The Caste of Perfumers

Smooth shaven
White and yellow silk gown - yes, men wore them!


My assistant, a large fellow, but obviously stupid, smooth-shaven as are the perfurners, in white and yellow silk, and golden sandals, bent over, hurried forward. He carried a tray of vials.
Marauders

I put my head to the floor. I grovelled in the white and yellow silk of the perfumers. "Oh, great lady," I whined, the finest of Ar’s, perfumes may be too thin, too frail, too gross, for one of your discernment and taste."
Marauders

He tore away from his body, swiftly, the gown of the perfumers, that of white and yellow silk. I, too, cast aside the perfumer’s gown.
Marauders

SEE ALSO Gorean Shops of Caste Workers

The upscale perfume shop in Venna

I knelt in the cool recesses of the shop of Turbus Veminius, a perfumer in Venna. Venna has many small and fine shops, catering to the affluent trade of the well-to-do, who patronize the baths and public villas of the area. ....I could smell perfumes, and their mixings in the long shop behind the counter.
Fighting Slave

Turbus Veminius had now returned to the counter. He had with him a small vial of perfume which he had obtained in the back of the shop. He placed it in a cabinet to one side.
Fighting Slave

The attention of Turbus Veminius was now again elsewhere. He was straightening vials in one of the cabinets on the side.
Fighting Slave

Turbus Veminius looked after her. He, like many perfumers, and hairdressers and cosmeticians, treated his female clientele almost as though they were slave girls. Indeed, he was famous for once having said, "They are all slave girls." Yet, in spite of the gruff, authoritarian way in which they might be handled, and the rude, peremptory fashion in which they might be addressed, women, and high-caste women, for no reason that was clear to me, flocked to his shop. He was, of course, one of the foremost perfumers of Gor. His prices, it might be mentioned, were beyond the reach of all but the very wealthy. It might also be mentioned that he did not deal at all in slave perfumes.
Fighting Slave

"Do you sell slave perfume, true slave perfume?" she asked.
"We do not sell perfume for slave sluts in the shop of Veminius," he said, sternly.
"Forgive me, Turbus," she said.
"Try the shop of the Steel Bracelets," he smiled. "It is near the house of Hassan, on the Street of Brands."
"Thank you, Turbus," she said. She turned again, to leave.
Fighting Slave

I could smell perfumes, and their mixings in the long shop behind the counter. There, at various benches, attending to their work, measuring and stirring, were apprentice perfumers. Though one is commonly born into a caste one is often not permitted to practice the caste craft until a suitable apprenticeship has been served. This guarantees the quality of the caste product.
Fighting Slave

Here a perfumer is showing the scents of Ar, to Hilda of Scagnar

"So is this the perfume that the high-born women of Ar wear to the song-dramas in En’Kara ?" asked the blond girl, amused.
Marauders

We were almost finished with the vials in the flat, leather case
Marauders

flowers - hundreds (of one kind) distilled
oil of Thentis needle tree
extract from glands of Cartius river urt
calculus scraped from intestines of Hunjer Whale
nectar of talendars
veminium

That scent, I knew, a distillation of a hundred flowers, nurtured like a priceless wine, was a secret guarded by the perfumers of Ar. It contained as well the separated oil of the Thentis needle tree; an extract from the glands of the Cartius river urt; and a preparation formed from a disease calculus scraped from the intestines of the rare Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate digestion of cuttlefish. Fortunately, too, this calculus is sometimes found free in the sea, expelled with feces. It took more than a year to distill, age, blend and bond the ingredients.
Marauders

"I was once," continued Saphrar, "a perfumer of Tyros but I one day left the shop it seems inadvertently with some pounds of the nectar of talenders concealed beneath my tunic in a bladder and for that my ear was notched and I was exiled from the city. I found my way to Port Kar, where I lived unpleasantly for some time on garbage floating in the canals and such other tidbits as I could find about."
Nomads

I smelled veminium oil. The petals of veminium, the "Desert Veminium," purplish,as opposed to the "Thentis Veminium," bluish,which flower grows at the edge of the Tahari, gathered in shallow baskets and carried to a still, are boiled in water. The vapor which boils off is condensed into oil. This oil is used to perfume water. This water is not drunk but is used in middle and upper-class homes to rinse the eating hand, before and after the evening meal.
Tribesman

There quotes are from a scene in Venna, in the perfume shop of TURBUS VEMINUS, a rather upscale perfumer.

Individual scents for one woman alone

I smelled the perfumes of the shop, many of which were being blended by hand from signature recipes in the back of the shop. Signature recipes are unique, and secret. They are the result of a perfumer's consultations and experiments, the outcome of an effort to devise the perfect perfume for a given woman, though perhaps relativized to a time of day and mood. A wealthy woman may have as many as ten or fifteen signature recipes, each different. They are called signature recipes not only because they are individualized to a given woman but because the recipe bears the perfumer's signature, indicating that he accepts it as a perfume worthy of his house. These recipes, interestingly, are kept on file in the perfumer's, strong boxes.
Fighting Slave

Signature Scents of the "House"

There are also, of course, perfumes associated with a given house, which may be purchased by more than one woman. These recipes are sometimes, by an extension of usage, also called signature recipes. They are, at any rate, supposedly unique to given houses.
Fighting Slave

Also, of course, there are hundreds of more standard perfumes, the preparation of which is widely understood by the perfumers of many cities. Slave perfumes, of course, are an entirely different area.
Fighting Slave

Slave perfumes, of course, are an entirely different area. These are usually heavier scents, and more sensual, than those used by free women, scents more fitting to a woman who must obey, and perfectly. There are hundreds of slave perfumes, as there are hundreds of perfumes for free women. The perfumers of Gor, as those of Earth have not, have given special attention to the development of perfumes for slaves. There is thus, on Gor, a subtle and complex variety of slave perfumes available, exciting, provocative, sensuous and unmistakable. There are perfumes for the slave in any woman on Gor.
Fighting Slave

"Do you know the perfume you wear?" I asked.
"It is a slave perfume," she said.
"Yes," I said. It was a heady perfume. It made me wish to reach across the table, seize her, and throw her upon it, and then, there, on that small, smooth, hard surface, put her to my pleasure, ravishing her publicly. "Do you know its name?" I asked.
"No," she whispered. She was, after all, a free woman.
"It is a well-known Cosian perfume," I said, " 'The Chains of Telnus'."
"I see," she whispered.
"Cosian masters sometimes enjoy putting women of Ar, their slaves, in it."
"You speak of it as though it were a collar," she said.
"In a sense, it is," I said.
"I cannot help it," she said. "It, too, like the silk, excites me!"
"That is its intention," said I, "woman of Ar."
"Doubtless there are many slave perfumes," she said.
"Yes," I said, "hundreds."
"I never thought to be put in one," she said.
"But you now are in one," I said.
"Yes," she whispered.
Vagabonds

Sometimes, though this is more expensive, a girl is brought in to the perfumers by her master for a consultation; the perfumer then questions the girl, orders her about, and may even caress her; then, in the light of her background and history, and intellectual and physiological nature, he recommends a perfume, or blend of perfumes, for her; this perfume, or blend of perfume, is thus, in its way, matched to her unique beauty and bondage.
Fighting Slave

That scent, I knew, a distillation of a hundred flowers, nurtured like a priceless wine, was a secret guarded by the perfumers of Ar. It contained as well the separated oil of the Thentis needle tree; an extract from the glands of the Cartius river urt; and a preparation formed from a disease calculus scraped from the intestines of the rare Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate di-gestion of cuttlefish. Fortunately, too, this calculus is some-times found free in the sea, expelled with feces. It took more than a year to distill, age, blend and bond the ingredients.
Marauders

"Is the perfume of the Lady Kita of Bazi ready?" Turbus Veminius called to the back of the shop.
"No," a voice answered him.
"Do not hurry," called Turbus Veminius. "It must be Perfect."
Fighting Slave

"Will the perfume of the Lady Kita be ready at the fifteenth Ahn?" Turbus called back to someone in the shop.
"I do not know," said the voice.
"Do not hurry it," he said. "If it is not ready, I will order her to wait, or to return tomorrow. It must be perfect."
Fighting Slave

"Bring perfumes"" she called to the feast steward, and he sent forth the camisk-clad slave who carried the tiny tray of exotic Turian perfumes. She took one or two of these small bottles and held them under her nose, and then sprinkled them about the table and cushions.
Nomads

"My thanks, Lady Teela," said Turbus Veminius, proprietor of the shop, accepting coins and handing to a robed woman a tiny vial of perfume.
Fighting Slave

We were almost finished with the vials in the flat, leather case.
"We have here," said I, "a scent that might be worthy of a Ubara of Ar."
I uncorked it and she held it, delicately, to her nostrils.
"Barely adequate," she said.
Marauders