Clothing worn by Free Men in the tropical jungle region on Gor

Captain of the Palms of Schendi
A closely woven red aba (cloak)
Ankle-length white robe, loosely sleeved
All eyes turned toward the back. A tall man stood there, lean and black. He wore a closely woven seaman’s aba, red, striped with white, which fell from his shoulders; this was worn over an ankle-length, white robe, loosely sleeved, embroidered with gold, with a golden sash. In the sash was thrust a curved dagger. On his head he wore a cap on which were fixed the two golden tassels of Schendi.
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(NOTE - this description occurs in Port Kar to the north, however - we see both the aba and robes worn later in the steamy heat of Schendi
CLICK HERE to see an aba

A Slaver of Schendi in tunic and aba (cloak)
“Hurry! Hurry, clumsy slave!” cried the small, scarred man, crooked-backed, his right leg dragging behind him. He wore a dirty tunic; over it was a long, brown aba, torn and ragged. He was barefoot. A brown cloth, turbanlike, was twisted about his head. He seemed angry. His feet and legs, and those of the slave, were muddy and dirty, from the mud in the streets.
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While visiting the Tribal People of the Interior
Tunic and robes
“Away,” said Msaliti, sharply. They fled away, their bare feet pattering on the woven mats of my quarters, within that gigantic compound that constituted the palace of Bila Huruma.
“These robes,” said Msaliti, indicating robes spread upon the couch, “will be found suitable for an ambassador of Teletus.” He then indicated a small chest at the couch’s foot. “Those gifts, too,” he said, “will appear seemly from one interested in negotiating a commercial treaty with one of the stature of Bila Huruma.”
I slipped on a tunic.
...
“If I am not fully cooperative,” I said, “you will return me to the rogues’ chain?”
“I have that power,” he said.
“Permit me to don the robes of an ambassador of Teletus,” I said.
“Certainly,” said he.
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Tunic worn by man in Schendi
He smiled. He began to undo certain buckles, attached to leather straps, within his own tunic.
...
I saw to my surprise, that the man, he who had been called Kunguni, drew forth, from beneath his tunic, a sewn, padded mound of cloth, heavy, globelike, with dangling straps. He then straightened his back. He was not tall, but he stood now slim and straight His right leg, too, now did not seem to afflict him.
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Wearing sleeved tunic
“These are beauties,” said Uchafu, indicating the two sisters, the blonds from Asperiche. “Buy one or both,” he said.
But I had begun to walk toward the blond-haired barbarian. Uchafu hurried along behind me, and seized my sleeve, stopping me.
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I walked over to a mirror. I ran my tongue over my lips. They seemed dry. The whites of my eyes, clearly, were yellow. I rolled up the sleeve of my tunic and saw there, on the flesh of the forearm, like black blisters, broken open, erupted, a scattering of pustules.
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In Schendi, as in other civilized areas, garments identify the caste
I looked behind me occasionally, but I saw only the normal occupants and passers-by of the streets of Schendi. I wore the garb now of a leather worker. If inquiries had been made it would be recalled that he who had arrived in the Palms of Schendi had been, at least ostensibly, of the metal workers.
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Sandals
“Sandals,” I said.
She crept to me and, head down, placed my sandals on my feet. She then tied them, drawing the thongs tight and then fastening them.
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Wallet worn on belt
“Look in my wallet,” I said. “You will see that I am not a vagabond.”
The wallet was cut from my belt. The officer shook out gold pieces and silver tarsks into his hand.
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Wearing traditional tunic in jungle
We had now made camp. A small stream was nearby, which led into the Ua..
She stood before me and then, without asking, gently, delicately, untied, and opened and took from me the shreds of the soiled tunic which I wore. It was muddied and caked with dirt, from the days in the jungle, from the muddy banks of the Ua. As she removed it from me she kissed me softly, tenderly, about the chest and left hip.
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Tribal men are commonly bare-armed
“Are you armed?” asked Msaliti, both in the inland speech, some of which I had learned-from Ayari, and in Gorean.
“Why, yes,” I said pleasantly, revealing the sleeve sheath, and handing him the dagger.
For an instant, just an instant, I saw in the eyes of Msaliti a flash of incredible fury. Then he nodded, and accepted the dagger, which he handed to an askari.
I showed the sleeve sheath to Bila Huruma, who was interested in it. Such sheaths are common in the Tahari but, in the equatorial interior, where men are commonly bare-armed, I gathered they were an interesting novelty.
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There were two other men in the room, and I gazed upon them with some astonishment. They were large fellows, strong and lean, dressed in skins and golden armlets, and feathers. They carried high, oval shields, and short, long-bladed stabbing spears. These men, I was sure, were not of Schendi. They came from somewhere, I was sure, in the interior.
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Robe of green and brown
Low, round, flat-topped cap
I looked at the man who sat, cross-legged, behind the table. Hee was a large, tall man. He had long, thin hands, with delicate fingers. His face seemed refined, but his eyes were hard, and piercing. I did not think he was of the warriors but I had little doubt he was familiar with the uses of steel. I had seldom seen a face which, at once, suggested such sensitivity, but, at the same time, reflected such intelligence and uncompromising will. Following the lines of his cheekbones there was a stitching of tribal tattooing. He wore a robe of green and brown, with slashes of black. Against the background of jungle growth, blending with plants and shadows, it would be difficult to detect. He also wore a low, round, flat-topped cap of similar material.
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Robes have some depth to them
“I think I may easily multiply the risks,” said he. He reached into his robes with his right hand.
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Robes cover the chest area (can conceal a chain around the neck)
Shaba put the notes within his robes. He then, from about his neck, removed a long, light chain. It had hung hitherto within the robes, concealed. He opened the chain
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Brocaded aba (cloak)
He threw a brocaded aba about his shoulders and, angrily, strode from the room.
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Askari (tribal soldiers) in skins and feathers
It was a shallow-drafted, dismasted dhow. It was being drawn by dozens of men, wading in the marsh, pulling on ropes. They wore slave collars. They were chained together, in groups of eight or ten, by the neck. Askaris, some wading, some in canoes, flanked them. The askaris were jubilant, resplendent in their skins and feathers, with their golden necklaces and armlets, their narrow, tufted shields and short-handled stabbing spears. On the foredeck of the dhow there was mounted a log drum. On this, methodically, an askari drummer, with two long sticks, was beating out, again and again, the message of victory. Many askaris, too, rode the dhow, mostly officers, judging from the arrangements of their gold and feathers, for it is by these things, serving as insignia, that their rankings to those who could read them, as I could not, were made clear.
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At the tribal court in the jungle interior
Robes - made of animal skins
Gold & silver jewelry
Ornate headdresses of skins and feathers
There were more than two hundred individuals in the great court, both men and women, of high station, and certain commoners with causes to plead. Too, there were guards, and chieftains, and envoys. The robes were generally of animal skin, some marvelously marked. There was much gold and silver jewelry. Anklets and wristlets of feathers were common. The hair of the men and women was worn in a variety of fashions. Too, there were ornate headdresses in evidence, usually of skins and feathers. In the lips of some of the men were brass plugs. Facial tattooing, in various designs, was common. The opulence and color of the court of Bila Huruma was quite impressive. I was sure that it would have shamed the display and pageantry of many Ubars in the north. There were various racial types represented in the court, almost all black. I was the only white present. There were some brown fellows from Bazi, though, and one of the attending physicians was oriental. Even among very similar black types there was variety in hair style and tattooing, and dress, which I took as evidence of cultural or tribal difference.
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Feather, necklaces & rings as insignia of rank of the men
Rings of gold and now insignia of rank, feathers and necklaces, were distributed.
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The Ubar, Bila Haruma
Bare legs and arms - adorned with bracelets and anklets of gold
Wearing pelt of yellow panther
Gigantic cloak of yellow and red feathers
“What did you think of our Ubar?” asked Msaliti. “He is surely a big fellow,” I said, “but I scarcely noticed him.” Bila Huruma, indeed, had been an extremely large man, and long armed. He had sat upon a royal stool, of black, lacquered wood, mounted on the crossed, tied, horns of kailiauk. His arms and legs had been bare, and they had glistened from oil. He had worn armlets and bracelets, and anklets, of gold. He had worn at his loins the pelts of the yellow panther. He wore, too, the teeth of his beast as a necklace. Behind and about him had swirled a gigantic cloak of yellow and red feathers, from the crested lit and the fruit tindel, brightly plumaged birds of the rain forest. In making such a cloak only two feathers are taken from the breast of each bird. It takes sometimes a hundred years to fashion such a cloak. Naturally it is to be worn only by a Ubar. His head was surmounted by an elaborate headdress, formed largely from the long, white, curling feathers of the Ushindi fisher, a long-legged, wading bird. It was not unlike the common headdress of the askari. Indeed, save for the length of the feathers and the intricate leather and beading, in which the feathers were mounted, it might have been such a headdress. It made clear that he, the Ubar, Bila Huruma himself, was one of them, himself an askari. His face had been broad, and the eyes widely spaced. On his cheeks and across the bridge of his nose there had been a swirling stitching of tattoo marks, the record of his transition, long years ago, into manhood.
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A wazir in the jungle
Long black robe, embroidered with gold
Flat soft cap
One other man, too, other than the askaris, stood upon the platform. It was Mwoga, wazir to Aibu, who was now conducting Tende to her companionship. I recognized him, having seen him earlier in the palace of Bila Huruma. He, like many in the interior, and on the surrounding plains and savannahs, north and south of the equatorial zone, was long-boned and tall, a physical configuration which tends to dissipate body heat. His face, like that of many in the interior, was tattooed. His tattooing, and that of Kisu, were quite similar. One can recognize tribes, of course, and, often, villages and districts by those tattoo patterns. He wore a long black robe, embroidered with golden thread, and a flat, soft cap, not unlike a common garb of Schendi, hundreds of pasangs distant. I had little doubt but what these garments had been gifts to him from the court of Bila Huruma. Bila Huruma himself, of course, in spite of the cosmopolitan nature of his court, usually wore the skins, and the gold and feathers, of the askari. It was not merely that they constituted his power base, and that he wished to flatter them. It was rather that he himself was an askari, and regarded himself as an askari. In virtue of his strength, skill and intelligence, he was rightfully first among them. He was an askari among askaris.
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