The Caste of Peasants

Lowest caste
None of course would accept a lower caste, and there were lower castes, the Caste of Peasants, for example, the most basic caste of all Gor.
Outlaw

Gray is the color worn by the caste of peasants
“True,” I said. Did he think that the color of a fellow’s garments was what made him a warrior? Surely he must realize that one not of the warriors might affect the scarlet, and that one who wore the grimed gray of a peasant, one barefoot, and armed only with the great staff, might be of the scarlet caste. It is not the uniform which makes the warrior, the soldier.
Magicians

Appearance and Clothing of Free Men of the Peasants

Appearance and Clothing of Peasant Men

Free Women

With rep cloth veil
I saw her eyes wild with fear for a moment above the rep-cloth veil and she had sped past me.
She was peasant, barefoot, her garment little more than coarse sacking.
She had been carrying a wicker basket con- taining vulos, domesticated pigeons raised for eggs and meat. Her man, carrying a mattock, was not far behind. Over his left shoulder hung a bulging sack filled with what must have been the paraphernalia of his hut.
Nomads

Bleached woolen robes
Doubtless many times she would have held herself a thousand times superior to the poor peasant women, coming in from the villages, in their bleached woolen robes...
Mercenaries

Plain, simple
I looked at their faces. On the whole they seemed to be simple, plain women, peasant women, and peasant lasses. One or two of them, I thought, might be suitable for the collar.
Mercenaries

Not as refined and civilized as city dwellers
There were few tharlarion in evidence. Harnesses had been cut and they, it seems, had either been driven away or had wandered off. In one place there was a dead tharlarion, and the women, some crouching on it, were cutting it into pieces with knives, putting pieces of meat into their mouths, and hiding other pieces in their dresses.
“Jards,” said Hurtha, in disgust.
I shrugged. These women were of the peasants. They were not given to the niceties of civilized women. Too, they were doubtless starving.
Mercenaries

"You are young, Bran Loort," said Thurnus. "You should have waited. It is not yet your time."
"I am caste leader here," said Bran Loort.
"The caste leader must know many things," said Thurnus. "It takes many years to learn them, the weather, the crops, animals, men. It is not easy to be caste leader."
Thurnus turned away, his head down, to tie his sandal. Bran Loort hesitated only an instant, and then he struck down, the staff stopped, striking across Thurnus’s turned shoulder. It had been like striking a rock. Bran Loort stepped back.
"Too, to earn the respect of peasants," said Thurnus, straightening up, retrieving his staff, his sandal tied, "the caste leader should be strong."
Bran Loort was white-faced.
Slave Girl

I had left some more food with her, and had tied a golden tarn disk of Port Kar, from my wallet, in the corner of the child’s blanket. With that she might buy much. Too, with it, or its residue, she might be able to make her way to a distant village, far from the trekking of armies, where she could use it as a bride price, using it, in effect, to purchase herself a companion, a good fellow who could care for herself and her child. Peasants, unlike women of the cities, tend to be very practical about such matters. She had shown me hospitality.
Mercenaries

Villages, often palisaded, built in center of "wheel" of fields
It stood like most Gorean villages at the hub of its wheel of fields, the fields, striplike, spanning out from it like spokes. Most Gorean peasants live in such villages, many of them palisaded, which they leave in the morning to tend their fields, to which they return at night after their day’s labors.
Mercenaries

He was caste leader in Tabuk’s Ford. Tabuk’s Ford was a large village, containing some forty families; it was ringed with a palisade, and stood like a hub in the midst of its fields, long, narrow, widening strips, which radiated from it like the spokes in a wheel. Thurnus tilled four of these strips.
Slave Girl

Circular floor dug in earth, lined with stone
Calked, woven-stick walls
I stood on the lowered circular floor, dug out of the earth, packed down and tiled with stone, behind a part of a wall. It was the remains of a calked, woven-stick wall. It was now broken and charred.
Mercenaries

Hut of a richer village
Rough plank floor, six to seven feet off ground
Entrance to leaders large thatched hut is by narrow flight of steps
Entrance to other huts in village by ladders
Smoke hole in top
Windowless
Made of straw
Frame constructed of kalana & temwood
In winter covered with painted canvas or bosk hides, protected & glossed with oil
My master, with his lieutenants, sat cross-legged in the large, thatched hut of Thurnus. It was high, and conical, and floored with rough planks, set some six or seven feet on poles above the ground, that it might be drier and protected from common insects and vermin. The entrance was reached by a flight of rough, narrow steps. The entrances to many of the huts in the village, similarly constructed, were reached by ladders. Thurnus was caste leader.
Slave Girl

A smoke hole in the top of the hut permitted the escape of fumes. The hut, probably because of its construction, was not smoky. Also, though it was windowless and had but one door, it was not, at this time of day, dark. Through the straw of its roof and sides there was a considerable, delicate filtering of sunlight.
Slave Girl

The hut in the summer is light and airy. The frame of such a hut is constructed of Ka-la-na and Tem wood. The roof is rethatched and the walls rewoven every third or fourth year. In the winters, which are not harsh at this latitude, such huts are covered on the outside with painted canvas or, among the richer peasants, with ornamented, painted bosk hides, protected and glossed with oil.
Slave Girl

Inside the Caste Leaders hut
Large flat circular pice of metal in center
Braziers
Small flattish cooking stoves
Coffers and bales holding belongings along the walls
Mats on plank floor
Vessels and leathers hang on wall
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. About the walls were the belongings of the house, in coffers and bales.
...
Mats covered the rough planks. From the walls hung vessels and leathers.
Slave Girl

Animals sometimes lived inside the huts too
Secondly, it is not unusual either for many peasants to keep animals in the house, usually verr or bosk, sometimes tarsk, at least in the winter. The family lives in one section of the dwelling, and the animals are quartered in the other.
Mercenaries

Animals in richer villages kept in pens and cages
Elsewhere about the village were storage huts and animal pens.
Slave Girl

I heard a sleen squeal from some eighty yards away, behind the huts, in the cage areas.
Slave Girl

Gardens - for produce as well as animal feed
“Here,” she said, embarrassed, She drew some roots, and two suls , from her robe. They had been freshly dug. Dirt still clung to them. She put them down on the stones, between us.
I sat down cross-legged, and she knelt down, opposite me, knees together, in the common fashion of the Gorean free woman. The roots, the two suls, were between us. She rocked the child in her arms.
“I thought you could find no roots,” I smiled.
“Some were left in the garden,” she said. “I remembered them. I came back for them. There was very little left though. Others obviously had come before me. These things were missed. They are poor stuff. We used to use the produce of that garden for tarsk feed.”
“They are fine roots,” I said. “and splendid suls.”
Mercenaries

SEE ALSO Tools on Gor

Peasant Staff
In his right hand there was a heavy peasant staff, some six feet in height and perhaps two inches in width.
Assassin

Harrow
It was Dietrich of Tarnburg who had first introduced the “harrow” to positional warfare on Gor, that formation named for the large, rake-like agricultural instrument, used for such tasks as the further leveling of ground after plowing and, sometimes, on the great farms, for the covering of seed,
Mercenaries

Hoe - heavy, stout staff and great metal blade
"Put on your tunic," said Melina to me. "Get a hoe. Go to the sul fields. Hoe suls. Bran Loort will fetch you and bring you back when it is time. Speak to no one."
Slave Girl

I lifted the heavy hoe, with the stout staff and great metal blade, again and again. It was terribly hot work, and hard. My hack hurt. My hands hurt. My muscles ached. I worked hard, very hard, for I was a peasant’s girl.
Slave Girl

SEE ALSO Sa-Tarna grain page

Planting seed, plowing, harvesting
“harrow” ...the large, rake-like agricultural instrument, used for such tasks as the further leveling of ground after plowing and, sometimes, on the great farms, for the covering of seed,
Mercenaries

Growing a variety of crops
Economically, the base of the Gorean life was the free peasant, which was perhaps the lowest but undoubtedly the most fundamental caste, and the staple crop was a yellow grain called Sa-Tarns, or Life-Daughter.
Tarnsman

Carrying sacks of grain to ships at 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

Providing grain & produce to the cities
Doubtless many times she would have held herself a thousand times superior to the poor peasant women, coming in from the villages, in their bleached woolen robes, bringing their sacks and baskets of grain and produce to the city’s markets.
Mercenaries

On market day I saw a peasant, his sack of Sa-Tarna meal on his back, whose sandals were tied with silver straps.
Outlaw (in Tharna)

It seemed we had little to fear, and we had passed several of the pasang stones that line the side of the highway without seeing anything more threatening than a line of peasants carrying brushwood on their backs, and a pair of hurrying Initiates.
Tarnsman

Cities dependent on peasants for food
Needless to day, these movements, particularly when they intrude into more settled area, often bring the folk of the laagers into conflict with other peasants and, of course, shortly thereafter, townsfolk and city dwellers who depend on the peasants for their foodstuffs.
Mercenaries

Even the Caste of Peasants regarded itself as the "Ox on which the Home Stone Rests" and could seldom be encouraged to leave their narrow strips of land, which they and their fathers before them had owned and made fruitful.
Outlaw

"We took her without your permission," said Bran Loort.
"In this," said Thurnus, "you have committed a breach of code."
"It does not matter to me," said Bran Loort.
"Neither a plow, nor a bosk, nor a girl may one man take from another, saving with the owner’s saying of it," quoted Thurnus.
"I do not care," said Bran Loort.
"What is it, Bran Loort, that separates men from sleen and larls?" asked Thurnus.
"I do not know," said Bran Loort.
"It is the codes," said Thurnus.
"The codes are meaningless noises, taught to boys," said Bran Loort.
"The codes are the wall," said Thurnus.
"I do not understand," said Bran Loort.
"It is the codes which separate men from sleen and larls," said Thurnus. "They are the difference. They are the wall."
"I do not understand," said Bran Loort.
"You have left the shelter of the wall, Bran Loort," said Thurnus.
"Do you threaten me, Thurnus of Tabuk’s Ford?" asked Bran Loort.
"You stand now outside the shelter of the wall," said Thurnus.
"I do not fear you!" cried Bran Loort.
"Had you asked of me my permission, Bran Loort," said ‘Thurnus, indicating me with a gesture of his head, "willingly and without thought, gladly, would I have given you temporary master rights over her."
I lay in the dirt, my hands bound behind my back, the rope on my neck, watching. It was true what Thurnus had said. I could have been loaned to Bran Loort, and would have had to serve him as though he were my own master.
"But you did not ask my permission," said Thurnus.
"No," said Bran Loort, angrily, "I did not."
"Before, too, you have done such things, you, and these others, though not to the degree nor with the intent of this day."
It was true. Sometimes the boys had caught us, Thurnus’s girls, or those of others, too, and roped us together and raped us in the furrows of the fields, but it had been done in the bullying rowdyism of their youth, having slave girls at their mercy. There had been no intent of insult, or umbrage, in it. It had been the hot, fierce, innocent sport of strong young men, powerful and excited, who held brief-tunicked, branded girls, in rope collars, in their arms, nothing more. Does a slave girl not expect slave rape? Some masters enjoy having their girls raped occasionally; it serves to remind them that they are slaves. This sort of rape is not uncommon in a peasant village. It is usually taken for granted and ignored, save perhaps by the abused girls, but they are only slaves. Indeed, it is sometimes encouraged, to pacify young men whose natural aggressions otherwise might turn aside into destructive channels. It is also regarded, at times, as an aid in helping young males attain their manhood. "If she pleases you, run her down, and take her, son," is a not uncommon piece of paternal advice in a peasant village. I had heard this twice, though it had not been I on whom the young man had been set. Verr Tail had been caught and raped on her back, struggling, in the stream, once, and Radish had been caught and forced to give pleasure between the sleen cages. Each of these young men had walked differently following their conquest. I had shrunk back when they had approached. I knew they were now men, and I was only a slave. These two young men were not among the cohorts of Bran Loort. But what had been done today to me was clearly different in its intent and gravity from the casual, expected, fierce exhibitions of male aggression to which imbonded girls such as I must become accustomed.
Slave Girl

I sensed that the codes were to be invoked. What Bran Loort and his fellows had done exceeded the normal rights of custom, the leniencies and tacit permissions of a peasant community; commonly the codes are invisible; they exist not to control human life, but to make it possible. The rapes of Verr Tail and Radish, interestingly, had not counted as code breaches, though in neither case had explicit permission for their conquest been granted by Thurnus; such permission, in such cases, was implicit in the customs of the community; it did not constitute a "taking from" but a brief use of, an "enjoyment of," without the intent to do injury to the honor of the master; "taking from," in the sense of the code is not, strictly, theft, though theft would be "taking from." "Taking from," in the sense of the codes, implies the feature of being done against the presumed will of the master, of infringing his rights, more significantly, of offending his honor. In what Bran Loort had done, insult had been intended. The Gorean peasant, like Goreans in general, has a fierce sense of honor. Bran Loort had known exactly what he had been doing.
Slave Girl

Test of Five Arrows to determine Caste Leader
"Will it be the test of five arrows?" asked Thurnus.
In this the villagers, with the exception of the two contestants, leave the village and the gate is closed. Each contestant carries in the village his bow, the great bow, the peasant bow, and five arrows. He who opens the gate to readmit the villagers is caste leader.
"No," said Bran Loort, uneasily. He did not care to face the bow of Thurnus. The skill of Thurnus with the great bow was legendary, even among peasants.
Slave Girl

Test of Knives to determine Caste Leader
"Then," asked Thurnus, "it will be the test of knives?"
In this the two men leave the village and enter, from opposite sides, a darkened wood. He who returns to the village is caste leader.
"No," said Bran Loort. Few men, I thought, would care to meet Thurnus in the darkness of the woods armed with steel. The peasant is a part of the l and. He can be like a rock or a tree. Or the lightning that can strike without warning from the dark sky.
Slave Girl

Caste Discipline
Bran Loort turned away from the rack and bent down to pick up his tunic. He went to the gate and it was opened for him. He left the village of Tabuk’s Ford.
"Follow him, who will," said Thurnus to the young men who had been his cohorts.
But none made to follow their former leader.
"Of what village are you?" asked Thurnus.
"Tabuk’s Ford," they said, sullenly.
"And who is caste leader in Tabuk’s Ford?" asked Thurnus, sweating, grinning.
"Thurnus," they said.
"Go to your huts," he said. "You are under caste discipline." They withdrew from the circle of the fire. I expected that they would tend his fields for a season.
Slave Girl

This peasant owns at least 4
Nearby there were four girls in a plank collar. This is formed from two boards into which matching semicircles have been cut. The two boards are connected and supported by five flat, sliding U-irons; when the U-irons are slid back, the collar is opened. When they are slid into place, and the two leaves are bolted together, the collar is closed. Two hasps with staples, secured with padlocks, occur, too, at opposite ends of the planks. These lock the collar. The four girls in the plank collar were kneeling, waiting for their master to conduct some business. he was of the peasants. They were nude. Their hands were tied behind their backs.
Rogue

Used to help plow, hoe, tend fields
Perhaps a peasant would buy her to help with the ploughing. I wondered, if this happened, if she would bitterly recall the Amusements of Tharna. If this miserable fate were to be hers, the imperious Dorna the Proud, stripped and sweating, her back exposed to the ox whip, would learn in harness that a peasant was a hard master.
Outlaw

There was a kennel nearby, where Thurnus kept his girls. He did not tend his fields alone.
Slave Girl

"She has rough hands," said Ladletender. He pulled my small hands, bound, out from the post, and rubbed his thumbs into my palms. I shuddered. "You have rough hands, Dina," he said.
"I am a peasant’s girl, Master," I said. My hands were rough from digging, and washing, and holding tools.
Slave Girl

The Peasant Bow
On the wall of the hut, behind Thurnus, hung the great bow, of supple Ka-la-na. It was tipped with notched bosk horn. It was now unstrung, but the string, of hemp, whipped with silk, lay ready, looped loose upon the broad, curved yellow wood. Near the bow hung a mighty quiver, in which nestled flight and sheaf arrows, and many of each thereof. Such a weapon I could not even bend. It required, too, not simply the strength of a man, but of a man who was un-usually strong. Most men, no more than a woman, could not use such a fearsome device. It was a common weapon among peasants. It is often called the peasant bow.
Slave Girl

Using some kind of blade
The first man had fled, and the other with him. A peasant came about the edge of the booth. Two more men looked through the rent canvas, who had climbed over the counter. I dropped the garrote to the ground. "Don't," I said to the peasant. "It is already done," he said, wiping the blade on his tunic. I think the man's neck had been broken by the blow of my hands under his chin, but he had still been alive. His head now lay half severed, blood on the peasant's sandals. Gorean men are not patient with such as he. "The other?" asked the peasant. "There were two," I said. "Both are gone."
Beasts

Whereas I was of high caste and he of low, yet in his own hut he would be, by the laws of Gor, a prince and sovereign, for then he would be in the place of his own Home Stone. Indeed, a cringing whelp of a man, who would never think of lifting his eyes from the ground in the presence of a member of one of the high castes, a crushed and spiritless churl, an untrustworthy villain or coward, an avaricious and obsequious peddler often becomes, in the place of his own Home Stone, a veritable lion among his fellows, proud and splendid, generous and bestowing, a king be it only in his own den.
Indeed, frequent enough were the stories where even a warrior was overcome by an angry peasant into whose hut he had intruded himself, for in the vicinity of their Home Stones men fight with all the courage, savagery and resourcefulness of the mountain larl. More than one are the peasant fields of Gor which have been freshened with the blood of foolish warriors.
Outlaw

Great Staff
The other common peasant weapon is the great staff, some six feet in length, some two inches in width. Two such staffs rested to one side, inclining upright against the wall, between a yellow box, about a foot high, and a roll of coarsely woven rep-cloth.
Slave Girl

This is a fight to determine Caste Leader, but Thurnus also uses it as a training session
"You will need a staff," pointed out Bran Loort.
"Yes," said Thurnus. He turned to one of Bran Loort’s cohorts. "Strike at me," he said.
The young man grinned. He smote down at Thurnus. Thurnus seized the staff and, suddenly, with strength like that of a larl, jerked the young man toward him, at the same time kicking upward savagely, blasting the fellow in the teeth with the heel of his sandal, the young man reeling back, blood spattering from his nose and mouth, clutching at his face, the staff in the hands of Thurnus. There were teeth in the dirt. The young man sat, dazed, on the ground.
"A good staff," said Thurnus, "must be one with which one can thrust," and, saying this, looking at one young man, he drove the staff, like a spear into the ribs of another, "and slice," added Thurnus, who then smote the first fellow, whose attention was now on his struck fellow, along the side of the face. The first fellow fell in the dirt clutching his ribs. I had little doubt that one or more had been broken; the second fellow lay inert in the dirt, blood at the side of his head. "But," said Thurnus, "a good staff must also be strong." The young men stood, tensed, five of them, and Bran Loort. "Come at me," said Thurnus to another of the men. Enraged the fellow charged. Thurnus was behind him and smote down, shattering the heavy staff across the fellow’s back. He lay in the dirt, unable to rise. The staff had been more than two inches in diameter. "That staff, you see," said Thurnus, instructing the younger men, "was flawed. It was weak." He gestured to the fellow lying in the dirt, his face contorted with pain, scratching at the dust. "It did not even break his back," said Thurnus. "Such a staff may not be relied upon in combat." He turned to one of the four young men, and Bran Loort. "Give me another staff," he said to one of them. The young man looked at him and, frightened, threw him the staff, not wanting to come close to him. "A better weapon," said Thurnus, hefting the staff. He looked at the fellow who had thrown him the staff. "Come here," he said. Uneasily the lad approached. "The first lesson you must learn," said Thurnus, swiftly jabbing the staff deeply, without warning, into his stomach, "is never to give a weapon to an enemy." The young man, bent over, retched in the dirt. Thurnus smote him sharply on the side of the head, felling him. He then turned to the other two young men, and Bran Loort. "You should keep your guard up," said Thurnus to one of them, who immediately, warily, raised his staff. Thurnus then smote the other fellow, at whom he did not appear to be looking. He turned, watching the fellow fall into the dirt. "You, too, of course," said Thurnus, "should keep your guard up. That is important." The other young man, he beside Bran Loort, then suddenly struck at Thurnus, but Thurnus, clearly, had been expecting the blow. He parried it and slipped behind the other’s staff, bringing up the lower end of his own staff. The fellow’s face turned white and he sank away. "Aggressiveness is good," said Thurnus, "but beware of the counterstroke." Thurnus looked about himself. Of the nine men only one, Bran Loort, now stood ready. Thurnus grinned. He indicated the young men, strewn about. ‘These others, I now gather," said Thurnus, "will not enter our competition."
Slave Girl

I supplemented my diet with fresh fruit picked from bushes and trees, and fish speared in Gor's cold, swift- flowing streams. Once I brought the carcass of a tabuk, one of Gor's single-horned, yellow antelopes, which I had felled in a Ka-la-na thicket, to the hut of a peasant and his wife. Asking no questions, as was suitable given the absence of insignia on my garments, they feasted me on my own kill, and gave me fiber, and flints and a skin of wine.
The peasant on Gor does not fear the outlaw, for he seldom has anything worth stealing, unless it be a daughter. Indeed, the peasant and outlaw on Gor live in an almost unspoken agreement, the peasant tending to protect the outlaw and the outlaw sharing in return some of his plunder and booty with the peasant. The peasant does not regard this as dishonest on his part, or as grasping. It is simply a way of life to which he is accustomed. It is a different matter, of course, if it is explicitly known that the outlaw is from a city other than one's own. In that case he is usually regarded as an enemy, to be reported to the patrols as soon as possible. He is, after all, not of one's city.
Outlaw

Wondering, he watched us, for one of the men, of the Caste of Peasants, had begun to hum a plowing song, and, one by one, the others joined him.
Outlaw

The voices of these haggard but transformed men began to sing. I recognized the tune. It was a polishing song I had first heard from the peasant in the mines. It had become the anthem of the revolution.
Outlaw