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.One of the men hadlooked at her as she had walked past him.There was a fire in the tent, and smoke from this fireemerged from a hole at the tent's apex.Within, as they passed between the wall of the tent andthe fire, I could see the shadows of one or two other girls.Near the central tent, almost aslarge, was a brown, turreted tent, with a pennon flying from a central pole.It was, I supposed,the tent of the camp's leader.There were some seventy or eighty men, I had conjectured severaldays ago, in the retinue.I could now see several sitting around open-air fires.Others were, Isupposed, within the tents, perhaps sleeping.The two palanquins which had been carried, by ten men apiece, were within the camp, turned upsidedown, to protect them, I supposed, from dew or rain.Beneath the one were several boxes andchests, those containing the riches which it had borne.Added to the one wagon which had beendrawn by the shaggy, oxlike creatures were now four other wagons.These wagons, too, apparently,were each drawn by a pair of the oxlike creatures, called bosk.The wagons were now unhitched.Several animals, those called bosk, ten or more, hobbled, browsed among the trees on the otherside of the camp.Eta, though perhaps it was not proper, had much listened to the converse of the men, and, as myGorean improved, conveyed certain pieces of information to me.The retinue was the betrothal and dowry retinue of the Lady Sabina of the small merchant polis ofFortress of Saphronicus bound overland for Ti, of the Four Cities of Saleria, of the SalerianConfederation.Ti lies on the Olni, a tributary of the Vosk, north of Tharna.Tharna, sometimescalled the City of Silver, is well known for the richness of her silver mines.She is ruled byLara, a Tatrix.This seems paradoxical, for in Tharna, of the hundreds of known Gorean cities, theposition of women is surely among the lowest.The sign of a man of Tharna is two yellow cordscarried at the belt, suitable for the binding of the hands and feet of a female.At one timeapparently women were dominant in Tharna but this situation, in a revolution of the males, wasoverturned.Few women in Tharna, even now, years later, are permitted out of the collar.I looked at the four new wagons which had been added to the retinue.The wagon which I had seenearlier, the supply wagon, was now almost empty, the food supplies perhaps being diminished as theperegrination neared its end, and the poles and tenting, of course, being used in the shelteringfor the camp.The other four wagons, however, were fully loaded, largely, it seemed, with produceand coarse goods.The Lady Sabina, I learned from Eta, was pledged by her father, Kleomenes, a pretentious, butpowerful, upstart merchant of Fortress of Saphronicus, to Thandar of Ti, of the Warriors, youngestof the five sons of Ebullius Gaius Cassius, of the Warriors, Administrator of Ti, this done in aCompanion Contract, arranged by both Ebullius Gaius Cassius and Kleomenes, to which had now beenfile:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txt (51 of 227) [1/20/03 3:34:30 AM] file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txtset the seals of both Ti and Fortress of Saphronicus.The pledged companions, the Lady Sabina ofFortress of Saphronicus and Thandar of Ti, of the Four Cities of Saleria, of the SalerianConfederation, had, as yet, according to Eta, never laid eyes on one another, the matter of theirmatch having been arranged between their respective fathers, as is not uncommon in Gorean custom.The match had been initiated at the behest of Kleomenes, who was interested in negotiating acommercial and political alliance with the Salerian Confederation.These alliances, of interest tothe expanding Salerian Confederation, were not unwelcome.Such alliances, naturally, might presagethe entrance of Fortress of Saphronicus into the Confederation, which was becoming a growing powerin the north.It seemed not unlikely that the match would ultimately prove profitable andpolitically expedient for both Fortress of Saphronicus and the Salerian Confederation.In thematch, there was much to gain by both parties.The Companion Contract, thus, had been dulynegotiated, with the attention of scribes of the law from both Fortress of Saphronicus and theConfederation of Saleria.The Companion Journey, then, when the auspices had been favorable, asthey promptly were, these determined by the inspection of the condition and nature of the liver ofa sacrificial verr, examined by members of the caste of Initiates, had begun.The journey itself,overland and afoot from Fortress of Saphronicus to Ti, would take several days, but it wasceremonially prolonged in order that the four tributary villages of Fortress of Saphronicus mightbe visited.It is not unusual for a Gorean city to have several villages in its vicinity, thesecustomarily supplying it with meat and produce.These villages may or may not be tributary to thecity.It is common, of course, for a city to protect those villages, whether they are tributary tothe city or not, which make use of its market.If a village markets in a given city, that city, byGorean custom, stands as its shield, a relationship which, of course, works to the advantage ofboth the villages and city, the city receiving produce in its markets, the villages receiving theprotection of the city's soldiers.The policy of Fortress of Saphronicus, extending its hegemonypolitically over its nearby villages, even to the extent of exacting tribute in kind, is notunprecedented on Gor, but, on the other hand, is not the general rule.Most villages are freevillages.The Gorean peasant is a resolute, strong fellow, upright and stubborn, who prideshimself on his land and his sovereignty.Also, he is usually the master of the Gorean longbow, inthe wake of which liberty is often to be found.He who can bend the longbow, a peasant saying hasit, cannot be slave.Women, of course, it might be noted, lack the strength to bend this bow.Isuppose if they could bend the bow, the saying would not exist or would be altered.That is theway men are.Goreans enjoy making women slaves.The women, on the whole, interestingly, save someverbally, do not seem to much mind.Interestingly, the longbow is outlawed in the tributaryvillages of Fortress of Saphronicus
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