Anteater
Though the name is one we recognize and are able to put a face to,
the anteaters of Gor, by the description given below of the spined
variety, would appear to be much larger versions of their Earth
cousins. We are told they exist in more than six varieties in the
jungle areas of Schendi alone, but are given no indication of where
else on Gor these beasts might be found.
...More
than six varieties of anteater are also found here,
and more than twenty kinds of small, fleet, single-horned
tabuk....
---Explorers of Gor
, 32:312
A
great spined anteater, more than twenty feet in length,
shuffled about the edges of the camp. We saw its long,
thin tongue dart in and out of its mouth.
The
blond-haired barbarian crept closer to me.
"It
is harmless," I said, "unless you cross its
path or disturb it."
It
lived on the white ants, or termites, of the vicinity,
breaking apart their high, towering nests of toughened
clay, some of them thirty-five feet in height, with
its mighty claws, then darting its four-foot-long tongue,
coated with adhesive saliva, among the nest's startled
occupants, drawing thousands in a matter of moments
into its narrow, tubelike mouth.
---Explorers of Gor, 29:293
Bosk
A huge, shaggy, ox-like animal that provides meat, milk and leather.
The Bosk is said to be the mother of the Wagon Peoples. There are
15 varieties of Bosk known to the Wagon Peoples, the names of which
are used in the naming the 15 moons that are part of the Wagon Peoples'
chronology. This number may or may not include certain types of
bosk found far from the southern plains such as for example, the
snow bosk - mentioned in Beasts of Gor
- which seems to be a resident
of the polar basin. The matter would depend on whether or not the
wagon people are actually aware of the existence of these varieties.
The
bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike
creature. It is a huge shambling animal with a thick, humped neck,
and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes,
a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long, wicked horns that
reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate
in fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, when
measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears.
---Nomads of Gor
,
1:4-5
The bosk
is a large, horned, shambling ruminant of the Gorean plains. It
is herded below the Gorean equator by the Wagon Peoples, but there
are Bosk herds on ranches in the north as well, and peasants often
keep some of the animals.
---Raiders of Gor
, 3:26
"What
lazy animals those sleen are," said Imnak. "They are not
even really hungry, but they are keeping us in mind. They should
be out hunting snow bosk, or basking sea sleen, or burrowing and
scratching inland for hibernating leems."
---Beasts of Gor, 27:334
Deer
A northern variety is mentioned in Marauders of Gor
,
although no description is given.
"Perhaps,"
suggested Gorm, "it is diseased or injured, and
can no longer hunt the swift deer of the north?"
---Marauders of Gor, 7:108
Frevet
A small mammalian insectivore which is used in the cities
as a form of pest control.
"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 insects, the beetles and
lice, and such."
---Mercenaries of Gor
, 22:276
Gatch (Armored)
A marsupial of the rainforest areas of Schendi.
...On
the floor itself are also found several varieties of
animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored
gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several
varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this
zone....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Giani
A cat sized panther of the rainforest areas of Schendi.
...In
the lower branches of the "ground zone" may
be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal
jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle
varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized
panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Hurt
A bounding two legged mammal, domesticated and raised
on ranches for its wool.
Cernus
of Ar wore a coarse black robe, woven probably from
the wool of the bounding, two legged Hurt, a domesticated
marsupial raised in large numbers in the environs
of several of Gor's Northern Cities. The Hurt, raised
on large, fenced ranches, herded by domesticated sleen
and sheered by chained slaves, replaces its wool four
times a year....
---Assassin of Gor
, 4:39
...Her
hair was blond and straight, tied behind her with a
ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, dyed in
the blood of the Vosk sorp....
---Marauders of Gor, 1:1-2
Kaiila
Although we do find the kaiila in different areas of Gor, the variance
in color and eating habits makes each uniquely adapted to its particular
environment. What all of these species do have in common is the
way they are physiologically suited to desert life. Such traits
as the triple lids which protect the eyes from sand and dust as
well as the ability to go many days without water, make the kaiila
an ideal mount for those who dwell in the more barren lands of the
Counter Earth. The kaiila stands twenty to twenty-two hands from
ground to shoulder (one hand = 4 inches) which would make it two
or three hands taller than the average Clydesdale horse.
The first breed
of kaiila we encounter is the large, beautiful meat-eating
mount of the Wagon People warriors uniquely adapted
to plains life. It is described as silken and lofty,
vicious and graceful, long necked and smooth-gaited.
It is said to have a storage stomach which allows it
to go many days without food, this particular trait
being one of the differences between it and the sand
kaiila.
The
mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern
hemispheres of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful
kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature,
graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous
and undoubtedly mammalian...
...A
kaiila, which normally stands about twenty to twenty-two
hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred
pasangs in a single day's riding.
The
head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each
side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an
adaptation to the environment which occasionally is
wracked by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation,
actually a transparent third lid, permits the animal
to move as it wishes under conditions that force other
prairie animals to back into the wind, or like the sleen,
to burrow into the ground....
---Nomads of Gor, 2:13-14
I
then saw a kaiila pass. It was lofty, stately, fanged
and silken. I had heard of such beasts, but this was
the first one I had seen. It was yellow, with flowing
hair. Its rider was mounted in a high, purple saddle,
with knives in saddle sheaths....
---Fighting Slave of Gor
, 13:178
Kaiila, Desert
The desert native black or tawny pelted sand kaiila,
closely related to its cousin of the plains is used
by Tahari men as a mount. The desert kaiila differs
from the kaiila used by those of the Plains in a few
ways, one of which is the fact that it is omnivorous
rather than exclusively carnivorous.
The
sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles
similarly, but it is not identically the same animal
which is indigenous, domestic and wild, in the middle
latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal,
used as a mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in
the northern hemisphere of Gor; there is obviously a
phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or
species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the
sand kaiila is a desert-adapted mutation of the subequatorial
stock; both animals are lofty, proud, silken creatures,
long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply lidded,
the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great
utility in the blasts of the dry storms of the southern
plains or the Tahari; both creatures are comparable
in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands
at the shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible
stamina; under ideal conditions both can range six hundred
pasangs in a day; in the dune country, of course, in
the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is
considered good; both, too, I might mention, are high-strung,
vicious-tempered animals; in pelt the southern kaiila
ranges from a rich gold to black; the sand kaiila, on
the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have
seen black sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking
and important, however, exist between the animals; most
notably, perhaps, the sand kaiila suckles its young;
the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within
hours after birth, hunt by instinct; the mother delivers
the young in the vicinity of game; whereas there is
game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional
sand sleen, and some species of Tabuk, it is rare; the
suckling of the young in the sand kaiila is a valuable
trait in the survival of the animal; kaiila milk, like
verr milk, is used by the peoples of the Tahari; it
is reddish and has a strong salty taste; it contains
much ferrous sulfate;
a similar difference between the two animals, or two
sorts of kaiila, is that the sand kaiila is omnivorous,
whereas the southern kaiila is strictly carnivorous;
both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go
several days without water; the southern kaiila also,
however, has a storage stomach, and can go several days
without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must feed
more frequently; some of the pack animals in a caravan
are used in carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and
is not available enroute, must be carried; sometimes,
with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released
to hunt Tabuk; a more trivial difference between the
sand kaiila and the southern kaiila is that the paws
of the sand kaiila are much broader, the digits even
webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than
those of its southern counterpart.
---Tribesmen of Gor
, 4:70-71
Another variety of kaiila
is found in the Barrens, herded and used as mounts by the Red Savages.
Although this particular kaiila is essentially described as very
similar to the Desert kaiila, it would differ in that it is mentioned
to be herbivorous.
...Their
culture tends to be nomadic, and is based on the herbivorous,
lofty kaiila, substantially the same animal as is found
in the Tahari, save for the wider footpads of the Tahari
beast, suitable for negotiating deep sand, and the lumbering,
gregarious, short-tempered, trident-horned kailiauk.
To be sure, some tribes do not have the kaiila, never
having mastered it, and certain tribes have mastered
the tarn, which tribes are the most dangerous of all.
---Savages of Gor
, 1:35
Kailiauk
A large tri-horned herd animal described as a relative
of the bosk. The kailiauk is to the Red Savages
much what the bosk is to the Nomads of the Plains. A
short-trunked variety is mentioned as living on the
Southern Plains.
Even
past me thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked
kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains,
tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and
brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident
of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle,
shes and young within the circle of tridents...
---Nomads of Gor, 1:2
The kailiauk
in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is
a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty
five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand
pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in
which it is almost helpless....
---Savages of Gor, 1:40
I
looked beyond Hci to the beasts, some two to three pasangs
away. The kailiauk is a large, lumbering, shaggy, trident-horned
ruminant. It has four stomachs and an eight-valved heart.
It is dangerous, gregarious, small-eyed and short-tempered.
Adult males can stand as high as twenty or twenty-five
hands at the shoulder and weigh as much as four thousand
pounds.
---Blood Brothers of Gor
, 1:10
...A
Smooth Horns is a young, prime bull. Its horns are not
yet cracked from fighting and age. The smoothness of
the horns, incidentally, is not a purely natural phenomenon.
The bulls polish, them, themselves, rubbing them against
sloping banks and trees. Sometimes they will even paw
down earth from the upper tides of washouts and then
use the harder, exposed material beneath, dust scattering
about, as a polishing surface. This polishing apparently
has the functions of both cleaning and sharpening the
horns, two processes useful in intraspecific aggression,
the latter process improving their capacity as fighting
instruments, in slashing and goring, and the former
process tending to reduce the amount of infection in
a herd resulting from such combats. Polishing behavior
in males thus appears to be selected for. It has consequences,
at any rate, which seem to be in the best interests
of the kailiauk as a species.
---Blood Brothers of Gor, 5:63
Larl
A wild feline of Gor, the larl is a clawed and fanged
carnivorous predator. It is said to be usually a tawney
red or black. There is also mention of a huge white
larl, encountered by Tarl Cabot in the Sardar mountains.
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 fearsome jungle cats of my
old world.
The
resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent
evolution, both animals having been shaped by the exigencies
of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the sudden
charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating
kill. If there is an optimum configuration for a land
predator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go
to the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably
to the mountain larl; and I cannot but believe that
the structural similarities between the two animals,
though of different worlds, are more than a matter of
accident.
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 knifelike slits
in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in
the night.
The
pelt of the larl is normally a tawny red or a sable
black. The black larl, which is predominantly 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.
In
spite of my hatred of Priest-Kings I could not help
but admire them. None of the men below the mountains,
the mortals, had ever succeeded in taming a larl. Even
larl cubs when found and raised by men would, on reaching
their majority, on some night, in a sudden burst of
atavistic fury slay their masters and under the three
hurtling moons of Gor lope from the dwellings of men,
driven by what instincts I know not, to seek the mountains
where they were born. A case is known of a larl who
traveled more than twenty-five hundred pasangs to seek
a certain shallow crevice in the Voltai in which he
had been whelped. He was slain at its mouth. Hunters
had followed him. One among them, an old man who had
originally been one of the party that had captured the
animal, identified the place.
---Priest-Kings of Gor
, 2:18-19
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.
---Priest Kings of Gor, 2:22
...On
the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and
jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller
catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid
men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally,
than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this
should be the case. Perhaps it is because in the rain
forest food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus,
there is little temptation for them to transgress the
boundaries of their customary prey categories. They
will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked
or challenged, attack with dispatch....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Lart, Snow
A smallish Arctic mammal, eight to ten pounds, possessing
two stomachs and which lives on bird eggs and leem.
Its fur is snow white in the winter.
The
hunter pulled a pelt from the bundle of furs he carried.
It was snowy white, and thick, the winter fur of a two-stomached
snow lart. It almost seemed to glisten. The slaver's
man appreciated its value. Such a pelt could sell in
Ar for half a silver tarsk. He took the pelt and examined
it. The snow lart hunts in the sun. The food in the
second stomach can be held almost indefinitely. It is
filled in the fall and must last the lart through the
winter night, which lasts months, the number of months
depending on the latitude of his individual territory.
It is not a large animal. It is about ten inches high
and weighs between eight and twelve pounds. It is mammalian,
and has four legs. It eats bird's eggs and preys on
the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces
in weight, which hibernates during the winter.
---Beasts of Gor, 3:74
Leem
A small (5 to 10 ounces) artic rodent hunted by the
Red Hunters for its pelt. It is said to hibernate in
the winter and its summer coat is described as brown.
...
the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces
in weight, which hibernates during the winter.
...
The hunter drew forth from the bundle of furs two tiny
pelts of the leem. These were brown, the summer coats
of the animals.
---Beasts of Gor, 3:74-75
Monkeys
Various varieties found and described as living in the
jungles, inland of Schendi
Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and
so on. In
the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found
heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and
the umbrella bird. Guernon monkeys, too, usually inhabit
this level....
...
In the lower branches of the "ground zone"
may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers,
nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf
urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani,
tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311-312
Panther
A wild feline of Gor; there are mentions of various
varieties and colors in different areas such as the
forests of the North (Hunters of Gor
) as well as in
the jungles of Ushindi.
As
I ran through the darkness I suddenly saw, before me,
some fifty or sixty yards away, four pairs of blazing
eyes, a pride of forest panthers. I pretended not to
see them and, heart pounding, turned to one side, walking
through the trees. At this time, at night, I knew they
would be hunting. Our eyes had not met. I had the strange
feeling that they had seen me, and knew that I had seen
them, as I had seen them, and sensed that they had seen
me. But our eyes had not directly met. We had not, so
to speak, signaled to one another that we were aware
of one another. The forest panther is a proud beast,
but, too, he does not care to be distracted in his hunting....
---Captive of Gor
, 8:181
...
in others there raged the dreadful, tawny, barred panthers
of the northern forests.
---Captive of Gor, 12:210
...He
had worn at his loins the pelts of the yellow panther....
---Explorers of Gor, 18:236
...On
the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and
jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller
catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid
men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally,
than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this
should be the case. Perhaps it is because in the rain
forest food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus,
there is little temptation for them to transgress the
boundaries of their customary prey categories. They
will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked
or challenged, attack with dispatch....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:313
Porcupine
A long tailed variety is mentioned in Explorers of Gor as part
of the jungle fauna.
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and
so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Quala
...I
saw what I first thought was a shadow, but as the tarn
passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny
creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called
qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff, brushy mane of
black hair....
---Tarnsman of Gor
, 12:140-141
Small
straight bows, of course, not the powerful long bow,
are, on the other hand, reasonably common on Gor, and
these are often used for hunting light game, such as
the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae, the yellow-pelted,
single-horned Tabuk, and runaway slaves.
---Raiders of Gor, 1:4
Slee
In
the lower branches of the "ground zone"
may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers,
nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed
leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary
giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to
man... On the floor itself are also found several
varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials,
such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as
slees and ground urts.
---Explorers of Gor, 32:313
Sleen
A large vicious 6 legged lizard-like furred mammal of
many varieties both on land and in water, that is often
domesticated to herd cattle, hunt, and track slaves.
The various types of sea-sleen can be found on the Sealife
page.
There
are several varieties of sleen on Gor, which is a multiply
adapted animal, for example, prairie sleen, forest sleen,
jungle sleen, snow sleen, sea sleen, and such. They
are all "viperheaded," lengthy, and snakelike,
but are furred and mammalian.
For
the most part, they are burrowing animals, and live
in burrows. Like the cat they can hunt, and are willing
to hunt, at any time of the day or night, but, on the
whole, they are nocturnal, preferring to hunt at night.
They have large, round eyes, and are beautifully dark-adapted.
They
are Gor's best trackers, being relentless and tenacious.
They have been known to pick up a trail several weeks
old. Sleen are trained for hunting, for tracking, for
herding, for war, and so on.
They
can be as small as a cat, but are usually a large animal.
They have six legs, which carry the elongated, snakelike
body. When approaching prey they have a low, snakelike,
serpentine movement. In the wild, like the cat, they
stalk, approach with stealth, and then, with great suddenness,
charge. They have a strong bestial odor, and will, accordingly
normally approach prey from downwind.
They
can form close attachments with their masters, rather
like dogs. On the other hand, if the master dies, the
animal is often killed, as it may become extremely dangerous,
being likely to revert, so to speak, to the wild.
There
are several extra vertebrae in the spine of the sleen,
which give it a serpentine agility and suppleness. Some
sleen have a single row of fangs and others a double
row of fangs. All, of course, are carnivorous.
---John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, Sept 20th,
2000
The
vicious, six-legged sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian
but resembling a furred, serpentine lizard, was a reliable,
indefatigable hunter. He could follow a scent days old
with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of pasangs, and
days, later, be unleashed for the sport of the hunters,
to tear his victim to pieces.
---Raiders of Gor, 9:105
There
are many varieties of sleen, and most varieties can
be, to one extent or another, domesticated. The two
most common sorts of trained sleen are the smaller,
tawny prairie sleen, and the large, brown or black forest
sleen, sometimes attaining a length of twenty feet.
In the north, I am told the snow sleen has been domesticated.
The sleen is a dangerous and fairly common animal on
Gor, which has adapted itself to a variety of environments.
There is even an aquatic variety, called the sea sleen,
which is one of the swiftest and most dreaded beasts
in the sea....
Sleen
are used for a multitude of purposes on Gor, but most
commonly they are used for herding, tracking, guarding
and patrolling. The verr and the bosk are the most common
animals herded; tabuk and slave girls are the most common
animals tracked; the uses to which the sleen is put
to guarding and patrolling are innumerable; it is used
to secure borders, to prowl walls and protect camps;
it may run loose in the streets after curfews....
---Slave Girl of Gor
, 8:185-186
...Conspicuously
absent in the rain forests of the Ua were sleen. This
is just as well for the sleen, commonly, hunts on the
first scent it takes upon emerging from its burrow after
dark. Moreover it hunts single-mindedly and tenaciously.
It can be extremely dangerous to men, even more so,
I think, than the Voltai, or northern, larl. I think
the sleen, which is widespread on Gor, is not found,
or not frequently found, in the jungles because of the
enormous rains, and the incredible dampness and humidity.
Perhaps the sleen, a burrowing, furred animal, finds
itself uncomfortable in such a habitat. There is, however,
a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two feet
in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the
zeder, which frequents the Ua and her tributaries. It
knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns
to its nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches
of a tree overlooking the water.
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Sleen, Forest
Usually brown or black in color, and measure up to 20 feet in length.
They are seen used as 'hunting sleen' for the tracking of game or
men.
I
crouched down. The animal had been released. Its head
was now fully through the door. Its head was wide and
triangular. Suddenly the eyes took the light of the
lamp and blazed. And then, the head moving, its eyes
no longer reflected The light. It no longer faced the
light. Rather it was watching me.
The animal was some twenty feet in length, some eleven
hundred pounds in weight, a forest sleen, domesticated.
It was double fanged and six-legged. It crouched down
and inched forward. Its belly fur must have touched
the tiles. It wore a leather sleen collar but there
was no leash on the leash loop.
I had thought it was trained to hunt tabuk with archers,
but it clearly was not tabuk it hunted now.
I knew the look of a hunting sleen. It was a hunter
of men....
...
The beast watched me closely. For the first time it
snarled, menacingly.
Then the tail stopped lashing, and became almost rigid.
Then the ears lay back against its head.
It charged, scratching and scrambling, slipping suddenly,
on the tiles. The girl screamed. The cast fur, capelike,
shielding me, enveloped the leaping animal. I leaped
to the couch, and rolled over it, and bounded to my
feet. I heard the beast snarling and squealing, casting
aside the fur with an angry shaking of its body and
head. Then it stood, enraged, the fur torn beneath its
paws, snarling and hissing. It looked up at me. I stood
now upon the couch, the ax of Torvaldsland in my hand.
I laughed, the laugh of a warrior.
"Come my friend," I called to it. "let
us engage."
It was a truly brave and noble beast. Those who scorn
the sleen I think do not know him. Kurii respect the
sleen, and that says much for the sleen, for its courage,
its ferocity and its indomitable tenacity.
---Beasts of Gor, 1:12-13
Sleen,
Grey
Said to
be the best tracker on Gor, it is described as 14-15
feet long and as its name indicates, grey in color.
"Keep
your legs apart," he said. "It is a gray sleen.
I raised it from a whelp. Ah, greetings, Borko! How
are you, old fellow!"
I would
have screamed and reared up, but I was thrust back, helpless, half
strangled, scarcely able to utter a sound, to the step. So our masters
can control us by our collars. To my terror, then, pushing over
my body, to thrust its great jaws and head, so large I could scarcely
have put my arms around them, into the hands and arms of my master,
was an incredible beast. It had an extremely agile, active, sinuous
body, as thick as a drum, and perhaps fourteen or fifteen feet long.
It might have weighed a thousand pounds. Its broad head was triangular,
almost viperlike, but it was furred. This thing was a mammal, or
mammalian. Its eyes now had pupils like slits, like those of a cat
in sunlight. So quickly then might its adaptive mechanisms have
functioned. About its muzzle were gray hairs, grayer than the silvered
gray of its fur. It had six legs.
"Good
lad!" said my master, roughly fondling that great,
fierce head.
"We
have been through much together, Borko and I,"
said my master. "He has even, twice, saved my life.
Once when I was struck, unexpectedly, by one foolishly
thought to be a friend, the origin of this scar,"
he said, indicating good-humoredly the hideous, jagged
tissue at the left side of his face, "I told Borko
to hunt. The fellow did not escape. Borko brought part
of him back to me, in his jaws."
... "Borko,"
he said, "is a seasoned hunting sleen. Even to
strangers he would bring a hundred times what you would
bring in the market."
... "Learn
slave," he said. "Learn slave."
I
then began to whimper. "Hold still," said
my master.
The
beast then began to push its nose and muzzle about me,
thrusting it here and there, about me. I now understood
why I had been spread as I had, on the steps.
"The
sleen," he said, "and especially the gray
sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless,
tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks
old, for a thousand pasangs."
I whimpered,
the beast's snout thrust between my thighs, sniffing.
"Please,
Master," I whimpered.
I
felt it nuzzling then at my waist and breasts. It was
learning me.
"Do
you know what the sleen hunts?" he asked.
"No,
Master," I whimpered.
"In
the wild it commonly hunts tabuk and wild tarsk,"
he said, "but it is an intelligent beast, and it
can be trained to hunt anything."
"Yes,
Master," I whimpered.
He
held back my right arm, further, exposing more the armpit.
"Do
you know what Borko is trained to hunt?" he asked.
"No,
Master," I said.
I
felt the snout of the beast then poking about my throat
and under my chin, to the side, and then at the side
of my neck. My maser then held my left arm further,
exposing the armpit to the beast.
"It
is trained to hunt men, and slaves," he said.
---Dancer of Gor
, 10:160-161
Sleen, Miniature
A miniature version of the sleen, domesticated and said
to be sometimes kept as a pet. It is also mentioned
as used in the control of urt infestation of Sa-Tarna
sheds.
..."Don't
you really think so? What self-respecting rapist or
slaver would be abroad at this hour? What would he expect
to find? A miniature domestic sleen among the garbage
cans?..."
---Mercenaries of Gor, 26:407
...To
be sure, at that time, I did not know about the miniature,
silken sleen that are sometimes kept as sinuous pets....
---Dancer of Gor, 11:167
Sleen, Prairie
The somewhat smaller cousin of the forest sleen, tawny
colored, domesticated by the Wagon People to herd cattle
and guard camp.
...
farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller
than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and
vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged,
mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their
viper's heads moving from side to side, continually
testing the wind ...
---Nomads of Gor, 1:2
If
I were found on the plains near the camps or the bosk
herds I knew I would be scented out and slain by the
domesticated, nocturnal herd sleen, used as shepherds
and sentinels by the Wagon Peoples, released from their
cages with the falling of darkness. These animals, trained
prairie sleen, move rapidly and silently, attacking
upon no other provocation than trespass on what they
have decided is their territory. They respond only to
the voice of their master, and when he is killed or
dies, his animals are slain and eaten.
---Nomads of Gor, 1:9
Sleen, Snow
White furred sleen of the Northern areas.
Sloth
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and
so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
Squirrels
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and
so on....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
...In
the lower branches of the "ground zone" may
be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal
jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle
varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized
panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Tabuk
Single horned antelope of yellowish or tawny fur, depending
on the region it inhabits.
The most common type of tabuk
is the small graceful yellow variety which can often be found among
the ka-la-na thickets.
The
tabuk is the most common Gorean antelope, a small graceful
animal, one-horned and yellow, that haunts the Ka-la-na
thickets of the planet and occasionally ventures daintily
into its meadows in search of berries and salt. It is
also one of the favorite kills of a tarn.
---Outlaw of Gor
, 14:126
A Northern, much larger variety
is mentioned in Beasts of Gor, described as massive and having a
yard long horn of swirling ivory.
They
were northern tabuk, massive, tawny and swift, many of them ten
hands at the shoulder, a quite different animal from the small,
yellow-pelted, antelope-like quadruped of the south. On the other
hand, they too were distinguished by the single horn of the tabuk.
On these animals, however, that object, in swirling ivory, was often,
at its base, some two and one half inches in diameter, and better
than a yard in length. A charging tabuk, because of the swiftness
of its reflexes, is quite a dangerous animal....
---Beasts of Gor, 9:152
At the end
of the wall Inmak wept, seeing the strewn fields of slaughtered
tabuk. The fur and hide of the tabuk provides the red hunters not
only with clothing, but it can also be used for blankets, sleeping
bags and other articles....Too,
they may be used for buckets and tents, and for kayaks, the light
narrow hunting canoes of skin from which sea mammals may be sought.
Lashings, harpoon lines, cords and threads can be fashioned from
its sinews. Carved, the bone and horn of the animal can function
as arrow points, needles, thimbles, chisels, wedges, and knives.
Its fat and bone marrow can be used as fuel. Too, almost all of
the animal is edible....
---Beasts of Gor, 11:169-170
The tawny, prairie
tabuks of the Barrens, are described as gazelle-like.
Comments such as 'some varieties of prairie tabuks'
would indicate that there is indeed, more than one kind
of prairie tabuk.
...Once
a tabuk, a prairie tabuk, tawny in the Barrens, single-horned, gazellelike,
had grazed nearby....
... Some
varieties of prairie tabuk, interestingly, when sensing danger,
tend to lie down. This is counterinstinctual for most varieties
of tabuk, which, when sensing danger, tend to freeze, in a tense,
standing position and then, if alarmed further, tend to scurry away,
depending on their agility and speed to escape the predators. The
standing position, of course, as is the case with bipedalian creatures,
tends to increase their scanning range. The response disposition
of lying down, apparently selected for in some varieties of tabuk,
tends to be useful in an environment in which high grass is plentiful
and one of the most common predators depends primarily on vision
to detect and locate its prey. This predator, as would be expected,
normally attacks from a direction in which its shadow does not precede
it. Any tabuk, of course, if it is sufficiently alarmed, will bound
away. It can attain short-term speeds of from eighty to ninety pasangs
an Ahn. Its evasive leaps, in the Gorean gravity, can cover from
thirty to forty feet in length, and attain heights of ten to fifteen
feet. ...
---Blood Brothers of Gor, 37:316-317
Other varieties
As many as 20 small kinds of tabuk are said to be found
in the Jungles of Schendi.
...On
the floor itself are also found several varieties of
animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored
gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several
varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this
zone. More than six varieties of anteater are also found
here, and more than twenty kinds of small, fleet, single-horned
tabuk....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Tarsier
...In
the lower branches of the "ground zone" may
be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal
jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle
varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized
panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Tarsk
Six-tusked
shaggy maned boar that inhabits the temperate forests
of Gor. Described as flat-snouted, short-legged and
extremely vicious, this porcine quadruped has a bristly
mane which runs down its spine to the base of the tail.
Commonly roasted whole. The town of Market of Semris
is famed for its tarsk markets.
I
looked up. The slave boy, Fish, had emerged from the
kitchen, holding over his head on a large silver platter
a whole roasted tarsk, steaming and crisped, basted,
shining under the torchlight, a larma in its mouth,
garnished with suls and Tur-pah.
--- Raiders of Gor, 15:219
We
were not in Samnium, but in the Market of Semris. This
is a much smaller town, south, and somewhat to the east,
of Samnium. It is best known, interestingly enough,
ironically enough, as an important livestock market.
In particular, it is famed for its sales of tarsks....
---Dancer of Gor, 8:106
Telima
had prepared a roast tarsk, stuffed with suls and peppers
from Tor.
---Raiders of Gor, 9:114
Urt
Rodent of all areas of Gor that is adapted to the various
climates, its color and size varies. There are many
varieties of urts, some as small as mice, others as
large as tapirs, or larger. Urts are rodents, or rodentlike.
They
occupy the same sorts of ecological niches on Gor which
rodents, of various sorts, occupy on Earth. They function
well on land and are also at home in the water, much
like sewer rats. They are found not only in the wild,
but also, for example, in the slums, in insulae, in
the canals of Port Kar, and so on. They are generally
brown, black or gray. They tend to be nasty, and, when
hungry, can become quite aggressive, particularly in
the water, where their agility and speed supplies them
with a considerable advantage over many other animals.
Their ears are commonly pointed, and can lay back against
the head, streamlining the body. The eyes tend to be
round, and large. (So, too, are the eyes of the sleen.)
Their demeanor seems to be furtive, and they can move,
and turn, very quickly.
---John Norman, Letter to The Gorean Group, Sept 20th,
2000
The
urt is a loathsome, horned Gorean rodent; some are quite
large, the size of wolves or ponies, but most are very
small, tiny enough to be held in the palm of one hand.
---Nomads of Gor, 10:125
...Over
her shoulder she had two small, furred animals, hideous
forest urts, about the size of cats, and in her left
hand she carried four small, green-and-yellow-plumaged
birds.
---Captive of Gor, 13:237
It
was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared
it three rows of needlelike white teeth at me and squealed
in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved
from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first,
modifications of the bony tissue forming the upper ridge
of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes
that seemed to feast themselves upon me, as it waiting
the permission of the keeper to hurl itself on its feeding
trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation.
---Outlaw of Gor, 10:86
...We
may perhaps, somewhat loosely, speak of this first zone
as the "floor," or, better, "ground zone,"
of the rain forest. In the level of the emergents there
live primarily birds, in particular parrots, long-billed
fleers, and needle-tailed lits. Monkeys and tree
urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also
be found in this highest level....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
...Here,
too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts,
leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines,
lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects,
ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and
so on.
In
the lower portion of the canopies, too, can be found
heavier birds, such as the ivory-billed woodpecker and
the umbrella bird. Guernon monkeys, too, usually inhabit
this level. In the ground zone, and on the ground itself,
are certain birds, some flighted, like the hook-billed
gort, which preys largely on rodents, such as ground
urts, and the insectivorous whistling finch, and some
unflighted, like the grub borer and land gim....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:311
...In
the lower branches of the "ground zone" may
be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal
jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle
varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized
panthers, not dangerous to man. On
the floor itself are also found several varieties of
animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored
gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Vart
Flying blind carnivorous rodent that resembles a large
version of the earth bat.
Perhaps
most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks
of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents,
each the size of a small dog. They could strip a carcass
in a matter of minutes...
---Outlaw of Gor, 3:26
...I
could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging
upside down like large matted fists of teeth and fur
and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in their
case....
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 25:191
..."In
the lower branches of the "ground zone" may
be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal
jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle
varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized
panthers, not dangerous to man....
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312
Verr
Domesticatable mountain goat, herded for its milk and
meat. The verr likely exists in a number of varieties
though only two are actually mentioned.
The
verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. It
was a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and
spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth
one's life to come within twenty yards of one.
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 8:63
I passed fields that were burning, and burning huts
of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna granaries,
the shattered, slatted coops for vulos, the broken
walls of keeps for the small, long-haired domestic
verr, less belligerent and sizable than the wild verr
of the Voltai Ranges.
---Nomads of Gor, 2:10
Zeder
A small, sleen like animal, about two feet in length
that frequents the rivers of the tropical jungles of
Schendi.
...There
is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller,
about two feet in length and some eight to ten pounds
in weight, the zeder, which frequents the Ua and her
tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and,
at night, returns to its nest, built from sticks and
mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water.
---Explorers of Gor, 32:312