Gorean Public Baths

The baths, in many Gorean cities and towns, are convenient and popular gathering places. One can pick up the latest news and gossip there, for example.
Renegades

Most Goreans, in the baths, at least in their own towns or cities, do share tubs, of course. That is one reason the tubs are so large. To be sure, even in one’s own area, one usually shares a tub only with friends or acquaintances.
If the baths are crowded, of course, it would be only polite to share with one’s fellow citizens.
Renegades

Men caught up on news from each other, and from the bath girls
I DO NOT SEE HOW IT COULD HAVE HAPPENED," Nela was saying, bending over me as I lay sleepily on my stomach on the heavy striped piece of toweling, about the size of a blanket, her strong, dutiful hands rubbing the oils of the bath into my body.
"The daughter of Minus Tentius Hinrabius, if none other,'' said she, "should be safe."
I grunted, not too concerned.
Nela, like most of the others at the baths, could talk of little but the startling disappearance, and presumed abduction, of Claudia Tentius Hinrabius, the proud, spoiled daughter of the Administrator of the City.
Assassin

"On the other hand," said Harold, "I might like to stop by the baths."
"They are closed at this hour, are they not?" I asked.
"No," said he, "not until the twentieth hour." That was midnight of the Gorean day.
Nomads

Or men bathe at one time of the day, women at another
Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only be the time of day. This does not mean that bath girls may not be available to tend to a strong male’s various wants in the men’s baths, or that handsome silk slaves, if they are summoned, may not appear in attendance in the baths of free women.
Renegades

It is thought to be very bad form, incidentally, to carry weapons in the baths, and, in large public baths, they must often be checked upon entry.
Renegades

Costs of Bath Girls
Nela was an expensive girl, though there were pools where the girls cost as much as a silver tarn disk. The tarsk is a silver coin, worth forty copper tarn disks. All the girls in the Pool of Blue Flowers cost the same, except novices in training who would go for ten or fifteen copper tarn disks.
There were dozens of pools in the vast, spreading Capacian Baths. In some of the larger pools the girls went as cheaply as one copper tarn disk. For the fee one was entitled to use the girl as he wished for as long as he wished, his use, of course, limited by the hours of the pool's closing.
Assassin

If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure. Sometimes the services of a bath girl, including massage and love, in whatever modalities the customer may elect, come in the price of the bath, and, at other times, as here, at the Crooked Tarn, I gathered, at least normally, they are extra.
Renegades

In the larger Baths, spend much of their time in the waters
Men choose whichever available one catches their eye
The first time I had seen Nela, several days ago, she had been playing in the pool alone, rolling about. It took but one glance and I dove into the water, swam to her, seized her by the ankle and dragged her under, kissing her, rolling about beneath the surface. I liked the lips and feel of her and when we broke surface, she and I laughing, I asked her how much she went for. "For a tarsk," she laughed, and turned about, looking at me, "but you will have to catch me first."
I knew this game of bath girls, as though they, mere slaves, would dare to truly flee from one who pursued them, and I laughed, and she, too, sensing my understanding, laughed. The girl commonly pretends to swim away but is outdistanced and captured. I knew that few men could, if a bath girl did not wish it, come close to them in the water. They spend much of the day in the water and, it is said, are more at ease in that element than the Cosian song fish.
Assassin

Male bath attendant in an inn, to keep fires going in the tubs
) “Attendant!” cried the burly fellow, from one of the second tubs, that immediately behind one of the first tubs, that most convenient to the entrance to the baths. “Stir up the fire!” It was early, but most of the fellows who had been sleeping on the floor of the baths during the night had now taken their leave.
The fellow then attending on the baths, rather large for such a fellow, it might seem, hooded, too, perhaps to disguise scarring of such a nature as might turn the stomachs of bathers, enveloped in a cloak, hobbling, perhaps the result of a fall from tarnback, hurried, seemingly alarmed, to the bricked platform beneath his tub and stirred the fire with the fire rake.
Renegades

Free Women serving as bath attendants
Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes, in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such. After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons, and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in effect, “spoiled for freedom.”
Renegades

Common method is to soak in first tub
Step from bath, apply oils
Scrape oils from skin, removing dirt and sweat
Then soak in second tub, sponging away remaining oils and dirt
There are many types of baths, and ways to take them, for example, depending on the temperatures of the tubs, or pools, and the order in which one uses them. A common fashion is to use the first tub for a time, soaking, and, if one wishes, sponging, and then, emerging, to apply the oil, or oils. These are rubbed well into the skin and then removed with the strigil. There are various forms of strigil, and some of them are ornately decorated. They are usually of metal and almost always of a narrow, spatulate form. With the strigil one scrapes away the residue of oil, and, with it, dirt and sweat, cleaning the pores. One then generally takes the “second tub”, which consists of clean water, sponges away any remaining grime, residues of oil and dirt, and such, and then, luxuriating, soaks again.
Renegades

In large bath house, with a trained bath girl
First rubbing - coarse oils loosen dirt, scraped away with strigil
Second rubbing - vigorous with heavy toweling
Third rubbing - with fine scented oils, massaged
After we had kissed we swam together, and then again kissed and swam. Afterwards, Nela gave me the first rubbing, with coarse oils, loosening dirt and perspiration, and scraped me with the thin, flexible bronze strigil; then she gave me the second rubbing, vigorous and stimulating, with heavy toweling; then she gave me the third rubbing, that with fine, scented oils, massaged at length into the skin. After that we lay side by side for a long time, looking up at the bluish translucent dome of the Pool of Blue Flowers.
Assassin

Large, (7 feet wide) shallow (18 inches deep) round tubs
Made of clay, covered with porcelain
Mounted on yard high brick platforms
Fires beneath brick platform heats the water
Bathing is done in first tubs and second tubs, the second tubs are cleaning tubs
Towels hand on hooks
These are considered simple and primitive
I closed my eyes in one of the second tubs, the cleaning tubs. There were five first tubs, and five second tubs. These were all large, shallow, round tubs, of clay, covered with porcelain, mounted on open-bricked platforms, each platform about a yard high. In this particular bath, adequate enough, I suppose, for the area, the fires beneath the bricked platforms were stirred, tended and cleaned with long-handled fire rakes. To be sure, it was late, and I suspected that the fires had not been tended since perhaps the eighteenth Ahn. The water, however, happily, was still comfortably warm. They would probably be built up again around the fifth Ahn. I had hung my wet garments on racks about the brick platform, behind the tub. They would probably be dry by now. Each tub was some seven feet in width and some eighteen inches deep. On a hook, behind me, kept for towels, and such, I had slung my scabbard.
...
The baths here, of course, were very simple and primitive.
Renegades

Barrels of wood chips nearby
Bucket of wood chips placed in brock platform and raked
Kindling, from wood bins placed on chips
Narrow hardwood logs placed on top
“Stir up the fire,” said the newcomer.
Hastily the ejected fellow seized a fire rake and poked about within the platform.
“Bring more wood,” said the newcomer. “Then tend the fire. Do not leave until it is suitable.”
From one of the large barrels to the side, open near the bottom, the ejected fellow scooped out, and returned with, a bucket of wood chips, which he flung into the bricked platform. He then arranged these with the fire rake. He then returned the bucket to its place by the barrel and, from one of the wood bins, to the right, near the barrels, fetched an armload of kindling, then some narrow hardwood logs. In a few moments the chips were burning well. He then added kindling, and then, a bit later, thrust the narrow logs into the platform. He then, the reddish glow of the flames from within the platform reflected on his countenance, looked up, questioningly, frightened, at the newcomer.
Renegades

Many pools to choose from, with different temperatures and scents
Large pools, with nooks and glades
There are, as I mentioned, many pools in the Capacian Baths, and they differ in their shapes and sizes, and in their decor, and in the temperatures and scents of their waters. The temperature of the Pool of Blue Flowers was cool and pleasing. The atmosphere of the pool was further charged with the fragrance of Veminium, a kind of bluish wild flower commonly found on the lower slopes of the Thentis range; the walls, the columns, even the bottom of the pool, were decorated with representations of Veminium, and many of the plants themselves were found in the chamber. Though the pool was marble and the walkways about it, much of the area was planted with grass and ferns and various other flora were in abundance. There were many small nooks and glades, here and there, some more than forty yards from the pool, where a man might rest. I had heard the Pool of the Tropics was an excellent pool in the Capacian; and also the Pool of Ar's Glories, and the Pool of the Northern Forests; there was even, of recent date, a Pool of the Splendor of the Hinrabians; I myself, however, with one arm about Nela, who nestled against me, felt content with the Pool of Blue Flowers.
Assassin

The Pool of Blue Flowers is at least 150 yards long
"Look," I said, pointing to the far end of the curving pool, some hundred and fifty yards away, "if I do not catch you before you reach the edge you will have your freedom for the day."
Assassin