The Curiosity of a Kajira on Gor

Generally, this phrase is uttered at times when the slave is questioning the intentions of his or her master, most especially what they plan to do with the slave.
As I have earlier indicated the slave girl is normally transported in total ignorance of her destination. Keeping a girl in ignorance is commonly thought useful in her control and management. Too, it helps her keep clearly in mind that she is a slave. Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajira is a common Gorean saying. The girl learns quickly that it is not her business to meddle in the affairs of her master but, rather, to be beautiful, and serve him, abjectly and totally.
Savages

When asked what is to be done with him and his men
"What is to be done with me and my men?" I asked.
"Curiosity," she said, "is not becoming in a Kajirus."
I was silent.
She smiled. "You might be beaten for it," she said.
I did not speak.
One does not inform slaves of the plans of masters. Slaves are deliberately kept uninformed, and ignorant. It increases their dependence, their helplessness. They do no know whence they may be herded, or what they may be forced to do. Leave them alone, it is said, with their ignorance and their fears. It is enough for the master to know what is to be done with them.
In time the slave will learn. That will be soon enough.
Hunters

When wondering what will happen to her
The larger man was looking down at me. I looked up at him, weakly, almost unconscious.
He spoke to me matter-of-factly. "We will return after midnight," he told me.
I struggled weakly to speak, fighting the gag, the drug. I only wanted to sleep.
"You would like to know," he asked, "what will happen to you then?"
I nodded.
"Curiosity," he said, "is not becoming in a Kajira."
I did not understand him.
"You might be beaten for it," he said.
I could not understand.
"Let us say simply," he said, "that we will return after midnight." Through the mouth hole in the mask I saw his lips twist into a smile. His eyes, too, seemed to smile. "Then," he said, "you will be drugged again." "And then," he added, "you will be crated for shipment."
Captive

When asked what do you want from me?
"Who are you? What do you want?" I begged.
"Curiosity," he said, " is not becoming in a Kajira."
I stared at him.
"You might be beaten for it," he said.
Captive

When asked who has contracted the slaver to capture her (what is my fate?)
"You have an admirer," Targo told her, "a Captain of Tyros, who glimpsed you in Lydius last fall. He has contracted to buy you privately in Ar, to be taken to his pleasure gardens on Tyros. He will pay one hundred pieces of gold."
Several of the girls gasped.
"Who?’ asked the captive, plaintively.
"You will learn when you are sold to him," said Targo. "Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajira," said Targo. "You might be beaten for it."
I remembered that the large man, on the planet Earth, had said to me this thing. I gathered that it was a Gorean saying.
The woman, distraught, shook her head.
"Think!" urged Targo. "Were you cruel to someone? Did you slight someone? Did you not grant someone the courtesy that was his due?"
Captive

Again regarding the fate of a slave
I wondered if any of those papers were pertinent to me. I did not dare ask, of course. I had learned that curiosity was not becoming in a Kajirus. If I were to be sold tomorrow I would find out when masters or mistresses were pleased to let me know, perhaps as late as the moment when a sales disk might be wired to my collar.
Fighting Slave

When a slave being transported asks what city he is in
"Beautiful Mistresses," I said, "can you tell me in what city I am?"
"Be silent, Slave," said the first woman.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajirus," said the second.
"Yes, Mistress," I said. "Forgive me, Mistresses."
They turned away, their market baskets on their arms. The butt of the whip of Prodicus suddenly struck twice at the side of the box, sharply. I jerked away from the sound, crying out, startled, frightened. "Be silent in there, Slave," he said, "or you will be well beaten."
"Yes, Master," I said. "Forgive me, Master."
Fighting Slave

When as slave asks when the caravan will leave for Ar
(She does get an answer though)
"May a slave speak?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
But I could not from the words, so frightened I was.
"Speak," he said.
"When," I asked, in a whisper, terrified, "—when do we leave for Ar, Master?"
There was a silence.
"Curiosity," he said, "is not becoming in a Kajira." His voice was not pleasant.
I moaned.
I crossed my wrists beneath me and touched my head to the floor, exposing the bow of my back. it is the submissive posture of a slave girl who is to be punished. It is called Kneeling to the Whip. I shook, visibly, at his feet. I whimpered. I waited for him to call a guard, to bring the lash.
"El-in-or," said Targo.
I looked up.
"In the morning," said Targo, "slaves will be fed before dawn. Then, at dawn, we will leave Ko-ro-ba for Ar."
"Thank you, Master," I breathed.
Captive

When asked what is to be done with us?
"What is to be done with us?" said Verna.
"Curiosity," said Marlenus, "is not becoming in a Kajira. You might be beaten for it."
Verna gasped in fury, and was silent.
Hunters

Regarding the knowledge of where a slave is
I was confident, now, that I would not be kept much longer in the pens. But I did not even know the location of the pens. I did not even know the city in which I was kept. Curiosity, I had been told, was not becoming in a slave.
Fighting Slave

"Doubtless I am now to be unchained," she said, "that I may attend to my domestic labors, clearing the table, and such, but then, perhaps, it was not for-that reason that Master chained me so helplessly. Perhaps he has other plans in mind for me. I know that he need not reveal to me his intentions with respect to me, but, naturally, I am curious."
"Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajira," I said.
"Granted,' Master," she said, "but, as you must understand, in certain situations, as when a woman finds herself naked and chained before a man, a certain amount of curiosity on her part regarding her fate is almost unavoidable."
Guardsman

"Was it you, too, who took Elene and Klio from the coffle?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"What did you do with them?" she asked.
"Did a slave ask permission to speak?" I asked.
"Forgive me, Master," she said.
"What is your name?" I asked.
" 'Temione'," she said. She wore that name now, of course, as a mere slave name, put on her by the will of a master. Slaves, as they are animals, may be named anything.
"I sold them," I said.
She looked at me.
"You may speak," I said.
"Both of them?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. I had sold them one morning, in the siege trenches. They had given me the cover I had needed to get to the walls of Ar's Station.
Vagabonds

“Are you of the metal workers or the leather workers?” she asked.
“Let us not bother about that now,” I said, knotting the cords on the sea bag. I looked about the room. Aside from Sasi what I owned there was either on my person or in the sea bag.
“A girl likes to know the caste of her master,” she said.
“Let us be on our way,” I said.
“Perhaps it is the merchants,” she said.
“How would you like to be whipped?” I asked her.
“I would not like that,” she said.
“Let us hurry,” I said.
& #8220;You do not have time to whip me now, do you?” she asked.
“No,” I said, “I do not.”
“I thought not,” she said. “I do not think it is the peasants.”
“I could always whip you later,” I said.
“That is true,” she agreed. “Perhaps I should best be quiet.”
“That is an excellent insight on your part,” 1 said.
“Thank you, Master,” she said.
“If I am caught, and it is thought that I have the plague,” I said, “you will doubtless be exterminated before I am.”
“Let us not dally,” she said. We left the room.
“You have strong hands,” she said. “Is it the potters?”
“No,” I said.
“I thought it might be,” she said.
“Be silent,” I said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
Explorers

Neither of us had spoken for a long time.
"May I speak?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"How is it," I asked, "that so many of the rence islands are now gathered together?" I had wondered abut this.
"It is near the festival of Se'Kara," said she. Indeed, I knew that tomorrow was festival for the rence islands.
"But so many?" I asked. "Surely that is unusual?"
"You are curious for a slave," she said. "Curiosity is not always becoming in a slave."
I said nothing.
"Ho-Hak," said she, "has called the nearby islands to a council."
"How many are there?" I asked.
"Five," said she, "in the general area. There are others, of course, elsewhere in the delta."
"What is the purpose of the council?" I asked.
She would feel free to speak to me. I was confined by the marsh, and only slave.
"He thinks to unite the rence growers," said she, a certain amused skepticism in her voice.
"For purposes of trade?" I asked.
"In a way," she said. "It would be useful to have similar standards for rence paper, to sometimes harvest in common, to sometimes, in times of need, share crops, and, of course, to obtain a better price for our paper than we might if we might if we bargained as isolated islands with the rence merchants."
"Those of Port Kar," I said, "would doubtless not be pleased by such news."
She laughed. "Doubtless not," said she.
"Perhaps also," I suggested, "in uniting the islands there might be some measure of protection gained from the officials of Port Kar."
"Officials?" she asked. "Ah yes, the collectors of the taxes, in the names of various Ubars, who may or may not have a current ascendency in the city."
"And would there not be some measure of protection against," I asked, "the simple slavers of Port Kar?"
"Perhaps," she said. She spoke bitterly. "The difference between the collector of the taxes and the slaver is sometimes less than clear."
"It would doubless be desirable, from the point of view of the rence islands," I suggested, "if they should, in certain matters, act in unanimity."
"We Rencers," she said, "are independent people. We each of us, have our own island."
"You do not think," I asked, "that the plan of Ho-Hak will be successful?"
"No," she said, "I do not think it will be successful."
She had now turned the stem of the craft toward the rence island, which lay some pasang or two through the swamp, and, as I cut rence here and there, began to pole homeward.
"May I speak?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"You wear on your left arm," I said, "a golden armlet. How is it that a girl of rence islands has such an armlet?"
"You may not speak," she said, irritably.
I was silent.
Raiders

"Master," she said. She spoke very softly, that she not awaken me, should I be asleep.
"Yes," I said.
"Do you think Imnak will keep me a slave forever," she asked.
"No" I said, "I do not think so."
"Will he free me?" she asked.
"Of course not," I said.
"Will I be killed?" she asked.
"I do not think it likely," I said, "if you are sufficiently pleasing."
"I will be sufficiently pleasing," she said, earnestly. "What do you think will be done with me?" she asked.
"Imnak now has Poalu," I said.
"He does not need me any longer," she said.
"No," I said, "nor Thimble, though you are both pretty things to have in the tent."
"What will he do with us?" she asked.
"It is my guess," I said, "that both Thimble and yourself will be traded south next spring for tea and sugar."
"Traded! For tea and sugar!" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Audrey Brewster sold for tea and sugar!" she said.
"Thistle, the slave," I said.
"But I am she," she said.
"Be pleased that panther girls are not selling you for arrow points and a handful of candy," I said.
"Who are panther girls?" she asked.
"Strong women, huntresses who frequent the northern forests," I said. "They enjoy selling feminine women like yourself."
"Oh," she said.
"You are a slave," I said. "Do you think you would like to be a woman's slave?"
"No," she said, shuddering. She kissed me. "I am a man's slave," she said.
"It is true," I said.
"Are panther girls truly so strong?" she asked.
"Not really," I said. "Once captured and conquered, collared and silked, their thigh burned by the iron, thrown to a man's feet. they are as quick to kiss and lick as any woman. Indeed, they make superb slaves. They bring high prices in the markets. They are only girls desperate to fight their femininity. When they are no longer permitted to do this they have no choice but to become marvelous women and slaves. A conquered panther girl is one of the most abject and delicious, and joyful, of slaves."
"I see, Master" she said.
"How would I be taken south?" she asked.
"Afoot, your neck tied to a sled," I said.
"I do not want to remain a slave of red hunters indefinitely," she said.
"I think I would like to be taken south."
"What you like is of no interest." I said.
"I know," she said.
"If I were to be taken south," she said, "would I be sold there?"
"Doubtless," I said.
"Publicly?" she asked.
"Presumably," I said.
"Naked?" she asked.
"You might wear chains," I said. "I do not know."
"Only a fool buys a woman clothed," she said.
"That is a Gorean saying," I said.
"Imnak taught it to me," she laughed.
"Surely you see the sense of it?" I asked.
"Of course," she said, "if I were a man I would buy a woman only if she were naked. I would want to see what I was getting, completely."
"Precisely," I said.
"I would even want to try her out," she said, boldly.
"That is done in certain sorts of sales," I said, "such as purple booth sales in the courtyard of a slaver's house."
"If there were a handsome buyer, I would try hard to please him," she said.
"You would try hard to please any potential buyer," I said, "or your owner, the slaver, would express his dissatisfaction to you."
"I see," she said.
A slaver normally expresses his dissatisfaction to his girls with a whip.
"But what of large sales, public sales?" she asked.
"Even in most private sales," I said, "the prospective buyer is not permitted to use the girl, fully."
"Fully?"
"He might be permitted to feel her a bit." I said. "A great deal can be told by simply getting your hands on a girl," I said. "What does her arm feel like above the elbow? How does she turn when you take her by the shoulders and face her away from you? What of the delights of her thigh, the sweetness behind her knees, the turn of her calves? You lift a foot. Does she have a high instep. A girl with a high instep is often a fine dancer. You turn her again to face you. The eyes are very important. Much can be learned there of her intelligence. You kiss her breasts softly, you brush her lips with yours. You study her eyes, her expressions. Then, unexpectedly perhaps, or perhaps first warning her, you touch her. Again attend to the eyes. You continue to touch her. You watch the eyes. Then she screams for mercy, writhing in her chains or in the grasp of the slaver, his hand in her hair. You then know about all you can, without putting her through slave paces or forcing her to perform on the furs."
"Then slavers seldom permit their girls to be fully used?" she asked.
"Not for free," I said. "A common arrangement, however, is to charge a prospective buyer, if he wishes it. a rent fee, which fee may then be, should he want the girl, applied to her purchase price."
"That seems sound business" she said.
"I think so," I said. "Why should a slaver give away the use of his properties?" I asked. "After all that is how he makes his living, buying and selling, and leasing and renting women."
"Of course," she said. "But there are the purple booth sales," she said.
'Those are usually for a well-fixed clientele, known to the slaver," I said. "They are known to him as serious, bonafide buyers. If they do not buy one girl, they will probably buy another."
"Oh," she said.
"But what of large, public sales?" she pressed.
"In which, say, an auction block would be used?" I asked.
She shuddered. "Yes," she said.
"Such sales are common on Gor," I said.
"Common?" she gasped.
"Certainly," I said. "Many women are auctioned from the block in a given year in a given city," I said. "Do you remember the large blue and yellow pavilion near the platforms where Imnak bought you?"
"Yes" she said.
"Women were being auctioned there," I said.
"Oh," she said. "I was not," she said.
"You were not regarded as being sufficiently interesting at that time to be put on the block," I said. "The platforms were good enough for your sort."
"But I am beautiful," she said.
"On Gor," I said, "beautiful women are plentiful, and cheap."
"Am I more interesting now, Master?" she wheedled.
"Yes," I said, "You are perhaps worthy now to grace the block-"
'Thank you, Master," she said.
"-in a minor sale in a small city," I added.
"Oh, Master!" she laughed.
"I jest," I said, "but, too, I am serious. You will grow in slavery and beauty. Who knows what a woman's potential is for love?"
She looked at me.
"You have far to go, my lovely little tart." I said. "But in the end I think you might be worthy of the central block, at the Curulean in Ar."
She kissed me, frightened. "What a fearful thing it is to be a slave girl, and what a wonderful thing," she said.
I said nothing.
"How does one know, on the block," she asked, suddenly, "if a girl is any good?"
"A certification of a girl's heat, in certain cities," I said, "is sometimes furnished, with the slaver's guarantee, among the documents of sale. Her degree of heat, in such a situation would also be listed of course, among her other properties, on her sales sheet, posted in the vicinity of the exhibition cages, available twenty Ahn before her sale. It would also be proclaimed, of course, in such a situation, along with her weight and collar size, and such things, from the block, during her sale."
" Is that sort of thing done in many cities?" she asked.
"In very few," I said, "and for a very good reason."
"Out of respect for the girls?" she asked.
"Of course not." I said. "It is rather done in few cities because of the possibility of fraud on the part of the buyer. He might use the girl for a month and then claim a refund in virtue of the guarantee. Slavers prefer for their sales to be final. Too, other problems exist For example, a free woman who, before her sale, is cold may become, after her sale, knowing herself then as a vended slave, helpless and torrid in the arms of a master. Similarly a girl who is only average, generally, so to speak, may, at the very glance of a given master, one who is special to her for no reason that is clear, become so weak and paga hot that she can scarcely stand."
"Generally, then," she said, "the buyer would not know, from the block information, whether the girl would be any good or not?"
"He will certainly know if he, personally, finds her attractive. Too, even a frigid woman, in the arms of a Gorean master, can be made to sweat and cry."
"Frigidity is not permitted to the slave girl?" she asked.
"No," I said. "The master will not accept it"
"Poor girl," she laughed.
"Frigidity is a neurotic luxury," I told her. "It is allowed only to free women, probably because no one cares that much about them. Indeed, frigidity is one of the titles and permissions implicated in the lofty status of a free woman. For many it is, in effect, their proudest possession. It distinguishes them from the lowly slave girl. It proves to themselves and others that they are free. Should they be enslaved, of course, it is, for better or for worse, taken from them, like their property and their clothing."
"Not all free women are frigid," she said.
"Of course not," I said, "but there is actually a scale, so to speak, in such matters. But just as some free women are insufficiently inert, or cold, to qualify, strictly, as frigid, perhaps to their chagrin, so none of them, I think, are sufficiently ignited to qualify in the ranges of "slave-girl hot." so to speak. A free woman's sexuality may generally be thought of in terms of degrees of inertness, or coolness; a slave girl's sexuality, on the other hand, may generally be thought of in terms of degrees of responsive passion, or heat. Some slave girls are hotter than others, of course, just as some free women are less cold than others, whether this pleases them or not. Whereas the free woman normally maintains a plateau of frigidity, however, the slave girl will usually increase in degrees of heat, this a function of her master, his strength, her training, and such. The slave girl grows in passion; the free woman languishes in her frigidity, congratulating herself on the starvation of her needs."
"Do free women know what they are missing?" she asked.
"I think, on some level, they do," I said. "Else the resentment and hatred they bear the slave girl would be inexplicable."
"I see," she said.
"Beware the free woman," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"On the block, of course," I said, "the girl is under the control of the auctioneer, who functions as her master while she is being sold. He will often exhibit her skillfully. A good auctioneer is very valuable to a slaver's house. He will guide her with his voice, and touches, or strokes, of his whip. He may put her through slave paces on the block, forcing her to assume postures and attitudes. If she is a dancer, she may be forced to dance. She may be, if he sees fit, publicly caressed on the block."
"Before the buyers!" she said.
"Of course," I said. "It does not matter. She is a slave."
"Of course," she whispered. "She is only a slave."
"It is not unusual," I said, "to even send a girl aroused onto the block, that the nature of her movements may make clear her needs to the audience."
"And should such a girl be caressed?" she asked.
"She might enter orgasm on the very block," I said. "Sometimes it is necessary to whip such a woman from the feet of the auctioneer. At the very least she will beg to serve a master within the very Ahn, either a buyer or one of the slaver's men, to achieve closure on the arousal which has been inflicted upon her."
"How cruel Goreans are!" she said.
"Is this more cruel than making clear the color of her hair and eyes?" I asked. "The Goreans are buying the whole girl."
She looked down.
"Do not fear," I said. "Normally there is no time for a lengthy sale. One must take a few bids and then thrust the wench from the block, to make room for the next girl. A sale often takes no more time than one or two Ehn. Sometimes four hundred girls or more must be sold from a single block in a given night."
"One might be exhibited and sold before one scarcely knew what was occurring," she said.
"I suppose so," I said. "I am not a woman."
"But I am," she said.
"It is thus likely to be your problem and not mine," I told her.
"How you tease one who is only a slave," she said.
"One does what one pleases with them," I told her.
"Of course," she said. "We are only slaves."
"Master," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Is there no cure for a free woman's frigidity?" she asked.
"Of course," I said.
"Total enslavement?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
She said nothing.
"Every woman has a need to submit herself to a master," I said. "When she finds herself at the feet of her master her body will no longer permit her to be frigid. There is no longer any reason. She is now where nature places her, at his feet and in his power. She kisses his feet and, weeping, feeling the heat and oils between her lovely legs, cannot wait to be thrown to the furs."
She did not speak.
"But I do not speak here merely of the simplicities and negativities of a cure," I said. "I speak rather of the beginning of a career, a helpless, flowering biography of service, love and passion."
"You speak of a woman being made a slave girl," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"I wonder if I will be pleasing to a master," she said.
"Any slave girl," I said, "with the proper management, and master, can become a wonder of sexuality and love."
"I think I will love being a slave girl," she said.
I shrugged. What did it matter, what her feelings were? She was a slave.
"No wonder the free women hate us so," she said.
"Of course," I said. "You are everything that they desire to be and are not."
She bit her lip. She looked at me. "Are free women permitted to watch us being sold?" she asked.
"Of course," I said. "Why not? They are free."
She looked at me, miserably.
"Ah, yes," I said. "I see. It would be quite humiliating, one woman, a slave, being sold, while another woman, a free woman, observes."
"Yes," she said.
"Let us hope that the free woman is not one of powerful family," I said, "who has had the other captured, and put upon the block."
"That would be dreadful," she said.
"Women are capable of such things," I said.
She put down her head.
"Perhaps it is well that they are not dominant," I said. "Perhaps they should all be controlled, and kept in collars."
"Or bondage strings," she laughed.
"Yes, or bondage strings, like you, my pretty slave," I said.
"Men want us as their abject slaves, don't they?" she asked.
"Yes, like you, my dear," I told her. "Any man who tells you differently is lying."
"Are most Gorean women slaves?" she asked.
"No," I said. "Indeed, statistically, in those parts of Gor with which I am familiar, very few. Commonly only one woman in, say, forty or fifty is a slave. This varies somewhat of course, from city to city. The major exception to these ratios is the city of Tharna, in which almost every woman is a slave." I looked at her. "There are special historical reasons for that," I said.
"But over a large population," the said, "there would be literally thousands."
"Of course," I said.
"Are the most beautiful and desirable women those who, generally, are the slaves?" she asked.
"Yes," I said, "the most beautiful and desirable women on the planet seem generally to be the slaves."
"Such women would be the prime target for the strike of slavers," she said.
"Yes," I said. "A girl of low caste, of a poor family, who is truly beautiful, a girl who cannot afford shelter in a protected area, is almost certain, sooner or later, to find her neck ringed with a collar. As far as that goes, a girl of wealth and high caste, who is beautiful, is not out of danger. It is regarded as great sport to take them."
"A sport of men," she said.
"Yes, to make beautiful women slaves," I said.
"A delicious sport," she said.
"I think so," I said.
"Beast," she said.
"Perhaps," I said. "I think it is true," I said, "that it is generally the most beautiful and desirable women who are the slaves, but I will tell you something you may find of interest."
"What is that?" she asked.
"Slavery itself," I said, "often makes a woman more beautiful and desirable. It removes tensions. It removes inhibitions. It makes women happy. It is hard, I think, sometimes, for a woman who is happy not to be beautiful. Sometimes Goreans ask, is she a slave because she is beautiful, or beautiful because she is a slave?"
She kissed me, gently.
"Are many Gorean slave girls of Earth origin?" she asked.
"I assume all human Goreans are of Earth origin," I said.
"I mean," she said, "like me, a girl born and raised on Earth, and then brought to Gor as a slave."
"Statistically," I said, "surely few. How many I would not know."
"Ten," she asked, "twenty?"
"Perhaps some four or five thousand," I said. "I would not know." Such a number, I conjectured, would not even be missed in a population which teemed like that of Earth.
"We are brought here as slaves," she said.
"Of course," I said.
"And the slaving continues," she said.
"I suppose so," I said. "On Gor there is a market for beautiful Earth girls. They make excellent slaves."
"I am glad to hear that," she said.
"Please me," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said, obediently, this time without surprise or demur. And then she well pleased me. She was becoming skillful.
...
"Please tell me more of the south," she said.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajira," I said.
"Oh, Master," she said.
"That is a Gorean saying," I said.
"I know," she said. "Imnak taught it to me."
"You now know two Gorean sayings," I said.
"Yes," she said. "'Only a fool buys a woman clothed' and 'Curisoity is not becoming in a Kajira."'
"Yes," I said.
"Please, Master," she said.
"You have them down well," I said.
"Oh, please, please, Master," she begged.
It was natural that she should be desperately eager to learn the nature of a slave girl's lot.
"Perhaps," I said.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, Master," she said.
"What would you like to know?" I asked.
She was at my side, on her stomach and elbows. Her eyes were excited. "In the south," she asked, "would a master put me in a collar?"
"It is quite likely," I said.
"I might like a pretty collar," she said.
"Do not think of the collar as a simple piece of jewelry," I said, "though it can serve that purpose. Its primary objective is to identify he to whom you belong."
"What if I take it off?" she asked.
"It locks on your throat. You cannot take it off," I said.
"Oh," she said. She looked at me. "Will I be given pretty things to wear," she asked, "and cosmetics, perfumes?"
"It is quite likely," I said. "Masters like their girls to make themselves beautiful."
"I hope that I will please my master in the furs," she said.
"You will do so or be lengthily and severely punished," I said. "If you fail, you could even be slain,"
She shuddered. "I will try to be pleasing to him," she said.
"Most masters," I said, "own only one girl. Do not think you are likely to spend all your time squirming at the slave ring."
"I do not understand," she said.
"There is much for a girl to do," I pointed out. "She keeps his compartments. She dusts and cleans. When they do not use the public kitchens she must cook for him. If he does not wish to take advantage of the public laundries, she must do his washing and ironing. She shops for him, and bargains in the markets, and so on. There is much for her to do."
"Does it take long to clean compartments?" she asked.
"Only a few moments," I admitted. "Goreans live simply, and do not much approve of cumbersome furniture."
"It does not sound to me like the slave girl is overburdened with domestic labors," she said.
"I suppose, objectively, she is not," I said. "Still, there are things for her to do."
"Is she as occupied as the wife of Earth?" asked the girl.
"Of course not," I said. "That would be foolish. The wife of Earth is, from the Gorean point of view, much overworked. When the husband returns home she is often, actually, engaged in labors. How can she greet him properly? At night, so numerous and excessive have been her labors, she is often exhausted. That would be preposterous from the Gorean point of view. The Gorean master does not buy a girl with the primary objective of obtaining a domestic servant but with the intention of acquiring a marvelous slave. He wants the girl to be a wonder to him. He is quite cheerful about the sacrifice of domestic servitude in order to obtain what is far more important to him. When he returns to his compartments he does not want to find a worn chore woman there but a lovely slave, fresh, vital, eager and fully alive, kneeling before him, waiting to be commanded."
"What does the girl do in her free time?" asked Audrey.
"Much what she pleases," I said. "She will have friends among other slaves. She walks, she visits. She exercises, she reads. Within limits she does what she wants to do."
"Can she work outside the compartments?" asked Audrey.
"If it is permitted by the master," I said, "and it does not in any way compromise her slavery." I smiled. "Some women," I said, "wear to their work the garments of a free woman but, when they return to their compartments, don as they must the silk of a slave, which is their true condition."
"Is such a thing often permitted by a master?" asked Audrey.
"Commonly not," I said. "Such a thing is often thought to compromise a girl's slavery. It is usually not permitted to her. Usually she is kept as full and absolute slave, not so much as permitted to touch the garment of a free woman."
"I would like my master to be like that," said Audrey.
"Most masters are," I said.
"If I am a slave, I would want to be a full slave," she said.
"I think you have little to fear, pretty Audrey," I said. "Any master who so much as looks at you would know that you should be kept only as a full slave."
"Yes," she said, kissing me, "that is right for me."
"Sometimes, Masters, as a discipline, rent their girls out to employers to perform repetitious, trivial tasks."
"How horrid," she said.
"See that you please your master well," I said.
"I will certainly try," she said.
"There are, of course, many slaveries in the south," I said. "I have described only the most common to you."
"Tell me of others," she begged. "For I might be sold into them."
"There are paga slaves," I said, "who must please their master's customers in his tavern. There are the girls who staff the public kitchens and laundries. There are rent slaves, who may be rented to anyone for any purpose, short of their injury or mutilation, unless compensation be rendered to the master. There are state slaves who maintain public compartments, and work in offices and warehouses. There are girls in peasant villages, and girls on great farms, who cook and carry water to the slave gangs. There are beauties who are purchased for a man's pleasure gardens. There are other girls who work in the mills, chained to their looms."
She looked at me, frightened.
"Any of these slaveries, or any of many others," I said, "could be yours. It depends entirely, pretty Audrey, on who buys you, and what he wants."
"How helpless I feel," she whispered.
"You are helpless, absolutely helpless," I told her.
"Surely," she whispered, "I can attempt to influence the nature of my slavery."
"Of course," I said. "But the decision is never yours. In that sense you are absolutely helpless."
"Yes, Master," she said, trembling.
"The mills and the public kitchens, and such, are not pleasant." I said.
"I do not want to go to such slaveries as the mills or public kitchens," she said. "I will try to be a pleasing slave."
"Excellent, Audrey, Slave Girl," I said.
"Do masters much talk with their girls, or take them with them?" she asked.
"Certainly," I said. "It is extremely pleasurable to talk with a girl one owns. Also, one takes her many places, she heeling him, to concerts, contests, song dramas and so on, both to show her off and because he finds her a joy to be with."
"I think I could well serve such a master," she said.
"You would," I said, "or you, being a slave, would be promptly and efficiently disciplined, most likely whipped."
"Whipped?" she asked. "Could such a man whip a girl?"
"Of course," I said. "Do not think that the pleasure he finds in you will be permitted in the least to compromise his mastery of you."
"I would thrill to be owned by such a man," she said.
I smiled to myself. Girls sometimes fought one another viciously, merely to be the first to display themselves naked before a Gorean master.

Beasts

"But you made me serve your guests naked," she said, reproachfully.
"Of course," I said. "There were two reasons for that. Neither of them, of course, need be made known to you."
"Please, Master," she said.
"The first reason," I said, "was for your own instruction. In performing such servile tasks for the guests, and while naked, were you not fully conscious that you were a slave?"
"Quite, Master," she said. "I am certain that I have profited well from the lesson."
"Secondly," I said, "you are very pretty. Thus your nudity contributed to the pleasure of the guests and myself, thereby improving the course of the liqueurs."
"Then you might have me serve nude anytime?" she asked.
"Of course," I said.
Guardsman

"What did you pay for me?" I asked.
"Surely you recall," he said.
"It was two and fifty," I said, "but I do not know, really, what that means."
"Two silver tarsks," he said, "and fifty copper tarsks, not tarsk bits, but tarsks, whole tarsks."
I looked up at him.
"Ah," he said, "you vain little she-tarsk, you want to know if that is much money, don't you? You want to know how much you brought, really, on the block, as a stripped slave. You want to form an estimate as to your value. You want to know what you are worth. You are curious to know what you might bring in an open market."
"Yes, Master," I whispered.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a kajira," he said.
"Forgive me, Master," I said. I quickly put down my head.
"First," he said, "you must understand that women are cheap. It has to do with the wars. Because of the many dislocations, and the famine in parts of the country, many women have had to sell themselves into slavery. Too, thousands of females from Torcadion alone, over the recent months, in virtue of one coup or another, have been put into the market. Too, mercenaries and raiders abound. Slavers grow more bold, even in larger cities. Crowding, and the influx of refugees, too, in such cities as Ar, refugees who are often beautiful and defenseless, and easily taken, have contributed to the depression of the market.
"I see, Master," I said.
"But you would still be curious as to your comparative value," he speculated.
"Yes, Master," I said looking up.
"Even under normal conditions," he said, "a silver tarsk would be a very high price to pay for a semitrained girl."
"Ah," I said softly, mostly to myself. I was very pleased. I, semitrained, and a barbarian, had gone for more than twice that price!
I did have value!
"Let me put it in another way," he said, "in one that may be even more meaningful to you."
"Yes, Master?" I said.
"That was the highest price paid for a female that night," he said.
"More than was paid for Gloria or Clarissa?" I asked.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"The two girls who were sold before me, just before me," I said.
"Earth sluts, like yourself," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"Each went for a silver tarsk ten," he said. "Both were superb. I was tempted to bid on them myself."
Dancer