Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column. Tarl is still in Gor’s equivalent of Darkest Africa and he could truthfully be said to be up the creek, although not necessarily without a paddle. He has made another of his escapes from bondage and now in company with Kisu, a bold, strong, but perhaps not over-wise enemy of the august Bila Huruma, and also with the less impressive but smarter Ayari, is making his way deeper and deeper into uncharted jungle in pursuit of Shaba the Geographer, who is still in possession of the Kur Shield-Ring. Shaba made a hasty exit from the courts of that same Bila Huruma, for what reason Tarl does not know, but the lack of information on this point does not have much bearing on Tarl’s principal intention: to catch Shaba and recover the Shield-Ring. He would not say no to squaring accounts with the duplicitous Msaliti if the chance arose (see last issue for the reason), but that has to be considered “Nice to have” rather than “Essential objective”.

As we rejoin them, Kisu has just got his hands on Tende, a woman supposed to have been married to Bila Huruma for diplomatic reasons, and who chose to be spiteful to Kisu recently when he was safely chained up. Knowing what we do of Gorean men, we can reasonably assume that there is no business so urgent that it cannot wait while Tende is taught a lesson or two. Let’s go and see.

Chapter Twenty-four

Our heroes are soon able to prevail upon certain other souls abroad on the river - for Bila Huruma has his empire-building well in hand, and this results in much jungle fighting - to provide them with a few necessities, after which Tarl and company are indeed well provided with paddles, as well as a canoe. Shortly afterwards, Tende is duly reduced to slavery on pain of being thrown to tharlarion, and this is a threat that has worked on hardier souls than her, as the attentive student will know very well. As is very often the case in these stories, Tende is no sooner reduced than she admits that she has desired no other fate for years, and Kisu is in full agreement; and what was not feasible when they both dwelt as free citizens in Ukungu is now not only feasible but fact. Kisu sets about enjoying the fruits of his conquest right there and then in the canoe, which clearly must be a very stable watercraft and somewhat roomy into the bargain. Fortunately for Tarl, they also acquired two white slaves at the same time as Tende, one of these being the “blond barbarian” Janice Prentiss, and so we need not fear for his long-term wellbeing.

Chapter Twenty-five

Arriving in due course at Lake Ngao, Tarl reflects bitterly on the ill chance that the first civilised man to have seen this magnificent sight should have been the treacherous Shaba. He and Kisu discuss their future course, which will entail a journey up the perilous and unknown River Ua, and Tarl then takes himself off with Janice. Unfortunately she has regressed somewhat since Schendi and is now attempting to deny her slave nature, which is making her physically frigid and an unalluring prospect for even a horny Tarl. She is wise enough to submit to Tarl should he wish to avail himself of her, but this is not what he wants at all and, warning her not to put his patience too much to the test, Tarl puts her aside for the present.

Chapter Twenty-six

The lake itself is many days’ journey in length, but eventually Tarl and company are able to determine that they have left it and are upon the River Ua. Kisu confirms that the &ldqup;rule of the road” in the Interior is much as it is in Africa, to keep to the right and thus present the weaponless side of the body to the stranger as a token of trust. (Members past and present of the Scout Association will remember that this is why Baden-Powell had his boys adopt the left-handed handshake he had become familiar with in Africa; to offer the handshake one must show trust by putting the shield aside - whereas the right-handed handshake shows peaceful intent by offering the weapon hand empty.) Just as the travellers are considering the possibility that the lands are uninhabited and all these precautions needless, they hear jungle drums, no doubt announcing their arrival.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Some time later the party arrives at a village built on pilings sunk into the river. The natives appear hostile, but when a village boy falls into the water Tarl’s instinctive reaction is to dive in to rescue him, and this is the very reaction the villagers were hoping to elicit. Their good nature demonstrated, the travellers are offered hospitality. They are able to undertake a little trading and gather news, and the other slave, as yet unmentioned, is revealed as another Earth girl by the name of Alice Barnes. She has been much longer on Gor than Janice Prentiss and she is quite prepared to be honest about her sexual needs, much to Janice’s horror.

Ayari is able to learn that Shaba has indeed been this way, but “things” have been this way also, of which the villagers dare not speak openly even in their absence.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Acting on this information, the travellers continue their pursuit and soon come upon a piece of flotsam, or possibly jetsam: a box of trade goods, apparently once the property of Shaba.

(Note: We are in for a good deal of shortchapteritis before we are done, and it would take longer to draw attention to each occurrence than would be merited.)

Chapter Twenty-nine

As the journey continues, so does the education of the slaves. It pleases Kisu to allow Tende the opportunity to earn herself some slave clothing, and Alice Barnes performs likewise, to the dismay and scorn of Janice Prentiss. Some name-calling takes place, but when all is said and done it is Alice who is clothed and Janice naked, and though she dares to discuss somewhat of the slave’s station with Tarl, she is still not ready to embrace her own slavery in joy, nor to earn herself slave clothing.

Chapter Thirty

The expedition continues with a spot of portage where cataracts render the river unnavigable. Janice has made no visible progress and is now known to slave and free alike as “Naked Slave”, in case she was incapable of grasping the point.

Chapter Thirty-one

Arriving at another village, the party gathers some more news concerning the whereabouts of Shaba, though of the “things” there seems to be no sign. Since Shaba has continued upriver, Tarl is resolved to do the same, as is Kisu, having some purpose of his own which he is not presently disposed to reveal. They are entertained with stories of many dangers ahead on the river, including “talunas,” who are white-skinned jungle girls, and then with a feast. As he is settling down to sleep, Tarl hears Janice Prentiss talking to herself in English, believing that she cannot be overheard or understood. She is marvelling at the magnificence of Gorean men and mouths some suitably Normanian words concerning the comparison with men of Earth: “Have they not been taught that it is wrong for them to be true men, that it is wrong for them to fulfill themselves and be happy? Is it truly better for a man to torture his system, inflicting guilt and fear on it, inducing irregularities within it, and to die prematurely from a variety of loathsome diseases than to be happy? I do not know. I am only a woman.” And for one who is only a woman she proceeds to show great facility at articulating Norman’s customary diatribe, with which the reader is doubtless already familiar.

Tarl is by no means displeased, for even though in the supposed privacy of her own language, Janice has managed to make some key admissions that confirm her slave status.

Chapter Thirty-two

And it is not long before he is making further exploration of her psychological state, when after another exhausting portage the party makes camp in the jungle for the night. The author gives us a quick run-down on the ecology of the Gorean rain-forest, not greatly different from its terrestrial equivalent except for a few species names here and there, and then gets on to the meat and Suls of this chapter, in which Janice finally demeans herself to the extent of begging for clothing and admitting that she will earn such in any way Tarl desires. For now he does not put her to the obvious use, but discourses on the nature of human biology, the antibiological nature of Earth society and the ill fate this is sure to lead to, and then gets her to recount a dream she once had.

This is a very long and involved dream concerning an adventure in the South American jungle in which Janice is made to submit as a slave to keep from being put to ritual slaughter and subsequently finds her slavery extremely becoming. When the dream reaches the point at which she was forced to dance for her life before her master, Tarl has her repeat the dance in front of him. Reluctant at first to obey the command, Janice does so and dances superbly in the modality of the terrified slave. Only with some difficulty does Tarl keep from putting her to slave use there and then; he has a longer-term plan that he does not wish to prejudice by enjoying her too soon.

Chapter Thirty-three

Which brings us neatly on to Kisu’s longer-term plan, which he now reveals as Bila Huruma is seen following them, far behind. Kisu has Tende perform a slave dance where she can be plainly seen by the pursuers, taunting Bila Huruma with his possession of the black Ubar’s intended wife. This is done to induce Bila Huruma into pursuit in which mischance will gradually strip him of his armed men, until the time is ripe for Kisu, who is better acquainted with the deep interior, to turn and confront him. Tarl sees the point of this, but doubts that Bila Huruma would go to all this trouble over one girl when he has hundreds already; on the other hand, Kisu demands to know if Tarl can think of any reason why it would be Tarl and not himself that Bila Huruma is pursuing, and he is forced to admit that he knows none.

Tarl watches Tende’s slave dance with some amusement, but Janice Prentiss watches with something more like awe, and it seems to awaken something in her. Tarl conjectures that she will now be ready to beg explicitly for her master’s touch.

He may well be right; but the exigencies of the Booknoter’s craft oblige me to bring this month’s proceedings to a halt in order to leave enough of the book to be worth next month’s edition, and so the reader who wishes to know whether Tarl is right about Janice, whether Kisu is right about Bila Huruma, and whether the warnings they have received about the dangers further up-river are well justified, not to mention what has become of Shaba’s expedition, will have to join us next month, when we shall study the concluding chapters of Explorers of Gor.

I wish you well,

Socrates