41

[Dept of PMM Castle Life]

• Shirtdress. Commonly found only among the slaves of the Red Savages. "About her throat, narrow, sturdy and closely fitting, was a steel collar. I stepped back that I might see her better. She wore a short, fringed, beaded shirtdress. This came up high on her thighs. It was split to her waist, revealing the sweetness and loveliness of her breasts. It was belted upon her with a doubly looped, tightly knotted rawhide string. Such a string is more than sufficient, in its length, and in the strength and toughness, to tie a woman a number of ways. She was barefoot. About her left ankle there was, about two inches high, a beaded cuff, or anklet. Her garb was doubtless intended to suggest the distinctive, humiliating and scandalously brief garment in which red savages are sometimes pleased to place their white slaves." (Savages of Gor, page 102)
Hunter's Catch. "Busebius hurried toward us. He gestured to us, and to four of the other girls. He gathered us about him. We were excited. "You six will serve," he said, indicating the men on the dais. Two of the girls cried out with pleasure, to be selected. "Go swiftly to the room of preparation," he said. "Garb yourselves as the hunter’s catch." I was startled. The guests must be important indeed. We hurried to the room of preparation. Busebius went to give orders to the men in the kitchens. We must serve the initial wines swiftly, with the matched breads and cheeses. We tore aside our silks in the room of preparation. We freshened our perfumes and adjusted our make-up. We must be soft, and perfumed and luscious. Busebius thrust his head into the room of preparation. "Earrings," he said, "jewelry!" Then he disappeared again. "I do not want to wear earrings," wept one girl. "Put them on, Slave," I snapped. I did not want to be beaten for one of us who was not pleasing. I fastened golden loops in my ears, and slung necklaces about my throat. I slipped on an armlet. Beside me, Bina placed earrings, unprotestingly, on her ears. "Do you, too, not weep to put on earrings?" I asked her. "No," she said, "I am a pierced-ear girl." The earrings, I noted, jeweled droplets, were very beautiful upon her. I reached into a chest for hunters’ netting. It is a stout cording, used to net medium-sized game. Its mesh was spaced at some two horts, about two and a half inches. Cunningly we twisted netting about us, from our throats to our brands, high upon our thighs. We garbed ourselves as "the hunter’s catch." We looked in the mirror. Several of us gasped. Seldom had we seen such exciting girls." (Slave Girl of Gor, chapter 14)
• Are the varied slave garments too numerous to name? "She may be garbed, for example, in netting, as the "Hunter's Catch"... or she may have flowers intertwined in her chains, as when she is awarded to a victor in public games in Ar." (Guardsmen of Gor, pages 105-109)
• Slave Girdle. "...the cord over Marcus' shoulder, of course; was a slave girdle, which is used to adjust the garment on the slave. Such girdles may be tied in various ways, usually in such ways as to enhance the occupants figure. Such girdles, too, like the binding fibers with which a camisk is usually secured on a girl, may be used to bind her." (Magicians of Gor, page 21)
• Chastity Belt. "She also wore an iron belt. This belt consisted of two major pieces, one was a rounded, fitted, curved barlike waistband, flattened at the ends; one end of this band, that on the right, standing behind the woman and looking forward, had a heavy semicircular ring, or staple, welded onto it; the other flattened end of the waistband, looking forward, had a slot in it which fitted over the staple; the other major portion of this belt consisted of a curved band of flat, shaped iron; one end of this flat band was curved about, and closed about, the barlike waistband in the front; this produces a hinge; on the other end of this flat band of iron is a slot; it fits over the same staple as the slot in the flattened end of the left side of the barlike waistband. The belt is then put on the woman in this fashion. The waistband is closed about her, the left side, its slot penetrated by the staple, over the right side; the flat U-shaped band of iron, controured to female intimacies, is then swung up on its hinge, between her thighs, where the slot on its end is penetrated by the staple, this keeping the parts of the belt in place. The whole apparatus is then locked on her, the tongue of the padlock thrust through the staple, the lock then snapped shut." (Kajira of Gor, page 103)
• Sirik. "both girls wore the Sirik, a light chain favored for female slaves by many Gorean masters; it consists of a Turian-type collar, a loose, rounded circle of steel, to which a light, gleaming chain is attached; should the girl stand,the chain, dangling from her collar, falls to the floor; it is about ten or twelve inches longer than is required to reach from her collar to her ankles; to this chain,at the natural fall of her wrists, is attached a pair of slave bracelets; at the end of the chain there is attached another device, a set of linked ankle rings, which,when closed about her ankles,lifts a portion of the slack chain from the floor; the Sirik is an incredibly graceful thing and designed to enhance the beauty of its wearer; perhaps it should only be added that the slave bracelets and the ankle rings may be removed from the chain and used separately; this also, of course, permits the Sirik to function as a slave leash." (Nomads of Gor, page 42)
• Display Chains. "She wore on her throat a high, gold collar, with, in front, a large golden loop, some two inches in width. Threaded through this loop was a golden chain. This chain terminated, at each end, with high, golden slave bracelets. When the girl stands her hands may fall naturally at her sides, each in its bracelet, each bracelet attached to the same chain, which passes through the collar loop. It is a very beautiful way of chaining a girl." (Beasts of Gor, page 79). Often display chains are 2-foot lengths of chain between wrists and between ankles (Rogue of Gor, page 298).
• Slave Harness. "There are many varieties of slave harness, incidentally, with various purposes, such as discipline, display and security. Many of them are extremely lovely on a woman, and many, by such adjustments as cinching, tightening, and buckling, may be fitted closely and exquisitely to the individual slave." (Magician of Gor)
• Slave Bracelets. Though most essentially this is a means of binding the slave, they also can adorn her for the pleasure of her Master's eyes: "beautifully wrought bracelets, like many, of exquisite workmanship, bright with color, set even with jewels, but like all slave bracelets, of unyielding steel." (Outlaw of Gor, page 62) There is a notation which makes known the fact that there are three chain links commonly between the individual bracelets. "The companion bracelet, on its three links of chain" (Kajira of Gor, when Tiffany leaves Mill 7)
• Ankle Ring. "projecting ring, so useful for running a chain through, or padlocking, or linking on an anvil with a chain. The southern collar commonly lacks such a ring; the southern ankle ring, however, has one, and sometimes two, one in the front and one in the back." (Marauders of Gor, page 166) ("southern" here refers to south of Torvaldsland, not southern hemisphere)
• Footwear. Slaves are commonly barefoot, but sometimes wear decorative cords wrapped around the ankles & calves. Upon occasion, they are seen in sandals (Outlaw of Gor, page 62) or slippers (Tribesmen of Gor, page 44).
• Hairband. This is sometimes used as a sign of rank among slaves. "I had seen that she, too, wore a collar. More importantly, about her forehead, tying back her dark hair, was a strip of rep cloth, brown, of the same material as the work tunic. I knew this meant that she had authority among the girls. Ena was high girl in the camp, but I suspected that Ute might be first among the work slaves." (Captive of Gor, page 285)
• Scarves. "Soon, when you have been properly prepared, you will be dressed in costly pleasure silks, given sandals perhaps, scarves, veils and jewels" (Outlaw of Gor, page 62)
• Veil (Outlaw of Gor, page 62). It seems the free women were not the only ones to be found behind a veil. "Beneath her veil, I saw the metal of her collar." (Tribesmen of Gor, page 88)
• Jewelry. The left ankle is considered the slave ankle and is likely to be adorned with a chain of "slave bells." Bands of slave bells may also adorn a dancer's wrists as well as both ankles. Slave bracelets, armlets, and bangles (Tribesmen of Gor, page 88) are also common items of slave jewelry. Colored wooden beads, bina, are often strung into necklaces (Slave Girl of Gor, page 81). The term "pierced ear girl" often refers to a lowly variety of slave, but at times earrings were more widely in fashion. Among the Tuchuks, nose-piercing and noserings were common as well.
• Cosmetics. A pleasure slave often wears rouge upon her cheeks and lips. Slave perfumes are extremely common.
• Talendars in her hair. "Sometimes slave girls, having been subdued, but fearing to speak, will fix talendars in their hair that their master may know that they have at last surrended themselves to him as helpless love slaves." (Raiders of Gor, page 217)
• Hair Styles. "We took the combs and knelt, letting the blankets fall about our waist, and combed our hair. I think it pleased the men to see us do this. Gorean men relish women, and enjoy watching them, even in the performance of such simple, homely acts as combing their hair. To be sure, we were bare-breasted, and slaves, and obeying. We had not been asked to form a combing circle, probably because they were willing to permit us to remain in the vicinity of the fire. There were too few of us to circumscribe the fire. We would have had to withdraw from the fire, or most of us. In the combing circle we kneel in a circle, each girl combing the hair of the girl in front of her. Making us comb our hair before we were fed, incidentally, is typical of the manner in which Gorean men treat female slaves. The woman is to be presentable and beautiful, before she is permitted food. How much darker, I noted, did my hair, and that of the other brunets look, when it was wet. The combs were of yellow wood, and had long teeth. The entire comb, including the teeth, was about five inches square. There are various hairdos in which such combs are worn in the hair. usually, however, the hair of slaves is worn long, and loose, or confined only in some simple way, as with a ribbon or woolen fillet. Some masters like the ponytail hairdo on a slave, which, on Gor, is usually spoken of as the "leash," or "hair leash," for, by it, a girl may be conveniently seized and controlled. Upswept hairdos are usually reserved for free women, or high slaves. They are a hairdo of that sort to a slave is the master’s pleasure in undoing it, in loosening it, thus reminding even the high slave that in his arms, ultimately, she, the high slave, is yet a slave, and as much or more than the lowest girl in the most remote village. The loosening of a woman’s hair on Gor in an extremely sensuous, meaningful act. "Who loosens her hair?" is a way of asking, in effect, who owns her." (Dancer of Gor, 112-113)
• Collar. Commonly a band of steel about a girl's neck, sometimes enamelled. A locking collar normally had a 6-pin lock, one pin for each letter in the Gorean word for a female slave, "kajira" (Assassin of Gor, page 51).
• Turia's collars vary dramatically from those of the North. "The Turian collar lies loosely on the girl, a round ring, it fits so loosely that, when grasped in a man's fist, the girl can turn within it; the common Gorean collar, on the other hand, is flat, snugly fitting steel band. Both collars lock in the back, behind the girl's neck. The Turian collar is more difficult to engrave, but it, like the flat collar, will bear some legend assuring that the girl, if found, will be promptly returned to her master." (Nomads of Gor, page 16)
• The collars of the Rencers were often vine, wrapped around the neck perhaps 5 times (see Raiders of Gor).
• A Huntsman's collar is distinct by decoration of vines. "About the throats of the girls were locked new collars, again of inflexible steel, but now those of huntsmen, vine-engraved and carrying the name of their masters." (Captive of Gor, page 351).
• Torvaldsland: "riveted collar of black iron, with the projecting ring, so useful for running a chain through, or padlocking, or linking on an anvil with a chain" (Marauders of Gor, page 166)
• Red Hunters: "About their throats now, too, they wore again four looped strings, each differently knotted, by means of which a red hunter might, upon inspection, determine that their owner was Imnak." (Beasts of Gor, page 176)
• Kur: "leather Kur collar, with its lock, and sewn in leather, its large, rounded ring... thrust the large, flattish bolt, snapping it into the lock breech. The two edges of metal, bordered by the leather, fitted closely together. The collar is some three inches in height. The girl must keep her chin up." (Marauders of Gor, page 275)
• Male slaves: "kajirus, seldom has a locked collar; normally a band of iron is simply hammered about his neck; often he works in chains, usually with other male slaves." (Assassin of Gor, page 51).

This page is not meant to describe our training program, but rather the training process as it is presented in the books.
An overview of the goals of slave training from Captive of Gor page 173-:
"Our training, because it was limited to a few short weeks, did not include many of the elements that are normally included in a full training. I remained ignorant of Gorean cooking and the cleaning of Gorean garments. I learned nothing of musical instruments. I remained ignorant even of the arrangements of small rugs, decorations and flowers, things that any Gorean girl, slave or free, it likely to know. But I was taught to dance, and to give pleasure, and to stand, and move, and sit and turn, and lift my head and lower it, and kneel, and rise."
...
"There are dozens of subtle movements, tiny things, almost discernible, but which one notices, almost without noticing, about the movements of a slave girl, things which, cumulatively, distinguish, and very obviously, her movements from those of a free woman.
I now no longer moved as a free woman, even a beautiful one, of Earth. I now moved, and naturally, as what I was, uninhibited and shameless, taunting, catlike, insolent, a Gorean slave girl."
Yet, the process is much more tedious, lengthy, and precise than such a simple and brief passage suggests. Slave training most often begins with a minimum of several weeks or more usually extends a few months. All slave must learn to be pleasing to their owner if they are to survive, but some are also put through the rigors of slave training in a slaver's house to earn the value of a pleasure slave. Very few of the "pleasing slaves" that populate Gor are truly "trained pleasure slaves."
General slave expectations which these pleasing girls gracefully perform:
• "A Gorean slave girl in the presence of a free man or woman always kneels, unless excused from doing so. ... A Gorean slave, incidentally, always addresses free men as 'Master,' and all free women as 'Mistress.'" (Captive of Gor, page 73)
• "'Any free man may discipline an insolent or errant slave,' I said, 'even one who is the least bit displeasing, even one he might merely feel like disciplining. If she is killed, or injured, he need only pay compensation to her master, and that only if the master can be located within a specific amount of time and requests such compensation.'" (Players of Gor)
• “You cannot seriously intend to punish me!” said Filomela. “I was a free woman!” “That is where most slaves come from,” I said. I turned to the other slaves. “Were you not all once free women?” I asked. “Yes, Master!” they said. (Magicians of Gor, near page 225)
• "Similarly, the expression, 'red-silk,' in Gorean, tends to be used as a category in slaving, and also, outside of the slaving context, as an expression in vulgar discourse, indicating that the woman is no longer a virgin, or, as the Goreans say, at least vulgarly of slaves, that her body has been opened by men. Its contrasting term is 'white-silk,' usually used of slaves who are still virgins, or equivalently, slaves whose bodies have not yet been opened by men. Needless to say, slaves seldom spend a great deal of time in the 'white-silk' category. It is common not to dally in initiating a slave into the realities of her condition." (Blood Brothers of Gor, page 472)
• "On Gor, the female slave, desiring her master, yet sometimes fearing to speak to him, frightened that she may be struck, has recourse upon occasion, to certain devices, the meaning of which is generally established and culturally well understood... Another device, common in Port Kar, is for the girl to kneel before the master and put her head down and lift her arms, offering him fruit, usually a larma or a yellow Gorean peach, ripe and fresh." (Tribesman of Gor, page 27-28).
• "I came to a fountain, one of many on the avenue. It had two bowls, an upper bowl and a lower one, closer to the walking level, the water from the upper bowl spilling over into the lower bowl. Free persons might drink from, or draw water from, the upper bowl. The lower bowl was for animals and slaves. Sweating and breathing heavily I put myself to all fours by the fountain and, bending down my head, lapped at the water. Then, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I stood up." (Kajira of Gor)
• "One may, of course, make such inquiries of slave girls. In such a case they are expected to kneel immediately, being in the presence of a free man, or person, and be as helpful as possible. It is desirable, incidentally, for the girls of a district to know the district well, in case they are asked for directions and such. If they do not know the information desired, it is sensible on their part to keep their head very low, even to the stones, or even to belly to the interlocutor. This may save them a cuffing or kick." (Magician of Gor, 108-109)
When it comes to describing regimens of slave training, some prefer the description in Explorers of Gor, but I find the most detail given in Assassin of Gor so will start with its text:
Phyllis Robertson threw back her head and screamed helplessly, and then she, too, began to sob, trembling, when the guard, Strius, released her from the rack and put her with Virginia.
Both girls were weeping.
Flaminius, gently, stretched out their legs, and rubbed them. I'm sure, in the pain of branding, they scarcely felt the pain which might be attendant on his massage, trying to restore some feeling and strength to their aching limbs.
I heard a woman moving close to me, heard the sound of slave bells.
I looked to one side and was startled. Watching us was a woman in Pleasure Silk, of remarkable beauty, yet with a certain subtle hardness and contempt about her. She wore a yellow collar, that of the House of Cernus, and yellow Pleasure Silk. The slave bells, a double row, were locked on her left ankle. About her throat there hung a slave whistle. From her right hand, looped about the wrist, there dangled a slave goad. She was fairly complected but had extremely dark hair and dark eyes, very red lips; the movement of her exquisite body was a torment to observe; she looked at me with a slight smile, regarding the black of the tunic, the mark of the dagger; her lips were full and magnificently turned, probably a characteristic bred into her; I had no doubt this black-haired, cruelly beautiful woman was a bred Passion Slave. She was one of the most rawly sensuous creatures on which I had ever looked.
"I am Sura," she said, looking at me, "I teach girls to give pleasure to men."
"These are the three," said Ho-Tu, indicating the two branded girls, and Elizabeth.
Flaminius rose to his feet, leaving the two girls lying on the stones, sobbing.
"Kneel," said Sura to the girls, in Gorean.
"Kneel," said Flaminius to them, in English.
The two girls, freshly branded, tears in their eyes, struggled to their knees.
Sura walked around them, and then she regarded Elizabeth. "Take off your clothes," she said.
Elizabeth did so, drawing at the loop on the left shoulder of her garment.
"Join them," ordered Sura, and Elizabeth went to kneel between Virginia and Phyllis.
"Bracelet her," said Sura, and the guard snapped slave bracelets on Elizabeth, confining her hands behind her back, like the other girls.
"You are lead girl?" asked Sura of Elizabeth.
"Yes," said Elizabeth.
Sura's finger flicked the slave goad on. She rotated the dial. The tip began to glow, a bright yellow.
"Yes, Mistress," said Elizabeth.
"You are barbarian?" asked Sura.
"Yes, Mistress," said Elizabeth.
Sura spat on the stones before Elizabeth.
"They are all barbarians," said Ho-Tu.
Sura turned about and looked at him with disgust. "How does Cernus expect me to train barbarians?" she asked. Ho-Tu shrugged.
"Do what you can," said Flaminius. "These are all intelligent slaves. They all have promise."
"You know nothing of such matters," said Sura.
Flaminius looked down, angry.
Sura walked over to the girls, lifted Virginia's head and looked into her eyes, and then stepped back. "Her face is too thin," she said, "and there are blemishes, and she is thin, too thin."
Ho-Tu shrugged.
Sura looked at Elizabeth. "This one," she said, "was Tuchuk. She will know nothing except the care of bask and the cleaning of leather." Elizabeth, wisely, refrained from response.
"Now this one," said Sura, examining Phyllis, "has a slave's body, but how does she move? I have seen these barbarians. They cannot even stand straight. They cannot even walk."
"Do what you can," said Flaminius.
"It is hopeless," said Sura, stepping back to us. "Nothing can be done for them. Sell them off a minor block and be done with it. They are kettle girls, only that." Sura dialed the slave goad down, and then switched it off.
"Sura," said Flaminius.
"Kettle girls," snapped Sura.
Ho-Tu shook his head. "Sure is right," he said, rather too agreeably. ''They are only kettle girls."
"But," protested Flaminius.
"Kettle girls," insisted Ho-Tu.
Sura laughed in triumph.
"No one could do anything with such barbarians," said Ho-Tu to Flaminius. "Not even Sura."
Something about the back of Sura's neck informed me she had noted what Ho-Tu had said and hadn't cared for the sound of it.
I saw Ho-Tu grimace at Flaminius. A smile broke out on the Physician's face. "You're right," he said, "no one could do anything with such barbarians. They could not be trained by anyone, except perhaps Tethrite of the House of Portus."
"I had forgotten about her," said Ho-Tu.
"Tethrite is an ignorant she-tharlarion," said Sura irritably.
"She is the best trainer in Ar," said Ho-Tu.
"I, Sura, am the best in Ar," said the girl, not pleasantly.
"Of course," said Ho-Tu to Sura.
"Besides," said Flaminius to Ho-Tu, "even Tethrite of the House of Portus could not train such barbarians."
Sura was now inspecting the girls more closely. She had pushed one thumb under Virginia's head. "Do not be frightened, little bird," said Sura soothingly in Gorean to Virginia.
Sura removed her thumb and Virginia kept her fine head on its delicate neck high. "Some men might like a thin, pocked face," said Sura. "And her eyes, the gray, that is very good." Sura looked at Elizabeth. "You are probably the stupid one," she said.
"I scarcely think so," said Elizabeth, adding acidly, "Mistress."
"Good," said Sura to herself, "good."
"And you," she said to Phyllis, "you with the body of a Passion Slave, what of you?" Sura then took the slave goad, which was off, and moved it along the left side of Phyllis' body, touching her with the cold metal. Instinctively, even in her pain from the branding and with her aching limbs, Phyllis made a small noise and pulled away from the cold metal. The movement of her shoulders and belly was noted by Sura. She stood up, and again the slave goad dangled from her right wrist.
She indicated Virginia and Phyllis. "How do you expect me to train uncollared slaves?" she asked.
Ho-Tu grinned. "Call the smith!" said he to the guard. "Plate collars!"
To their surprise, the guard then released the two girls, and Elizabeth as well, from their slave bracelets.
Flaminius gestured that the two girls should try to rise and walk a bit about the room.
Awkwardly, painfully, they did so, stumbling to the edge of the room, then leaning against the wall, taking a step at a time. Elizabeth, now also free, went to their side, trying to help them. She did not speak to them, however. As far as they knew she could speak only Gorean.
When the smith arrived, he took, from a rack in the wall, two narrow, straight bars of iron, not really plates but narrow cubes, about a half inch in width and fifteen inches in length.
The girls were then motioned to the anvil. First Virginia and then Phyllis laid their heads and throats on the anvil, head turned to the side, their hands holding the anvil, and the smith, expertly, with his heavy hammer and a ringing of iron, curved the collar about their throats; a space of about a quarter of an inch was left between the two ends of the collar; the ends matched perfectly; both Virginia and Phyllis stepped away from the anvil feeling the metal on their throats, both now collared slave girls.
"If your training goes well," said Flaminius to the girls, "you will in time be given a pretty collar." He indicated Elizabeth's yellow enameled collar, bearing the legend of the House of Cernus. "It will even have a lock," said Flaminius.
Virginia looked at him blankly.
"You would like a pretty collar, wouldn't you?" asked Flaminius.
"Yes, Master," said Virginia numbly.
"And what of you Phyllis?" asked Flaminius.
"Yes, Master," said the girl, a whisper.
"I will decide if and when they receive a lock collar," said Sura.
"Of course," said Flaminius, backing away a step, bowing his head.
"Kneel," said Sura, pointing to the stones before her feet.
This time Virginia and Phyllis needed no translation, and they, with Elizabeth, knelt before Sura.
Sura turned to Ho-Tu. "The Tuchuk girl," she said, "keeps quarters with the Assassin. I do not object. Take the others to cells of Red Silk."
"They are White Silk," said Ho-Tu.
Sura laughed. "Very well," she said, "to cells of White Silk. Feed them well. You have almost crippled them. How you expect me to train crippled barbarians I am not clear."
"You will do splendidly," said Flaminius warmly.
Sura glared at him, coldly, and the Physician dropped his eyes.
"In the first weeks," she said, "I will also need one who speaks their tongue. Further, when not in training, they must learn Gorean, and quickly."
"I will send one who speaks their tongue," said Fiaminius. "Also I will arrange that they are taught Gorean."
"Translate for me," said Sura, to Flaminius, as she turned and faced the three kneeling girls.
She then spoke to them in short sentences, pausing for Flaminius to translate.
"I am Sura," she said. "I will train you. In the hours of training you are my slaves. You will do what I wish. You will work. You will work and you will learn. You will be pleasing. I will teach you. You will work and you will learn."
Then she looked at them. "Fear me," she said. Flaminius translated this, as well.
Then without speaking she flicked on the slave goad and rotated the dial. The tip began to glow brightly. Then suddenly she struck at the three kneeling girls. The charge must have been high, judging by the intense shower of fiery yellow needles of light and the screams of pain from the three girls. Again and again Sura struck and the girls, half stunned, half crazed with pain, seemed unable to even move, but could only scream and cry. Even Elizabeth, whom I knew was swift and spirited, seemed paralyzed and tortured by the goad. Then Sura dialed the goad down, and turned it off. The three girls lying in pain on the stones looked up at her in fear, even the proud Elizabeth, their bodies trembling, their eyes wide. I read in their eyes, even those of Elizabeth, a sudden terror of the goad.
"Fear me," said Sura softly. Flaminius translated. Then Sura turned to Flaminius. "Have them sent to my training room at the sixth Ahn," she said, and turned, and walked away, the slave bells flashing on her ankle.
... (several pages not dealing with training are skipped here)
Sometimes, to while away the time I would watch the girls in training.
Sura's training room lay directly off her private compartment, which might have been that of a free woman, save that the heavy door locked only on the outside and, at the eighteenth bar, it became her cell.
The training room was floored with wood, laid diagonally across beams for additional strength; one twelve-foot area of the room was a shallow pit of sand; against one wall were various chests of raiment, cosmetics and retention devices, for girls must be trained to wear chains gracefully; certain dances are performed in them, and so on. To one side there was a set of mats for Musicians, who almost invariably were present at the sessions, for even the exercises of the girls, which were carefully selected and frequently performed, are done to music; against one wall were several bars, also used in exercise, not unlike a training room in ballet except that there were four parallel bars fastened in the wall, which are used in a variety of exercises. Near the chests of raiment and such were several folded mats and sets of love furs. One entire side of the room, the left, facing the front, was a mirror. This mirror was, as might be expected, a one-way mirror. Various members of the House might observe the training without being noted from behind this glass. I used it sometimes myself, but at other times, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, would enter the room and sit near the back. Sura encouraged males to observe, wanting the girls to sense their presence and interest. And, though I do not think I would have told Elizabeth, her performances with men clearly present, and she knowing it, were almost invariably superior to those in which she did not know herself observed.
There were several men, including myself, who visited the training area with some frequency. In the past two months, in particular, I noted two young Warriors, guards, recent additions to the staff of the House. Their names were Relius and Ho-Sorl. They seemed likable, capable young men, something above the average cut of the men in the employ of Cernus the Slaver. I supposed they had succumbed to gold, for slavers pay high for their hired swords. The staff, incidentally, had been increased in the last month, largely due to the increasing number of slaves being processed by the House but perhaps also, in part, in preparation for the approaching spring, which is the busiest season on the Street of Brands, for then, after the winter, slave raids are more frequent and buyers wish to celebrate the New Year, beginning with the Vernal Equinox, by adding a girl or two to their household. On the other hand, the single greatest period for the sale of slaves is the five days of the Fifth Passage Hand, coming late in summer, called jointly the Love Feast. I recalled a girl once known, named Sana, who had been sold in Ar during those days, who had become the consort of Kazrak, once Administrator of Ar. I knew that Cernus intended to market Elizabeth, and the two other girls, on that feast. It is thought to be good luck to buy a girl on that feast, so prices tend to be high. Long before that time, however, I hoped, with Elizabeth and Caprus, to be free of the House.
The training of a slave girl, like the training of an animal, tends to be a grueling task, calling for patience, time, good judgment and sternness. These numerous latter qualities Sura possessed in plenty. Many were the evenings, particularly in the beginning, when Elizabeth would return to my quarters, and Virginia and Phyllis to their cells, in tears, stinging from the slave goad, confused, convinced that they could never please their harsh mistress. Then they would make some small progress and be rewarded with a kind word, which they found they could not help themselves from receiving with joy. The techniques employed were relatively transparent, much as the kennel technique had been with Virginia and Phyllis, and the girls objectively, rationally recognized what was being done to them, but yet, to their frustration and anger, they could not help, in the moment, responding as they did.
"I fear the goad," Elizabeth had told me one night. "I am afraid of it. I know it is foolish, but I am afraid. I will do anything that woman tells me, if only she will not touch me with the goad. I hate her. I know what they are doing. But yet I cannot help myself. I want desperately to please her."
"It is not irrational to fear the goad," I said. I had once been struck with a tarn goad and knew substantially what her pain must be; further, the shower of yellow sparks, though perhaps in itself innocuous, was, conjoined with the sudden pain, terrifying.
"I'm being trained like an animal," said Elizabeth, putting her head to my shoulder.
I held her head on my shoulder. What she said was to a large extent true, for she was being conditioned to certain responses by pain and rewards. Indeed, sometimes the girls would be forced to compete among themselves, with small candies as prizes, and each would find herself, to her subsequent horror, striving eagerly to outdo the others, that it might be she to whom Sura would throw the sugared pellet. Sometimes Sura would let the men observing determine which girl should receive the pellet, that they might learn how to win men's pleasure.
The conditioning, of course, was subtle, as well as gross, being a combination not simply of torment and reward, but including the intended inculcation of an image and understanding of themselves as well. In its most primitive expression this was begun in the first two weeks of the girls' training. The first week, surprisingly, consisted of nothing but the girl kneeling before the great mirror, in the position of a Pleasure Slave, for several Ahn a day. During this time they wore only their collars, and in the case of Virginia and Phyllis the slave anklets on their left ankles. The point of this, as Elizabeth and I supposed, was simply to accustom them to seeing themselves as slave girls. In the second week, they knelt in the same fashion, but had been forced to repeat, out loud, incessantly, the ritual phrase, "I am a slave girl. I am a slave girl. I am a slave girl." Virginia and Phyllis must needs do this in English, Elizabeth in Gorean. In the third week, the education became somewhat more subtle and Flaminius visited the girls for their training hours, and discussed, with ingenius subtlety, first in English and then in Gorean, certain views of history, of natural right, of orders of human beings and of relations among the sexes. The upshot of these disquisitions, predictably, was that what had happened to them was appropriate given certain laws of intraspecific competition, of conflict and dominance, of the rightful orders of nature. They were the women of inferior men who had been unable to protect them; such men would be conquered when one wished; their women belonged to those who could take them, who would be the victorious; hence they were of slave stock, by nature; that this sort of thing had occurred always, and would always occur; that it was right and just; that as natural slaves they must now bend all their efforts and intelligence to the pleasures of their masters; there was also a strong dose of masculine superiority thrown in, and the common Gorean contention, and arguments relating to it, that women are by nature slaves, deserve to be such and are fully content and pleased only when this is so. Flaminius, for a time, accepted and encouraged counter-arguments, patiently, as though waiting for the girls, when their simple minds permitted it, to understand the truth of what he said. Phyllis, I learned from Elizabeth, was particularly wrathful, when permitted to be so, with Flaminius. Phyllis, it seemed, to Elizabeth's amusement, had actually, on Earth, been a rather serious, ardent feminist. She had, as a matter of fact, hated and resented men. Virginia, on the other hand, had been a shy girl, fearing men. Needless to say, both presented Sura with different problems, which in a Gorean girl seldom occur.
Elizabeth would sometimes, in these weeks, come back to the compartment and relate, with amusement, the subtle exchanges between Phyllis and Flaminius. In her opinion, and perhaps rightly, the positions of both were subtle combinations of truths and half-truths; Phyllis seemed to regard men and women as unimportant differentiations off a sexless, neuter stock, whereas Flaminius argued for a position in which women were hardly to be recognized as belonging to the human species. I expect both, and I am certain that Flaminius, recognized the errors and exaggerations of their own position, but neither was concerned with the truth; both were concerned only with victory, and pleasing themselves. At any rate, to my satisfaction, but Elizabeth's irritation, Flaminius commonly had the best of these exchanges, producing incredibly subtle, complex arguments, quoting supposedly objectively conducted studies by the Caste of Physicians, statistics, the results of tests, and what not. Phyllis, unconvinced, was often reduced to tears and stuttering incoherence. Flaminius, of course, was practiced and skillful in what he was doing, and Phyllis was not difficult to catch and tangle in his well-woven nets of logic and supposed fact. During this time Virginia would usually remain silent, but she would occasionally volunteer a fact, a precedent or event which would support Flaminius' position, much to the anger of Phyllis. Elizabeth chose, wisely, not to debate with Flaminius. She had her own ideas, her own insights. She had learned on Gor that women are marvelous, but that they are not men, nor should they be; that they are themselves; that they are independent, magnificent creatures; that it takes two sexes for the human race to be whole; and that each is splendid.