Four great fairs are held during the Gorean year (it is not a permanent fair)
Fair of En'Kara It was not far to the fair of En`Kara, one of the four great
fairs held in the shadow of the Sardar during the Gorean
year,
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Month names differ, unfortunately, from city to city, but, among the civilized cities, there are four months, associated with the equinoxes and solstices, and the great fairs at the Sardar, which do have common names, the months of En-
'Kara, or En'Kara-Lar-Torvis; En'Var, or En'var-Lar-Torvis; Se'Kara, or Se'Kara-Lar-Torvis; and Se'Var, or Se'Var-Lar- Torvis.
Assassins
The Fair of Se'Var in autumn These men of Tharna, mostly small tradesmen in silver, had come for the
autumn fair, the fair of Se`Var, which was just being set up at the time
of the gravitational lessening. I remained with them, accepting their
hospitality, while going out to meet various delegations from different
cities, as they came to the Sardar for the fair.
Priest Kings
Description of the Sardar Fairs
The Fairs cover several square pasangs The district of the
fair covered several square pasangs. It was very beautiful at night. Beasts
Dirt "streets" between the rows of tents and booths It had rained in the night, and the streets of the fair were muddy.
The Sardar fairs are organized, regulated and administered by the Merchant
Caste.
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Like the cities, the booths of castes are together, making a "street of pottery"
and a "street of coins" and so on I turned down one of the muddy streets, making my way between booths
featuring the wares of pottery and weavers. It seemed to me that if 1
could find the fair's street of coins, that the makers of odds might well
have set their tables there. It was, at any rate, a sensible thought.
"Where is the street of coins?" I asked a fellow, in the tunic of the
tarnkeepers.
"Of which city?" he asked.
"My thanks," I said, and continued on. The fairs are large, covering
several square pasangs.
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Long central avenue
Tents, booths, stalls, pavillions, stockades It was not far to the fair of En`Kara, one of the four great
fairs held in the shadow of the Sardar during the Gorean
year, and I soon walked slowly down the long central avenue
between the tents, the booths and stalls, the pavilions and
stockades of the fair,
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Size of the Fairs
The Fairs cover several square pasangs, and appear to be huge since several
times we read of someone asking "Where is....?" "Where are the merchant tables," I asked a fellow from Torvaldsland,
with braided blond hair and shaggy jacket, eating on a roast hock of tarsk,
"where the odds on the Kaissa matches are being given?"
"I do not know," he said.
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"Where are the slave markets?" he asked.
"There are many," I said.
... "The nearest," I told the
fellow from Torvaldsland, pointing down a corridor between pavilions and
booths, "lies some quarter of a pasang in that direction, beyond the booths
of the rug merchants. The largest, on the other hand, the platforms of
slave exhibition and the great sales pavilion, lie to your left, two
pasangs away, beyond the smithies and the chain shops."
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"Where are the platforms of Tenalion of Ar?" I asked a man. They had
been his property.
The fellow pointed to the two hundreds.
...
In the two hundreds Tenalion's platforms were numbered from two hundred and
forty through two hundred and eighty, inclusive.
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Thousands in the crowds at the Fairs I looked out over the crowds. Thousands were at the fair of the Sardar.
My chances of finding one man in that crowd, and one who knew I searched for
him, would be negligible.
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Functions of the Sardar Fairs
Buying and selling of goods is important in gorean economy "The markets of the Sardar fairs are large and important ones in
the Gorean economy."
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Not permitted to fight, kill, or enslave within perimeters of the Fair
Buying and selling of merchandise is a main function of the Fairs "Indeed, one might buy slaves here and there, publicly and privately,
at many places in the Fair of En'Kara, one of the four great annual
fairs at the Sardar. It is not permitted to fight, or kill, or enslave
within the perimeters of the fairs, but there is no prohibition against
the buying and selling of merchandise within those precincts; indeed, one
of the main functions of the fairs, if not their main function, was to
facilitate the buying and selling of goods; the slave, of course, is goods.
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Wide variety of goods from all over Gor are for sale at the Fairs Many are the objects for sale at the fair. I passed among
wines and textiles and raw wool, silks, and brocades,
copperware and glazed pottery, carpets and tapestries,
lumber, furs, hides, salt, arms and arrows, saddles and
harness, rings and bracelets and necklaces, belts and
sandals, lamps and oils, medicines and meats and grains,
animals such as the fierce tarns, Gor’s winged mounts, and
tharlarions, her domesticated lizards, and long chains of
miserable slaves, both male and female.
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Caste conventions are held at the Sardar Fairs - members meet and exchange ideas
Merchant Law is drafted and stabilized
Gorean language becomes standardized
Political Negotiations
Peace, war and arrangements & treaties are determined during the truce of the
Fairs in a great pavillion The fairs, too, however, have many other
functions. For example, they serve as a scene of caste conventions, and
as loci for the sharing of discoveries and research. It is here, for
example, that physicians, and builders and artisans may meet and exchange
ideas and techniques. It is here that Merchant Law is drafted and
stabilized. it is here that songs are performed, and song dramas. Poets
and musicians, and jugglers and magicians, vie for the attention of the
crowds. Here one finds peddlers and great merchants. Some sell trinkets
and others the notes of cities. It is here that the Gorean language tends
to become standardized. These fairs constitute truce grounds. Men of
warring cities may meet here without fear. Political negotiation and
intrigue are rampant, too, generally secretly so, at the fairs. Peace
and war, and arrangements and treaties, are not unoften determined in a
pavilion within the precincts of the fairs.
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Castes gather & share information "Members of castes such as Physicians and Builders use the fairs for
the dissemination of information and techniques among Caste Brothers, as
is prescribed in their codes in spite of the fact that their respective
cities may be hostile. And as might be expected members of the Caste of
Scribes gather here to enter into dispute and examine and trade
manuscripts."
Priest Kings
Trade disputes between cities are settled through contests "Make way! Make way!" laughed the brawny young fellow. He had a naked
girl over his shoulder, bound hand and foot. He had won her in Girl Catch,
in a contest to decide a trade dispute between two small cities, Ven and
Rarn, the former a river port on the Vosk, the second noted for its copper
mining, lying southeast of Tharna.
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Common ground to resolve territorial & commercial disputes without loss of
honor "It is little wonder then that the cities of Gor support and welcome
the fairs. Sometimes they provide a common ground on which territorial
and commercial disputes may be amicably resolved without loss of honor,
plenipotentiaries of warring cities having apparently met by accident
among the silken pavilions."
Priest Kings
Contests held at the Sardar Fairs
Contests held at the fairs do not involve weapons The contests I mentioned which take place at the fairs are,
as would be expected, peaceable, or I should say, at least do
not involve contests of arms. Indeed it is considered a
crime against the Priest-Kings to bloody one’s weapons at the
fairs. The Priest-Kings, I might note, seem to be more
tolerant of bloodshed in other localities.
Wrestling
Racing
Feats of strength
Skill with bow and spear
Contests between poets and choruses
The contests at the fairs, however, I am pleased to say,
offer nothing more dangerous than wrestling, with no holds to
the death permitted. Most of the contests involve such
things as racing, feats of strength, and skill with bow and
spear. Other contests of interest pit choruses and poets and
players of various cities against one another in the several
theaters of the fair. I had a friend once, Andreas of the
desert city of Tor, of the Caste of Poets, who had once sung
at the fair and won a cap filled with gold. And perhaps it
is hardly necessary to add that the streets of the fair
abound with jugglers, puppeteers, musicians and acrobats who,
far from the theaters, compete in their ancient fashions for
the copper tarn disks of the broiling, turbulent crowds.
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The Pavillion at the Sardar Fairs
Gigantic sales pavillion where slaves are sold
Blue and yellow silk
Surrounded by aised platforms outside, displaying slaves for sale I turned my steps toward the main market. I would look at the goods on
the long wooden platforms. Perhaps I would buy a girl for the night and
sell her in the morning.
In a few minutes I saw the silken summit of the gigantic sales pavilion,
its pennons fluttering, its blue and yellow silk billowing in the wind.
I saw male slaves thrusting a cart filled with quarry stones. It left
deep tracks in the rain-softened earth.
I smelled verr, closed in shallow pens, more than a pasang away. The air
was clear and sparkling.
I came to the great sales pavilion, but it was now roped off and quiet.
There was much activity, and bustle, however, among the platforms. Here
and there slaves were being thrown food.
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Hundreds of raised platforms at Fairs, rented to slavers I mingled with the crowds among the platforms. There are hundreds of such
platforms, long, raised about a foot from the ground, far more than one
could easily examine in a day's browsing. They are rented to individual
slavers, who, reserving them before the fairs, would rent one or more, or
several, depending on their riches and the numbers of their stock. Small
signs fixed on the platforms identify the flesh merchant, such as 'These
are the girls of Sorb of Turia' or 'These slaves are owned by Tenalion
of Ar'.
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Sales in the Pavillion take place at night
Lit by torches Sales take place at night in the pavillion, from a sawdust-strewn block,
under the light of torches, but girls may also be sold directly from the
platforms. Indeed, many girls are sold from the platforms. Given the number
of girls at the fair, and the fact that new ones are constantly being
brought to the platforms, it is impractical to hope to market them all
from the block. It is just not feasible. At the end of every fair there
are always some hundreds of girls left unsold. These are usually sold
in groups at wholesale prices In sales restricted to professional slavers,
who will transport them to other markets, to dispose of them there.
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"Where are the new slaves?" asked one man of another.
"They are on the western platforms," said the respondent. Those
platforms are commonly used for processing and organization. Girls
are not often sold from them. They wait there, usually, when they are
brought in, before they are conducted to their proper platforms, those
on which they will be displayed, those having been rented in advance
by their masters.
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A tarsk bit to enter the pavillion The sales in the pavillion would already have begun. "Buy these girls!
Buy these girls!" I heard, as I made my way between the platforms toward
the pavilion. "Buy me, Master!" called a girl, with long dark hair, naked,
lying on her side on one of the darkly varnished platforms, her body hail
covered with chains bound about her.
"A tarsk bit to enter, Master," said a slaver's man at the entrance to the
pavilion.
I handed him a tarsk bit from my pouch, and pushed through the canvas.
My nostrils flared, my blood moved now faster in my veins. There is
something charged and exhilarating about a slave market, the color,
the movement, the excitement of the crowds, the bidding, the intensity,
the lovely women being sold.
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The Amphitheater at the Sardar Fairs
Huge sloping, semicircular amphitheater I climbed on the tier and stood. I could now see, in the robes of the
players, Scormus of Ar, the fiery, young champion of Ar. He was with a
party of the men of Ar. The table with the board was set in the center
of the stage, at the foot of the huge, sloping, semicircular amphitheater.
It seemed small and far away.
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Amphitheater is used for kaissa matches, poet readings, pageants, song dramas
Centius of Cos walked to the edge of the stone stage, some five feet above
the pit, and lifted his hand to the crowd. He smiled.
The amphitheater, of course, is used for more than Kaissa. It is also used
for such things as the readings of poets, the presentations of choral
arrangements, the staging of pageants and the performances of song
dramas. Indeed, generally the great amphitheater is not used for
Kaissa, and the Sardar matches are played in shallow fields, before
lengthy sloping tiers, set into the sides of small hills, many matches
being conducted simultaneously, a large vertical board behind each
table serving to record the movements of the pieces and correspond to
the current position. The movements of the pieces are chalked on the
left side of the board, in order; the main portion of the board
consists of a representation of the Kaissa board and young players,
in apprenticeship to masters, move pieces upon it; one has thus before
oneself both a record of the moves made to that point and a graphic
representation of the current state of the game. The movements are
chalked, too, incidentally, by the young players. The official scoring
is kept by a team of three officials, at least one of which must be
of the caste of players. These men sit at a table near the table of
play. Games are adjudicated, when capture of Home Stone does not occur,
by a team of five judges, each of which must be a member of the caste of
players, and three of which must play at the level of master.
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Forty foot high board records the movements of the kaissa game for the crowd
Behind them, more than forty feet high, and fifty feet wide, was a great
vertical board. On this board, dominating it, there was a giant
representation of a Kaissa board. On it, on their pegs, hung the pieces
in their initial positions. On this board those in the audience would follow
the game. To the left of the board were two columns, vertical, one for
yellow, one for red, where the moves, as they took place, would be recorded.
There were similar boards, though smaller, at various places about the fair,
where men who could not afford the fee to enter the amphitheater might
stand and watch the progress of play. Messengers at the back of the
amphitheater, coming and going, delivered the moves to these various boards.
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The Public Tents at the Sardar Fairs
Public tents are set up for those coming to one of the Fairs to sleep in
Five copper tarsks rents furs and a place in the tent
Meals are not served in the tents In a few minutes I had come to the area of the public tents, and there
was there no difficulty in determining where the Kaissa lines were to be
found. There were dozens of tables, and the lines were long at each.
I would stay in one of the public tents tonight. For five copper tarsks
one may rent furs and a place in the tent. It is expensive, but it is,
after all, En'Kara and the time of the fair. In such tents it is not
unusual for peasants to lie crowded, side by side, with captains and
merchants. During En'Kara, at the Fair, many of the distinctions among
men and castes are forgotten.
Unfortunately meals are not served in the tents. For the price it seems
one should banquet. This lack, however, is supplied by numerous public
kitchens and tables. These are scattered throughout the district of the
fair. Also there are vendors.
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Paga and wines are served in the public tents There are some compensations in the public tents, however. One may
have paga and wines there. These are served by slave girls, whose comforts
and uses are also included within the price of the lodging.
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More than a thousand men sleep in a public tent
Small lamps hang on tiny chains from the tent poles I lay thinking in the furs, my hands behind my head, looking up at the
ceiling of the tent above me. There was little light in the tent, for it
was late. It was difficult for me to sleep.
More than a thousand men slept in this great tent.
The ceiling of the tent above me billowed slightly, responsive to a gentle
wind from the east.
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.
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Restaurant Tents at the Fairs
One pays for the meal and carried a voucher disk to the table
A slave girl brings the meal to the table, taking the disk
The slave girls wear leather aprons and iron belts One pays before the meal, and carries a disk, a voucher, to the table.
The meal itself is brought to his place, marked on an identical disk, by
a slave girl. One surrenders the disk to her and she places the meal before
you. The girl wears a leather apron and an iron belt. If one wants her
one must pay more.
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In this restaurant tent, there are 200 tables I swilled down the last of the Kal-da. I had not had it since Tharna.
In the restaurant where I had eaten there were some two hundred tables,
under tenting.
I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and rose to my feet.
There were many at the tables who were singing the songs of Ar.
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Common scenes at the Sardar Fairs
Puppet show I stopped to watch a puppet show. In it a fellow and his free
companion bickered and struck one another with clubs.
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.
I returned my attention to the puppet show. Now upon its tiny stage was
being enacted the story of the Ubar and the Peasant.
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Vendors hawking their wares "Candies! Candies!" called a hawker of sweets near me in the crowd.
"Candies of Ar!"
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Jugglers Some jugglers, to one side, were exhibiting their astonishing talents
with colored plates and torches.
I passed some booths where rep-cloth was being sold in bolts. Peasant
women were haggling with the vendors.
In another area boiled meat hung on ropes. Insects swarmed about it.
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The Administration of the Fairs
Each of the Fairs are organized, regulated & administered by the Merchant Caste
"The Sardar fairs are organized, regulated and administered by the
Merchant Caste."
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Fairs are goverened by Merchant Law
Fairs are supported by booth rents and taxes on items sold or bartered
"The fairs incidentally are governed by Merchant Law and supported
by booth rents and taxes levied on the items exchanged. The commercial
facilities of these fairs, from money changing to general banking, are
the finest I know of on Gor, save those in Ar's Street of Coins, and
letters of credit are accepted and loans negotiated, though often at
usurious rates, with what seems reckless indifference. Yet perhaps this
is not so puzzling, for the Gorean cities will, within their own walls,
enforce the Merchant Law when pertinent, even against their own citizens.
If they did not, of course, the fairs would be closed to the citizens of
that city."
Priest Kings
The Fair has Merchants on its staff
There are booths of Fair staff and praetor stations to asist the visitors
with information I decided it would be best to search for a merchant who was
on the fair's staff, or find one of their booths or praetor stations,
where such information might be found.
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Merchant staff rents space for tarns My own tarn was at a cot, where I had rented space
for him.
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Travel and Transport to and from the Fairs
Delegations from cities begin to arrive early, as Fairs are being set up
I remained some days beside the Sardar, in the camp of some men from
Tharna, whom I had known several months before. I regret that among them
was not the dour, magnificent, yellow-haired Kron of Tharna, of the Caste
of Metal Workers, who had been my friend.
These men of Tharna, mostly small tradesmen in silver, had come for the
autumn fair, the fair of Se`Var, which was just being set up at the time
of the gravitational lessening. I remained with them, accepting their
hospitality, while going out to meet various delegations from different
cities, as they came to the Sardar for the fair.
Priest Kings
Tarn baskets loaded with people returning to their cities
Caravans harnessed for return trips There was little now to hold me at the fair. Overhead, with some regularity,
I saw tarns streaking from the fair, many with tarn baskets slung beneath
them, men and women returning to their cities. More than one caravan, too,
was being harnessed. My own tarn was at a cot, where I had rented space
for him.
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One can arrange trasportation & shipment of purchases Before I left, the fair I would inspect the major market, that beyond
the smithies and chain shops, where the most numerous exhibition platforms
were erected, near the great sales pavillion of blue and yellow silk, the
colors of the slavers.
If I found girls who pleased me I could arrange for their transportation
to Port Kar. The shipment and delivery of slaves is cheap.
I turned down the street of the dealers in artifacts and curios. I was
making my way toward the public tents in the vicinity of the amphitheater.
It was there that the tables for the odds on the Kaissa matches might be
found.
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Receipts and shipping vouchers are issued In my pouch were the receipts and shipping vouchers for five slave girls,
she whom I had purchased at the public tent this morning and four others,
recently acquired on the platforms near the pavilion.
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Pilgrimmage
At least once, prior to age 25, goreans must make the trip to the Sardar
"Although no one may be enslaved at the fair, slaves may be bought and
sold within its precincts, and slavers do a thriving business, exceeded
perhaps only by that of Ar's Street of Brands. The reason for this is
not simply that here is a fine market for such wares, since men from
various cities pass freely to and for at the fair, but that each Gorean,
whether male of female, is expected to see the Sardar Mountains, in
honor of the Priest-Kings, at least once in his life, prior to his
twenty-fifth year. Accordingly the pirates and outlaws who beset the
trade routes to ambush and attack the caravans on the way to the fair,
if successful, often have more then inanimate metals and cloths to
rewards their vicious labors."
Priest Kings
Slave girls, of course, as goods, as exchangeable properties, and so
on, are likely to see a great deal more of their world than the average
free woman. Many free persons on Gor seldom travel more than a few pasangs
from their village or the walls of their city. An important exception to
this is the pilgrimage to the Sardar, which every Gorean, male and female,
is expected to undertake at least once in his life. The journey, of course,
from many points on Gor to the Sardar is, at least in certain parts,
dangerous. It is not unknown for a young woman who sets out in the
pilgrim’s white to arrive as a chained slave, who will be sold at one
of the fairs. Her glimpse of the Sardar is likely to be obtained from
the height of a sales platform.
Renegades
"This pilgrimage to the Sardar, enjoined by the Priest-Kings
according to the Caste of Initiates, undoubtedly plays its role in
the distribution of beauty among hostile cities of Gor. Whereas the
males who accompany a caravan are often killed in its defense or
driven off, this fate, fortunate or not, is seldom that of the
caravan's women. It will be their sad lot to be stripped and fitted
with the collars and chains of slave girls and forced to follow the
wagons on foot to the fair, or if the caravan's tharlarion have been
killed or driven off, they will carry its goods on their backs. Thus
one practical effect of the edict of the Priest-Kings is that each
Gorean girl must, at least once in her life, leave her walls and take
the very serious risk of becoming a slave girl, perhaps the prize of
a pirate or outlaw."
Priest Kings
"Each young person of Gor is expected, before their twenty-fifth
birthday, to make the pilgrimage to the Sardar, to honor the Priest-Kings.
These caravans come from all over known Gor. Most arrive safely. Some
are preyed upon by bandits and slavers. More then one beauty who thought
to have stood upon the platforms by the palisade, lifting laurel wreaths
and in white robes singing the glories of the Priest-Kings, has found
herself instead looking upon the snow-capped peaks of the Sardar from
the slave platforms, stripped and heavily chained."
Priest Kings
Offerings are made to the Priest Kings I climbed the stairs to the platform. I would look upon the Sardar in
the morning light. At this time, particularly in the spring, the sun
sparkling on the snow-strewn peaks, the mountains can be quite beautiful.
I attained the height of the platform and found the view breath-taking, even
more splendid than I had hoped. I stood there very quietly in the cool,
sunlit morning air. It was very beautiful.
Near me, on the platform, stood the red hunter. He, too, it seemed, was
struck to silence and awe.
Then, standing on the platform, he lifted his bare arms to the mountains.
"Let the herd come," he said. He had spoken in Gorean. 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.
He put the tiny tabuk on the boards at his feet, and then again lifted his
arms to the mountains. "Let the herd come," he said. "I give you this
tabuk," he said. "It was mine, and it is now yours. Give us now the herd
which is ours."
Then he lowered his arms and reached down and closed the sack. He left the
platform.
There were other individuals, too, on the long platform. Each, I supposed,
had their petition to make to Priest-Kings. I looked at the tiny tabuk
left behind on the boards. It looked toward the Sardar.
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The Sardar Fairs on Gor
