With special thanks to Jim Cox
for his invaluable collaboration in the research and commentary
of this page.
"What
is a Matok?" I asked.
"A
creature that is in the Nest but is not of the Nest,"
said Misk.
---Priest-Kings
of Gor, 12:92
Creatures which live within
the Nest but are said to be not of the Nest are referred to as Matoks.
Tarl Cabot was a Matok to those of the Nest: he was a human not
of the Nest, who was, also, not a Mul. Matoks as a rule, though,
were not humans, as we have learned earlier that all humans within
the Nest were slaves. The creatures we meet within the tunnels of
Priest-Kings are usually insects of extraordinary proportions, each
serving a purpose within the Nest food chain.
A number of Matoks are named
and described throughout Tarl Cabot's stay within the Nest, while
others are simply mentioned in passing. Clearly, it is implied that
there are more types of Matoks than those we happen to encounter
in the reading of Priest-Kings of Gor
.
Arthropod
There would be, within the Nest, a number of varieties of arthropods,
one of which is in fact raised much like cattle, in order to be
milked for Gur, the liquid which is fed to the Mother during the
Feast of Tola.
At
that moment to my horror a large, perhaps eight feet long
and a yard high, multilegged, segmented arthropod scuttled
near, its eyes weaving on stalks.
"It's
harmless," said the Priest-King.
The
arthropod stopped and the eyes leaned toward us and then
its pincers clicked twice.
I
reached for my sword.
Without
turning it scuttled backwards away, its body plates rustling
like plastic armor.
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 10:82
I
did not know at the time but Gur is a product originally
secreted by large, gray, domesticated, hemispheric arthropods
which are, in the morning, taken out to pasture where they
feed on special Sim plants, extensive, rambling, tangled
vine-like plants with huge, rolling leaves raised under
square energy lamps fixed in the ceilings of the broad pasture
chambers, and at night are returned to their stable cells
where they are milked by Muls. The special Gur used on the
Feast of Tola is, in the ancient fashion, kept for weeks
in the social stomachs of specially chosen Priest-Kings
to mellow and reach the exact flavor and consistency desired,
during which time Priest-Kings are then spoken of as retaining
Gur.
I
watched as one Priest-King and then another approached the
Mother and repeated the Gur Ceremony.
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 27:215
Golden Beetle
Another form of Matok is this large beetle-like insect that lives
within the Nest of Priest Kings, in the Sardar mountains.
The Golden beetle feeds on Priest Kings, luring them by way of what
is explained as a type of anesthetic gas emission.
...It
was about the size of a rhinoceros and the first thing I noticed
after the glowing eyes were two multiply hooked, tubular, hollow,
pincerlike extension that met at the tips perhaps a yard beyond
its body. They seemed clearly some aberrant mutation of its jaws.
Its antennae, unlike those of the Priest-Kings, were very short.
They curved and were tipped with a fluff of golden hair. Most strangely
perhaps were several long, golden strands, almost a mane, which
extended from the creatures head over its domed golden back and
fell almost to the floor behind it. The back itself seemed divided
into two thick casings which might once, ages before, have been
horny wings, but now the tissues had, at the points of touching
together, fused in such a way as to form what was for all practical
purposes a thick, immobile golden shell....
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 24:180
The
exudate which forms on the mane hairs of the Golden Beetle,
which had overcome me in the close confines of the tunnel,
apparently has a most intense and, to a human mind, almost
incomprehensibly compelling effect on the unusually sensitive
antennae of the Priest-Kings, luring them helplessly, almost
as if hypnotized, to the jaws of the Beetle, who then penetrates
their body with its hollow, pincerlike jaws and drains it
of body fluid.
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 30:257
Toos
I
swung the transportation disk in a graceful arc to one side
of the tunnel to avoid running into a crablike organism
covered with overlapping plating and then swung the disk
back in another sweeping arc to avoid slicing into a stalking
Priest-King who lifted his antennae quizzically as we shot
past.
"The
one who was not a Priest-King," quickly said Mul-Al-Ka,
"was a Matok and is called a Toos and lives on discarded
fungus spores."
---Priest-Kings
of Gor, 18:142
Worm (Slime
Worm)
Like the golden beetle, the slime worm lives within the Nest of
the Priest Kings as a Matok and scavenger, cleaning up after the
kills of the golden beetles.
We
had not walked far when we passed a long, wormlike animal,
eyeless, with a small red mouth, that inched its way along
the corridor, hugging the angle between the wall and the
floor.
..."It
is a Slime Worm"....
..."It
scavenges on the kills of the Golden Beetle"...
---Priest-Kings of Gor, 13:104-105