Sa-Tarna, grain on Gor

Tall yellow grain grown in fields
Sa-Tarna is a staple crop
In the distance I could see some patches of yellow, the Ka- la-na groves that dot the fields of Gor. Far to my left I saw a splendid field of Sa-Tarna, bending beautifully in the wind, that tall yellow grain that forms a staple in the Gorean diet.
Outlaw

In Torvaldsland, growing season is 120 days
This crop planted in fall
An Ahn later the Forkbeard, accompanied by Ottar, keeper of his farm, and Tarl Red Hair, now of Forkbeard’s Landfall, inspected his fields.
The northern Sa-Tarna, in its rows, yellow and sprouting, was about ten inches high. The growing season at this latitude, mitigated by the Torvaldstream, was about one hundred and twenty days. This crop had actually been sown the preceding fall, a month following the harvest festival. It is sown early enough, however, that, before the deep frosts temporarily stop growth, a good root system can develop. Then, in the warmth of the spring, in the softening soil, the plants, hardy and rugged, again assert themselves. The yield of the fall-sown Sa-Tarna is, statistically, larger than that of the spring-sown varieties.

Marauders

In Tahari, a hybrid brownish Sa-Tarna is grown
A great amount of farming, or perhaps one should speak of gardening, is done at the oasis, but little of this is exported. At the oasis will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow; and beans, berries, onions tuber suls, various sorts of melons, a foliated leaf vegetable, called Katch, and various root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, radishes, of the sphere and cylinder varieties, and korts, a large, brownish-skinned, thick-skinned, sphere-shaped vegetable, usually some six inches in width, the interior of which is yellowish, fibrous and heavily seeded.
Tribesmen

SEE ALSO Planting Feast of Sa-Tarna page

Sa-Tarna is at times demanded as tribute
"Yes," I said. How exciting. I marveled, are such women. How natural it is that they should find themselves, perhaps to their horror, perhaps to their deep excitement and pleasure, so stimulartoy to male desire. Who can begin to quantify, or measure, the attractiveness of the female slave? Does she not seem to be the object designed by nature to be at the feet of men? Wars are fought to obtain them. Tributes, in part, are levied in terms of them, along with gold and Sa-Tarna grain.
Blood Brothers

Grain is of such importance that burning the grain fields is a tactic of raiders
The other news dealt with the bold raids of Task of Treve.
All Ko-ro-ba seemed aflame with fury.
Four caravans had fallen spoils to the fierce, swiftly striking tarnsmen of Treve. And his men had fired dozens of fields, destroying Sa-Tarna grains. The smoke of two of these fields had been visible even from the high bridges of Ko-ro-ba herself.
Captive

The concern for the grain crops is mentioned before (possibly more newsworthy) the celebration of an Ubars birthday
"What is the news, Tina?" I asked.
"Wbout what?" she asked.
"About anything," I said.
"There is not much," she said. "There is some fear for the Sa-Tarna crop, because of the great deal of rain. There is going to be a celebration in Ar because of the birthday of Marlenus, the Ubar there. Lactantius thinks that is important."
Kajira

One of the first things the new Council of Captains in Port Kar does is command studies of the stores of grain and other staple items
The storage amount of grain is as important as the study of the defenses of the city
One of these studies was to be a census of ships and captains, the results of which were to be private to the council. Other studies, the results of which would be kept similarly private to the council, dealt with the city defenses, and her stores of wood, grain, salt, stone and tharlarion oil.
Raiders

Planting Feasts are held to ensure a good harvest
Feast is not just celebrated by those who actually grow the grain (peasants)
The next would be the Planting Feast of Sa-Tarna, the Life- Daughter, celebrated early in the growing season to ensure a good harvest. This is a complex feast, celebrated by most Gorean cities, and the observances are numerous and intricate.
Tarnsman

Bucket of grain used as token of hospitality to welcome guest
"I have here," called Svein Blue Tooth, "a bucket of Sa-Tarna grain. This, in token of hospitality, I offer to our guest."
The Kur looked into the bucket, at the yellow grain. I saw the claws on the right paw briefly expose themselves, then, swiftly, draw within the softness of the furred, multiple digited appendage.
"I thank the great Jarl," said the beast, "and fine grain it is. It will be our hope to have such good fortune with our own crops in the south. But I must decline to taste your gift for we, like men, and unlike bosk, do not feed on raw grain."
Marauders

But now I could hear, carried on the wind blowing toward distant Turia, the bellowing of the basks. The dust was now heavy like nightfall in the air. The grass and the earth seemed to quake beneath my tread.
I passed fields that were burning, and burning huts of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna granaries, the shat- tered, slatted coops for vulos, the broken walls of keeps for the small, longhaired domestic verr, less belligerent and sizeable than the wild verr of the Voltai Ranges.
Nomads

Most Sa-Tarna is ground in mills, between stones turned by water power
Most Sa-Tarna is now ground in mills, between stones, the top stone usually turned by water power, but sometimes by a tharlarion, or slaves.
Renegades

In some villages a version of mortar and pestle is used to grind grain
In some villages, however, something approximating the old mortar and pestle is sometimes used, the two blocks, a pounding block strung to a springy, bent pole, and the mortar block, or anvil block. The pole has one or more ropes attached to it, near its end. When these are drawn downward the pounding block descends into the mortar block, and the springiness of the pole, of course, straightening, then raises it for another blow.
Renegades

More common in villages is the use of a quern
Quern consists of a mount, two stones, a beam and a pole
The two stones are circular grinding stones
More commonly, however, querns are used, usually, if they are large, operated by two men, if smaller, by two boys. Hand querns, which may be turned by a woman, are also not unknown.
The principle of the common quern is as follows: it consists primarily of a mount, two stones, an overhead beam and a pole. The two stones are circular grinding stones. The bottom stone has a small hub on its upper surface which fits into an inverted concave depression in the upper stone. This helps to keep the stones together. It also has shallow, radiating surface grooves through which the grindings may escape between the stones, to be caught in the sturdy boxlike mount supporting the stones, often then funneled to a waiting receptacle, or sack. The upper stone has two holes in it, in the center a funnel-shaped hole through which grain is poured, and, near the edge, another hole into which one end of the turning pole is placed. This pole is normally managed by two operators. Its upper portion is fitted into an aperture in the overhead beam, which supplies leverage and, of course, by affording a steadying rest, makes the pole easier to handle. The principle of the hand quern is similar, but it is usually turned with a small wooden handle.
Renegades

Meal or flour is usually sifted and reground
Sifter is hide stretched over wooden hoop, holes poked in the hide
The meal or flour emerging from these devices is usually sifted, as it must often be reground, sometimes several times. The sifter usually is made of hide stretched over a wooden hoop. The holes are punched in the hide with a hot wire.

Renegades

Village pestle is five feet in length and weighs 30 pounds
Bowl is wooden, a foot deep, 18 inches in diameter
"You work well," I told the slave girl. The camp was abandoned, save for her.
She cried out. The heavy, round-ended pestle some five feet in height, more than five inches wide at the base, dropped. It weighed some thirty pounds. When it dropped, the heavy wooden bowl, more than a foot deep and eighteen inches in diameter tipped. Sa-Tarna grain spilled to the ground. I held her by the arms, from behind.
Tribesmen

Grain bought for girls at camp to make flour
On small scale, cheaper than paying mills or peasant women
Five days ago I had been returning to the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit, coming back from a nearby village where I had gone to fetch Sa-Tarna grain, from which the girls, back at the camp, using stones and flat rocks, sifters and pans, would produce flour. This was somewhat cheaper than buying the flour directly, for then one must pay the cost of the peasant women’s work or that of its millage. I carried the sack across my shoulders. It was not heavy. It weighed only a little more than an average female. I had been surprises to see Lady Telitsia running towards me down the road.
Players

A peasant carrying his sack of meal to the market
Here and there the mount of a tarnsman boasts a golden harness. On market day I saw a peasant, his sack of Sa-Tarna meal on his back, whose sandals were tied with silver straps.
Outlaw

Eight peasants in Victoria carrying bundles of grain to the wharves
I stepped aside as a string of eight peasants, with bundles of Sa-Tarna grain on their shoulders, made their way down toward the wharves.
Rogue

Peasants again carrying grain sacks
Two peasants walked by, in their rough tunics, knee-length, of the white wool of the Hurt. They carried staves and grain sacks. Behind them came another of their caste, leading two milk verr which he had purchased.
Slave Girl

Ships consigned to transport grain
We had only four ships with us and three were substantially empty. Tasdron had arranged them in Victoria, on the pretense of fetching a consignment of Sa-Tarna from Siba, to be brought to the Brewery of Lucian, near Fina, east of Victoria, with which brewery he occasionally did business.
Rogue

A quay in Port Kar designated for Sa-Tarna ships
"The Council of Captains must meet in two days," said Samos. "It is proposed that the Sa-Tarna quay in the south harbor be extended. What division of this will be borne by public expense remains moot. Too, if this license be granted, an exploitable precedent may be set. Already there is talk among the merchants in rep-cloth and the lumber and stone merchants."
Savages

Grain galley - a ship used solely for the transport of grain
The fifth fellow was an oarsman a grain galley. He was strong but like the others was not trained.
Rogue

Grain fleet of more than a hundred ships to keep Port Kar supplied with grain
We then turned our attention to matters of greater importance, the need for more covered docks in the arsenal, beneath which additional galleys could be caulked for the grain fleet, else how could a hundred vessels be ready for the voyage north to the grain fields before the sixth passage hand?
Raiders

Five Sa-Tarna wagons bringing grain to the city of Corcyrus
"There are wagons," I said, pointing over the parapet.
There were some five wagons approaching the city, in a line.
Each was being drawn by two strings of harnessed male slaves, about twenty slaves in each string.
"Those are Sa-Tarna wagons," said Drusus, "bringing grain to the city."
"What is that other wagon," I asked, "the smaller one, there near the side of the road, which has pulled aside to let the grain wagons pass?"
Kajira

Grain shipments so important that gates are held open to receive them
"They are within the city!" I had heard cry.
"Impossible!" had cried a guard.
"How was it done?" inquired another, insistently, bewilderedly.
"It seems a Sa-Tarna wagon was fleeing before the approaching enemy, seeking to reach the city before being overtaken," said a man. "There was time, happily, it seemed, though the matter would be close, for the wagon to win its race, and sorely, as you know, did we need the grain. Ile gate was opened to admit the wagon. Surely there would then be time, and time enough, given the distances involved, to close the gate. The wagon seemed to be drawn by two strings of male slaves, twenty in each string, as is common. These men, however, were not slaves. The wagon within the portal, they threw off their harnesses and from beneath the grain drew forth swords. They prevented the closing of the gate. In moments the vanguard of the enemy had arrived." see
Kajira

150 gorean stone (600 pounds) of Sa-Tarna bread, meal and flour in a wagon
This was true of course. The wagon’s lading was Sa-Tarna bread, and also, incidentally, Sa-Tarna meal and flour. It creaked under perhaps a hundred and fifty Gorean stone of such stores. These supplies, of course, were not intended for vagabonds or itinerants who might be encountered on the road but for the kitchens set up at the various nights’ encampments.
Mercenaries

City of Ar stores their shipments of grain in huge grain cylinders
Within the city the Initiates, who had seized control shortly after the flight of Marlenus, would have already tapped the siege reservoirs and begun to ration the stores of the huge grain cylinders. A city such as Ar, properly commanded, might withstand a siege for a generation.
Tarnsman

Thentis imports grain
The only two cities, other than Ar, which I knew that Treve did not periodically attack were mountainous Thentis, famed for its tarn flocks, and Ko-ro-ba, my own city.
If the issue was grain, of course, there would be little point in going to Thentis, for she imports her own, but her primary wealth, her tarn flocks, is not negligible, and she also possesses silver, though her mines are not as rich as those of Tharna.
Priest Kings

He organized a system of far-flung beacons, set in fortified towers, which would give the alarm when unwelcome forces entered the territory of Ko-ro-ba. At the sight of raiders one tower would set its beacons aflame, glittering by night, or dampen it with green branches by day to produce a white smoke, and this signal would be relayed from tower to tower. Thus when the tarnsmen of Treve came to the grain fields of Ko-ro-ba, which lie for the most part some pasangs from the city, toward the Vosk and Tamber Gulf, they would find her tarnsmen arrayed against them. Having come for grain and not war, the men of Treve would then turn back, and seek out the fields of a less well-defended city.
Priest Kings

Most Sa-Tarna is ground in mills, between stones turned by water power
Most Sa-Tarna is now ground in mills, between stones, the top stone usually turned by water power, but sometimes by a tharlarion, or slaves.
Renegades

Long yellow Sa-Tarna sack, labele in thick black stenciling
Indicates the grind and grade of the grain, the mill it was processed in, and the associated wholesaler (Merchant selling to other merchants)
“It is a sack!” she cried. “Only a sack!”
That was true. It was a long, yellow, closely woven Sa-Tarna sack. If there could have been any doubt about it such doubt would have been dispelled by the thick, black, stenciled lettering on the bag, giving a bold and unmistakable account of its earlier contents, together with their grind and grade, and the signs of the processing mill and its associated wholesaler.
“Am I to gather that you are dissatisfied?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, acidly.
“The yellow sets off your hair nicely,” I said. Perhaps if I enslaved her, I would put her in yellow slave silk. She was a beautiful woman.
Players

Sack of grain weighs a little more than an average woman
Five days ago I had been returning to the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit, coming back from a nearby village where I had gone to fetch Sa-Tarna grain, from which the girls, back at the camp, using stones and flat rocks, sifters and pans, would produce flour. This was somewhat cheaper than buying the flour directly, for then one must pay the cost of the peasant women’s work or that of its millage. I carried the sack across my shoulders. It was not heavy. It weighed only a little more than an average female. I had been surprises to see Lady Telitsia running towards me down the road.
Players

Grain baskets large enough to hold a man
I passed a fellow inlaying wood, and the shop of a silversmith, and stalls filled with baskets, some of which, grain baskets, were large enough to hold a man.
Tribesmen

Grain scale
The praetor nodded. This was excellent evidence. The girl’s height, ankles, wrists, throat, hips, waist and bust had been measured. She had even been thrown on a grain scale and weighed.
Explorers

Paga is made from fermented grain
The Older Tarl and I may have drunk too much of that fermented brew concocted with fiendish skill from the yellow grain, Sa-Tarna, and called Pagar Sa-Tarna, Pleasure of the Life-Daughter, but almost always 'Paga' for short.
Tarnsman

I ordered another cup of paga. I played a game of Kaissa with another guest of the tavern. The paga tasted a bit strange, but it was a local paga and there is variation in such pagas, generally a function of the brewer’s choice of herbs and grains.
Explorers

It was long since I had tasted the fiery paga of the Sa-Tarna fields north of the Vosk.
Marauders

Urts, migratign in a pack, can destroy Sa-Tarna fields
“It could be urts,” said a man. “It is near the time of the year for their movements.” Certain species of urts migrate twice a year. At such times, annually, it is usually necessary only to avoid them. People usually remain indoors when pack is in their vicinity. There is little danger from these migrations unless one finds oneself in their direct path. The urt, on the whole, most species of which are quite small, large enough to be lifted in one hand, does not pose much direct threat to human beings. They can destroy Sa-Tarna fields and force their way into granaries.
Players