they dancing for you?" asked Lara. "They will be whipped if they do not," said Kron. The slavers, by the way, indulge in speculation and manipulation whenever possible, trying to anticipate changes in fashion or control them. I suspected that the House of Cernus was attempting to create a need for barbarian girls, if only to add variety to a rich man's Pleasure Gardens girls of a sort it seemed it could supply in numbers not possible to competing slavers. The major obstacle to this plan, of course, was that barbarian girls tended to be ignorant and untrained. On the other hand, such girls might be trained, and I suspected that Cernus might have in mind some such experiment with Elizabeth. "Perhaps you want to buy her?" asked the man. "No," I said. The heavy-set man winked his sightless eye in my direction. His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "She's not trained," he said. "And she is as hard to manage as a sleen." Moreover, not every man wants to own an untrained barbarian slave, for such, even if given to them, must be fed and, this spring, as I could tell from walking about the camp, there was no shortage of girls, freshly collared and branded perhaps, untrained perhaps, but yet, and most importantly, Gorean, which most significantly Elizabeth Cardwell was not, and in my opinion could never be.
Frightened, Miss Blake-Allen straightened her back, and lifted her head. She knelt back on her heels, knees wide, hands on her thighs. It was the position of the Pleasure Slave. I had taught her the position. It is one of the first things a good-looking woman, fallen slave, is taught on Gor. "I wish," I said, "to board her, and purchase her some training." "We cage a wench for a copper tarsk per day," he said. "Training is extra, but, I think, reasonable." "She does not speak Gorean," I told him. He smiled. "She will learn swiftly," he said. Then the officer and I discussed details of training. He would include in her training the regime of the stimulation cage. For the first five nights, following my recommendation, she would wear the rope harness. After that it would be used, if necessary, for discipline. "Let her, however," I said, "meet the eyes of her trainer, and of other males. I do not wish her to become the love slave of the first man into whose eyes she is permitted to gaze." "I understand," said the man. "I am not selling you," I said. "These are the public pens of Tor. You are here for boarding and training. You will begin to learn Gorean. You will learn as a child learns, without the benefit of translation. You will learn swiftly. You will also be exercised and receive slave instruction." "Slave instruction?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "Is this clear, Alyena?" "Yes, Master," she whispered. "If you are uncooperative, or slow in your lessons, you may be starved or beaten - lashed - you understand?"
To them she was just another wench on their chain, perhaps more poorly trained and less docile than most. "Shortly," he had said, "I will hood you and take you to your house of training. It is not far. This training will take only a few days, and, at the end you will be poorly trained, as we have little time, but well enough trained, I shall hope, to survive the block and your first weeks of bondage, in which time, applying yourself, you must strive earnestly to become a better and better, and a more and more pleasing, slave.
I heard myself characterized as being "semi-trained." Was that all my training in the house counted for, I wondered, rising so early, retiring so late, the busy days, the long lessons, their frequency, variety and intensiveness, administered to us morning, noon and night? I then wondered if this, like the claims made with respect to my Gorean, were intended to be precautionary, or conservative, perhaps to avoid possible subsequent difficulties with disappointed buyers. But this time I did not think so. I had some inkling, by now, given my training in the house, of the sorts of things which could be involved in "training," many of which we had not even had time to touch upon. I was sure that given the possibilities of slave service I was still very naive and backward, still muchly uninformed. Indeed, I suspected that there would always be more to learn about service and love, that such things were fathomless and limitless, and, thus, in a sense, the notion of being "fully trained," or knowing all there was to know, was in actuality less of a practical goal than a lovely ideal, one which might perhaps be approached ever more closely, but would never be, and perhaps should never be, fully attained. She was described as semi-trained. This pleased her, for she did not want her new master to expect too much of her, and be disappointed.
"Shortly," he had said, "I will hood you and take you to your house of training. It is not far. This training will take only a few days, and, at the end you will be poorly trained, as we have little time, but well enough trained, I shall hope, to survive the block and your first weeks of bondage, in which time, applying yourself, you must strive earnestly to become a better and better, and a more and more pleasing, slave.
As I did so I passed several chained slave girls kneeling on a stone tier. They were doubtless girls in training, and reasonably well advanced in training. They had been brought to see the races, that they might be pleased and stimulated, that they might return to their training refreshed and recreated.
"You are not now in the purple booth," I said. She laughed. The allusion was to certain practices having to do with the merchandising of Red Silk Girls, in private sales for individual and important clients of the House. At certain times of the year several such booths are set up within the courtyard of a slaver's house; in each, unclothed, chained by the left ankle to a ring, on furs, is a choice Red Silk Girl; prospective buyers, usually accompanied by a member of the Caste of Physicians, in the presence of the slaver's agent, examine various girls; when particular interest is indicated in one, the Physician and the slaver's agent withdraw; when, after this, the girl is not purchased, or at least seriously bid upon, she is beaten severely or, perhaps worse, is touched for a full Ehn by the slave goad; if, after two or three such opportunities, the girl is not sold, she is given further training; if after this she is still not sold she is usually returned to the iron pens whence, with other girls, considered to be of inferior value, she will be sold at a price in one of the smaller markets, perhaps even in a minor city. Most girls, it might be mentioned, even extremely choice specimens, are never in the booths; generally the slaver has a chance at a higher price when there are many buyer bidding against one another in the heat of an auction.
"You will be trained as a slave girl," said Flaminius, "you will be taught to kneel, to stand, to walk, to dance, to sing, to serve the thousand pleasures of men." "How will they train?" asked Ho-Tu. "It is impossible to tell," said Flaminius, "but my prognosis is that each, in her own way, will do quite well in training. I do not think drugs will be necessary, and I expect that a sparing use of the whip and slave goad will be sufficient. My prognosis is on the whole extremely favorable. Excellent merchandise, some risk, but every likelihood of achieving a status of considerable value. In short I think they are both decidedly worth development, and should prove a quite profitable investment." "I promise you, Ho-Tu," Flaminius was saying, "that each of these girls, properly trained, will provide a master with the most exquisite of delights." I was pleased that neither of the girls understood Gorean. I suspected that what Flaminius said was true. The Gorean slaver knows his business. Both girls, I expected, would be trained as exquisite female slaves.
Cernus turned to Caprus, who stood near him. "Is she trained?" he asked. "No," said Caprus. "She is Red Silk but she knows almost nothing." "Slave," said Cernus. "Yes, Master," said Elizabeth. "Stand straight and place your hands behind your head, head back." She did so. "Turn slowly," ordered Cernus. When Elizabeth had done so once, she remained standing before him, as he had commanded. Cernus turned to Caprus. "Was she touched by the leather?" he inquired. "The Physician Flaminius conducted the test," reported Caprus. "She was superb." "Excellent," said Cernus. "You may lower your arms," he said to the girl. She did so, and stood there, standing before him, her head down. "Let her be fully trained," said Cernus to Caprus. "Fully?" asked Caprus. "Yes," said Cernus, "fully." Elizabeth looked at him, startled. I had not counted on this, nor had Elizabeth. On the other hand, there seemed to be little that could be done about it. The training, exhaustive and detailed, I knew would take months. On the other hand it would be done presumably in the House of Cernus. Further, such training, though spread over a period of months, normally consumes only about five of the Gorean hours daily, that the girls have time to rest, to absorb their lessons, to recreate themselves in the pools and gardens of the house. During this time, since Elizabeth was nominally of the staff of Caprus, we could surely find time to be about our work, for which purpose we had arranged to enter the House of Cernus. "Are you not grateful?" inquired Cernus, puzzled. Elizabeth dropped to her knees, head down. "I am unworthy of so great an honor, Master," said she.
Targo, with his short, rolling steps, went to the girl and placed one thumb, wearing a large ruby ring, under her chin, pushing her head up. "A true beauty," said Targo. "And perfectly trained for months in the slave pens of Ar." Behind Targo I could see the grizzled man shaking his head negatively.
I remember this first day of the races well. The girls, too, would have special reason, as I would, to recall it. For them, it was the first time since the beginning of their training that they were permitted to leave the house. Normally, late in their training, girls are permitted the sights of the city, that they may be stimulated and refreshed, but such had not been the case with Elizabeth, Virginia and Phyllis. According to Ho-Tu, whom I had once asked about this, there were two main reasons for this; first, their training was peculiarly full and intensive; second, the prospect of being permitted to leave the house, particularly attractive to Virginia and Phyllis, who had known nothing of Gor save the House of Cernus, was a powerful inducement to be diligent in their lessons.
Incidentally, for what it is worth, though the southern girl is, I expect, worked less hard then the northern girl, who is commonly kept isolated on the farm, she is more often than her northern sister put to the switch or whip; I think she lives under a harsher discipline; southern masters are harder with their girls, expecting more from them and seeing that they get it; northern girls, for example, are seldom trained in the detailed, intricate sensuous arts of the female slave; the southern girl, to her misery, must often learn these to perfection; moreover, upon command, she must perform, joyfully and skillfully. |       | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
