Hith
The Gorean Python, a golden, banded, horned constrictor native to
certain areas of the northern forest and said to be so large that
a man can scarcely encircle it with both arms.
The
hith, which has not appeared explicitly in a Gorean book
as yet, is a gigantic constrictor. Its body is such that
the arms of a fully grown man could scarcely close about
it. The name is presumably onomatopoeic, being suggested
by the noise it makes when aroused or disturbed.
---John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, Sept 20th, 2000
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
, 25:191
...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
, 12:210
Mamba
Word of the natives of Schendi that is used in reference
to the river tharlarion found in their lands. (see river
tharlarion)
NOTE; The
word 'mamba', according to Webster and other sources, is of Zulu
origin and refers to any of several chiefly arboreal venomous green
or black elapid snakes (genus Dendroaspis syn. Dendraspis) of sub-Saharan
Africa. John Norman's use of this word varies significantly in that
it pertains to a more crocodilian type of reptile.
The word
'Mamba' in most of the river dialects does not refer to a venomous
reptile as might be expected, given its meaning in English, but,
interestingly, is applied rather generally to most types of predatory
river tharlarion. The Mamba people were, so to speak, the Tharlarion
people. The Mamba people ate human flesh. So, too, does the tharlarion.
It is thus, doubtless, that the people obtained their name.
---Explorers of Gor
, 44:393
Ost
Likely the Gorean version of the asp, this small, venomous snake
inflicts a bite which causes death within seconds. Reference to
the black ringed orange banded ost as being 'a variety of ost' would
indicate that the ost does indeed exist in other varieties.
The
ost is a very tiny, orange, extremely venomous serpent,
and its bite seems to be invariably fatal. The poison
is quick-acting and productive of great agony in the victim.
---John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, Sept 20th,
2000
...One
to be feared even more perhaps was the tiny ost, a venomous,
brilliantly orange reptile little more than a foot in
length, whose bite spelled an excruciating death within
seconds.
---Outlaw of Gor
, 3:26
...The
banded ost is a variety of ost, a small, customarily brilliantly
orange Gorean reptile. It is exceedingly poisonous. The
banded ost is yellowish orange and is marked with black
rings.
---Assassin of Gor
, 21:335
Python
The Gorean python is called the Hith (see Hith)
Salamanders
A white, blind reptile that inhabits the brine pits of
the Tahari salt mines.
...Among
the lelts, too, were, here and there, tiny salamanders, they, too,
white and blind. Like the lelts, they were, for their size, long-bodied,
were capable of long periods of dormancy and possessed a slow metabolism,
useful in an environment in which food is not plentiful. Unlike
the lelts, they had long stemlike legs....
---Tribesmen of Gor
, 16:247
Tharlarion
Residents in one form or another of most areas of Gor; a number
of varieties of these reptiles are domesticated and even bred. The
term tharlarion would seem to refer to a species rather than a specific
animal, as demonstrated by the numerous mentions of various forms
of tharlarions. High tharlarions, which are carnivorous, are used
as mounts by cavalry warriors, while others, some even herbivorous,
like the broad tharlarion, the land tharlarion and the river tharlarion,
are used as draft beasts. In the wild, tharlarion are described
as shiny-eyed and fearsome.
"Tharlarion"
is a general term for several species of animal on Gor
which we would doubtless think of as reptiles, or, certainly,
as reptilian. There is some speculation they are forms
of reptilian life brought to Gor long ago by the Priest-Kings
in their Voyages of Acquisition, and may be related to
the dinosauria. (It is not clear how long Gor as been
in our solar system, or, if, perhaps, it has come and
gone at various times in the past, such beasts being protected
in the "Nest" during transits between stars.)
Others speculate that they are native to the Gorean world,
and their resemblance to the dinosauria is a function
of ecological niches and convergent evolution. They are
usually divided into the quadrupedal and bipedalian varieties.
Large quadrupedal types are usually used for draft purposes
or as shock forces in ground warfare, rather as might
have been the elephants utilized by the Carthaginians
in the Punic Wars. Others, faster, upright, etc. are used
as mounts, either generally, or by a ground cavalry, so
to speak, of the Gorean military.
---John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, Sept 20th,
2000
Scarcely
had she broken into the clearing, splashing through the
shallow greenish waters near us, than the fearsome head
of a wild tharlarion poked through the reeds, its round,
shining eyes gleaming with excitement, its vast arc of
a mouth swung open....
---Tarnsman of Gor
, 6:84
Broad Tharlarion
A large, slow moving, herbivorous draft animal reminiscent of many
of Earth's Mesozoic era saurians. The description of the broad tharlarion
at times makes it sound like an armorless ankylosaurus.
...Behind
them, stretching into the distance, came a long line of
broad tharlarions, or the four-footed draft monsters of
Gor. These beasts, yoked in braces, were drawing mighty
wagons, filled with merchandise protected under the lashings
of its red rain-canvas.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 9:118
Their
more dormant relatives, the broad tharlarions, barely
lifted their snouts from the feed troughs. Shielded
by the placid, heavy bodies, some as large as a bus,
I worked my way toward the interior side of the corral.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 15:166
...Through
the trees I could see tent canvas, a tharlarion wagon,
the strap-masters unharnessing a brace of low tharlarions,
the huge herbivorous draft lizards of Gor....
---Outlaw of Gor, 21:185
High Tharlarion
The bipedalian, agile variety
of tharlarion used as saddle lizards by cavalry warriors among others.
They are described much as a cross between the ferocious velociraptor
and the leaping gallimimus.
...The
tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean
warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species of
saddle-lizard, used mostly by clans who have never mastered
tarns....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 3:52
...He
rode the species of tharlarion called the high tharlarion,
which ran on its two back feet in great bounding strides.
Its cavernous mouth was lined with long, gleaming teeth.
Its two small, ridiculously disproportionate forelegs
dangled absurdly in front of its body.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 9:115
The
high tharlarions, unlike their draft brethren, the slow-moving,
four-footed broad tharlarions, were carnivorous....
---Tarnsman of Gor, 10:125
The high tharlarion is said
to have different breeds, which will be used accordingly. A lighter
form of high tharlarion for example, is seen used in Magicians of
Gor as mounts, outside the context of war, for traveling. Of this
same lighter type, we find the more famous Venetzia, Torarii and
Thalonian breeds which are used for racing and said to be the subject
of extremely careful breeding.
We were astride
rented tharlarion, high tharlarion, bipedalian tharlarion. Although
our mounts were such, they are not to be confused with the high
tharlarion commonly used by Gorean shock cavalry, swift, enormous
beasts the charge of which can be so devastating to unformed infantry.
If one may use terminology reminiscent of the sea, these were medium-class
tharlarion, comparatively light beasts, at least compared to their
brethren of the contact cavalries, such cavalries being opposed
to the sorts commonly employed in missions such as foraging, scouting,
skirmishing and screening troop movements. Rather our mounts were
typical of the breeds from which are extracted racing tharlarion,
of the sort used, for example, in the Vennan races. To be sure,
it is only select varieties of such breeds, such as the Venetzia,
Torarii and Thalonian, which are commonly used for the racers. As
one might suppose, the blood lines of the racers are carefully kept
and registered, as are, incidentally, those of many other sorts
of expensive bred animals, such as tarsks, sleen and verr. This
remark also holds for a certain variety of expensive bred slaves,
the prize crops of the slave farms....
---Magicians of Gor
, 19:290
Land Tharlarion
A type of broad tharlarion which is sometimes used as
a draft beast by bargemen. It is said to be less effective
in this task than the river tharlarion.
There
were other barges on the river, some moving across the
river, others coming toward Laura, others departing. Those
departing used only the current. Those approaching were
drawn by land tharlarion, plodding on log roads along
the edges of the river. The land tharlarion can swim barges
across the river, but he is not as efficient as the vast
river tharlarion....
---Captive of Gor, 8:81
Marsh Tharlarion
Thise variety of tharlarion inhabits the marshes of the delta of
the Vosk, as well as the wetland areas of Schendi. It is described
as long and low, and would seem to be related somewhat to Earth
crocodiles.
..."Either
you will be thrown alive to the marsh tharlarion or,
if you wish, we will kill you first."...
---Raiders of Gor
, 3:22
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....
---Raiders of Gor, 6:58
...I
screamed. In the pool, clambering over one another,
lifting their jaws upward were crocodiles, beasts like
river tharlarion but differently hided and plated.
I nodded. The marsh tharlarion, and river tharlarion,
of Gor are, I suspect, genetically different from the
alligators, caymens and crocodiles of Earth. I suspect
this to be the case because these Earth reptiles are
so well adapted to their environments that they have
changed very little in tens of millions of years. The
marsh and river tharlarion, accordingly, if descended
from such beasts, brought long ago to Gor on Voyages
of Acquisition by Priest-Kings, would presumably resemble
them more closely. On the other hand, of course, I may
be mistaken in this matter. It remains my speculation,
however, that the resemblance between these forms of
beasts, which are considerable, particularly in bodily
configuration and disposition, may be accounted for
by convergent evolution; this process, alert to the
exigencies of survival, has, I suspect, in the context
of similar environments, similarly shaped these oviparous
predators of two worlds....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:326
River Tharlarion
A broad type of tharlarion said to have long necks, webbed
feet and scales, used as draft beasts by bargemen.
NOTE: Another
mention of the term 'river tharlarion' is made occasionally
in reference to what would seem to fit the description
of the marsh tharlarion.
A
broad, low-sided barge began to back toward the pier.
It had two large steering oars, manned by bargemen. It
was drawn by two gigantic, web-footed river tharlarion.
These were the first tharlarion that I had ever seen.
They frightened me. They were scaled, vast and long-necked.
Yet in the water it seemed, for all their bulk, they moved
delicately. One dipped its head under the surface and,
moments later, the head emerged, dripping, the eyes blinking,
a silverish fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed
jaws. It engorged the fish, and turned its small head,
eyes now unblinking, to regard us. They were harnessed
to the broad barge. They were controlled by a bargeman,
with a long whipping stick, who was ensconced in a leather
basket, part of the harness, slung between the two animals....
---Captive of Gor, 8:81
The word
'Mamba' in most of the river dialects does not refer to a venomous
reptile as might be expected, given its meaning in English, but,
interestingly, is applied rather generally to most types of predatory
river tharlarion. The Mamba people were, so to speak, the Tharlarion
people. The Mamba people ate human flesh. So, too, does the tharlarion.
It is thus, doubtless, that the people obtained their name.
---Explorers of Gor, 44:393
Rock Tharlarion
A lizard found in the Tahari and in southern Torvaldsland,
described as tiny and six-toed.
...
the tiny, six-toed rock tharlarion of southern Torvaldsland,
favored for their legs and tails, which are speared by
children....
---Marauders of Gor
, 10:152
...I
looked at the tiny lamp on the shelf near the door. It
smoked, and burned oil, probably from tiny rock tharlarions,
abundant south of Tor in the spring....
---Tribesmen of Gor, 14:222
Sea Tharlarion
Marine forms of the tharlarion species are mentioned in
various sizes, from the smaller type which swarms in voracious
packs, to the large crocodilian beast whose jaws could
hold an entire galley.
...It would probably
be a sea-tharlarion, or perhaps several such; sometimes the smaller
sea-tharlarion, seemingly not much more than teeth and tail, fluttering
in packs beneath the waves, are even more to be feared than their
larger brethren, some of whom in whose jaws an entire galley can
be raised from the surface of the sea and snapped in two like a
handful of dried reeds of the rence plant....
---Nomads of Gor
, 17:204
...They
were scaled, vast and long-necked. Yet in the water it
seemed, for all their bulk, they moved delicately. One
dipped its head under the surface and, moments later,
the head emerged, dripping, the eyes blinking, a silverish
fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed jaws....
---Captive of Gor, 8:80
Water Tharlarion
A tiny (about 6 inches long) voracious type of tharlarion
that is often found in marsh areas.
To
my right, some two or three feet under the water, I saw
the sudden, rolling yellowish flash of the slatted belly
of a water tharlarion, turning as it made its swift strike,
probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle. 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, 1:1
Winged Tharlarion
(Ul)
The predatory ul, or winged tharlarion of the marsh areas of Gor,
would likely make dino-lovers instantly recall
a late Triassic to Jurassic era pterosaurus (flying lizard) known
as Rhamphorhynchus (the word means beak snout). The similarities
in description can hardly be coincidental, right down to the spatula
shaped tail. Let us
see what we know of this flying lizard of Triassic and Jurassic
Earth:
It
belonged to the Rhamphorhynchoid ("prow beaks")
- early pterosaurs that appeared during the Triassic period
and went extinct by the end of the Jurassic, that had protruding
teeth in pointed jaw, long tail, short neck, and long, narrow
wings. These were among the first flying vertebrates and
probably flapped their wings to fly.
Rhamphorhynchus
had a wingspan up to 5.75 feet (1.75m) wide, a diamond-shaped flap
of skin at the end of its long, thin, pointed tail. This meat-eater
had long, narrow jaws with sharp teeth that pointed outwards and
tiny legs. Rhamphorhynchus lived during the late Jurassic period,
roughly 150 million years ago. Rhamphorhynchus was a carnivore (a
meat-eater) and probably ate fish.
Rhamphorhynchus
flew well using large, light-weight wings. Its long tail with a
diamond-shaped flap of skin at the end helped stabilize it in flight.
Its tiny legs probably made Rhamphorhynchus a poor runner.
Like many other
saurians found on Gor, the links with early Earth creatures
is certainly worth mentioning.
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, 3:26
I
had then heard a repetition of that piteous, lengthy scream.
I had also seen then, as I had come closer, the small
head of the creature, small considering the size of its
body, and the span of its wings, lift up, above the rence,
with its long narrow, toothed jaws, like a long snout
or bill, with that long, narrow extension of skin and
bone in the back, balancing the weight of the long, narrow
jaws, contributing, too, given the creature's weight and
general ungainliness in structure, to stability in flight,
particularly in soaring.
It had emerged from the rence.
The creature had turned to regard me.
It had opened its wings, suddenly. Their span must have
been twenty-five to thirty foot Gorean. Then it closed
them, folding them back, against its body.
I was quite impressed with it. Never had I been so close
to such a thing before.
It uttered a hissing, grunting sound, expelling air from
its lungs. It had a long, snakelike tail, terminating
with a flat, spadelike structure. This tail lashed, the
spadelike structure dashing sand about. This tail, with
its termination, too, I think, had its role to play in
flight, primarily one of increasing stability.
...
Again it opened its wings. These are of skin and stretch
from the jointed, hind legs, clawed, of the creature to
an extremely long, fourth digit on its clawed hand....
---Vagabonds of Gor
, 19:179-182
Turtle (Marsh
turtle)
Mentioned as part of the Vosk delta's creature population.
...turning
as it made a swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh
turtle....
---Raiders of Gor, 1:1