Chairs are thought to be uncomfortable, and are not common on Gor
Generally chairs are used only by Administrators, judges, persons in charge On Gor, incidentally, chairs have special significance, and
do not often occur in private dwellings. They tend to be
reserved for significant personages, such as administrators
and judges. Moreover, although you may find this hard to
understand, they are not thought to be comfortable.
Priest Kings
Common seating
Men generally sit cross-legged on the floor
Women kneel on the floor The Gorean male, at ease, usually sits cross-legged and the
female kneels, resting back on her heels. The position of
the Tower Slave, in which Vika knelt, differs from that of a
free woman only in the position of the wrists which are held
before her and, when not occupied, crossed as though for
binding. A free woman’s wrists are never so placed.
Priest Kings
At last I sat cross-legged behind the low table and Lara, in the fashion of
the Gorean woman, knelt beside me, resting on her heels.
When I had entered the music had briefly stopped but now Kron clapped his
hands twice and the musicians turned to their instruments.
Outlaw
He sits in the midst
of his family, his closest well-wishers, his sword comrades, cross- legged on
the floor in the Gorean fashion behind the long, low wooden table, laden with
food, which stands at the head of the room.
Outlaw
Stone blocks for "chairs" seen in Koroba Aside from these things and two stone blocks, perhaps chairs,
and a mat to one side, the room was bare; the walls and
ceiling and floor were smooth as marble, and a classic white.
I could see no door in the room. I rose from the stone
table, which was indeed what it was, and went to the window.
Tarnsman
Curule Chairs
A special chair used only by persons of great importance On the broad steps leading to the throne, there were curule chairs, on which
sat, I supposed, members of the High Council of Tharna.
Outlaw
Near the finishing perches, nine of which were standing for this race, were
the areas reserved for the Administrator, the High Initiate, and members of
the High Council. These areas were almost porches, extending beyond the
regular stands, covered with awnings, on which were mounted sets of curule
chairs, at different levels.
Assassin
"PLACE YOUR FIRST SWORD BEFORE ME," I said, "that I may kill him."
Cernus of Ar, of the House of Cernus, studied me, his large face impassive,
his eyes revealing nothing, like gray stones. His large hands rested over the
arms of the curved curule chair in which he sat, which was mounted on a
platform of stone, about a foot high and twelve feet square. In the base
of the platform there were mounted six slave rings.
Assassin
Couch - (used often as both bed & seat)
Stone couch Vika had unrolled a straw mat which she placed on the floor
at the foot of the great stone couch in the chamber. On
this, wrapped in a light blanket, her chin on her knees, she
sat watching me.
Priest Kings
It really is stone, hard, solid. She had
been lying on the straw mat at the foot of the stone couch.
So suddenly had she arisen that she had struck her knee
against the couch and this had not much pleased her.
Priest Kings
Made comfortable with sleeping pelts & silk sheets
I would allow Vika to share the great stone couch, its
sleeping pelts, and silken sheets.
Priest Kings
Couches in bedrooms "My couch," she said, "in the master bedroom, has a heavy iron ring set in
its base." "That is a slave ring," I said. "Surely you know it's purpose."
"Yes," she said acidly. Such rings are commonly used for chaining slave girls,
generally by the neck, to the foot of their Master's couch.
Rogue
She did not meet my eyes. "You should knock," she said, "before entering a
lady's bedroom." I tore away the clothing she held before her, casting it
aside. She wore then only a light Gorean slip, white, which came high on her
thighs. "I am not fully dressed!" she said. I took her and threw her on her
belly on the couch.
Rogue
Free Women had stone couches too "You are a beast and a barbarian!" she cried to him, drawing back. Then she
could move no further back against the stone couch. She could draw her feet up
no further.
He took her and threw her to her right side, wedging her in the corner formed
by the tiles and the foot of the stone couch.
Slave Girl
In Schendi, we also see a stone couch While the rest of our two parties, including Bila Huruma, had waited within
the threshold, I was conducted across the broad stone court to its center,
where, on a huge stone couch, of ancient design, lay Shaba.
Explorers
It appears men and women had their own couches and bedrooms, the companion summoned to the
mans couch when he desired. And how wondrously different does the bedroom of the male seem to the free
woman than it does to the slave. She looks upon the couch of the male. She
sees the slave ring at its foot. She sees the furs of love, rolled against the
side of the wall. She sees the lamp. She sees, coiled beneath the slave ring,
a chain, with a collar or shackles. She sees the whip. But these things, as
she is free, mean little to her. Imagine, however, if you will, her emotions
if she entered that room as a slave girl, stripped and rightless, bearing on
her upper thigh, just under her hip, the mark of bondage, her throat clasped
in the light, gleaming, close-fitting, locked circlet of a slave. How
different, then, would that room seem to her! She is ordered to spread the
furs of love. She does so, beneath the slave ring.
Guardsman
Here a large round couch, covered with furs We were in a room in the Metellan district. I had sealed the shutters, and
blocked them, on the inside, so that no one might, from the outside, through
the cracks, observe what occurred in the room. In the center of the room
there was a large couch, a round couch, some seven or eight feet in diameter.
It was well cushioned, and covered with furs, and was soft and inviting. At
one point, in its sides, there was a slave ring. We had set a small table
near the couch, bearing a decanter of wine, with glasses, and a small,
tasteful array of sweets. The room was lit with a small tharlarion-oil lamp.
Magicians
Another large round couch I rose on one elbow and looked down at her. How incredibly beautiful and
soft she seemed; she was curled in the furs; she was half covered by them; I
lifted them away, that I might see her fully; she stirred; her hands moved a
bit on the furs; she drew her legs up; she reached as though to pull the furs
more about her but her hands did not find them; she drew her legs up a bit
more and snuggled down in the furs; there is perhaps nothing in the world as
beautiful as a naked slave girl; a heavy iron collar, with chain, was locked
on her throat; the chain ran from a ring fixed in the bottom of the great
couch, circular, and some twenty feet wide, around the circumference of the
couch to the right and was lifted and coiled to one side, on the left.
Beasts
Couch referred to as bed There were red silken sheets on the great couch, on which she reclined. At
its foot there was a slave ring. ...
She rose from the bed, scarcely able to stand, bent over, so much was her
need upon her.
"No," I said.
She looked at me.
"On your knees," I said. "In your teeth."
She crawled to the crop and, putting her head down, sideways, took it in her
teeth. She, on her hands and knees, brought it to me. I took it roughly from
her mouth. "Get on the couch," I told her.
Tribesman
"Your bath is ready, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said, kneeling before her.
"Untie my sandals," she said, sitting on her bed, "and disrobe me."
I obeyed. ...
"Your bath is ready, Mistress," I said, kneeling, head down, in brief white
slave tunic, before the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers.
She seated herself on her great couch, and extended her feet, one after the
other, to me. I, kneeling, removed her sandals, kissing each and laying it
aside. She stood up and I, rising and standing behind her, lifted away her
robe. I kissed it, and put it upon the couch.
Slave Girl
Braziers
Braziers are somewhat large, open pans for fire
Irons can be thurst into them deeply My captor rose to his feet and approached the brazier. I knelt back, on my
heels. With a heavy glove, picked up from the grass, he pulled forth the iron
and examined it. It was whitish hot. I withdrew from it, leaning back, so
intense was its heat. He thrust the iron back in the brazier, deeply, and
indicated I should continue my labors, with which directive, of course, I
complied.
Slave Girl
Coals burned in braziers, and needed fanning to encourage burning
Angrily I tended the brazier, on my knees, fanning the coals. Sparks flew from
the iron-banded fire, stinging my body.
Slave Girl
With a piece of stiff leather I fanned the coals in the brazier. An iron
protruded from the coals.
Slave Girl
Braziers may be used as cooking stoves In the center of the hut was a large flat, circular piece of metal, on
which, on legs, might sit braziers or the small, flattish cooking stoves,
using pressed, hardened wood, common in the villages north and west of Ar.
Slave Girl
Wine warmed in bowl on tripod over a brazier
Inside, in a brass pan, there was a small fire of coals. Over the coals, on a
tripod, there was, warming, a small metal wine bowl.
Captive
Would need quilted cloth to move or carry a brazier in use Prepare a brazier and heat the iron. You will find there, too, earrings and
a saddle needle. Bring them."
"Yes, Master," I said.
It was in the late afternoon that I, holding its handles with quilted cloths,
slid the brazier into the chamber of the couch and bath. I had not done this
earlier in order that the room not be made uncomfortably hot.
Slave Girl
The chamber of irons was empty, but coals glowed softly in the brazier,
from which two handles protruded. An iron is always ready in a slaver’s
house.
Explorers
Used for heating a room
And always under his table a brazier
filled with hot coals burned near the feet of the scribe,
perilously close to the scholarly litter with which the floor
was strewn.
Tarnsman
Lamps
Small oil lamp on a stand I could hear the oil crackling in the bowl of the tiny lamp on its stand
near us.
Samos looked at me, absently. Then he said to the guards behind me, "Take her
to the pens and chain her heavily."
Slave Girl
Oil lamps hanging on chains Then, opening a door, I saw a new passageway, one in which there burned a
lamp, hanging on a chain.
Slave Girl
There were small lamps hung here and there in the tent. They hung on tiny
chains. These chains were suspended from metal projections on certain of the
tent poles.
Beasts
He gestured to a guardsman to bring a lamp, for we were far from the light
of the bowl of coals now, and of various torches set in the walls.
Beasts
Then he reached into a fur sack at his feet and, gently, took forth a
representation of the northern tabuk, carved in blue stone. I had no idea how
long it took to make such a carving. It would take many nights in the light of
the sloping, oval lamps.
Beasts
Here and there small lamps, set in niches, high in stone walls, or lanterns, hung on iron projections, shed small pools of light on the sides of buildings and illuminated, too, in their secondary ambience, the stones of the sloping walkway on which I trod, one of many leading down to the wharves. I could smell Thassa, the sea.
Explorers
moss and straw may be used to light small clay oil lamp Then she had the bit of moss lit and, into it, she placed a straw. This
straw, burning then at one end, served to light the wick of a small, clay oil
lamp. She then shook the straw, extinguishing it and, with her fingers, moved
the bit of moss about, spreading it, and the tiny flame there dissipated into
scattered glowing points which then, rapidly, disappeared.
Fighting Slave
A simple copper bowl of oil with a wick He lit the small
hanging tent lamp, a wick set in a copper bowl of tharlarion
oil, and in its flickering light turned to the sleeping mat.
No sooner had he done so than he fell to his knees on the mat
and grasped the ring.
Tarnsman
Or a simple cup of oil with a wick About his neck hangs a canvas bag in which pieces of ore are carried back to
the scales. The ore itself is freed from the sides of the mine by a small
pick. Light is supplied by tiny lamps, no more than small cups of tharlarion
oil with fiber wicks.
Outlaw
Oil needs to be refilled regularly The Kal-da flowed free that night and thrice the oil in the hanging tharlarion
lamps needed to be renewed by the sweating, joyful proprietor of the Kal-da
shop.
Outlaw
Lamps mounted on walls
The halls were lit occasionally by tharlarion oil lamps set in iron
fixtures mounted in the walls.
Outlaw
The place was lit by a small, foul tharlarion lamp set in the wall near the
ceiling. I had no idea how far below ground it might be. The floor and the
walls were of black stone, quarried in giant blocks of perhaps a tone apiece.
The lamp dried the stone in its vicinity, but, on the floor and most of the
walls, there was a dampness and the smell of mold.
Outlaw
Sedan Chair
Used occasionally by FW, carried through streets by slaves I then tied the hands of the two slave girls behind their backs and knelt
them by the sedan chair. I then took what valuables and moneys there were in
the chair, kept in the cabinets at its sides, and slung them, some scarfed and
others placed in pouches, about the necks of the two slave girls. I was
surprised. The owner of the chair had been rich indeed.
Beasts
Tables
Tables are generally low since men are sitting cross-legged on floor I descended three steps, and found myself in a warm, dimly lit, low-ceilinged
room, cluttered with the low tables common on Gor, around which huddled groups
of five or six of the grey-robed men of Tharna.
Outlaw
I turned and, from where I sat cross-legged behind the low table,
removed a small, crisp disk of fried larma, with a browned-honey sauce, from
the silver tray.
Guardsman
Low table may be of wood He sits in the midst
of his family, his closest well-wishers, his sword comrades, cross- legged on
the floor in the Gorean fashion behind the long, low wooden table, laden with
food, which stands at the head of the room.
Outlaw
Rask of Treve threw the girl one of the oysters, from a silver plate on the
low, wooden table.
Captive
Even tables in paga taverns are low I decided, if worst came to worst, that I could always go to a simple Paga
Tavern where, if those of Tharna resembled those of Ko-ro-ba and Ar, one might,
curled in a rug behind the low tables, unobtrusively spend the night for the
price of a pot of Paga, a strong, fermented drink brewed from the yellow
grains of Gor's staple crop, Sa-Tarna, or Life- Daughter.
Outlaw
Benches
Tiers of stone benches in the Chamber of the Council The Chamber of the Council is the room in which the elected
representatives of the High s of Ko-ro-ba hold their
meetings. Each city has such a chamber. It was in the
widest of cylinders, and the ceiling was at least six times
the height of the normal living level. The ceiling was lit
as if by stars, and the walls were of five colors, applied
laterally, beginning from the bottom - white, blue, yellow,
green, and red, caste colours. Benches of stone, on which
the members of the Council sat, rose in five monumental tiers
about the walls, one tier for each of the High Castes. These
tiers shared the color of that portion of the wall behind
them, the caste colors.
Tarnsman
Carpets, Rugs, Tiles
Thick ornate rug Her feet are bare on
the thick, ornately wrought rug that carpets the chamber. There is a slight
sound from the bells strapped to her ankles.
Outlaw
Marble floor in Marlenus' quarters in Ar Several tarns were dead; some were flopping about awkwardly
on the marble floor, pierced by arrows. There were no living
guardsmen in sight. Those who had survived had fled from the
room, perhaps up the long, wide, circling stairwell that
climbed the inside of the cylinder.
Tarnsman
Stone floor I
had felt this even when my father had commanded her to rise
and submit to me, accepting me as her new master. She had
risen and walked across the room, her feet bare on the stone
floor, and dropped to her knees before me, lowering her head
and lifting and extending her hands to me, the wrists
crossed.
Tarnsman
Chests
Usually one chest is heavy, iron-banded, and bolted to wall (walls are
often stone too) Valuables, in such a room,
are kept in a heavy, iron-banded chest which is bolted to the wall and kept
locked. Most doors giving entry into a compartment, or set of compartments, on
Gor do, however, have locks, generally hand-crafted, highly ornate locks,
usually set in the center of the door and controlling a long bolt.
Assassin
Other chests in the room and some cabinets "Observe," I said to her.
I sprang to my feet and looked about the room. There were several chests in
the room, including the iron-banded one with its heavy lock. There were also
some cabinets against one wall, filled with plate and cups, some bottles of
paga and Ka-la-na.
Assassin
Desk
FW kneeling before low desk She knelt before a low desk, her back to me, and gave her attention to the
papers which she had now placed upon it. She held a marking stick in her right
hand.
Fighting Slave
Gorean Furniture & Furnishings
