Post by ^.^ Harleen Quinzel ^.^ on Jun 18, 2020 5:14:19 GMT
The Collection of Creatures Kept by the Shogun and his Wife on his private Island and in the Imperial Captial. They are a rather Unique Collection of creatures from All over Gor.
Gor, sparsely inhabited by human beings, teems with animal life,
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 48
BACTERIA PIT CREATURES: made of creatures that are a member of a large group of unicellular microorganisms which have cell walls but lack organelles and an organized nucleus, including some which can cause disease, be useful as well, or a simple lifeform.
In the pits there is no light, save that which men bring there. Without light, there cannot be photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis there cannot be the reduction of carbon dioxide, the formation of sugar, the beginning of the food chain. Ultimately, then, food is brought into the pits, generally in the form of organic debris, from hundreds of sources, many of them hundreds of miles distant; this debris is carried by the fresh-water feeds, through minute faults and fissures, and even porous rock, until it reaches the remains of the ancient seas, now sunken far beneath the surface. On and in this debris, breaking it down, are several varieties of bacteria. These bacteria are devoured by protozoons and rotifers. These, in turn, become food for various flatworms and numerous tiny segmented creatures, such as isopods, which, in turn, serve as food for small, blind, white crayfish, lelts and salamanders.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 248 - 249
Once I felt it roll over my back, my body protected by the remains of the frame. Its skin was not rough, abrasive, like that of free-water sharks, but slick, coated with a bacterial slime. It slipped over me, not tearing me from the frame.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 252
Termites, incidentally, are extremely important to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break down and destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. The termite "dust," thereafter, by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
"In the agricultural satellites," said Pyrrhus, "a number of crops are grown, not blood food, but crops from which, suitably processed, nourishment may be obtained. We may arrange growing seasons, temperature, soil nutriments, light and darkness, and such, as we please. Thus we may have crops all year around in any fashion desired. There are no noxious insects, or such, either, to compete for the food, as we have not allowed their entry into the areas. Only such bacteria as are beneficial are admitted."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 127
CAPTIVE KUR OR KURRI SERVANTS / SPIES: The Kurii, consist of several “Peoples”. Not all of these “Peoples” speak the same language, and, I gather, there are differences among, and within, each People. For example, differences in marking, in texture of fur, in temperament, in tooth arrangement, in ear shape, and so on. These differences, negligible from the point of view of humans, are apparently of considerable importance among the Kurii themselves. Some Kur especially kicked out their society or have surrended, will work with or for humans as spies among the kurri.
It was an incredibly hideous, large-eyed, furred thing. It had wide, pointed ears. It stood perhaps eight or nine feet high. It may have weighed seven or eight hundred pounds. It had a wide, two-nostriled, leathery snout. Its mouth was huge, large enough to take a man's head into it, and it was rimmed with two rows of stout fangs. There were four larger fangs, long and curved, for grasping, in the position of the canines. The upper two fangs protruded at the side of the jaws when its mouth was closed. It had a long, dark tongue. Its forelegs were larger than its hind legs. I had seen it move, shambling on its hind legs, and on the knuckles of its forelegs, but now I saw that what I had taken as forelegs were not unlike arms and hands. Indeed, they had six digits, several jointed, almost like tentacles, which terminated in clawlike growths, which had been blunted and filed. It also had claws on its hind legs, or feet, which were retractable, as the mountebank demonstrated, issuing sharp voice commands to the beast. The hind legs, or feet, like the forelegs, or hands, if one may so speak, were also six-digited and multiply jointed. They were large and spreading. The claws, as I saw when they were exposed, upon the order of the mountebank, were better than four inches long, curved and sharp. I could not even determine in my mind whether to think of it as a four-footed animal, with unusual prehensile forelegs, or as something manlike, with two legs and two arms, with hands. It was tailless.
Perhaps most horrifying were the eyes. They were large and black-pupiled. For an instant I thought they rested upon me, and saw me, but not as an animal sees, but as something might see that is not an animal. Then, again, they were simple and vacant, those of a mountebank's performing beast.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 103
It seemed incredibly huge, even more so in the small hut than earlier outside of Targo's compound. It was like a glistening, somnolent boulder of fur, alive, hundreds of pounds in weight. The eyes were large, black, round, the snout wide, two-nostriled and leathery. I shuddered at its mouth, and fangs, the upper two protruding downwards at the sides of its jaws. Its lips were wet from the saliva from its long, dark tongue, which, with its teeth, it was using to groom the fur on its right paw. The strike of those jaws could, with one wrenching twist, have torn away the shoulder of a man.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 142
Suddenly the beast made a noise. It was a rumble, a growl. I stiffened, and turned.
It had lifted its head. Its wide, pointed ears lifted. It was listening.
The man, and I, watched the beast, I, frightened, he, alert, cautious.
His eyes seemed to meet those of the beast, and the beast seemed to look at him. Then it had lifted its lips away from its teeth, and looked away, its ears still lifted. It growled again.
"It is a sleen outside," said the man.
I trembled.
"When I was brought here," I said, "twice the band caught the scent of a sleen."
The man looked at me. "It was stalking you," he said, "you, and the others."
"Perhaps there were different sleen," I whispered.
"Perhaps," he said.
The beast now crouched on the straw, its nostrils wide in the leathery snout, its eyes bright and black, the ears lifted.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Pages 150 - 151
Then to my horror I observed the beast. It lifted its large paws to its throat. The paws were six-digited, several jointed, almost like furred tentacles, surmounted by clawlike growths, blunted, filed. It unfastened the buckled collar at its throat and cast it aside.
Then, with a cry of rage, it leapt toward the sleen. The two animals locked in combat. The sleen came through the window, scrambling through, biting and tearing. The beast seized it about the throat, its great jaws biting at the throat and vertebrae. The two animals rolled in the small hut, twisting, squealing, hissing, scattering the benches and table. Then, with a horrifying snap of bone and tearing of flesh and fur the jaws of the beast bit through the back of the sleen's neck. It stood there then, holding the body of the sleen in its claws, its mouth dropping fur and blood. The body of the sleen twisted compulsively. The beast turned to regard us.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 156
The blood of Kurii, like that of men, is red, and of similar chemical composition. It is another similarity adduced by Priest-Kings when they wish to argue the equivalence of the warring species. The major difference between the blood content of the Kur and of men is that the plasma of the Kur contains a greater percentage of salt, this acting in water primarily as a protein solvent. The Kur can eat and digest quantities of meat which would kill a man.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 207
Kurii are land animals, not fond of water.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 216
He then brushed past the Kur. I felt its fur as I moved by it. It was smooth, not unpleasant to the touch, some two inches or so in depth. Its body, beneath the fur, was hot, large.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 218
Kurii are excellent climbers, well fitted for this activity with their multiple jointed hands and feet, their long fingers, their suddenly extendable claws, but they followed us, nonetheless, with difficulty.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 221
" 'Do you think I cannot tell one Kur from another?' I asked. Warriors are trained in acute observation and retention. The recognition and comprehension of a detail, sometimes subtle, can sometimes make a difference between life and death."
Beasts of Gor, Book 12, Chapter 29
" 'Unlike the human female,' said Lord Grendel, 'the Kur female, unless a throwback, an atavism, is narrow-hipped and breastless. The functions of gestation and nursing take place in the wombs.' "
Kur of Gor, Book 28 Chapter 53: Return to Camp; A Surprise; A Mystery
" 'I wish you well,' said Cabot.
'You extend your hand?'
'But you do not take it,' observed Cabot.
The simultaneous grasping of hands, right to right, is a feature of certain Earth cultures, as it is of some Kur cultures. As most humans, and Kurii, favor the right hand, this grasping of hands is a token of respect or friendship, each surrendering, so to speak, the weapon hand to the other.
'Stay with us, until we have word of the outside,' advised Peisistratus.
'No,' said Cabot.
'Then,' said Peisistratus, 'I extend my hand, and wish you well.'
Each then took the hand of the other, firmly."
Kur of Gor, Book 28 Chapter 26: A Slave will be Put in a Collar, as is Appropriate
DEATH EEL: This Parasitic carnivorous specie of eel. Feed by boring into the flesh of other creatures to suck their blood until death if possible. An ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiforme, who have become specialized to eat flesh and may even invade the internal organs of the host. The death eel may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth.
She shall tread the narrow board of the high platform of execution, thence to plunge into the deep pool of death eels far below."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 244
"You have heard of the projected fate of Sumomo," I said.
"It is merciful under the circumstances," he said. "The plunge to the pool of death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 251
"Perhaps others, too, might do so," I said. "When is she to make the acquaintance of the eels?"
"There are hundreds, half starved," said Haruki. "One can almost walk upon them."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 255
From where I was, in the stands, I could see both the platform of execution, far above and to my left, and the wide surface, some ten paces in width, of the deep stone-encased pool of death eels.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 257
All attention seemed focused on the platform, even that of the attendant who had served to agitate the restless denizens of the pool. Indeed, the waters of the pool still stirred, and more than once I saw the glistening back of an eel break the surface, and then snap away with a spattering of water.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 269 - 270
I suspected the eels well anticipated, by now, perhaps from the past, perhaps from a variety of cues, sounds, movements, and reflections, if not from the two token feedings earlier administered, designed to do little more than sharpen the ravenous blades of hunger, that food was in the offing. I suspected they had been starved for days, to ready them for this moment. Similarly, it is not unusual for trainers and keepers in Ar and Turia to withhold food from arena animals, that the torments of hunger might be sorely exacerbated, so cruelly heightened that the released animal will forgo the caution and probity of its ways in the wild to indiscriminately rush upon and attack, and attempt to feed upon, whatever falls within its desperate ken.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 271 - 272
"Yes," I said. "He is Tajima an officer in the cavalry. With daring, and sustaining great risk, he fled with Sumomo, the shogun's daughter, rescuing her but a moment before she would have plunged into the pool of death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 292
"Sumomo," I said, "was to be fed to death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 387
FREVET: Is a small, quick, insectivore urt-like mammal. It eats insects such as beetles and lice and usually kept within buildings in the river towns to control the spreading of such unwanted pests indoors. They are nocturnal and generally shy from humans.
"That is not an urt," said the proprietor. "They usually come out after dark. There is too much noise and movement for them during the day." The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Boabissia was silent.
"Not every insula furnishes frevets," said the proprietor. "They are charming as well as useful creatures. You will probably grow fond of them. You will probably wish to keep your door open at night, for coolness, and to give access to them. They cannot gnaw through walls like urts, you know."
"Is it far now?" I asked.
"No," said the proprietor. "We are almost there. It is just under the roof."
"It seems we have come a long way," I said.
"Not really," he said. "We are not really so high up. The flights are short."
We then climbed another flight, to the next landing.
"Oh!" said Boabissia, recoiling.
"You see," said the proprietor. "You will come to like the frevets." We watched a large, oblong, flat-bodied black object, about a half hort in length, with long feelers, hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That is a roach," he said. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful. Some of them are big fellows, too. But there aren't many of them around. The frevets see to it. Achiates prides himself on a clean house."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Pages 276 - 277
HITH SNAKE: a large heavy-bodied nonvenomous snake, that kills prey by constriction and asphyxiation.
One obvious danger lay in the road itself, and the fact that I had no light. After dark, various serpents seek out the road for its warmth, its stones retaining the sun's heat longer than the surrounding countryside. One such serpent was the huge, many-banded Gorean python, the hith.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 26
In another case, somnolent and swollen, I saw a rare golden hith, a Gorean python whose body, even when unfed, it would be difficult for a full-grown man to encircle with his arms.
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 191
In one cage, restlessly lifting its swaying head, there coiled a great, banded horned hith, Gor's most feared serpentine constrictor. It was native only to certain areas of the forests.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 210
"An ost," said Lord Nishida, "is not well advised to pursue the great hith, against which its poison is useless."
This is not as surprising as it might seem, as the poison of the ost, as that of many poisonous snakes, is prey-selective, deadly against warm-blooded animals, such as tiny urts, its customary prey, or even larger animals, such as verr and tabuk, but harmless to other snakes, to certain forms of tharlarion, and such.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 94
He leaped to his feet and embraced me, weeping, tears in his eyes. I struggled for breath, clutching the four poems. I speculated that this must be much like the grip of the dreaded, constricting hith.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 116
"Surely you are apprised of at least the first knowledge?" said Laura.
"But," said Ellen, "those are only in stories, they are mythological creatures, like the hith, the sleen."
"I have never seen a hith," said Laura, "but I have spoken to those who have. I have certainly seen sleen, and tarns. There are sleen in the house, in pens. They are useful in hunting slaves."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 153
A praetor now approached the seventh challenger, and placed in his huge paws a gigantic ax, some ten feet in length, and double-bladed at each end, an ax which, in the grip of one such as he, one of such strength, might have decapitated a larl, and perhaps even, with three or four blows, Gor's mightiest constrictor, the giant hith.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 248
In the tiny bit of light remaining she detected a large head, perhaps a yard across, wet, glistening from the water, on a long, thick neck, wet, glistening, the head some fifteen feet away, moving on the neck, weaving almost as might have the head of the giant hith, Gor's mightiest constrictor.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 317
KUR LICE OR PARASITES: Use to often to humble and feed the pet slave girls of Kur before they are no longer useful as pelt cleaners. They are not harmful to eat and good source of protein and not too bad in flavor when eaten. They have to feed the slave somehow and taste better than slave gruel or mul paste. they are about the size of ta-grape.
"That was largely to leave my scent upon you," he said, "which was done that my fellow, who was blind, would know a Kur scent, and follow you, and, of course, not be likely to kill you. Now, of course it will be necessary to give you some training, as an actual Kur pet the biting, the nibbling, the use of your teeth, the swallowing of lice and such."
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 472
"She is grooming him," whispered Peisistratus. "When she encounters lice, she must eat them."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 151
I thrust my face again into the fur.
I then heard from a second translator, apparently back a little farther than the first. "Enjoy the tiny, furtive, crawling things."
"Crack them between your teeth," came from the first translator.
"Are they not delicious?" came from the second translator.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 474
"Do not confuse him with a High One," she said. "I have bitten lice out of the fur of a dozen such beasts who would not permit him to do so much as polish their claws."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 575
"Long ago," said the Lady Bina, selecting a cube of meat from the pan, "I was a Kur pet, and groomed my master, and bit the lice from his pelt. Now I am served by a Kur, before whom, once, I would not have dared to raise my eyes."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 621
"Kurii, not unoften," he said, "keep human females as pets. Their bodies can warm feet, their fine, small teeth are excellent for grooming, for ridding pelts of parasites."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 387
LARVA OR LARVAE: It is an animal in an early stage of development that differs greatly in appearance from its adult stage. Larvae are adapted to a different environment and way of life than adults and go through a process of metamorphosis in changing to adults. A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
Overhead were several birds, bright, chattering, darting, swift among the branches and green leaves. I heard the throaty warbling, so loud for such a small bird, of the tiny horned gim. Somewhere, far off, but carrying through the forest, was the rapid, staccato slap of the sharp beak of the yellow-breasted hermit bird, pounding into the reddish bark of the tur tree, hunting for larvae.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 106
The mindar is adapted for short, rapid flights, almost spurts, its wings beating in sudden flurries, hurrying it from branch to branch, for camouflage in flower trees, and for drilling the bark of such trees for larvae and grubs.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 282
LONG - HAIRED FOREST BOSK: It's a huge, shambling gorean animal, with a thick, humped neck and extra long, silky shaggy hair. It is larger than other bosk with a massive wide head and tiny red eyes, a fearful temper, and two long, wicked, curved and pointed horns. The horns, from tip to tip may measure three spears in length making them longhorn of bosk.
To one side there was a tank for water and there were several racks from which hung meat, probably tabuk, forest tarsk, and forest bosk.
. . .
The forest bosk tends to be territorial, and, as I have already suggested, it can be quite dangerous.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 251
"Only if I permitted it," said Tajima. "The tusks of the forest tarsk, too, could tear me in two, and I could be rent by the horns of the forest bosk, but, like the wind, I do not intend to put myself beneath their tusks or horns."
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 289
They might even intrude inadvertently into the territory of a shaggy forest bosk, and be trampled or gored.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 137
"There is provender aplenty in the kitchens, " he said, "forest tarsk, long-haired bosk, even tabuk. The Pani hunters provide well."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 238
LOUSE OR LICE: Any of numerous small, flat-bodied, wingless biting or sucking insects of the order Phthiraptera, which live as external parasites on birds and mammals, including humans. Lice are obligate parasites, living externally on warm-blooded hosts which include every species of bird and mammal, except for monotremes, pangolins, and bats. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus. Chewing lice live among the hairs or feathers of their host and feed on skin and debris, while sucking lice pierce the host's skin and feed on blood and other secretions.
I withdrew some of the lice, the size of marbles, which tend to infest wild tarns, and slapped them roughly into the mouth of the tarn, wiping them off on his tongue.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 142
Good-naturedly, I scratched out a handful or two of lice which I slopped on his tongue like candy.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 162
I slapped his beak affectionately and, digging among his neck feathers with my fingers, scratched out some of the lice, about the size of marbles, that infest wild tarns. I slapped them on his long tongue. After a moment of impatient, feather-ruffling protest, the tarn succumbed, if reluctantly, to this delicacy, and the parasites disappeared into that curved scimitar of a beak.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 181 - 182
I thrashed on the wood. I could feel the ship lice.
I could not tear at them with my fingernails; I was not chained in such a way as to permit that; this was intentional. I writhed on the slatted wood, screaming.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 318
She is chained in such a way as to preclude movement which might tear at the mesh or break it, thus making possible the entry of urts, which might eat at her, lowering her price, and to preclude her tearing hysterically with her hands and fingernails at her own body, bloodying herself, perhaps scaring herself, again lowering her price, in her attempt to obtain relief from the bites and itching consequent upon the infestation and depredation of the numerous, almost constantly active ship lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 319
I gritted my teeth so that I would not cry out from the misery of the lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 320
The hair of the below-deck girls, mercifully, is shaved off; indeed, our body hair, too, was shaved off, completely. These precautions prevent, to a great extent, the nesting of ship lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 321
"We are going to test you for pox," he said. The girl groaned. It was my hope that none on board the Clouds of Telnus had carried the pox. It is transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months. Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with others it had only a temporary, debilitating effect. With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying. Those who had survived the pox would presumably live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably transmitting their immunity or relative immunity to their offspring. Slaves who contracted the pox were often summarily slain. It was thought that the slaughter of slaves had had its role to play in the containment of the pox in the vicinity of Bazi.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Pages 325 - 326
When I had come to the Chatka and Curla I, and Narla, too, had been dipped and scrubbed, to clear us of ship lice and the residues of filth accumulated from the voyage and our consequent captivity; the dip was of water saturated with chemicals toxic to ship lice; we did not open our eyes or mouth when held under by the girls cleaning us; they controlled us by a clamp placed on the right ear lobe; later we were permitted to bathe ourselves; few baths in my life had I appreciated more than that one.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 329
"It was not a slave ship, I gather," I said, "else it is likely her head and body hair would have been shaved, to reduce the degree of infestation by ship lice in the hold."
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 26
To be sure, her hair is now growing out a bit. This is to be contrasted again, of course, with the shaven head, commonly inflicted only on a girl as a punishment or to protect her from lice in close confinements, such as on a slave ship.
Kajira of Gor Book 19 Page 292
"Oh!" cried Boabissia, on the next landing. "An urt!"
"That is not an urt," said the proprietor. "They usually come out after dark. There is too much noise and movement for them during the day." The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Boabissia was silent.
"Not every insula furnishes frevets," said the proprietor. "They are charming as well as useful creatures. You will probably grow fond of them. You will probably wish to keep your door open at night, for coolness, and to give access to them. They cannot gnaw through walls like urts, you know."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 276
Too, it is common to shave a girl completely if she is to be transported in a slave ship. This is to protect her against vermin of various sorts, in particular, lice.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 126
The major reason for cropping the hair of field slaves, both male and female, and certain other forms of work slaves, is to protect them from parasites. For a similar reason the bodies of the women transported on slave ships are almost always shaved, completely. Even then it is common, shortly after debarkation, and this is required by the rules of many port authorities, to subject them to an immersion in slave dip.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 301
All the hair on their bodies is removed, to reduce the infestation of parasites. The chaining arrangement, incidentally, is not only to keep the girls from tearing the mesh, which might allow the entry of urts into the space, but, also, to keep them from lacerating their own bodies, tearing at them to relieve the misery consequent upon the depredations of parasites, usually ship lice.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 550
SEWER THARLARION: "Tharlarion" is a general term for several species of animal on Gor which we would doubtless think of as reptiles, or, certainly, as reptilian - John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, 9/20/00
Immediately following I saw the water seem to glitter for a moment, a rain of yellowish streaks beneath the surface, in the wake of the water tharlarion, doubtless its swarm of scavengers, tiny water tharlarion, about six inches long, little more than teeth and tail.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 1
One of the guards, carrying a long, wooden pole, thrust it down, into the water. The water, judging by the pole, must have been about eight feet deep. The other guard, then, thrusting a heavy piece of meat on one of the hooks, to which a rope was attached, held the meat away from the platform and half submerged in the water. Almost instantly there was a frenzy in the water near the meat, a thrashing and turbulence in the murky liquid. I felt water splashed on my legs, even standing back as I was. Then the guard lifted the roped hook from the water. The meat was gone. Tiny tharlarion, similar to those in the swamp forest south of Ar, dropped, snapping, from the bared hook. Such tiny, swift tharlarion, in their thousands, can take the meat from a kailiauk in an Ehn.
. . .
The small eyes of numerous tharlarion, perhaps some two or three hundred of them, ranging from four to ten inches in length, watching her, nostrils and eyes at the water level, reflected the light of the torch.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 22 - 23
"Then a larl, a sleen, or such, perhaps a sewer tharlarion, must be about."
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 264
TINY THARLARION: "Tharlarion" is a general term for several species of animal on Gor which we would doubtless think of as reptiles, or, certainly, as reptilian - John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, 9/20/00
My leg slipped from the island into the water and suddenly a tiny tharlarion struck it, seizing his bit of flesh and backing, tail whipping, away. My leg was out of the water, but now the water seemed yellow with the flashing bodies of tiny tharlarion, and, beyond them, I heard the hoarse grunting of the great marsh tharlarion, some of which grow to be more than thirty feet in length, weighing more than half a hundred men. Beyond them would be the almost eel-like, long-bodied, nine-gilled Gorean marsh sharks.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 58
that thralls should no longer be sacrificed; this was not defended, however, on grounds of the advance of civilization, or such, but rather on the grounds that thralls, like urts and tiny six-toed tharlarion, were not objects worthy of sacrifice;
. . .
the tiny, six-toed rock tharlarion of southern Torvaldsland, favored for their legs and tails, which are speared by children.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 152
Almost at the same time I saw a small tharlarion, no more than a foot in length, covered with sting flies, splash from the raft into the water.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 164
"There are no bosk or kaiila in the islands," said Tajima. "But since the ship of Tersites has proven that Thassa can be crossed, if with great hazard, such stock may be brought to the islands, perhaps in the next few years. And the only tharlarion I have discovered about I could lift in one hand."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 420
WHITE LARL: A wild leopard-like feline of Gor. The larl is a clawed and fanged carnivorous predator, standing six to eight feet tall at the shoulder. It's head is broad and sometimes more than two feet across, shaped roughly like a triangle. The larls head is constantly in motion. It has an unobtrusive bony ridge that runs from it's four nasal slits to the start of its backbone. The ridge can be penetrated by a spear but an imperfect cast would glance off the bone. It has an eight-valved heart in the center of its breast. There is also mention of a huge white larl, encountered by Tarl Cabot in the Sardar mountains. It normally keeps to the mountains, but occasionally raid human habitations. Two white larls are in the throne room chained in key places watching, who chain reach is controlled by the Shogun or his Wife.
"Some four days into the mountains I heard for the first time in my journey the sound of a thing other than the wind, the sighing of snow and the groaning of ice; it was the sound of a living thing; the sound of a mountain larl.
The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder. I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly jungle cats of my old world.
....
The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knife like slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night.
The pelt of the larl is normally a tawney red or sable black. The black larl, which is predominately nocturnal, is maned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of, the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs. I had once killed a male red larl in the Voltai Range within pasangs of the city of Ar."
Priest-Kings of Gor, Book 3, Pages 18 - 19 ~¤~
"I once asked a Gorean hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten his reply. 'Because it is beautiful,' he said, 'and dangerous, and because we are Goreans.' "
Priest-Kings of Gor, Book 3, Page 20
There was a sudden startled rattle of chains and I saw two huge, white larls frozen in the momentary paralysis of registering my presence, and then with but an instant's fleeting passage both beasts turned upon me and hurled themselves enraged to the lengths of their chains.
My spear had not left my hand.
Both animals were jerked up short as mighty chains, fastened to steel and bejeweled collars, terminated their vicious charge. One was thrown on its back, so violent was its rush, and the other stood wildly for a moment towering over me like a rearing giant stallion, its huge claws slashing the air, fighting the collar that held it from me.
Then at the length of their chains they crouched, snarling, regarding me balefully, occasionally lashing out with a clawed paw as if to sweep me into range of their fearsome jaws.
I was struck with wonder, though I was careful to keep beyond the range of their chains, for I had never seen white larls before.
They were gigantic beasts, superb specimens, perhaps eight feet at the shoulder.
Their upper canine fangs, like daggers mounted in their jaws, must have been at least a foot in length and extended well below their jaws in the manner of ancient saber-toothed tigers. The four nostril slits of each animal were flared and their great chests lifted and fell with the intensity of their excitement. Their tails, long and tufted at the end, lashed back and forth.
The larger of them unaccountably seemed to lose interest in me. He rose to his feet and sniffed the air, turning his side to me, and seemed ready to abandon any intentions of doing me harm. Only an instant later did I understand what was happening for suddenly turning he threw himself on his side and his head facing in the other direction hurled his hind legs at me. I lifted the shield for to my horror in reversing his position on the chain he had suddenly added some twenty feet to the fearful perimeter of the space allotted to him by that hated impediment. Two great clawed paws smote my shield and hurled me twenty feet against the cliff. I rolled and scrambled back further for the stroke of the larl had dashed me into the radius of its mate. My cloak and garments were torn from my back by the stroke of the second larl's claws.
I struggled to my feet.
"Well done," I said to the larl.
I had barely escaped with my life.
Now the two beasts were filled with a rage which dwarfed their previous fury, for they sensed that I would not again approach closely enough to permit them a repetition of their primitive stratagem. I admired the larls, for they seemed to me intelligent beasts. Yes, I said to myself, it was well done.
I examined my shield and saw ten wide furrows torn across its brassbound hide surface. My back felt wet with the blood from the second larl's claws. It should have felt warm, but it felt cold. I knew it was freezing on my back. There was no choice now but to go on, somehow, if I could. Without the small homely necessities of a needle and thread I should probably freeze. There was no wood in the Sardar with which to build a fire.
Yes, I repeated grimly to myself, glaring at the larls, though smiling, it was well done, too well done.
Then I heard the movement of chains and I saw that the two chains which fastened the larls were not hooked to rings in the stone but vanished within circular apertures. Now the chains were being slowly drawn in, much to the obvious frustration of the beasts.
The place in which I found myself was considerably wider than the path on which I had trod, for the path had given suddenly onto a fairly large circular area in which I had found the chained larls. One side of this area was formed by the sheer cliff which had been on my right and now curved about making a sort of cup of stone; the other side, on my left, lay partly open to the frightful drop below, but was partly enclosed by another cliff, the side of a second mountain, which impinged on the one I had been climbing. The circular apertures into which the larls' chains were being drawn were located in these two cliffs. As the chains were drawn back, the protesting larls were dragged to different sides. Thus a passage of sorts was cleared between them, but the passage led only, as far as I could see, to a blank wall of stone. Yet I supposed this seemingly impervious wall must house the portal of the Hall of Priest-Kings.
As the beasts had felt the tug of the chains they had slunk snarling back against the cliffs, and now they crouched down, their chains little more than massive leashes. I thought the snowy whiteness of their pelts was beautiful. Throaty growls menaced me, and an occasional paw, the claws extended, was lifted, but the beasts made no effort now to pull against the grim, jewel-set collars which bound them.
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Pages 22 - 24
WINGED UL THARLARION: They are gorean dragon like creatures with skin webbed clawed wings, monstrous, hissing, predatory tharlarion, found flying over the deltas surrounding Port Kar. This reptile has Ramphorhynchusa 25 foot wing span and a long, snakelike tail, terminating with a flat spade like structure. Smaller version the minitature ones have only 5 to 6 foot wing spans.
Also, at night, crossing the bright disks of Gor's three moons might occasionally be seen the silent, predatory shadow of the Ul, a giant pterodactyl ranging far from its native swamps in the delta of the Vosk.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 26
Only one creature in the marshes dares to outline itself against the sky, the predatory Ul, the winged tharlarion.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 1
I was not particularly surprised at finding a bit of rep-cloth tied on the rence plant, for the delta is inhabited. Man has not surrendered it entirely to the tharlarion, the Ul and the salt leach.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 6
The rence growers, in spite of the value of their product, and the value of articles taken in exchange for it, and the protection of the marshes, and the rence and fish which give them ample sustenance, do not have an easy life. Not only must they fear the marsh sharks and the carnivorous eels which frequent the lower delta, not to mention the various species of aggressive water tharlarion and the winged, monstrous hissing predatory Ul but they must fear, perhaps most of all, men, and of these, most of all, the men of Port Kar.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 8
I saw an Ul, the winged tharlarion, high overhead, beating its lonely way eastward over the marsh.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 61
I awakened stiff in the cold of the marsh dawn, hearing the movement of the wind through the dim sedges, the cries of an occasional marsh gant darting among the rushes. Somewhere in the distance I heard the grunting of tharlarion. High overhead, passing, I heard the squeals of four Uls, beating their way eastward on webbed, scaled wings. I lay there for a time, feeling the rence beneath my back, staring up at the gray, empty sky.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 77
The delta of the Vosk, for most practical purposes, a vast marsh, an area of thousands of square pasangs, where the Vosk washes down to the sea, is closed to shipping. It is trackless and treacherous, and the habitat of marsh tharlarion and the predatory Ul, a winged lizard with wing-spans of several feet.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 26
We heard, outside, the screaming of a predatory ul, a gigantic, toothed, winged lizard, soaring over the marshes.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 18
We heard, again, the screaming of the ul outside the building. The tarns in the tarn cot moved about. The ul will not attack a tarn. The tarn could tear it to pieces.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 19
I lay there for a time, looking up at the sky. I once saw, outlined against one of the moons, membranous, clawed wings outspread, the soaring shape of the giant, predatory ul, the dreaded winged tharlarion of the delta. It is, normally, the only creature that dares to outline itself against the sky in the area.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 90
"There may be others," she said.
"Probably not in this vicinity," I said. The larger uls, as opposed to the several smaller varieties, some as small as jards, tend to be isolated and territorial.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 203
Poling in the trackless delta, the rope on their neck, they are well aware of the wilderness, the vastness, the treacherous byways, the quicksand, the heat, the insects, leeches, delta sharks, winged, predatory uls, and, in particular, marsh tharlarion, which often scout the boats, and accompany them, little but the eyes visible, for pasangs.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 487
YELLOW POOL CREATURE: I was puzzled by the manner in which the heat and humidity were introduced to the room, for I saw no vents nor cauldrons of boiling water, or devices for releasing drops of water on heated plates or stones. I had been in the room for perhaps three or four minutes before I realized that the steam rose from the pool itself. I gathered that it was heated. It seemed calm. I wondered what I was expected to meet in the pool. I would have at least the quiva. I noted that the surface of the pool, shortly after we had entered, began to tremble slightly, and it was then once again calm. I supposed something, sensing our presence, had stirred in its depths, and was now waiting. Yet the motion had been odd for it was almost as if the pool had lifted itself, rippled, and then subsided. I studied the pool. It was beautiful, yellow, sparkling as though filled with gems. There seemed to be wound through its fluids ribbons and filaments and it was dotted here and there with small spheres of various colors. I then became aware that the steam that rose from the pool did so periodically, rather than continuously. There seemed to be a rhythm in the rising of the steam from the pool. I noted, too, that the surface of the pool licking at the marble basin in which it lay trapped seemed to rise slightly and then fall with the discharge of the steam.
"Would you like to fight for your life?" asked Saphrar of Turia.
"Of course," I said.
"Excellent," said Saphrar. "You may do so in the Yellow Pool of Turia."
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 202
At the edge of the Yellow Pool of Turia Harold and I stood, now freed of the slave bar, but with wrists tied behind our backs. I had not been given back my sword but the quiva I had carried was now thrust in my belt.
The pool is indoors in a spacious chamber in the House of Saphrar with a domed ceiling of some eighty feet in height. The pool itself, around which there is a marble walkway some seven or eight feet in width, is roughly circular in shape and has a diameter of perhaps sixty or seventy feet.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 203
"Nonsense," said Saphrar. "But do not be impatient for your turn will come."
Though it might have been my imagination it seemed that the pool's yellow had now become enriched and that the shifting fluid hues that confronted me had achieved new ranges of brilliance. Some of the filamentous streamers beneath the surface now seemed to roil beneath the surface and the colors of the spheres seemed to pulsate. The rhythm of the steam seemed to increase in tempo and I could now detect, or thought I could, more than simple moisture in that steam, perhaps some other subtle gas or fume, perhaps hitherto unnoticed but now increasing in its volume.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 206
I now looked across the surface of the pool. Its appearance was now truly remarkable. It was almost as if it were lower in the center and the edges higher near the marble basin, inching as high as they could toward our sandals. I took it that this was an optical illusion of some sort. The pool was now, it seemed, literally coruscating, glistening with a brilliance of hues that was phenomenal, almost like hands lifting and spilling gems in sunlit water. The filamentous strands seemed to go mad with movement and the spheres of various colors were almost phosphorescent, pulsating beneath the surface. The steam rhythm was now swift, and the gases or fumes mixed with that moisture, noxious. It was almost as though the pool itself respired.
. . .
To my surprise the pool, at least near the edge, was not deep. I stood in the fluid only to my knees. I took a few more steps out into the pool. It became deeper toward the center. About a third of the way toward the center I was entered into the pool to my waist.
I looked about, searching for whatever it was that would attack me. It was difficult to look into the fluid because of the yellow, the glistening brilliance of the surface troubled by my passage.
I noted that the steam, and gas or fumes, no longer rose from the pool. It was quiet.
The filamentous threads did not approach me, but now seemed quiet, almost as if content. The spheres, too, seemed quiescent. Some of them, mostly whitish, luminescent ones, had seemed to float nearer, and hovered slightly beneath the surface, in a ring about me, some ten feet away. I took a step towards the ring and the spheres, doubtless moved by the fluids displaced in my step, seemed to slowly disperse and move away. The yellow of the pool's fluid, though rich, no longer seemed to leap and startle me with its vibrance.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 207
I stood so, in the fluid to my waist, for perhaps two or three minutes.
Then, angrily, thinking perhaps the pool was empty, or I had been made fool of, I cried out to Saphrar. "When is it that I meet the monster?"
Over the surface I heard Saphrar, standing behind the wooden shield, laugh. "You have met it," he said.
"You lie!" I cried.
"No," he responded, amused, "you have met it."
"What is the monster?" I cried.
"The pool!" he shouted.
"The pool?" I asked.
"Yes," said Saphrar, gleefully. "It is alive!"
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 207 - 208
At the very instant that Saphrar had called out there was a great blast of steam and fumes that seemed to explode from the fluid about me as though the monster in which I found myself had now, its prey satisfactorily entrapped, dared to respire and, at the same time, I felt the yellow fluid about my body begin to thicken and gel. I cried out suddenly in alarm horrified at my predicament and struggled to turn back and wade to the edge of the marbled basin that was the cage of the thing in which I was, but the fluid, tightening about me, now seemed to have the consistency of a rich yellow, hot mud and then, by the time I had reached a level where it rose to a point midway between my knees and waist the fluid had become as resistant as wet, yellow cement and I could move no further. My legs began to tingle and sting, and I could feel the skin beginning to be etched and picked by the corrosive elements now attacking them.
I heard Saphrar remark, "It sometimes takes hours to be fully digested."
Wildly, with the useless quiva, I began to slash and pick at the damp, thick stuff about me. The blade would sink in fully, as though in a tub of wet cement, leaving a mark, but when it was withdrawn the mark would be erased by the material flowing in to fill the aperture.
"Some men," said Saphrar, "those who do not struggle have lived for as much as three hours long enough in some cases to see their own bones."
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 209
I stood as still as I could. My feet and legs felt cold and yet as if they were burning - presumably the acids of the pool were at work. As nearly as I could determine the pool was thick, rubbery, gelatinous, only in the area near to my body. I could see it rippling, and splashing a bit against the edge of the marbled basin. Indeed, it was even lower toward the edge now, and had humped itself in my vicinity, as though in time it might climb my body and, in some hours perhaps, engulf me. But doubtless by then I would have been half digested, much of me little more than a cream of fluids and proteins then mixing with and nourishing the substance of my devourer, the Yellow Pool of Turia.
I pushed now, with all my might, not toward the edge of the marbled basin, but rather toward the deepest part of the pool. To my satisfaction I found that I could move, though barely, in this direction. The pool was content that I should enter it more deeply, perhaps it even desired that I do so, that its meal might be even more readily obtained. "What is he doing?" cried the Paravaci. "He is mad," said Saphrar.
Each inch I moved toward the center of the pool my journey became easier. Then suddenly, the yellow, encircling cementlike substance had oozed from my limbs and I could take two or three free steps. The fluid was now, however, to my armpits. One of the luminescent, white spheres floated by, quite close to me. To my horror I saw it change its shade as it neared the surface, more closely approaching the light. As it had risen toward the surface, just beneath which it now rested, its pigmentation had changed from a luminescent white to a rather darkish gray. It was clearly photosensitive. I reached out and slashed at it with the quiva, cutting it, and it withdrew suddenly, rolling in the fluid, and the pool itself seemed suddenly to churn with steam and light. Then it was quiet again. Yet somehow I knew now the pool, like all forms of life, had some level of irritability. More of the luminescent, white orbs now floated about me, circling me; but none of them now approached closely enough to allow me to use the quiva.
I splashed across the center of the pool, literally swimming. As soon as I had crossed the center I felt the fluids of the pool once again begin to gel and tighten. By the time I had reached the level of my waist on the opposite side I could, once again, no longer move toward the edge of the pool. I tried this twice more, in different directions, with identically the same result. Always, the luminescent, photosensitive orbs seemed to float behind me and around me in the fluid. Then I was swimming freely in the yellow fluid at the center of the pool. Beneath me, vaguely, several feet under the surface, I could see a collection, almost like threads and granules in a transparent bag, of intertwined, writhing filaments and spheres, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly, walled in by a translucent membrane.
Quiva in my teeth I dove toward the deepest part of the Yellow Pool of Turia, where glowed the quickness and substance of the living thing in which I swam.
Almost instantly as I submerged the fluid beneath me began to jell, walling me away from the glowing mass at the bottom of the pool but, hand over hand, pulling at it and thrusting my way, I forced my way deeper and deeper into it. Finally I was literally digging in it feet below the surface. My lungs began to scream for air. Still I dug in the yellow fluid, hands and fingernails bleeding, and then, when it seemed my lungs would burst and darkness was engulfing me and I would lose consciousness, I felt a globular, membranous tissue, wet and slimy, recoil spasmodically from my touch. Upside down, locked in the gelling fluid, I took the quiva from my mouth and, with both hands, pressed down with the blade against that twitching, jerking, withdrawing membrane. It seemed that the living, amorphous globe of matter which I struck began to move away, slithering away in the yellow fluids, but I pursued it, one hand in the torn membrane and continued to slash and tear at it. Crowded about my body now were entangling filaments and spheres trying, like hands and teeth, to tear me from my work, but I struck and tore again and again and then entered the secret world beneath the membrane slashing to the left and right and suddenly the fluid began to loosen and withdraw above me and within the membranous chamber it began to solidify against me and - push me out. I stayed as long as I could but, lungs wrenching, at last permitted myself to be thrust from the membranous chamber and hurled into the loose fluid above. Now below me the fluid began to gel swiftly almost like a rising floor and it loosened and withdrew on all sides and suddenly my head broke the surface and I breathed. I now stood on the hardened surface of the Yellow Pool of Turin and saw the fluids of the sides seeping into the mass beneath me and hardening almost instantly. I stood now on a warm, dry globular mass, almost like a huge, living shell. I could not have scratched the surface with the quiva.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 211 - 213
We came together to the brink of the Yellow Pool of Turia. At its marbled edge, hissing and quivering with rage, throwing their heads now and again upward and howling in frustrated fury were the two, tawny hunting sleen, their maddened round eyes blazing on the pathetic figure of Saphrar of Turia, blubbering and whimpering, sobbing, reaching out, his fingers scratching the air as though he would climb it, for the graceful, decorative vines that hung above the pool, more than twenty feet above his head.
He struggled to move in the glistening, respiring, sparkling substance of the Yellow Pool, but could not change his place. The fat hands with the scarlet fingernails seemed suddenly to be drawn and thin, clutching. The merchant was covered with sweat. He was surrounded by the luminous, white spheres that floated under the surface about him, perhaps watching, perhaps somehow recording his position in virtue of pressure waves in the medium. The golden droplets which Saphrar wore in place of eyebrows fell unnoticed into the fluid that humped itself thickening itself about him. Beneath the surface we could see places where his robes had been eaten away and the skin was turning white beneath the surface, the juices of the pool etching their way into his body, taking its protein and nutriment into its own, digesting it.
Saphrar took a step deeper into the pool and the pool permitted this, and he now stood with the fluids level with his chest.
"Lower the vines!" begged Saphrar.
No one moved.
Saphrar threw back his head like a dog and howled in pain. He began to scratch and tear at his body, as if mad. Then, tears bursting from his eyes, he held out his hands to Kamchak of the Tuchuks.
"Please!" he cried.
"Remember Kutaituchik" said Kamchak.
Saphrar screamed in agony and moving beneath the yellow glistening surface of the pool I saw several of the filamentous fibers encircle his legs and begin to draw him deeper into the pool and beneath the surface.
Then Saphrar, merchant of Turia, struggled, pounding against the caked material near to him, to prevent his being drawn under. The eyes were bulging perhaps a quarter of an inch from the little round head and the mouth, with its two golden teeth, now emptied of ost venom, seemed to be screaming but there was no sound.
"The egg," Kamchak informed him, "was the egg of a tharlarion it was worthless."
The fluid now had reached Saphrar's chin and his head was back to try and keep his nose and mouth over the surface. His head shook with horror.
"Please!" he cried once more, the syllable lost in the bubbling yellow mass that reached into his mouth.
"Remember Kutaituchik," said Kamchak, and the filamentous fibers about the merchant's legs and ankles drew him slowly downward. Some bubbles broke the surface. Then the merchant's hands, still extended as though to grasp the vines overhead, with their scarlet fingernails, the robes eaten away from the flesh, disappeared beneath the sparkling, glistening surface.
We stood silently there for a time, until Kamchak saw small, white bones, like bleached driftwood, rocking on the sparkling, now watery surface, being moved bit by bit, almost as if by tides, to the edge of the pool, where I gathered attendants would normally collect and discard them.
"Bring a torch," said Kamchak.
He looked down into the sparkling, glistening living fluid of the Yellow Pool of Turia.
"It was Saphrar of Turia," said Kamchak to me, "who first introduced Kutaituchik to the strings of kanda." He added, "It was twice he killed my father."
The torch was brought, and the pool seemed to discharge its vapor more rapidly, and the fluids began to churn, and draw away from our edge of the pool. The yellows of the pool began to flicker and the filamentous fibers began to writhe, and the spheres of different colors beneath the surface began to turn and oscillate, and dart in one direction and then the other.
Kamchak took the torch and with his right hand, in a long arc, flung it to the center of the pool.
Suddenly like an explosion and conflagration the pool erupted into flames and Kamchak and I and Harold and the others shielded our faces and eyes and withdrew before the fury of the fire. The pool began to roar and hiss and bubble and scatter parts of itself, flaming, into the air and again to the walls. Even the vines caught fire. The pool then attempted to desiccate itself and retreat into its hardened shell-like condition but the fire within the closing shell burst it apart and open and then it was again like a lake of burning oil, with portions of the shell tossed like flaming chips upon it.
For better than an hour it burned and then the basin of the pool, now black, in places the marble fused and melted, was empty, save for smears of carbon and grease, and some cracked, blackened bones, and some drops of melted gold, what had been left perhaps of the golden drops which Saphrar of Turia had worn over his eyes, and the two golden teeth, which had once held the venom of an ost.
"Kutaituchik is avenged," said Kamchak, and turned from the room.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 321 - 323
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BIZZARE CREATURES COLLECTION OF GOR
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BIZZARE CREATURES COLLECTION OF GOR
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The Collection of Creatures Kept by the Shogun and his Wife on his private Island and in the Imperial Captial. They are a rather Unique Collection of creatures from All over Gor.
Gor, sparsely inhabited by human beings, teems with animal life,
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 48
BACTERIA PIT CREATURES: made of creatures that are a member of a large group of unicellular microorganisms which have cell walls but lack organelles and an organized nucleus, including some which can cause disease, be useful as well, or a simple lifeform.
In the pits there is no light, save that which men bring there. Without light, there cannot be photosynthesis. Without photosynthesis there cannot be the reduction of carbon dioxide, the formation of sugar, the beginning of the food chain. Ultimately, then, food is brought into the pits, generally in the form of organic debris, from hundreds of sources, many of them hundreds of miles distant; this debris is carried by the fresh-water feeds, through minute faults and fissures, and even porous rock, until it reaches the remains of the ancient seas, now sunken far beneath the surface. On and in this debris, breaking it down, are several varieties of bacteria. These bacteria are devoured by protozoons and rotifers. These, in turn, become food for various flatworms and numerous tiny segmented creatures, such as isopods, which, in turn, serve as food for small, blind, white crayfish, lelts and salamanders.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 248 - 249
Once I felt it roll over my back, my body protected by the remains of the frame. Its skin was not rough, abrasive, like that of free-water sharks, but slick, coated with a bacterial slime. It slipped over me, not tearing me from the frame.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 252
Termites, incidentally, are extremely important to the ecology of the forest. In their feeding they break down and destroy the branches and trunks of fallen trees. The termite "dust," thereafter, by the action of bacteria, is reduced to humus, and the humus to nitrogen and mineral materials.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
"In the agricultural satellites," said Pyrrhus, "a number of crops are grown, not blood food, but crops from which, suitably processed, nourishment may be obtained. We may arrange growing seasons, temperature, soil nutriments, light and darkness, and such, as we please. Thus we may have crops all year around in any fashion desired. There are no noxious insects, or such, either, to compete for the food, as we have not allowed their entry into the areas. Only such bacteria as are beneficial are admitted."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 127
CAPTIVE KUR OR KURRI SERVANTS / SPIES: The Kurii, consist of several “Peoples”. Not all of these “Peoples” speak the same language, and, I gather, there are differences among, and within, each People. For example, differences in marking, in texture of fur, in temperament, in tooth arrangement, in ear shape, and so on. These differences, negligible from the point of view of humans, are apparently of considerable importance among the Kurii themselves. Some Kur especially kicked out their society or have surrended, will work with or for humans as spies among the kurri.
It was an incredibly hideous, large-eyed, furred thing. It had wide, pointed ears. It stood perhaps eight or nine feet high. It may have weighed seven or eight hundred pounds. It had a wide, two-nostriled, leathery snout. Its mouth was huge, large enough to take a man's head into it, and it was rimmed with two rows of stout fangs. There were four larger fangs, long and curved, for grasping, in the position of the canines. The upper two fangs protruded at the side of the jaws when its mouth was closed. It had a long, dark tongue. Its forelegs were larger than its hind legs. I had seen it move, shambling on its hind legs, and on the knuckles of its forelegs, but now I saw that what I had taken as forelegs were not unlike arms and hands. Indeed, they had six digits, several jointed, almost like tentacles, which terminated in clawlike growths, which had been blunted and filed. It also had claws on its hind legs, or feet, which were retractable, as the mountebank demonstrated, issuing sharp voice commands to the beast. The hind legs, or feet, like the forelegs, or hands, if one may so speak, were also six-digited and multiply jointed. They were large and spreading. The claws, as I saw when they were exposed, upon the order of the mountebank, were better than four inches long, curved and sharp. I could not even determine in my mind whether to think of it as a four-footed animal, with unusual prehensile forelegs, or as something manlike, with two legs and two arms, with hands. It was tailless.
Perhaps most horrifying were the eyes. They were large and black-pupiled. For an instant I thought they rested upon me, and saw me, but not as an animal sees, but as something might see that is not an animal. Then, again, they were simple and vacant, those of a mountebank's performing beast.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 103
It seemed incredibly huge, even more so in the small hut than earlier outside of Targo's compound. It was like a glistening, somnolent boulder of fur, alive, hundreds of pounds in weight. The eyes were large, black, round, the snout wide, two-nostriled and leathery. I shuddered at its mouth, and fangs, the upper two protruding downwards at the sides of its jaws. Its lips were wet from the saliva from its long, dark tongue, which, with its teeth, it was using to groom the fur on its right paw. The strike of those jaws could, with one wrenching twist, have torn away the shoulder of a man.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 142
Suddenly the beast made a noise. It was a rumble, a growl. I stiffened, and turned.
It had lifted its head. Its wide, pointed ears lifted. It was listening.
The man, and I, watched the beast, I, frightened, he, alert, cautious.
His eyes seemed to meet those of the beast, and the beast seemed to look at him. Then it had lifted its lips away from its teeth, and looked away, its ears still lifted. It growled again.
"It is a sleen outside," said the man.
I trembled.
"When I was brought here," I said, "twice the band caught the scent of a sleen."
The man looked at me. "It was stalking you," he said, "you, and the others."
"Perhaps there were different sleen," I whispered.
"Perhaps," he said.
The beast now crouched on the straw, its nostrils wide in the leathery snout, its eyes bright and black, the ears lifted.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Pages 150 - 151
Then to my horror I observed the beast. It lifted its large paws to its throat. The paws were six-digited, several jointed, almost like furred tentacles, surmounted by clawlike growths, blunted, filed. It unfastened the buckled collar at its throat and cast it aside.
Then, with a cry of rage, it leapt toward the sleen. The two animals locked in combat. The sleen came through the window, scrambling through, biting and tearing. The beast seized it about the throat, its great jaws biting at the throat and vertebrae. The two animals rolled in the small hut, twisting, squealing, hissing, scattering the benches and table. Then, with a horrifying snap of bone and tearing of flesh and fur the jaws of the beast bit through the back of the sleen's neck. It stood there then, holding the body of the sleen in its claws, its mouth dropping fur and blood. The body of the sleen twisted compulsively. The beast turned to regard us.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 156
The blood of Kurii, like that of men, is red, and of similar chemical composition. It is another similarity adduced by Priest-Kings when they wish to argue the equivalence of the warring species. The major difference between the blood content of the Kur and of men is that the plasma of the Kur contains a greater percentage of salt, this acting in water primarily as a protein solvent. The Kur can eat and digest quantities of meat which would kill a man.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 207
Kurii are land animals, not fond of water.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 216
He then brushed past the Kur. I felt its fur as I moved by it. It was smooth, not unpleasant to the touch, some two inches or so in depth. Its body, beneath the fur, was hot, large.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 218
Kurii are excellent climbers, well fitted for this activity with their multiple jointed hands and feet, their long fingers, their suddenly extendable claws, but they followed us, nonetheless, with difficulty.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 221
" 'Do you think I cannot tell one Kur from another?' I asked. Warriors are trained in acute observation and retention. The recognition and comprehension of a detail, sometimes subtle, can sometimes make a difference between life and death."
Beasts of Gor, Book 12, Chapter 29
" 'Unlike the human female,' said Lord Grendel, 'the Kur female, unless a throwback, an atavism, is narrow-hipped and breastless. The functions of gestation and nursing take place in the wombs.' "
Kur of Gor, Book 28 Chapter 53: Return to Camp; A Surprise; A Mystery
" 'I wish you well,' said Cabot.
'You extend your hand?'
'But you do not take it,' observed Cabot.
The simultaneous grasping of hands, right to right, is a feature of certain Earth cultures, as it is of some Kur cultures. As most humans, and Kurii, favor the right hand, this grasping of hands is a token of respect or friendship, each surrendering, so to speak, the weapon hand to the other.
'Stay with us, until we have word of the outside,' advised Peisistratus.
'No,' said Cabot.
'Then,' said Peisistratus, 'I extend my hand, and wish you well.'
Each then took the hand of the other, firmly."
Kur of Gor, Book 28 Chapter 26: A Slave will be Put in a Collar, as is Appropriate
DEATH EEL: This Parasitic carnivorous specie of eel. Feed by boring into the flesh of other creatures to suck their blood until death if possible. An ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiforme, who have become specialized to eat flesh and may even invade the internal organs of the host. The death eel may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth.
She shall tread the narrow board of the high platform of execution, thence to plunge into the deep pool of death eels far below."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 244
"You have heard of the projected fate of Sumomo," I said.
"It is merciful under the circumstances," he said. "The plunge to the pool of death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 251
"Perhaps others, too, might do so," I said. "When is she to make the acquaintance of the eels?"
"There are hundreds, half starved," said Haruki. "One can almost walk upon them."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 255
From where I was, in the stands, I could see both the platform of execution, far above and to my left, and the wide surface, some ten paces in width, of the deep stone-encased pool of death eels.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 257
All attention seemed focused on the platform, even that of the attendant who had served to agitate the restless denizens of the pool. Indeed, the waters of the pool still stirred, and more than once I saw the glistening back of an eel break the surface, and then snap away with a spattering of water.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 269 - 270
I suspected the eels well anticipated, by now, perhaps from the past, perhaps from a variety of cues, sounds, movements, and reflections, if not from the two token feedings earlier administered, designed to do little more than sharpen the ravenous blades of hunger, that food was in the offing. I suspected they had been starved for days, to ready them for this moment. Similarly, it is not unusual for trainers and keepers in Ar and Turia to withhold food from arena animals, that the torments of hunger might be sorely exacerbated, so cruelly heightened that the released animal will forgo the caution and probity of its ways in the wild to indiscriminately rush upon and attack, and attempt to feed upon, whatever falls within its desperate ken.
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Pages 271 - 272
"Yes," I said. "He is Tajima an officer in the cavalry. With daring, and sustaining great risk, he fled with Sumomo, the shogun's daughter, rescuing her but a moment before she would have plunged into the pool of death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 292
"Sumomo," I said, "was to be fed to death eels."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 387
FREVET: Is a small, quick, insectivore urt-like mammal. It eats insects such as beetles and lice and usually kept within buildings in the river towns to control the spreading of such unwanted pests indoors. They are nocturnal and generally shy from humans.
"That is not an urt," said the proprietor. "They usually come out after dark. There is too much noise and movement for them during the day." The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Boabissia was silent.
"Not every insula furnishes frevets," said the proprietor. "They are charming as well as useful creatures. You will probably grow fond of them. You will probably wish to keep your door open at night, for coolness, and to give access to them. They cannot gnaw through walls like urts, you know."
"Is it far now?" I asked.
"No," said the proprietor. "We are almost there. It is just under the roof."
"It seems we have come a long way," I said.
"Not really," he said. "We are not really so high up. The flights are short."
We then climbed another flight, to the next landing.
"Oh!" said Boabissia, recoiling.
"You see," said the proprietor. "You will come to like the frevets." We watched a large, oblong, flat-bodied black object, about a half hort in length, with long feelers, hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That is a roach," he said. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful. Some of them are big fellows, too. But there aren't many of them around. The frevets see to it. Achiates prides himself on a clean house."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Pages 276 - 277
HITH SNAKE: a large heavy-bodied nonvenomous snake, that kills prey by constriction and asphyxiation.
One obvious danger lay in the road itself, and the fact that I had no light. After dark, various serpents seek out the road for its warmth, its stones retaining the sun's heat longer than the surrounding countryside. One such serpent was the huge, many-banded Gorean python, the hith.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 26
In another case, somnolent and swollen, I saw a rare golden hith, a Gorean python whose body, even when unfed, it would be difficult for a full-grown man to encircle with his arms.
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 191
In one cage, restlessly lifting its swaying head, there coiled a great, banded horned hith, Gor's most feared serpentine constrictor. It was native only to certain areas of the forests.
Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 210
"An ost," said Lord Nishida, "is not well advised to pursue the great hith, against which its poison is useless."
This is not as surprising as it might seem, as the poison of the ost, as that of many poisonous snakes, is prey-selective, deadly against warm-blooded animals, such as tiny urts, its customary prey, or even larger animals, such as verr and tabuk, but harmless to other snakes, to certain forms of tharlarion, and such.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 94
He leaped to his feet and embraced me, weeping, tears in his eyes. I struggled for breath, clutching the four poems. I speculated that this must be much like the grip of the dreaded, constricting hith.
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 116
"Surely you are apprised of at least the first knowledge?" said Laura.
"But," said Ellen, "those are only in stories, they are mythological creatures, like the hith, the sleen."
"I have never seen a hith," said Laura, "but I have spoken to those who have. I have certainly seen sleen, and tarns. There are sleen in the house, in pens. They are useful in hunting slaves."
Prize of Gor Book 27 Page 153
A praetor now approached the seventh challenger, and placed in his huge paws a gigantic ax, some ten feet in length, and double-bladed at each end, an ax which, in the grip of one such as he, one of such strength, might have decapitated a larl, and perhaps even, with three or four blows, Gor's mightiest constrictor, the giant hith.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 248
In the tiny bit of light remaining she detected a large head, perhaps a yard across, wet, glistening from the water, on a long, thick neck, wet, glistening, the head some fifteen feet away, moving on the neck, weaving almost as might have the head of the giant hith, Gor's mightiest constrictor.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 317
KUR LICE OR PARASITES: Use to often to humble and feed the pet slave girls of Kur before they are no longer useful as pelt cleaners. They are not harmful to eat and good source of protein and not too bad in flavor when eaten. They have to feed the slave somehow and taste better than slave gruel or mul paste. they are about the size of ta-grape.
"That was largely to leave my scent upon you," he said, "which was done that my fellow, who was blind, would know a Kur scent, and follow you, and, of course, not be likely to kill you. Now, of course it will be necessary to give you some training, as an actual Kur pet the biting, the nibbling, the use of your teeth, the swallowing of lice and such."
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 472
"She is grooming him," whispered Peisistratus. "When she encounters lice, she must eat them."
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 151
I thrust my face again into the fur.
I then heard from a second translator, apparently back a little farther than the first. "Enjoy the tiny, furtive, crawling things."
"Crack them between your teeth," came from the first translator.
"Are they not delicious?" came from the second translator.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 474
"Do not confuse him with a High One," she said. "I have bitten lice out of the fur of a dozen such beasts who would not permit him to do so much as polish their claws."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 575
"Long ago," said the Lady Bina, selecting a cube of meat from the pan, "I was a Kur pet, and groomed my master, and bit the lice from his pelt. Now I am served by a Kur, before whom, once, I would not have dared to raise my eyes."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 621
"Kurii, not unoften," he said, "keep human females as pets. Their bodies can warm feet, their fine, small teeth are excellent for grooming, for ridding pelts of parasites."
Plunder of Gor Book 34 Page 387
LARVA OR LARVAE: It is an animal in an early stage of development that differs greatly in appearance from its adult stage. Larvae are adapted to a different environment and way of life than adults and go through a process of metamorphosis in changing to adults. A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
Overhead were several birds, bright, chattering, darting, swift among the branches and green leaves. I heard the throaty warbling, so loud for such a small bird, of the tiny horned gim. Somewhere, far off, but carrying through the forest, was the rapid, staccato slap of the sharp beak of the yellow-breasted hermit bird, pounding into the reddish bark of the tur tree, hunting for larvae.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 106
The mindar is adapted for short, rapid flights, almost spurts, its wings beating in sudden flurries, hurrying it from branch to branch, for camouflage in flower trees, and for drilling the bark of such trees for larvae and grubs.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 282
LONG - HAIRED FOREST BOSK: It's a huge, shambling gorean animal, with a thick, humped neck and extra long, silky shaggy hair. It is larger than other bosk with a massive wide head and tiny red eyes, a fearful temper, and two long, wicked, curved and pointed horns. The horns, from tip to tip may measure three spears in length making them longhorn of bosk.
To one side there was a tank for water and there were several racks from which hung meat, probably tabuk, forest tarsk, and forest bosk.
. . .
The forest bosk tends to be territorial, and, as I have already suggested, it can be quite dangerous.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 251
"Only if I permitted it," said Tajima. "The tusks of the forest tarsk, too, could tear me in two, and I could be rent by the horns of the forest bosk, but, like the wind, I do not intend to put myself beneath their tusks or horns."
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 289
They might even intrude inadvertently into the territory of a shaggy forest bosk, and be trampled or gored.
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 137
"There is provender aplenty in the kitchens, " he said, "forest tarsk, long-haired bosk, even tabuk. The Pani hunters provide well."
Smugglers of Gor Book 32 Page 238
LOUSE OR LICE: Any of numerous small, flat-bodied, wingless biting or sucking insects of the order Phthiraptera, which live as external parasites on birds and mammals, including humans. Lice are obligate parasites, living externally on warm-blooded hosts which include every species of bird and mammal, except for monotremes, pangolins, and bats. Lice are vectors of diseases such as typhus. Chewing lice live among the hairs or feathers of their host and feed on skin and debris, while sucking lice pierce the host's skin and feed on blood and other secretions.
I withdrew some of the lice, the size of marbles, which tend to infest wild tarns, and slapped them roughly into the mouth of the tarn, wiping them off on his tongue.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 142
Good-naturedly, I scratched out a handful or two of lice which I slopped on his tongue like candy.
Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 162
I slapped his beak affectionately and, digging among his neck feathers with my fingers, scratched out some of the lice, about the size of marbles, that infest wild tarns. I slapped them on his long tongue. After a moment of impatient, feather-ruffling protest, the tarn succumbed, if reluctantly, to this delicacy, and the parasites disappeared into that curved scimitar of a beak.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 181 - 182
I thrashed on the wood. I could feel the ship lice.
I could not tear at them with my fingernails; I was not chained in such a way as to permit that; this was intentional. I writhed on the slatted wood, screaming.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 318
She is chained in such a way as to preclude movement which might tear at the mesh or break it, thus making possible the entry of urts, which might eat at her, lowering her price, and to preclude her tearing hysterically with her hands and fingernails at her own body, bloodying herself, perhaps scaring herself, again lowering her price, in her attempt to obtain relief from the bites and itching consequent upon the infestation and depredation of the numerous, almost constantly active ship lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 319
I gritted my teeth so that I would not cry out from the misery of the lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 320
The hair of the below-deck girls, mercifully, is shaved off; indeed, our body hair, too, was shaved off, completely. These precautions prevent, to a great extent, the nesting of ship lice.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 321
"We are going to test you for pox," he said. The girl groaned. It was my hope that none on board the Clouds of Telnus had carried the pox. It is transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months. Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with others it had only a temporary, debilitating effect. With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying. Those who had survived the pox would presumably live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably transmitting their immunity or relative immunity to their offspring. Slaves who contracted the pox were often summarily slain. It was thought that the slaughter of slaves had had its role to play in the containment of the pox in the vicinity of Bazi.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Pages 325 - 326
When I had come to the Chatka and Curla I, and Narla, too, had been dipped and scrubbed, to clear us of ship lice and the residues of filth accumulated from the voyage and our consequent captivity; the dip was of water saturated with chemicals toxic to ship lice; we did not open our eyes or mouth when held under by the girls cleaning us; they controlled us by a clamp placed on the right ear lobe; later we were permitted to bathe ourselves; few baths in my life had I appreciated more than that one.
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 329
"It was not a slave ship, I gather," I said, "else it is likely her head and body hair would have been shaved, to reduce the degree of infestation by ship lice in the hold."
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 26
To be sure, her hair is now growing out a bit. This is to be contrasted again, of course, with the shaven head, commonly inflicted only on a girl as a punishment or to protect her from lice in close confinements, such as on a slave ship.
Kajira of Gor Book 19 Page 292
"Oh!" cried Boabissia, on the next landing. "An urt!"
"That is not an urt," said the proprietor. "They usually come out after dark. There is too much noise and movement for them during the day." The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Boabissia was silent.
"Not every insula furnishes frevets," said the proprietor. "They are charming as well as useful creatures. You will probably grow fond of them. You will probably wish to keep your door open at night, for coolness, and to give access to them. They cannot gnaw through walls like urts, you know."
Mercenaries of Gor Book 21 Page 276
Too, it is common to shave a girl completely if she is to be transported in a slave ship. This is to protect her against vermin of various sorts, in particular, lice.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 126
The major reason for cropping the hair of field slaves, both male and female, and certain other forms of work slaves, is to protect them from parasites. For a similar reason the bodies of the women transported on slave ships are almost always shaved, completely. Even then it is common, shortly after debarkation, and this is required by the rules of many port authorities, to subject them to an immersion in slave dip.
Magicians of Gor Book 25 Page 301
All the hair on their bodies is removed, to reduce the infestation of parasites. The chaining arrangement, incidentally, is not only to keep the girls from tearing the mesh, which might allow the entry of urts into the space, but, also, to keep them from lacerating their own bodies, tearing at them to relieve the misery consequent upon the depredations of parasites, usually ship lice.
Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 550
SEWER THARLARION: "Tharlarion" is a general term for several species of animal on Gor which we would doubtless think of as reptiles, or, certainly, as reptilian - John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, 9/20/00
Immediately following I saw the water seem to glitter for a moment, a rain of yellowish streaks beneath the surface, in the wake of the water tharlarion, doubtless its swarm of scavengers, tiny water tharlarion, about six inches long, little more than teeth and tail.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 1
One of the guards, carrying a long, wooden pole, thrust it down, into the water. The water, judging by the pole, must have been about eight feet deep. The other guard, then, thrusting a heavy piece of meat on one of the hooks, to which a rope was attached, held the meat away from the platform and half submerged in the water. Almost instantly there was a frenzy in the water near the meat, a thrashing and turbulence in the murky liquid. I felt water splashed on my legs, even standing back as I was. Then the guard lifted the roped hook from the water. The meat was gone. Tiny tharlarion, similar to those in the swamp forest south of Ar, dropped, snapping, from the bared hook. Such tiny, swift tharlarion, in their thousands, can take the meat from a kailiauk in an Ehn.
. . .
The small eyes of numerous tharlarion, perhaps some two or three hundred of them, ranging from four to ten inches in length, watching her, nostrils and eyes at the water level, reflected the light of the torch.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Pages 22 - 23
"Then a larl, a sleen, or such, perhaps a sewer tharlarion, must be about."
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 264
TINY THARLARION: "Tharlarion" is a general term for several species of animal on Gor which we would doubtless think of as reptiles, or, certainly, as reptilian - John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, 9/20/00
My leg slipped from the island into the water and suddenly a tiny tharlarion struck it, seizing his bit of flesh and backing, tail whipping, away. My leg was out of the water, but now the water seemed yellow with the flashing bodies of tiny tharlarion, and, beyond them, I heard the hoarse grunting of the great marsh tharlarion, some of which grow to be more than thirty feet in length, weighing more than half a hundred men. Beyond them would be the almost eel-like, long-bodied, nine-gilled Gorean marsh sharks.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 58
that thralls should no longer be sacrificed; this was not defended, however, on grounds of the advance of civilization, or such, but rather on the grounds that thralls, like urts and tiny six-toed tharlarion, were not objects worthy of sacrifice;
. . .
the tiny, six-toed rock tharlarion of southern Torvaldsland, favored for their legs and tails, which are speared by children.
Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 152
Almost at the same time I saw a small tharlarion, no more than a foot in length, covered with sting flies, splash from the raft into the water.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 164
"There are no bosk or kaiila in the islands," said Tajima. "But since the ship of Tersites has proven that Thassa can be crossed, if with great hazard, such stock may be brought to the islands, perhaps in the next few years. And the only tharlarion I have discovered about I could lift in one hand."
Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 420
WHITE LARL: A wild leopard-like feline of Gor. The larl is a clawed and fanged carnivorous predator, standing six to eight feet tall at the shoulder. It's head is broad and sometimes more than two feet across, shaped roughly like a triangle. The larls head is constantly in motion. It has an unobtrusive bony ridge that runs from it's four nasal slits to the start of its backbone. The ridge can be penetrated by a spear but an imperfect cast would glance off the bone. It has an eight-valved heart in the center of its breast. There is also mention of a huge white larl, encountered by Tarl Cabot in the Sardar mountains. It normally keeps to the mountains, but occasionally raid human habitations. Two white larls are in the throne room chained in key places watching, who chain reach is controlled by the Shogun or his Wife.
"Some four days into the mountains I heard for the first time in my journey the sound of a thing other than the wind, the sighing of snow and the groaning of ice; it was the sound of a living thing; the sound of a mountain larl.
The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder. I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly jungle cats of my old world.
....
The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knife like slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night.
The pelt of the larl is normally a tawney red or sable black. The black larl, which is predominately nocturnal, is maned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of, the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs. I had once killed a male red larl in the Voltai Range within pasangs of the city of Ar."
Priest-Kings of Gor, Book 3, Pages 18 - 19 ~¤~
"I once asked a Gorean hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten his reply. 'Because it is beautiful,' he said, 'and dangerous, and because we are Goreans.' "
Priest-Kings of Gor, Book 3, Page 20
There was a sudden startled rattle of chains and I saw two huge, white larls frozen in the momentary paralysis of registering my presence, and then with but an instant's fleeting passage both beasts turned upon me and hurled themselves enraged to the lengths of their chains.
My spear had not left my hand.
Both animals were jerked up short as mighty chains, fastened to steel and bejeweled collars, terminated their vicious charge. One was thrown on its back, so violent was its rush, and the other stood wildly for a moment towering over me like a rearing giant stallion, its huge claws slashing the air, fighting the collar that held it from me.
Then at the length of their chains they crouched, snarling, regarding me balefully, occasionally lashing out with a clawed paw as if to sweep me into range of their fearsome jaws.
I was struck with wonder, though I was careful to keep beyond the range of their chains, for I had never seen white larls before.
They were gigantic beasts, superb specimens, perhaps eight feet at the shoulder.
Their upper canine fangs, like daggers mounted in their jaws, must have been at least a foot in length and extended well below their jaws in the manner of ancient saber-toothed tigers. The four nostril slits of each animal were flared and their great chests lifted and fell with the intensity of their excitement. Their tails, long and tufted at the end, lashed back and forth.
The larger of them unaccountably seemed to lose interest in me. He rose to his feet and sniffed the air, turning his side to me, and seemed ready to abandon any intentions of doing me harm. Only an instant later did I understand what was happening for suddenly turning he threw himself on his side and his head facing in the other direction hurled his hind legs at me. I lifted the shield for to my horror in reversing his position on the chain he had suddenly added some twenty feet to the fearful perimeter of the space allotted to him by that hated impediment. Two great clawed paws smote my shield and hurled me twenty feet against the cliff. I rolled and scrambled back further for the stroke of the larl had dashed me into the radius of its mate. My cloak and garments were torn from my back by the stroke of the second larl's claws.
I struggled to my feet.
"Well done," I said to the larl.
I had barely escaped with my life.
Now the two beasts were filled with a rage which dwarfed their previous fury, for they sensed that I would not again approach closely enough to permit them a repetition of their primitive stratagem. I admired the larls, for they seemed to me intelligent beasts. Yes, I said to myself, it was well done.
I examined my shield and saw ten wide furrows torn across its brassbound hide surface. My back felt wet with the blood from the second larl's claws. It should have felt warm, but it felt cold. I knew it was freezing on my back. There was no choice now but to go on, somehow, if I could. Without the small homely necessities of a needle and thread I should probably freeze. There was no wood in the Sardar with which to build a fire.
Yes, I repeated grimly to myself, glaring at the larls, though smiling, it was well done, too well done.
Then I heard the movement of chains and I saw that the two chains which fastened the larls were not hooked to rings in the stone but vanished within circular apertures. Now the chains were being slowly drawn in, much to the obvious frustration of the beasts.
The place in which I found myself was considerably wider than the path on which I had trod, for the path had given suddenly onto a fairly large circular area in which I had found the chained larls. One side of this area was formed by the sheer cliff which had been on my right and now curved about making a sort of cup of stone; the other side, on my left, lay partly open to the frightful drop below, but was partly enclosed by another cliff, the side of a second mountain, which impinged on the one I had been climbing. The circular apertures into which the larls' chains were being drawn were located in these two cliffs. As the chains were drawn back, the protesting larls were dragged to different sides. Thus a passage of sorts was cleared between them, but the passage led only, as far as I could see, to a blank wall of stone. Yet I supposed this seemingly impervious wall must house the portal of the Hall of Priest-Kings.
As the beasts had felt the tug of the chains they had slunk snarling back against the cliffs, and now they crouched down, their chains little more than massive leashes. I thought the snowy whiteness of their pelts was beautiful. Throaty growls menaced me, and an occasional paw, the claws extended, was lifted, but the beasts made no effort now to pull against the grim, jewel-set collars which bound them.
Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Pages 22 - 24
WINGED UL THARLARION: They are gorean dragon like creatures with skin webbed clawed wings, monstrous, hissing, predatory tharlarion, found flying over the deltas surrounding Port Kar. This reptile has Ramphorhynchusa 25 foot wing span and a long, snakelike tail, terminating with a flat spade like structure. Smaller version the minitature ones have only 5 to 6 foot wing spans.
Also, at night, crossing the bright disks of Gor's three moons might occasionally be seen the silent, predatory shadow of the Ul, a giant pterodactyl ranging far from its native swamps in the delta of the Vosk.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 26
Only one creature in the marshes dares to outline itself against the sky, the predatory Ul, the winged tharlarion.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 1
I was not particularly surprised at finding a bit of rep-cloth tied on the rence plant, for the delta is inhabited. Man has not surrendered it entirely to the tharlarion, the Ul and the salt leach.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 6
The rence growers, in spite of the value of their product, and the value of articles taken in exchange for it, and the protection of the marshes, and the rence and fish which give them ample sustenance, do not have an easy life. Not only must they fear the marsh sharks and the carnivorous eels which frequent the lower delta, not to mention the various species of aggressive water tharlarion and the winged, monstrous hissing predatory Ul but they must fear, perhaps most of all, men, and of these, most of all, the men of Port Kar.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 8
I saw an Ul, the winged tharlarion, high overhead, beating its lonely way eastward over the marsh.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 61
I awakened stiff in the cold of the marsh dawn, hearing the movement of the wind through the dim sedges, the cries of an occasional marsh gant darting among the rushes. Somewhere in the distance I heard the grunting of tharlarion. High overhead, passing, I heard the squeals of four Uls, beating their way eastward on webbed, scaled wings. I lay there for a time, feeling the rence beneath my back, staring up at the gray, empty sky.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 77
The delta of the Vosk, for most practical purposes, a vast marsh, an area of thousands of square pasangs, where the Vosk washes down to the sea, is closed to shipping. It is trackless and treacherous, and the habitat of marsh tharlarion and the predatory Ul, a winged lizard with wing-spans of several feet.
Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 26
We heard, outside, the screaming of a predatory ul, a gigantic, toothed, winged lizard, soaring over the marshes.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 18
We heard, again, the screaming of the ul outside the building. The tarns in the tarn cot moved about. The ul will not attack a tarn. The tarn could tear it to pieces.
Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 19
I lay there for a time, looking up at the sky. I once saw, outlined against one of the moons, membranous, clawed wings outspread, the soaring shape of the giant, predatory ul, the dreaded winged tharlarion of the delta. It is, normally, the only creature that dares to outline itself against the sky in the area.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 90
"There may be others," she said.
"Probably not in this vicinity," I said. The larger uls, as opposed to the several smaller varieties, some as small as jards, tend to be isolated and territorial.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 203
Poling in the trackless delta, the rope on their neck, they are well aware of the wilderness, the vastness, the treacherous byways, the quicksand, the heat, the insects, leeches, delta sharks, winged, predatory uls, and, in particular, marsh tharlarion, which often scout the boats, and accompany them, little but the eyes visible, for pasangs.
Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 487
YELLOW POOL CREATURE: I was puzzled by the manner in which the heat and humidity were introduced to the room, for I saw no vents nor cauldrons of boiling water, or devices for releasing drops of water on heated plates or stones. I had been in the room for perhaps three or four minutes before I realized that the steam rose from the pool itself. I gathered that it was heated. It seemed calm. I wondered what I was expected to meet in the pool. I would have at least the quiva. I noted that the surface of the pool, shortly after we had entered, began to tremble slightly, and it was then once again calm. I supposed something, sensing our presence, had stirred in its depths, and was now waiting. Yet the motion had been odd for it was almost as if the pool had lifted itself, rippled, and then subsided. I studied the pool. It was beautiful, yellow, sparkling as though filled with gems. There seemed to be wound through its fluids ribbons and filaments and it was dotted here and there with small spheres of various colors. I then became aware that the steam that rose from the pool did so periodically, rather than continuously. There seemed to be a rhythm in the rising of the steam from the pool. I noted, too, that the surface of the pool licking at the marble basin in which it lay trapped seemed to rise slightly and then fall with the discharge of the steam.
"Would you like to fight for your life?" asked Saphrar of Turia.
"Of course," I said.
"Excellent," said Saphrar. "You may do so in the Yellow Pool of Turia."
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 202
At the edge of the Yellow Pool of Turia Harold and I stood, now freed of the slave bar, but with wrists tied behind our backs. I had not been given back my sword but the quiva I had carried was now thrust in my belt.
The pool is indoors in a spacious chamber in the House of Saphrar with a domed ceiling of some eighty feet in height. The pool itself, around which there is a marble walkway some seven or eight feet in width, is roughly circular in shape and has a diameter of perhaps sixty or seventy feet.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 203
"Nonsense," said Saphrar. "But do not be impatient for your turn will come."
Though it might have been my imagination it seemed that the pool's yellow had now become enriched and that the shifting fluid hues that confronted me had achieved new ranges of brilliance. Some of the filamentous streamers beneath the surface now seemed to roil beneath the surface and the colors of the spheres seemed to pulsate. The rhythm of the steam seemed to increase in tempo and I could now detect, or thought I could, more than simple moisture in that steam, perhaps some other subtle gas or fume, perhaps hitherto unnoticed but now increasing in its volume.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 206
I now looked across the surface of the pool. Its appearance was now truly remarkable. It was almost as if it were lower in the center and the edges higher near the marble basin, inching as high as they could toward our sandals. I took it that this was an optical illusion of some sort. The pool was now, it seemed, literally coruscating, glistening with a brilliance of hues that was phenomenal, almost like hands lifting and spilling gems in sunlit water. The filamentous strands seemed to go mad with movement and the spheres of various colors were almost phosphorescent, pulsating beneath the surface. The steam rhythm was now swift, and the gases or fumes mixed with that moisture, noxious. It was almost as though the pool itself respired.
. . .
To my surprise the pool, at least near the edge, was not deep. I stood in the fluid only to my knees. I took a few more steps out into the pool. It became deeper toward the center. About a third of the way toward the center I was entered into the pool to my waist.
I looked about, searching for whatever it was that would attack me. It was difficult to look into the fluid because of the yellow, the glistening brilliance of the surface troubled by my passage.
I noted that the steam, and gas or fumes, no longer rose from the pool. It was quiet.
The filamentous threads did not approach me, but now seemed quiet, almost as if content. The spheres, too, seemed quiescent. Some of them, mostly whitish, luminescent ones, had seemed to float nearer, and hovered slightly beneath the surface, in a ring about me, some ten feet away. I took a step towards the ring and the spheres, doubtless moved by the fluids displaced in my step, seemed to slowly disperse and move away. The yellow of the pool's fluid, though rich, no longer seemed to leap and startle me with its vibrance.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 207
I stood so, in the fluid to my waist, for perhaps two or three minutes.
Then, angrily, thinking perhaps the pool was empty, or I had been made fool of, I cried out to Saphrar. "When is it that I meet the monster?"
Over the surface I heard Saphrar, standing behind the wooden shield, laugh. "You have met it," he said.
"You lie!" I cried.
"No," he responded, amused, "you have met it."
"What is the monster?" I cried.
"The pool!" he shouted.
"The pool?" I asked.
"Yes," said Saphrar, gleefully. "It is alive!"
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 207 - 208
At the very instant that Saphrar had called out there was a great blast of steam and fumes that seemed to explode from the fluid about me as though the monster in which I found myself had now, its prey satisfactorily entrapped, dared to respire and, at the same time, I felt the yellow fluid about my body begin to thicken and gel. I cried out suddenly in alarm horrified at my predicament and struggled to turn back and wade to the edge of the marbled basin that was the cage of the thing in which I was, but the fluid, tightening about me, now seemed to have the consistency of a rich yellow, hot mud and then, by the time I had reached a level where it rose to a point midway between my knees and waist the fluid had become as resistant as wet, yellow cement and I could move no further. My legs began to tingle and sting, and I could feel the skin beginning to be etched and picked by the corrosive elements now attacking them.
I heard Saphrar remark, "It sometimes takes hours to be fully digested."
Wildly, with the useless quiva, I began to slash and pick at the damp, thick stuff about me. The blade would sink in fully, as though in a tub of wet cement, leaving a mark, but when it was withdrawn the mark would be erased by the material flowing in to fill the aperture.
"Some men," said Saphrar, "those who do not struggle have lived for as much as three hours long enough in some cases to see their own bones."
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 209
I stood as still as I could. My feet and legs felt cold and yet as if they were burning - presumably the acids of the pool were at work. As nearly as I could determine the pool was thick, rubbery, gelatinous, only in the area near to my body. I could see it rippling, and splashing a bit against the edge of the marbled basin. Indeed, it was even lower toward the edge now, and had humped itself in my vicinity, as though in time it might climb my body and, in some hours perhaps, engulf me. But doubtless by then I would have been half digested, much of me little more than a cream of fluids and proteins then mixing with and nourishing the substance of my devourer, the Yellow Pool of Turia.
I pushed now, with all my might, not toward the edge of the marbled basin, but rather toward the deepest part of the pool. To my satisfaction I found that I could move, though barely, in this direction. The pool was content that I should enter it more deeply, perhaps it even desired that I do so, that its meal might be even more readily obtained. "What is he doing?" cried the Paravaci. "He is mad," said Saphrar.
Each inch I moved toward the center of the pool my journey became easier. Then suddenly, the yellow, encircling cementlike substance had oozed from my limbs and I could take two or three free steps. The fluid was now, however, to my armpits. One of the luminescent, white spheres floated by, quite close to me. To my horror I saw it change its shade as it neared the surface, more closely approaching the light. As it had risen toward the surface, just beneath which it now rested, its pigmentation had changed from a luminescent white to a rather darkish gray. It was clearly photosensitive. I reached out and slashed at it with the quiva, cutting it, and it withdrew suddenly, rolling in the fluid, and the pool itself seemed suddenly to churn with steam and light. Then it was quiet again. Yet somehow I knew now the pool, like all forms of life, had some level of irritability. More of the luminescent, white orbs now floated about me, circling me; but none of them now approached closely enough to allow me to use the quiva.
I splashed across the center of the pool, literally swimming. As soon as I had crossed the center I felt the fluids of the pool once again begin to gel and tighten. By the time I had reached the level of my waist on the opposite side I could, once again, no longer move toward the edge of the pool. I tried this twice more, in different directions, with identically the same result. Always, the luminescent, photosensitive orbs seemed to float behind me and around me in the fluid. Then I was swimming freely in the yellow fluid at the center of the pool. Beneath me, vaguely, several feet under the surface, I could see a collection, almost like threads and granules in a transparent bag, of intertwined, writhing filaments and spheres, imbedded in a darkish yellow jelly, walled in by a translucent membrane.
Quiva in my teeth I dove toward the deepest part of the Yellow Pool of Turia, where glowed the quickness and substance of the living thing in which I swam.
Almost instantly as I submerged the fluid beneath me began to jell, walling me away from the glowing mass at the bottom of the pool but, hand over hand, pulling at it and thrusting my way, I forced my way deeper and deeper into it. Finally I was literally digging in it feet below the surface. My lungs began to scream for air. Still I dug in the yellow fluid, hands and fingernails bleeding, and then, when it seemed my lungs would burst and darkness was engulfing me and I would lose consciousness, I felt a globular, membranous tissue, wet and slimy, recoil spasmodically from my touch. Upside down, locked in the gelling fluid, I took the quiva from my mouth and, with both hands, pressed down with the blade against that twitching, jerking, withdrawing membrane. It seemed that the living, amorphous globe of matter which I struck began to move away, slithering away in the yellow fluids, but I pursued it, one hand in the torn membrane and continued to slash and tear at it. Crowded about my body now were entangling filaments and spheres trying, like hands and teeth, to tear me from my work, but I struck and tore again and again and then entered the secret world beneath the membrane slashing to the left and right and suddenly the fluid began to loosen and withdraw above me and within the membranous chamber it began to solidify against me and - push me out. I stayed as long as I could but, lungs wrenching, at last permitted myself to be thrust from the membranous chamber and hurled into the loose fluid above. Now below me the fluid began to gel swiftly almost like a rising floor and it loosened and withdrew on all sides and suddenly my head broke the surface and I breathed. I now stood on the hardened surface of the Yellow Pool of Turin and saw the fluids of the sides seeping into the mass beneath me and hardening almost instantly. I stood now on a warm, dry globular mass, almost like a huge, living shell. I could not have scratched the surface with the quiva.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 211 - 213
We came together to the brink of the Yellow Pool of Turia. At its marbled edge, hissing and quivering with rage, throwing their heads now and again upward and howling in frustrated fury were the two, tawny hunting sleen, their maddened round eyes blazing on the pathetic figure of Saphrar of Turia, blubbering and whimpering, sobbing, reaching out, his fingers scratching the air as though he would climb it, for the graceful, decorative vines that hung above the pool, more than twenty feet above his head.
He struggled to move in the glistening, respiring, sparkling substance of the Yellow Pool, but could not change his place. The fat hands with the scarlet fingernails seemed suddenly to be drawn and thin, clutching. The merchant was covered with sweat. He was surrounded by the luminous, white spheres that floated under the surface about him, perhaps watching, perhaps somehow recording his position in virtue of pressure waves in the medium. The golden droplets which Saphrar wore in place of eyebrows fell unnoticed into the fluid that humped itself thickening itself about him. Beneath the surface we could see places where his robes had been eaten away and the skin was turning white beneath the surface, the juices of the pool etching their way into his body, taking its protein and nutriment into its own, digesting it.
Saphrar took a step deeper into the pool and the pool permitted this, and he now stood with the fluids level with his chest.
"Lower the vines!" begged Saphrar.
No one moved.
Saphrar threw back his head like a dog and howled in pain. He began to scratch and tear at his body, as if mad. Then, tears bursting from his eyes, he held out his hands to Kamchak of the Tuchuks.
"Please!" he cried.
"Remember Kutaituchik" said Kamchak.
Saphrar screamed in agony and moving beneath the yellow glistening surface of the pool I saw several of the filamentous fibers encircle his legs and begin to draw him deeper into the pool and beneath the surface.
Then Saphrar, merchant of Turia, struggled, pounding against the caked material near to him, to prevent his being drawn under. The eyes were bulging perhaps a quarter of an inch from the little round head and the mouth, with its two golden teeth, now emptied of ost venom, seemed to be screaming but there was no sound.
"The egg," Kamchak informed him, "was the egg of a tharlarion it was worthless."
The fluid now had reached Saphrar's chin and his head was back to try and keep his nose and mouth over the surface. His head shook with horror.
"Please!" he cried once more, the syllable lost in the bubbling yellow mass that reached into his mouth.
"Remember Kutaituchik," said Kamchak, and the filamentous fibers about the merchant's legs and ankles drew him slowly downward. Some bubbles broke the surface. Then the merchant's hands, still extended as though to grasp the vines overhead, with their scarlet fingernails, the robes eaten away from the flesh, disappeared beneath the sparkling, glistening surface.
We stood silently there for a time, until Kamchak saw small, white bones, like bleached driftwood, rocking on the sparkling, now watery surface, being moved bit by bit, almost as if by tides, to the edge of the pool, where I gathered attendants would normally collect and discard them.
"Bring a torch," said Kamchak.
He looked down into the sparkling, glistening living fluid of the Yellow Pool of Turia.
"It was Saphrar of Turia," said Kamchak to me, "who first introduced Kutaituchik to the strings of kanda." He added, "It was twice he killed my father."
The torch was brought, and the pool seemed to discharge its vapor more rapidly, and the fluids began to churn, and draw away from our edge of the pool. The yellows of the pool began to flicker and the filamentous fibers began to writhe, and the spheres of different colors beneath the surface began to turn and oscillate, and dart in one direction and then the other.
Kamchak took the torch and with his right hand, in a long arc, flung it to the center of the pool.
Suddenly like an explosion and conflagration the pool erupted into flames and Kamchak and I and Harold and the others shielded our faces and eyes and withdrew before the fury of the fire. The pool began to roar and hiss and bubble and scatter parts of itself, flaming, into the air and again to the walls. Even the vines caught fire. The pool then attempted to desiccate itself and retreat into its hardened shell-like condition but the fire within the closing shell burst it apart and open and then it was again like a lake of burning oil, with portions of the shell tossed like flaming chips upon it.
For better than an hour it burned and then the basin of the pool, now black, in places the marble fused and melted, was empty, save for smears of carbon and grease, and some cracked, blackened bones, and some drops of melted gold, what had been left perhaps of the golden drops which Saphrar of Turia had worn over his eyes, and the two golden teeth, which had once held the venom of an ost.
"Kutaituchik is avenged," said Kamchak, and turned from the room.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 321 - 323