In discovering Gor and the
Gorean world, there are, beyond the harshness of the physical terrain
and the perhaps too simple survival of the fittest mentality, a
number of situations where the reader is witness to the unrestrained
fashion in which Goreans accept emotion.
...We met
in the center of the room and embraced. I wept, and he did, too,
without shame. I learned later that on this alien world a strong
man may feel and express emotions, and that the hypocrisy of constraint
is not honored on this planet as it is on mine.
---Tarnsman of Gor
, 2:25
Among these displays and
the statements made with regards to them are the rituals, the beliefs,
the expectations and the moral rules which guide the bonds between
men. Under sometimes extremely unusual circumstances, the reader
encounters a form of bond which might resemble friendship but somehow
exceeds the boundaries of any definition of friendship known to
us. It appears as a form of earned respect, a loyalty to the memory
of oaths and battles or goals shared, sometimes even with one who
would be and has been in other times, the enemy.
...To be
sure, he had had a difficult night, keeping his lonely, tense vigil
in the alley behind the tavern, while I rested and sported about
inside. I reminded myself, however, that such sacrifices are only
to be expected in the course of true friendship.
---Vagabonds of Gor
, 43:425
The rituals which surround
the taking of a brotherhood oath or the offering of friendship quite
often will have a close tie to the culture of those involved. Men,
then, will commonly chose to use that which is significant to the
very survival of their people to impress the level of trust implied.
Grass and dirt
- In the land of the Wagon People
Suddenly
the Tuchuk bent to the soil and picked up a handful of dirt and
grass, the land on which the bosk graze, the land which is the land
of the Tuchuks, and this dirt and this grass he thrust in my hands
and I held it.
The warrior
grinned and put his hands over mine so that our hands together held
the dirt and grass, and were together clasped upon it.
"Yes,"
said the warrior, "come in peace to the Land of the Wagon Peoples."
---Nomads of Gor
, 4:26
"You
would risk," I asked, "the herds--the wagons--the peoples?"....
"Yes,"
said Kamchak.
"Why?"
I asked.
He looked
at me and smiled. "Because," said he, "we have together
held grass and earth."
---Nomads of Gor, 7:52
"He
is a stranger," she said. "He should be slain!"
Kamchak
grinned up at her. "He has held with me dirt and earth,"
he said.
---Nomads of Gor, 5:32
Salt - In the
desert
Those of the desert value
salt second only to water. It would seem natural then that the ritual
of brotherhood in the Tahari includes salt.
"Ride
free," he said.
"I will,"
I said.
"I can teach
you nothing more," he said.
I was silent.
"Let there
be salt between us," he said.
"Let there
be salt between us," I said.
He placed
salt from the small dish on the back of his right wrist. He looked
at me. His eyes were narrow. "I
trust," said he, "you have not made jest of me."
"No," I
said.
"In your
hand," he said, "steel is alive, like a bird."
The judge
nodded assent. The boy's eyes shone. He stood back.
"I have
never seen this, to this extent, in another man." He looked at me.
"Who are you?" he asked.
I placed
salt on the back of my right wrist. "One who shares salt with you,"
I said.
"It is enough,"
he said.
I touched
my tongue to the salt in the sweat of his right wrist, and he touched
his tongue to the salt on my right wrist.
"We have
shared salt," he said.
---Tribesmen of Gor
, 3:60
"I
am coming with you," I said.
"Save
yourself," said he.
"I
am coming with you," I said.
"We
have not even shared salt," he said.
"I
shall accompany you," I said.
He looked
at me, for a long time. Then he thrust back the sleeve of his right
hand. I pressed my lips to the back of his right wrist, tasting
there, in the sweat, the salt. I extended him the back of my right
wrist, and he put his lips and tongue to it.
Do you understand
this? he asked.
"I
think so," I said.
"Follow
me," said he. "We have work to do, my brother."
---Tribesmen of Gor, 11:184-185
Salt - Seamen
of Northern waters
Similar to the ritual of
the Tahari, the sharing of salt
is a tradition found among the giants of Torvaldsland,
who are said to harvest salt from the sea.
"Friend",
he had said.
"Friend,"
I had said.
We had
then tasted salt, each from the back of the wrist of the other."
---Marauders of Gor
, 5:70
Blood - In the
Barrens
Red Savages share dances, stories and medicines which differ according
to tribes and sometimes sections of tribes. It is only among themselves,
though, that such can be done. When it is determined that Tarl Cabot
is worthy of sharing this depth of bond with natives of the red
savages, we read of a blood oath ritual which is reminiscent of
many found among American Native tribes.
Cuwignaka's
knife moved on his own forearm, and then on mine, and then on Hci's.
"You
cannot be a member of the Sleen Soldiers of the All Comrades,"
had said Hci, "for you are not Kaiila, and you do not know
our dances and mysteries, the contents of our medicine bundles."
"There
is another thing," had said Cuwignaka, "which can be done."
"Do
it," had said Hci.
Cuwignaka
held his arm to mine, and then I held my arm to that of Hci, and
then Hci, in turn, held his arm to that of Cuwignaka. Thus was the
circle of blood closed.
"It
is done," said Cuwignaka.
"Brothers,"
I said.
"Brothers,"
said Hci.
"Brothers,"
said Cuwignaka
---Blood Brothers of Gor
, 55:475
Sword Brothers
(the Warrior code)
"Do
not harm him," said Kazrak. "He is my sword brother, Tarl
of Bristol." Kazrak's remark was in accord with the strange
warrior codes of Gor, codes which were as natural to him as the
air he breathed, and codes which I, in the Chamber of the Council
of Ko-ro-ba, had sworn to uphold. One who has shed your blood, or
whose blood you have shed, becomes your sword brother, unless you
formally repudiate the blood on your weapons. It is part of the
kinship of Gorean warriors regardless of what city it is to which
they owe their allegiance. It
is a matter of caste, an expression of respect for those who share
their station and profession, having nothing to do with cities or
Home Stones.
---Tarnsman of Gor, 10:119
Drinking buddies?
If many of the
rituals of male bonding found in the pages of the Chronicles of
the Counter Earth are laid out in rather precise fashion as far
as the significance of the elements within the rite, there are as
well, instances where men simply chose to find meaning in an otherwise
uneventful gesture. The high sense of respect for what is deemed
honorable from even one's worse enemy gives way to a number of self-imposed
rules of conduct which might be difficult for outsiders to grasp.
"How is
it that you can even think of doing this?" he asked.
"Zarendargar
may need my assistance," I said. "I may be able to aid him."
"But why,
why?" he asked....
I shrugged.
"Once," I said, "we shared paga."
---Savages of Gor
, 2:70-71