Savages of Gor

9 We Cross the Ihanke

"It is here," said Grant, turning about on his kaiila. "See the wands?"

"Yes," I said. We were now some two pasangs east of Kailiauk.

"Here is one," said Grunt, "and there is another, and another."

"I see," I said, shading my eyes.

The grass was to the knees of the kaiila. It came to the thighs of the slavegirls, in brief one-piece slave tunics, of brown rep-cloth, with deep cleavages,in throat coffle, bearing burdens on their heads.

The wand before us was some seven or eight feet high. It is of this height,apparently, that it may be seen above the snow, during the winter moons, such asWaniyetuwi and Wanicokanwi. It was of peeled Ka-la-na wood and, from its top,there dangled two long, narrow, yellow, black-tipped feathers, from the tail ofthe taloned Herlit, a large, broad winged, carnivorous bird, sometimes in Goreancalled the Sun Striker, or, more literally, though in clumsier English,Out-of-the-sun-it-strikes, presumably from its habit of making its descent and. strike on prey, like the tarn, with the sun above and behind it. Similar wands Icould see some two hundred yards away, on either side, to the left and right.

According to Grunt such wands line the perimeter, though usually not in suchproximity to one another. They are spaced more closely together, naturally,nearer areas of white habitation.

Grunt now turned back on his kaiila to look out, eastward over the broad grassesand low, rolling hills. The terrain beyond the wands did not appear muchdifferent from the terrain leading up to them. The hills, the grass, the archingblue sky, the white clouds, seemed much the same on both sides of the wands. Thewands seemed an oddity, a geographical irrelevance. Surely, thrust in the earth,supple in the wind, with the rustling feathers, they could betoken nothing ofsignificance. The wind was fresh. I shivered on the kaiila.

For those who might be interested in such things, we came to the wands in theearly spring, early in Magaksicaagliwi, which is the Moon of the ReturningGants. The preceding moon was the Sore-Eye Moon, or Istawicayazanwi. Because ofits uncertain weather, the possible freezes and storms, and its harsh winds,this month had been avoided by Grunt. The next moon was Wozupiwi, the PlantingMoon, which term, in the context, I find extremely interesting. It seems to makeclear that the folk of the area, at one time, were settled, agriculturalpeoples. That, of course, would have been before the acquisition of the kaiila,which seems to have wrought a local cultural transformation of the firstmagnitude. One often thinks of a hunting economy representing a lower, in somesense, stage of cultural development than an agricultural economy. Perhaps thisis because, commonly, agriculture provides a stabler cultural milieu and can,normally, support larger populations on less territory. A single human being canbe agriculturally supported by less than an acre of land. The same human being,if surviving by hunting, would require a territory of several square miles.

Here, however, we seem to have a case where peoples deliberately chose thewidely ranging, nomadic hunting economy over an agricultural economy. Themobility afforded by the kaiila and the abundance of the kailiauk doubtless madethis choice possible, the choice of the widely ranging hunter, the proud andfree warrior, over the farmer, denied distant horizons, he who must live at themercy of the elements and in bondage to his own soil.

Grunt sat astride his kaiila, a lofty, yellow animal, looking eastward, outbeyond the wands. Behind him there was a pack kaiila, laden with goods. A thongran from the pierced nose of the beast to a ring at the back of his saddle. I,too, was astride my kaiila, a black, silken, high-necked, long fanged beast. Tomy saddle, too, was tethered a pack kaiila. Various goods were borne by our packanimals, both of the four-legged and two-legged varieties. My goods were allladen on my pack kaiila. Grunt's goods, on the other hand, of course, weredistributed over his eleven beasts of burden, the kaiila and the ten other packanimals. My goods, substantially, consisted of blankets, colored cloths,ribbons, mirrors and beads, kettles and pans, popular in the grasslands, hardcandies, cake sugar and chemical dyes. Grunt carried similar articles but he, aswell, as I had not, carried such items as long nails, rivets, hatchets, metalarrowheads, metal lance points, knife blades and butcher knives. The knifeblades and long nails are sometimes mounted in clubs. The blades, of course, mayalso be fitted into carved handles, of wood and bone. The rivets are useful infastening blades in handles and lance shafts. The metal arrowhead is aconvenience. It is ready-made and easy to mount. It is not likely to fracture asa stone point might. Similarly it makes dangerous trips to flint-rich areasunnecessary. The butcher knives are usually ground down into a narrow, concaveshape. They do not have the sturdiness for combat. They are used, generally, forthe swift acquisition of bloody trophies.

I saw Grunt straighten himself in the high-pommeled saddle. He lifted the reins.

He kicked back with his heels, suddenly, smiting the animal in the flanks. Itstarted, and then, in its smooth, loping stride, crossed the line of the wands.

Grunt rode some twenty yards ahead, and then pulled back the kaiila, twistingits head back with the reins, wheeling it about to face us. He loosened thelong, coiled whip fastened with a snap strap at the right of his saddle, androde back towards us, along the right side of the coffle of barefoot, scantilyclad, neck-chained beauties. "Hei! Hei!" he called. He cracked the whip in theair, twice. He then rode about the rear of the coffle, and advanced, on hiskaiila, along its left side. He was right-handed.

"We are women, and only helpless slaves!" cried out Ginger. "Please, Master, donot take us across the line of the wands!"

"Reconsider, Master, we beg of you! ' cried out Evelyn.

"Hei! Hei!" cried Grunt.

"Please, no, Master!" cried out Ginger.

"Please, no, no, Master! ' cried out Evelyn.

Then the whip lashed down. More than one girl cried out with pain. Then the whipfell, too, on Ginger and Evelyn. They screamed, struck.

"Hei! Hei!" called Grunt.

"Yes, Master!" wept Ginger.

"Yes, Master!" wept Evelyn.

"Hei! Hei!" urged Grunt.

The coffle, then, to the snapping of the whip, led by the terrified red-hairedgirl, the former Millicent Aubrey-Welles, from Pennsylvania, began to moveahead. Ginger and Evelyn, in their places, stumbled forward, red-eyed and almostnumb with terror. Other girls, smarting from the pain and feeling the jerking ofthe chain on their collars, weeping, followed, they, too, in their appropriateplaces, precisely where their master wished them, places made clear by theircollars and chains. Only Ginger and Evelyn, I surmised, had any inkling as tothe nature of the place into which they were being taken, and they, too, in thefinal analysis, were only barbarians. They, too, at least as yet, would not beable to understand where they were being taken, what was being done to them, notfully, not yet in its full meaning. I thought it just as well that the girls,even Ginger and Evelyn, were substantially ignorant. This made it easier tomarch them across the line of the wands. I watched the girls, the burdens ontheir heads, their necks chained, moving through the tall grass. They were nowcrossing the line of the wands. I wondered if they could even begin to suspectthe terrors into which they were entering. Yes, I thought to myself, it isbetter this way. Let them, for the time, remain ignorant. They would learn soonenough what it might mean, in such a place, in the place of the kailiauk and thehigh grasses, to be a white female.

Grunt, on his kaiila, had now taken his place at the head of the line, the packkaiila behind him.

I looked at the red-haired girl, first in the coffle, the burden' balanced withher small hands on her head. Grunt, I knew, had some special disposition in mindfor her. Yet, now, she, like the others, served as a mere pack animal, one ofthe beasts of his coffle, bearing his goods.

No white man, I recalled, was to bring more than two kaiila across the line ofthe wands. No group of white men was to bring more than ton kaiila across thatseemingly placid boundary.

The red-haired girl looked well in the coffle, moving in the grass, the chain onher neck, in the brief slave tunic. So, too, did the others. Slave girls arebeautiful, even those who must serve as mere beasts of burden. Grunt, Irecalled, in urging his coffle forward, had not struck the lead girl, his lovelyred-haired beast, with the lash, as he had several of the others. He had chosen,for some reason, to spare her its stroke. This was, I suspected, because be hadsomething more in mind for her than a burden and a place in the coffle. He had,clearly, something else in mind for her. He was apparently willing to take histime with her, and to bring her along easily and gently, at least for a time.

This was, perhaps, because she seemed already to understand that it would be herbusiness to please men, and that she was a slave. She would have to understandlater, of course, what it was to be a slave, fully. That would be time enoughfor her to feel the boot and the whip.

"It is here," Grunt had said.

I looked again ahead, out beyond that seemingly placid boundary, out beyond thewands.

I checked my weapons. Then I, too, urged my kaiila forward. In a few moments Iand my pack kaiila, too, had crossed the line of the wands.

"It is here," Grunt had said.

I pulled up the kaiila and looked behind me. Now I, too, had crossed thatboundary marked by the supple-feathered wands. I saw the feathers moving in thewind. Now I, too, had crossed the Ihanke, Now I, too, was within the Barrens.

I urged my kaiila forward again, after Grunt and the coffle. I did not wish tofall behind.