Bathing, bath, bath house, bathhouse, bathgirl etc

[pup]

Bathing, bath, bath house, bathhouse, bath girl, bath girls, bathgirl, bathgirls.

Tarnsman (none I could find)

Priest King (none I could find)

Raiders (none I could find)

Blood brothers (none I could find)

Slave girl of gor

Bathing

"Attend me now," she said. "I would bathe." She entered the water gracefully, her hair bound in a towel, luxuriating in the multicolored foams of beauty. She lifted her limbs, washing herself indolently, beautifully. I knelt beside the sunken bath, to wait upon her, her slave, should she desire aught. "What are you thinking, Judy?" she asked. "If I told Mistress," I said, "she would whip me." "No," said the Lady Elicia. "What are you thinking?" "I was thinking," I said, "that a man would love to have his collar on you." She laughed merrily. "Perhaps," she said. "I am very beautiful." "Yes, Mistress," I said, "you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen." "Do you think I would bring a high price?" she asked. "Yes, Mistress," I said. She laughed. "Free me, Mistress," I begged, "free me!" "Do you truly think," she asked, "that you were brought to Gor to be freed and returned to Earth?" "I do not know why I was brought to Gor," I said. "I do," she said. "Merely to be your slave?" I asked. "It could have been that," she said. "We have our pick." "But there is more?" I asked. "Of course," she said. "We needed a girl, one to bear a message. She would be placed in a given location, secured. When it seemed safe, she would be picked up, and transmitted to the proper contact. There she would deliver the message." She looked at me. "Unfortunately," she said, "Tellius and Barus lost you." "They were going to kill me!" I cried. "They sought the message in clear form," she said. "They did not, at that time, understand how you carried the message. I do. It is fortunate for us, as well as you, that you were not slain, they thinking you had disposed of the message, cheating us of its contents." "They wanted slave beads," I said. "I had none." "Yes," she said. "I carry no message," I said. "You do," she said. "But you do not know you carry it." I did not believe this. But it is not wise to argue with the mistress. "Could not a man have carried the message?" I asked. "Slave girls," she said; "attract little attention, save by their flesh and person. They may be bought and sold, and may easily change hands. They are often transported great distances, even hooded. If they are ignorant, they are ideal couriers. They themselves do not even know they carry the message. They cannot even suspect themselves. Why should others, then, seeing only another branded, chained girl, suspect them?" "You are very clever, Mistress," I said. "Further," she said, "even should the message fall into the wrong hands, it is concealed, and would not be understood as a message, and even if it were understood as a message, its secret would be kept for it is well enciphered." "Your security is brilliant, Mistress," I whispered. She lifted one of her arms, bathing it, letting the water fall from it. "You are involved in a struggle," I said. "Yes," she said. "I am an agent of a military and political power, a greater power than you understand exists, one of interplanetary scope. It is called the Kurii. Worlds are locked in war, a fierce, silent war, unknown to you, unknown to millions. At stake are Gor, and Earth."
"In such a war," I said, "communication is important." "And difficult," she said. "The enemy are not fools." "Could not radio be used?" I asked. I assumed such devices must be available. "Signals can be jammed and scrambled," she said. "And it is dangerous to bring such material to the surface of Gor. The enemy swiftly locates and destroys it," She lifted one slim, lovely ankle, observing it, and then dipped it again into the foams of her bath. I thought she would take, like myself, a number-two ankle ring. "As you note," she said, "there is nothing here at Six Towers which suggests that I am not an ordinary woman of Ar." "What is the message I carry?" I asked. "I do not know," she said. "Any girl," I said, "might have carried this message." "Any piece of suitable slave flesh," said the Lady Elicia. "Then why was I chosen?" I asked. She laughed. "At the college," she said, "you competed with me, you challenged me, you dared to set yourself up as a rival to me. It was then that I determined, you lovely, meaningless little fool, that I would have you as my serving slave." "What is to be done with me?" I asked. "In the morning," she said, "you will be appropriately identified and transmitted as a naked slave by tarn to the port of Schendi, whence, by slave ship, you will be transported to the island of Cos." "Identified?" I asked. "Slave ship?" "A small chemical brand," she said, "which you will wear in your flesh, something by which our agents in Cos will recognize you." "Chemical brand?" I said. "It will remain invisible until the proper reagent is applied," she said. "Can it be removed?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "but you cannot remove it. It requires the proper combination of chemicals."
Will it be removed?" I asked. "Of course," she said, "after it has done its work, identifying you for our agents. It would be foolish to leave it fixed in your body, would it not, to arouse the puzzlement of the curious, perhaps even to identify you as our message girl to the agents of the enemy?" "Yes, Mistress," I said. She blew foam from her hand, watching the bubbles drift in the air. "The slave ship," she said, "will not be pleasant." "What will be done to me in Cos?" I asked. "You will be placed in the Chatka and Curla, a paga tavern," she said. "And from there our agents will make their contact." "Will I understand the message?" I asked. "No," she said. "You will not understand it. You will only deliver it." "And," I asked, "when the message is delivered?" "Then," she said, "you will be returned to me." "And then?" I asked. "Then," she said, leaning back in the sunken bath, luxuriating in the warm, foamy water, "you will begin your life as my serving slave, Judy." "Yes, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said.

Chapter 15 (slave bathing her Mistress while being instructed).

I had been well ravished, and at length. He had forced me to respond to him, as a slave's slave. It was now well past the time when I should be at the tavern, bathing and preparing for the labors of the evening. "She is late," I said. "If she does not return with a customer, after all this time, her master may not be pleased."

Chapter 20

Bath

"You are an imprisoned slave," said Sucha. "Come along." With one last look at the heavy bars and locks I turned to follow her. She led me to the small room we had passed earlier. It was a preparation room for slave girls. In it were mirrors. In them I saw a lovely dark-haired girl, naked, in a Turian collar, myself, followed by a beautiful woman, dark-haired, in a wisp of yellow silk, carrying a whip. Sucha indicated one of five small, sunken baths, and oils and towels. She showed me the use of the oils and towels. "You are an ignorant girl," she said. "You do not even know how to take a bath." I blushed. My hair then I washed, and dried, and combed and brushed, taking from it the dust of the road leading to Stones of Turmus, and the sweat of the afternoon and early evening.

Chapter 11.

"Go into my room," she said, "through the door on your right. On the wall there is an opened slave collar and a slave whip. Bring them." I went into the beautiful room, lavishly appointed, with chests, mirrors and sunken bath. I found the collar and whip and, barefoot, returned. I handed her the collar and whip. "Kneel," she said. I stepped back, and knelt.

Chapter 15

Kneel," said the Lady Elicia. I knelt before her, in fresh tunic, in her bedroom. "You were long," she said. "Forgive a girl," I said. "Do you have any doubt," asked the Lady Elicia, "that you are a slave?" "No, Mistress," I said. I put down my head. I remembered Tellius and Barns. "Prepare my bath," she said. I went to draw water from the cistern. Too, I lit the tiny oil fire beneath the tempering vessel, on its iron tripod. One regulates the temperature by mixing warmer and cooler waters. A serving slave must know the exact temperature at which her mistress wishes the water of her bath. The Lady Elicia would tell me once, I knew. After that, if it were not correct, I would be punished. I knew she would have little patience with me. I must serve her perfectly. When the water was ready, I prepared the oils, the towels, and foams of the bath.
"Your bath is ready, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said, kneeling before her. "Untie my sandals," she said, sitting on her bed, "and disrobe me." I obeyed. "Remove your tunic," she said. I did so. "Look now," she said, "in the great mirror. Who is more beautiful?" I knelt, looking in the mirror. I choked back a tear. I had always thought that perhaps it was I who was the most beautiful but I saw, now that we were naked, that she, my mistress, was more beautiful than I. Elicia Nevins, who had been my beauty rival, I saw, was truly my superior in beauty. I had not known this until now. "Who is more beautiful?" she asked. "You, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said. "Truly?" she asked, smiling. "Yes," I said, head down, "Lady Elicia, my mistress." She walked to the side of the tub. "Bring me the whip," she said. I fetched the whip, and handed it to her. "Judy," she said. "Yes, Mistress," I said. "You are now a woman's slave," she said. "Yes, Mistress," I said. "You will comport yourself with dignity," she said. "You will not be an embarrassment to me." "Mistress?" I asked. Suddenly she struck me with the whip, and I turned, spinning, away, and was struck again, and I fled to the wall, and was struck again, and I knelt at the wall, my face to it, my hands to the wall, and was struck again. "If you so much as look at a man," she said, "I will whip the flesh from your bones!"

Chapter 15

Yes, Mistress!" I wept. "Slave girl!" cried the Lady Elicia. I crouched by the wall, having been whipped. "Yes, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said. "Attend me now," she said. "I would bathe." She entered the water gracefully, her hair bound in a towel, luxuriating in the multicolored foams of beauty. She lifted her limbs, washing herself indolently, beautifully. I knelt beside the sunken bath, to wait upon her, her slave, should she desire aught. "What are you thinking, Judy?" she asked. "If I told Mistress," I said, "she would whip me." "No," said the Lady Elicia. "What are you thinking?" "I was thinking," I said, "that a man would love to have his collar on you." She laughed merrily. "Perhaps," she said. "I am very beautiful." "Yes, Mistress," I said, "you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen." "Do you think I would bring a high price?" she asked. "Yes, Mistress," I said. She laughed.

Chapter 15.

Signals can be jammed and scrambled," she said. "And it is dangerous to bring such material to the surface of Gor. The enemy swiftly locates and destroys it," She lifted one slim, lovely ankle, observing it, and then dipped it again into the foams of her bath. I thought she would take, like myself, a number-two ankle ring. "As you note," she said.

Chapter 15.

"Then," she said, leaning back in the sunken bath, luxuriating in the warm, foamy water, "you will begin your life as my serving slave, Judy." "Yes, Lady Elicia, my mistress," I said.

Chapter 15

"Your bath is ready, Mistress," I said, kneeling, head down, in brief white slave tunic, before the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers. She seated herself on her great couch, and extended her feet, one alter the other, to me. I, kneeling, removed her sandals, kissing each and laying it aside. She stood up and I, rising and standing behind her, lifted away her robe. I kissed it, and put it upon the couch. She smiled, approvingly. "Perhaps I shall yet make a serving slave of you, Judy," she said. "It is my hope that I will be pleasing to my mistress," I said. She gestured and I brought the towel, kissing it, which I then wrapped about her head, that her hair not be dampened. She then went to the edge of the sunken bath, and slipped her toe within the water, and then stepped down into the bath and reclined, leaning back. "Excellent, Judy," she said. "Thank you, Lady Elicia, my Mistress," I said. I had well judged the temperature of the water, mixing the water from the cistern with other water, heated in the tempering vessel on its iron tripod. The temperature was acceptable. I would not be whipped. I served her as she wished, with absolute perfection. I glanced at the beaded, feminine slave whip, hanging by its loop upon the wall. I had no wish to feel it. I looked at the mistress luxuriating in her warm bath, beautiful in the multicolored foams of beauty.

Chapter 26

Often, in the bath, for some reason, she would speak of men and her contempt for them

Chapter 26

"Tellius! Barus!" she screamed. "You are quite alone, Lady Elicia," he said. "There are none to hear your screams." He was tall and strong, clad in a warrior's scarlet. At his belt there was a long leash, looped. "Emerge from your bath," said he, "and prepare to accept slave bonds." "No!" she cried. Then she cried out to me, "Run, Judy! Fetch help!" "Do not," said the man. "Yes, Master," I said. I looked at the Lady Elicia. "Forgive me, Mistress," I said. "I am a slave girl who has been commanded by a man." I knelt to one side. "Bitch! Bitch!" she cried. "Yes, Lady Elicia, my Mistress," I said. She spun in the tub, agonized, covering herself, to face the tall guest. "There is some mistake!" she cried. "Leave me! You intrude in a lady's compartments!" "Emerge from your bath," said he, "to accept the bonds of a slave." "Never!" she cried. "Are you a virgin?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, angrily. "If I must fetch you in the water," he said, "you will be taken in the water." "Bring me my robe," she said. He went to the robe on the couch, but, instead of handing it to her, he examined it, lifting it to the light. In one sleeve, in a tiny, narrow sheath, he found a needle, which he held up. Then he approached the bath. She shrank back, frightened. He washed the needle, dried it on a towel and replaced it in the sheath. I had not known the sheath and needle were there, so cunningly had they been concealed in the weaving. He looked at her. I had little doubt the needle had been poisoned, probably with Kanda. "You have disarmed me, Warrior," she said. "Will you now, please, hand me my robe." He threw the robe to the side of the room. She looked at it, crumpled at the side of the room. "Please," she said. "I am rich. I can give you much gold." "Stand in the bath," he said. "I would see your hands above your head." "You intrude upon my privacy!" she cried. "Soon," he said, "you will have no right to privacy." "My modesty!" she cried. "When you are a slave," he said. "you will not be permitted modesty." This was true. "Have mercy, Warrior!" she cried. "Obey, or be lashed," he said. Elicia Nevins stood in the tub, and lifted her hands over her head, in an attitude of surrender. The guest regarded her, casually, openly, at length, with the appraisal of a master. She shook with fear, seen by a Gorean warrior. The warrior then went to the side of the tub, crouching near what had been the side to her right. She stepped back in the water, away from him. He brushed back the foam. Carefully he examined the wall of the tub. In moments he had retrieved the tiny dagger which lay there, in its small compartment, concealed behind a tile. He cleaned the poison from the side of the dagger, dried it with a towel, as he had the needle, and then threw it to the side of the room, where lay her robe, which he had earlier discarded. I had not known of the existence of either the compartment or the small, poisoned weapon which it concealed. Elicia stood in the water, on the far side of the large, sunken tub, her hands lifted. "Free me!" she said. "I will pay you much." He regarded her. "I will give you enough to buy ten slave girls in my stead!" she said. "But they would not be Elicia Nevins," he said. She shook her head, haughtily. She still wore the colorful towel about her head. "Would you care to examine the bill of enslavement?" he asked. "If I may," she said. "Step forth," he said, "keeping your hands lifted." She did so, and went to stand near the paper on the floor, her hands lifted.

Chapter 26

Yes," he said. "It must have been difficult," she said, "for you to tell, I clothed in the robes of concealment, if I pleased you." "You recall your quarters," he asked, "and the window, high in the wall." "Yes," she said. "It may be reached by a rope, from the roof," he said. She gasped. "You were quite beautiful in your bath," he said. She looked down, confused, blushing. "Is a slave modest?" he asked. "No, Master," she said. Then she looked up at him, shyly. "Did you find me pleasing, truly?" she asked.

Chapter 26

[pup]

Marauders (none I could find)

Savages

Bath

Take this one to the stream," he said, indicating the dark-haired girl we had acquired for the three hatchets, she lying on the grass near us, "and see that she has a bath."

e-book pg 244

I shall attend to the camp," said Grunt, looking about. "See that she has a bath at the stream."

e-book pg 245

Kajira

Bathing

This time, having earned my lesson, I would not trouble a free woman in the matter. I knew that I was pretty and I had little doubt, even bough I was tired and my arms were now sore-, that, chained ~s I was, displayed as I was, my attractions might be of interest to passing males. Men of Earth, I knew, would often strive to please even a scantily clad woman, for example, one wearing a sun suit or a bathing suit. I, for example, had had this experience on summer weekends and at the beach.

e-book page 211.

Bath

I did not have to wear the mill uniform, bearing the sign for the enterprises of Mintar, but wore, instead, usually, a light, white house tunic, similar to that often worn by tower slaves. I even had access to a bath. Similarly my kennel was comfortable and, for a kennel, spacious. I could not stand erect in it but there was more than enough room to stretch out and roll about. The gate in the kennel was a small one. It was barred, and set in the barred side of the kennel facing the corridor. It is common to have one side of a kennel open, except for the bars. The girl is always, you see, to be available to the eyes of the master

e-book page 270

That is it, Tiffany,” he said. “Stretch your limbs. Examine their fairness. Now look at the master. That is how you take bath before a man. Will he drag you forth and have you on lie slippery tiles or will he take you in the bath itself?” “Do not forget to kiss the sandal, humbly, before eyeing it on his foot,” said the whip master, “just as, when you remove them, you kiss them, before putting them away.”

e-book page 284

Tribesman

Bath

Many men of the Tahari, incidentally, and interestingly, can swim. Nomad boys learn this in the spring, when the waterholes are filled. Those who live at the larger, more populous oases can learn in the baths. The "bath" in the Tahari is not a matter of crawling into a small tub but is more in the nature, as on Gor generally, of a combination of cleaning and swimming, and reveling in the water, usually connected with various oils and towelings. One of the pleasures at the larger oases is the opportunity to bathe. At Nine Wells, for example, there are two public baths.

e-book page 191

I rolled about, on my back, splashing in the water. It was quite pleasant. The temperature of the water, perhaps, was a bit warm. Also, it was perfumed. Yet I did not mind. It had been weeks since I had had a bath. I was appreciative of this hospitality in the male seraglio of the kasbah of Tarna, bandit chieftain of the Tahari. "Hurry, Slave," said the tall, dark-haired girl, bare-armed, in an ankle-length, flowing white garment. "The mistress will be ready for you soon." She held four large, heavy snowy towels, each of a different absorbency. To one side another girl, clad similarly, was replacing bath oils in a rack, with which I had been rubbed prior to entering the second sunken bath. I had now rinsed them from my body, but I was not eager to leave the water. I reveled in it. Hassan, in a brief, white-silk garment, sat cross-legged nearby. "You do not appear too dismal," said he to me. "Is your mistress, Tarna, pretty?" I asked the tall dark-haired girl. "Emerge and towel yourself," said the girl. "I can well use the bath," I said to her, grinning. "That is true," she conceded. "Hurry!"

e-book page 214-215

We have never seen our mistress," said the other girl, in long garment, who was in charge of the bath oils. "Hurry, Slave," said the first girl, "or we will call the guards, to have you beaten!" She looked anxiously about. I had little doubt that it might be she who would be held responsible if I were not ready on time for the pleasure of the mistress. I saw the other girl laying out a light tunic of red silk, and a necklace of yellow, rounded beads, which I supposed way for me. "Get out now," she said, "and towel yourself!" I rolled back in the water. I had been well fed. I had slept much since morning. I felt refreshed, and rested. I had a long kaiila ride before me tonight.

e-book page 217


She prefers me," he said, "There is no accounting for the taste of women," I said. At this point I had been summoned by the two bare-armed, white-garbed girls, for my bath. "Do you object, Ali?" asked one of the silken fellows. "No, I do not," snapped the girl in the white garment, with towels. I had not understood, for a moment, to whom he might be speaking. The girl, however, had answered him. I recalled I had asked her if she were kept for the men, and that she had responded, angrily, "Of course not!" He had then asked, "Do you object, Ali?" I swam to the side of the bath and looked up at her. "What is your name?" I asked. She stepped back. "Ali," said she. "That is a man's name," I said. "Or a boy's My mistress," said the girl, "gives me what name she pleases." She was angry. The fellow who had spoken before laughed. "Be silent, Fina!" she snapped, sharply. His face turned white. He put his head down. "Yes, Mistress," he said. "Fina," I said to her, "is a woman's name, or a girls." "It pleases the mistress," said she, "to give us what names she pleases." She glanced at the males about, in their silk. "Each," said she, "all of them have such names, the names of girls." She glared at Hassan, and myself. "You two, too, will be so designated!" Then she cried, "Go! Go to your alcoves, Slaves! Go!" The men, some of them frightened, with the exception of Hassan who sat, puzzled, by the side of the bath, scurried to their tiny alcoves. The two girls, in white garments, as I had come to understand, were dominant in the seraglio, rather in the nature of eunuchs, imposing order upon it and keeping its slaves in harmonious discipline. Their word, imperiously delivered, with the confidence of unquestioned command, doubtless backed by the whips and scimitars of male guards outside, served as law to the inmates of Tarna's seraglio; when they spoke, men obeyed; when they spoke sharply, men feared; in the seraglio, backed by the power of Tarna's guards, these two beautiful women were dominant over the men; they, particularly the taller, dark- haired one, obviously despised the silken males in her charge; openly she held them, to their misery, in contempt. We heard the outer gate of the seraglio, at the far end of the corridor, being pounded on. "Hurry!" cried the girl. "They are coming for you! Get out! Towel yourself!" I reached out and, from the bath, seized her right ankle. The other girl, she who laid out the red-silk tunic, the yellow beads, gasped. I looked up at the tall girl. "You do not wear a collar," I said. "No," she said. Then she said, "Release my ankle, bold sleen!" "This does not seem the ankle of a male," I said. I held her fair ankle in my grip "Release me!" she said. About the ankle there was, welded, an iron ring. "What is this?" I asked her. "It is thus that Tarna marks her female seraglio slaves!" said the girl. "Release me!" The pounding was louder. "Release me!" she cried. "I will have you whipped!" "But then I may not be ready in time for the mistress," I said. "I will have you beaten to the bone tomorrow!" she hissed. "Then, tonight," I said, "I will have to explain to the Mistress why I cannot much please her." The girl turned white. "You seduced me," I explained. "No! No!" she cried. "What were you called as a woman?" I asked. "Lana!" she cried out in agony. She tried to pull away. "Release me!" We heard the outer gate, by guards, being opened. "They will be here in a moment!" she cried. "Please!" I released her ankle, and lifted myself, dripping, from the bath. She thrust the towels at me, almost in a frenzy. We heard the arriving guards outside the inner door conversing with those who guarded it. "Towel yourself!" she said. I lifted my arms. "Towel me, Lana," said I. "Sleen!" she cried. I looked about at the seraglio. It was lovely. There were high separated, decorated columns, many arches, much carving, rich hangings, much tile, floors marbled and mosaiced, too. It was lofty, spacious, beautiful. I regretted I did not have more time to spend here. "Sleen!" wept the girl, beginning to rub me with the first of the towels. "Help me!" she cried to the other girl, who was frightened. "No," I said. "Only you, Lana." Weeping, furious, Lana applied the towel to my body. "Oh!" she cried. For I then had her in my arms. I reached behind her body. She put her head back. "No!" she cried. "Are you mad? I am your seraglio mistress! No!" The garment, hooks broken, fell to her ankles. "You do not have the body, either, of a male," I observed. "Please," she wept. I kissed her on each breast, for they were beautiful, "I am your seraglio mistress!" she wept. I kissed her fully on the mouth, holding her helplessly. "No," I said, "you are only a beautiful slave girl." I released her and she, clumsily, in haste, applied the towels to my body. When she had finished she was at my feet, drying them. I lifted her to her feet and put her back against one of the cool, narrow marble columns supporting the arched roof of the seraglio. I stood close to her, our lips but an inch parted. With my fingertips, on either side, I caressed the sides of her throat. "This throat," I said, "is aristocratic and beautiful. It would look well in a collar." Her eyes met mine. "I wish it wore yours." she said, "--Master." I kissed her. I heard the bolt sliding back on the inner door. The other girl threw me the red-silk tunic and I slipped it on, dropping the yellow necklace inside the tunic. The door opened. Two guards stood there, in purple and yellow burnoose. "Is the slave ready?" asked one of the guards, looking about. "What is going on here?" asked the other, surveying the exposed beauty of Lana, the seraglio mistress. She, frightened, hands before her mouth, pressed back against the column. "She is preparing to bathe," I told them. I went to her and took her by the left arm, over the elbow, and the right ankle, and upended the beauty, headfirst, into the pool. I glanced to Hassan, and to the other girl. "I shall return shortly," I told him. "Very well," he said, edging toward the other girl. "The mistress," said one of the guards, "does not finish with her males shortly." Lana's head, sputtering, blinking, emerged from the bath.
She will tonight," I told him. Then I turned to Hassan. "Be ready," I told him. "We have a long kaiila ride this night." "Very well," he said. The guards looked at me as though I might be mad. He was now standing almost directly behind the other girl, she who had handled the bath oils. "Let us hurry," said I to the guards. "We must not keep the mistress waiting." "He is eager," laughed one of the guards. "He is a fool," said the other. Lana, dripping, head down, crawled from the bath. I saw Hassan measuring the distance between the two girls. I led the way, swiftly, through the inner door of the seraglio. "Is your mistress pretty?" I asked one of the guards, who was hurrying to follow. "She is as ugly as a sand sleen,'' he growled. He bolted the door behind him, shutting and locking the seraglio from the outside. There were two guards, I noted, at the door. Down the corridor, some fifty yards of tile and hangings, there was the outer door. This was knocked upon, and, from the outside, opened. There were two guards there, too. "Come now," I said, "truly, is your mistress pretty?" "She is as ugly as a sand sleen,'' said the guard.

e-book pg 219-223

I heard the muffled sounds of the two seraglio mistresses, Lana and she in whose charge had been the oils of the bath. They had been bound and gagged with strips of their white garments. They stood, naked, each backed against one of the slender, lofty, cool marble pillars which supported the roof of the seraglio; their wrists were fastened behind them, about the pillars. Each uttered tiny sounds of protest; their eyes were wild over their gags. There was a reddish stain down the interior of the left thigh of the one girl, she who had handled the oils of the bath. "She was virginal," I remarked.
Yes," said Hassan. "What of this one?" I asked Hassan, indicating Lana. "I tested her," said Hassan. "She, too, is virginal. I left her for you." Lana shrank back against the pillar. "What have we here?" I asked. I noted one silken fellow, he with the ruby necklace, trying furtively to slip about the side of the room to the door. He broke into a run, but I managed to trip him, and Hassan leaped upon him and carried him, squirming, to the bath. "We will be beaten," whimpered the fellow. "Give the alarm!" he shouted to his fellow males. Two or three stood about, but they did not cry out. Hassan took the fellow and threw him on his belly by the bath and held his head under water, for about an Ehn. When he pulled the fellow's head up, he said to him, "You might be drowned in the bath. Such accidents can happen." Then he thrust his head again under the water. When he pulled it up the second time the fellow cried out for mercy. Hassan threw him to two of the other males. "If be attempts to give the alarm," said Hassan, "drown him." "Very well," said one of the other fellows. I gathered there was little lost affection for the fellow in the ruby necklace in the seraglio of Tarna. He was, I had learned, a weak fellow, an informer, one constantly alert to opportunities to ingratiate himself with the mistress who despised him, one of her most obsequious pets, held in contempt by all. "You may blame his drowning on us, of course," said Hassan. "Naturally," said one of the silken fellows. The fellow in the ruby necklace shuddered. "I will be silent," he said. "You will be silent, or be silenced," said one of the fellows. "Remember," said another, "whatever happens, eventually, you will be put back with us." "I will remember," said the fellow. "I will do as you wish." "Take him to an alcove," I said. "Bind and gag him. Then, too, retire to your alcoves." "Very well," they said, retiring, taking with them the stumbling, miserable fellow in the ruby necklace. The seraglio, then, seemed empty, silent. We heard the torches crackle. I looked again to Lana. She shrank back. She, the seraglio mistress, unprotected, bound, gagged, helpless, was alone with us. "I left her for you," said Hassan. Swiftly I untied her hands and then retied them, so that they were above her head and behind it, fastened at the sides of the pillar. I then, lifting her, lowered her gently to the tiles. She squirmed, helplessly. By the ankles I pulled her as far from the pillar as the bonds on her wrists, fashioned by Hassan from strips from her white, removed clothing, would permit. She lifted one knee. I thrust her knees apart. She lifted her head, trying to put her gagged mouth against me. I saw pain in her eyes. I pulled down the gag, for a moment, and let her free herself of the wadding. "I love you, Master," she whispered. "I love you!" I kissed her, thrust back the wadding, and regagged her. I rose to my feet. "You have ruined her, I judge," said Hassan, "as an effective mistress of the seraglio." The girl was trying to put her leg against me, reaching for me. I took her ankle, and crouching, kissed it, on the top, and then pressed my lips to the bottom of her foot, near the instep, then beneath and behind the shin, then again, twice, near the bottom of the foot, at the instep. I judged her responses, the movements of her eyes. "Yes," I said, "I expect so." Lana lifted her body to me, helplessly. "I will guarantee, my dear," I said to her, "that, hereafter, you will be given to men." I then, with her virgin blood, on her belly, traced the Tahari slave mark. Seeing this, the mark of a free man's satisfaction with her, I had little doubt that Tarna would dismiss her from the seraglio, sending her in chains to the lower levels, where, with low-order slave girls, she might be used to serve the lusts of her raiders. Lana's eyes shone with pleasure. I had found her acceptable. I had, furthermore, indicated this upon her flesh. She would now be done with the seraglio. She would now have to do with free men, with true men, she the slave. She lay bound and gagged, proudly. She stretched her body, as
she could, luxuriantly, reveling in the sensation in her body and the feel of the coolness of the tiles upon her flesh. I noted that Hassan, following my example, had also indicated his pleasure on the flesh of the other girl. "We must leave soon," he said. "There are two guards outside the outer door," I said. "They will expect me, soon, to bring you through." "Surely," said he, "I should be better dressed for riding in the night." "One of the guards outside the outer door," I said, "may perhaps be persuaded to loan you garments, weapons and accouterments." "He would be a good fellow, indeed," said Hassan. "They seemed to me good fellows," I said..

page e-book 233-236

I smiled. Perhaps Vella, even now, had been returned to the quarters for female slaves, where she would wait until commanded by men, perhaps to her exercises or bath, or silks, or cosmetics, to her beautification, or to small, suitable servile tasks, or perhaps to the couch of her master, or to those to whom he saw fit to give her. But it was early.

Page e-book 265

In the second group from the front I passed two women I had earlier met, Lana, the tall girl, who had been the seraglio mistress in the kasbah of Tama, and the other girl, who had served with her, in charge of the oils of the bath. They stood proudly, as chained slave girls. Their utility in the seraglio terminated by myself and Hassan, Tarna had, in fury, sent them to the lowest levels of her kasbah, to serve there as wench sport for her soldiers. Little did they know but their proud mistress, whom they had never seen had recently, as they had, now, too, a rightless slave girl, served men, she herself richly yielding rude soldiers delicious wench sport.

Page e-book page 398

Dancer

Bath

They tend to be segregated, of course. Free persons of different sexes do not bathe together publicly. This reservation, of course, does not preclude the presence of female bath attendants in the mens' baths or of silk slaves in those for the women. In the late afternoon, after the baths, the men tend to wend their way home, looking forward to their evening meal. Sometimes rich men are followedhome by their "clients." These, too, often meet them outside the house in the morning, and sometimes accompany them about, during the day. Goreans are fond of giving dinners and having parties. They are a sociable folk.

e-book page 328-329.

Nomads

Bath

When Kamchak reached his wagon, the poor girl, gasping for breath, legs trembling, fell exhausted to the grass, her entire body shaking with the ordeal of her run. I supposed that Aphris of Turia had done little in her life that was more strenuous than stepping in and out of a scented bath. Elizabeth Cardwell, on the other hand, I was pleased to see, ran well, breathing evenly, showing few signs of fatigue. She had, of course, in her time with the wagons, become used to this form of exercise. I had rather come to admire her. The life in the open air, the work, had apparently been good for her. She was trim, vital, buoyant. I wondered how many of the girls in her New York office could have run as she beside the stirrup of a Tuchuk warrior.

e-book page 198

He smiled. "I cost my master only eleven copper tarn disks," he said, "and so I think he had no reason to be ill satisfied with his investment." "Are the girls who attend to the baths during the day as beautiful as it is said?" I inquired. The bath girls of Turia are almost as famous as those of Ar. "Perhaps," he said, "l never saw them during the day I and the other male slaves were chained in a darkened cham- ber that we might sleep and preserve our strength for the work of the night." Then he added, "Sometimes one of the girls, to discipline her, would be thrown amongst us but we had no way of knowing if she were beautiful or not." "How is it," I asked, "that you managed to escape?" "At night, when cleaning the pools, we would be unchained, in order to protect the chain from dampness and rust we were then only roped together by the neck, I had not been put on the rope until the age of fourteen, at which time I suppose my master adjudged it wise prior to that I had been free a bit to sport in the pools before they were drained and sometimes to run errands for the Master of the Baths it was during those years that I learned how to swim and also became familiar with the streets of Turia one night in my seventeenth year I found myself last man on the rope and I chewed through it and ran, I hid by seizing a well rope and descending to the waters below there was movement in the water at the foot of the well and I dove to the bottom and found a cleft, through which I swam under- water and emerged in a shallow pool, the well's feed basin I again swam underwater and this time emerged in a rocky tunnel, through which flowed an underground stream fortunately in most places there were a few inches between the level of the water and the roof of the tunnel it was very long, I followed it." "And where did you follow it to?" I asked. "Here," said Harold, pointing to a cut between two rocks, only about eight inches wide, through which from some underground source a flow of water was emerging, entering and adding to the small stream at which, some four pasangs from the wagons, Aphris and Elizabeth had often drawn water for the wagon bask.

e-book page 274-275

[pup]

Yet I did not care to pursue again that underground stream nor, particu- larly, on some new trip to Turia, to swim once more against it. It is one thing to roll about in a public bath or splash about in some pool or stream, but quite another to struggle for pasangs against a current in a tunnel channel with only a few inches between the water and the roof of the tunnel.

e-book page 276

"Why do you wish to stop by the baths?" I asked. "I was never a customer," he said, "and I often wondered like yourself apparently if the bath girls of Turia are as lovely as it is said.

e-book page 279

Harold smiled. He looked at me. "Oh, yes," he said. "But," I said, "if you like I will pay your way to the baths." "We could always wager," he suggested. "No," I said firmly, "let me pay." "If you wish," he said

e-book page 279

Bath girls

"Are the girls who attend to the baths during the day as beautiful as it is said?" I inquired. The bath girls of Turia are almost as famous as those of Ar.

e-book page 273

"I was never a customer," he said, "and I often wondered like yourself apparently if the bath girls of Turia are as lovely as it is said."

e-book page 279

Beast (None found)

Explorer

Bathing

She was very lovely, bathing in the water. We were not now with the main group. We had separated off, as we did upon occasion, to hunt. Also, it is sometimes pleasant, you must understand, to be alone with a delightful slave. “Clean yourself well, Slave,” I called to her, “that you may be more pleasing to my senses.”

e-book page 658

At the lagoon I retrieved the girl’s bark-cloth skirt and beads, which she had discarded while bathing. I slung the beads about her neck. I adjusted the bark-cloth skirt on her body. I made certain it was well down on her hips. I then looked about at the forest, and then up at the sun. I adjudged it too late to hunt further that day. I then turned about and, followed by the bound girl, my slave, made my way back towards our camp. To my surprise the small men, in single file, again followed

e-book page 666

bath

Do you like me, Master?” asked Sasi. “Yes,” I said, “particularly since you have had a bath.” “Oh, Master,” she said. I had scrubbed her the first day out from Port Kar, she kneeling in a tub, with sea water and a deck brush. “What was the last time you had a bath?” I asked her. “A girl pushed me in the South canal a year ago,” she said. “I see,” I said. “Is Master fastidious?” she asked. “Not particularly,” I said, “but I will expect you to keep yourself reasonably clean from now on. You are no longer a free woman.” “No, Master,” she said. “You are now a slave girl,” I said. “Yes, Master,” she said. She knew that slave girls must be attentive to matters of appearance, health, cleanliness and hygiene. They are no longer free women.

e-book page 126

Fighting slave

When I had fed to his satisfaction he made me precede him to a warm, humid chamber. In that place there were sunken baths, cisterns of water, and vessels of heating water. Too, there were strigils, towels and oils. He removed my collar and ordered me into the bath. It was uncomfortably hot but I dared not object. Gorean masters tend not to be tolerant of the feelings of slaves. An enslaved male of Earth, fool that I was, I did not even know how to take a bath. Laughing, he explained to me the use of the strigils, the rinsings and oils. Frightened though I was, I was pleased, in the lengthy process of the bath, which tends for Goreans to be a pleasant experience, and is often a social one, at the public baths, to rid myself of the stink of the pens. I had then been scented, with the colognes and perfumes thought suitable for certain types of male slaves.

e-book page 139

I knelt by the door, miserably. I lifted my hand to knock at the door, but then my hand fell. I feared to knock. I put down my head, miserable. After I had been locked in the cell, only one man, for all practical purposes, had controlled me. He had fed me, and commanded me, and had overseen my bath, my preparation for whatever was to ensue. He had taken my collar off and then, later, had made me kneel, fastening it again on me. I knew he had not been armed, but, still, I had feared and obeyed him. Free men were to me as master, as free women were to me as mistress. I was angered, now that I thought of it, that they had seen fit to send only one man to handle me. In the beginning four or five men had, rudely and cruelly, controlled me. But then I had been whipped. They had seen me under the whip, crying out, begging for mercy. They had known then, I suppose, as slavers can know such things, that no more than one man would be necessary to see to my governance. I was only a man of Earth.

E book page 140

[pup]

Rouge

Bathing

. From the point of the man, too, of course, there are several purposes of the bath. Some of these are related to those pertinent to the girl. First, he is served, as the master. He is master. Second, it is not unpleasant to be washed humbly by a beautiful woman. Third, such service tends to arouse the girl. It is not uncommon, when such a bath has been finished, and he has been toweled by the beauty, that she kneels before him and begs to be raped. "The bath is finished, Master," said the girl, standing before me. I jerked loose the yellow cord from her hair. I then, with the cord, tied her wrists behind her back. I thought it well that she should feel herself tied.

e-book page 320

bath

I did not respond to her, but observed her. She stood timidly, blindfolded, near the door. She wore a tiny, diaphanous bit of brown silk about her body. It was high on her thighs. It was off her right shoulder and held loosely on her by a casually knotted, narrow disrobing loop, fastened over her left shoulder. A single tug would open the garment, dropping it to her ankles. She carried, folded, several large, colored, soft towels, with two sponges, and oils, for the bath. On the towels, too, were certain other articles. Among them was, opened, the rounded steel loop she had worn about her neck, earlier. It, with its key, lay on the top towel. It had been removed from her for she was to assist me in the bath. It accompanied her, that it might be again, when she had bathed me, replaced on her. Similarly the steel loops from her wrists and ankles had been removed. They, however, had been kept elsewhere. They did not accompany her. On the towels, however, coiled, there was a whip, and slave cuffs, and anklets, of leather, with snaps. Too, it might be mentioned, there were, as is usual, chains at the foot of the great couch, which might be lengthened or shortened. One chain terminated in a collar, which might be locked about a girl's neck. The other chain terminated in a smaller loop of steel, an ankle ring, suitable for a girl's ankle. I regarded her. Her hair was still coiffured high upon her head, and held, as before, with the braided yellow cord, stout enough to bind her with. She was barefoot, as is common with slaves. "Master?" she asked. "Are you in the room?" I moved, that she might know my presence. "Forgive me, Master," she said, "if I have awakened you, or disturbed you." I pulled away the mask I wore and discarded it, to one side on the great couch. I snapped my fingers "Yes, Master," she said. She approached the sound, and knelt before me. "I am Beverly," she said. "I have been sent to serve you." I did not speak. "It is a great honor for me, Master," she said, "that one such as you should select Beverly to serve you." I did not respond to her. "The water will have been readied," she said. Near the couch was a large, round, sunken tub, with some six inches of water in it. Too, to one side, there were rinsing jars. She put the objects she carried on the floor, to her right. "Here, Master," she said, feeling for it, "is a slave collar. You may place it on me when you wish." She put it, with its key, at my feet. "Here, too," she said, putting the objects near the collar, "are slave cuffs, and anklets." I regarded the objects, with their tiny belts and buckles, with their attached, sewn in, metal snap rings. "And here, Master," she said, "is your whip." She kissed it and put it, too, at my feet. "Beverly is now ready to serve her Master," she said. I again snapped my fingers, and the girl stood. She stood lovely, and straight, her hands now 'empty, the towels and oils, and other articles on the floor near us. "Am I to bathe you now, Master?" she asked I regarded her blindfold. It was efficient, and Gorean. Most blindfolds, of a sort used on Earth, are inefficient, for one may see under them. This is not the case with the common Gorean blindfold. It consists, commonly, of three pieces, usually two rounded pieces of soft felt, three to four inches in diameter, and the binding, which usually consists of two or more turns of a dark, thick, folded cloth, or scarf, knotted behind the head. The pieces of rounded, face-hugging felt, the eye coverings, in the girl's blindfold were about three and a half inches in diameter. They were yellow. The binding, some three turns of folded, opaque, thick black clot, knotted tightly behind her head, held the eye coverings securely in place. The blindfold, of course, is seldom used in the transportation of a slave. Slave hoods are much more common in such a role. Some of these are fitted with gags. Also, they may be, or some of them, locked upon the I girl. The blindfold, of course, as will be recalled by those who have seen a girl in one, has its own advantages. It permits, for example, something of the beauty of her face, such as her trembling lips, to be seen. Also it permits you to place your teeth upon hers, to test her tongue for responsiveness with yours and, if one wishes, to run the tip of one's finger lightly inside her mouth, between her teeth and the interior of her cheek. "May I bathe Master now?" she asked. I jerked loose the disrobing loop at her left shoulder. Beverly Henderson was stripped before me. I walked around, behind her. She lifted up her chin. She trembled, slightly. She was extremely aware of my presence. I bent forward, slightly. She had been subtly perfumed. She shuddered. She had felt my breath at the left side of her neck, and on her left shoulder. I then walked about her and stood before her. "Yes, Master," she said. She reached out and, gently, first touching my chest, her hands lingering there for a moment, found the knot in the belt of soft cloth with which I had closed the casual tunic I had donned. She undid the knot and parted the tunic, kissing me at the belly. She then went behind me and, gently, removed the tunic, kissing me beneath the left shoulder blade. She then stood again before me. She folded the tunic and belt, kissing them, and then knelt down, placing them to one side. She then stood again, before me, her head down. I smiled. The girl had been taught how to disrobe a master for the bath. I then placed the articles for the bath in her hands, and conducted her to the side of the tub. She placed the articles where she might find them. She then took a vial of oil and one of the sponges in her hands. I then helped her step within the tub. I looked at her. She stood in the water, blindfolded, waiting for me. Miss Beverly Henderson, once a proud girl of Earth, now only a Gorean slave girl, waited to bathe a free male, one whom she must address as master and serve as he pleased. I stepped down within the tub. Then, kneeling or standing, as was fit, humbly, Miss Beverly Henderson, with the oils and sponges, and rinsing waters, bathed me. Then, after a few Ehn, she toweled my body dry and then knelt before me, head down. I snapped my fingers, and she stood. I then looked at her, carefully. I assessed the nature of her breathing. I touched my fingers to her side, and noted her sudden, involuntary movement. I smiled. The Gorean bath, of such a sort, has many purposes. The cleansing of the body, of course, is only one such purpose. It has two major purposes with respect to its effect on the girl. The first is that she is performing a lowly and humble task for a man. This helps to remind her that she is a slave. Also, of course, serving a man, particularly in small and humble ways, probably for biological reasons, tends to be sexually arousing for a woman. Many men. I think, fail to understand that. When a girl brings a man his sandals and ties them on his feet she is having a sexual experience.

e-book page 313-319

[pup]

From the point of the man, too, of course, there are several purposes of the bath. Some of these are related to those pertinent to the girl. First, he is served, as the master. He is master. Second, it is not unpleasant to be washed humbly by a beautiful woman. Third, such service tends to arouse the girl. It is not uncommon, when such a bath has been finished, and he has been toweled by the beauty, that she kneels before him and begs to be raped. "The bath is finished, Master," said the girl, standing before me.

e-book page 320

Guardsman

Bath

Do you think that you are much of a slave?" I asked. "No. Master," she said. "You need a bath," I said.

e-book page 307

Players

Bathing

"Strip, enter the cubicle of the bathing cisterns," had said our jailer, five of his fellows, armed, behind him, before dawn. "Wash your stinking bodies, then emerge." Our chains, in this area below the prison, had been removed.

e-book page 323

"Leave your clothing here," said the jailer. "Enter the cubicle of the bathing cisterns." We were prodded with the points of spears through a heavy wooden door. "Wash well," called a man, laughing. "We would not wish your stink to offend the crowds," laughed another man. Immediately I thought of the baiting pit, and the screaming, betting, enthusiastic crowds there. But Nim Nim had told me that it was something far worse than this which they had planned for me. "Have pity on poor sleen," laughed a man. "You would not want to make them sick, would you?" asked another. That was, I suppose, very funny. The sleen is one of the least fastidious of Gorean animals. I commonly makes the tarsk, usually thought of as a filthy animal, seem like an epicure. I thought again, of course, from these comments, of the baiting pit in the courtyard. The heavy door of the cubicle of the bathing cistern closed behind us. I heard it locked. It was very dark inside. there was a light coming from somewhere high above, through some sort of narrow, shuttered aperture. "It is hard to see," I said. "Nim Nim see," said the small beast, clutching at my wrist with both if its hands. I began to pull me through the room. Once my foot splashed into the shallow concave approach to a cistern. there was a smell in the place. This area, I suspected, was probably more in the nature of a sump beneath the prison than a bath. In a few moments my eyes could make out things reasonably well. The eyes of the urt people, I gathered, adjusted very quickly to darkness. This may be an adaptive specialization, having to do with the fact that urt packs are often active at night. "Here, here," said the small creature, eagerly. It pulled me to a grating in the floor. "Nim Nim not strong enough!" I fixed my hands about the bars of the grating. I pulled at it. It seemed very solidly anchored in the cement. It did pull up a bit at one edge. It was extremely heavy. I was not surprised that the small creature could not move it. I wondered if many men could have moved it.

e-book page 325

Outside the entrance to the cubicle of the bathing cisterns, before being prodded within by the spears of our keepers, Nim Nim and I had been forced to strip. We had then been herded into the darkness and the door closed and locked behind us. It had all seemed very natural. I now realized that it had been part of the plan of Flaminius. After the door had been closed behind us the clothing, or at least mine, had doubtless been taken down to the sleen pens.

e-book page 328

Bath

"Nim Nim see," said the small beast, clutching at my wrist with both if its hands. I began to pull me through the room. Once my foot splashed into the shallow concave approach to a cistern. there was a smell in the place. This area, I suspected was probably more in the nature of a sump beneath the prison than a bath. In a few moments my eyes could make out things reasonably well. The eyes of the urt people, I gathered, adjusted very quickly to darkness. This may be an adaptive specialization, having to do with the fact that urt packs are often active at night. "Here, here," said the small creature, eagerly. It pulled me to a grating in the floor. "Nim Nim not strong enough!" I fixed my hands about the bars of the grating. I pulled at it. It seemed very solidly anchored in the cement. It did pull up a bit at one edge. It was extremely heavy. I was not surprised that the small creature could not move it. I wondered if many men could have moved it.

e-book page 324-325

"I thought you were to have had a bath," smiled Flaminius. "Instead it seems you are in desperate need of one." I did not respond to him.

e-book page 327

Vagabonds

Welcome, gentlemen, to the camp of Ephialtes," said my friend, Ephialtes, coming about the wagon. One could not see under the wagon as some canvas had been stretched from the upper, far side of the wagon bed to the ground. There was nothing unusual in this, as it is occasionally done in wagon camps for various reasons, for example, to form wind breaks, shield fires, and such. Also, of course; it may be done to increase privacy, for example, for pan bathing behind it, and so on. This time, of course, I assumed its purpose was in effect a rather dramatic one, to create a wall, or screen, from behind which something hitherto unseen might be brought.

e-book page 638

Bath

"Some weeks ago," said the man near me, "before the fall of Ar's Station, Borton, carrying dispatches for Artemidorus, stayed at an inn on the Vosk Road. There, while he refreshed himself with a morning bath, some rascal stole his clothing, his money, his tarn, the dispatches, everything."

e-book page 25

I supposed Borton could not be blamed entirely for his ill will. The last time I had seen him, before this evening, I aflight, astride his tarn, hovering the bird, preparing shortly to make away, he had been in the yard of the Crooked Tarn, chained naked there, still soaked wet from the bath, to a sleen ring. It had been strong enough to hold him, despite his size and strength, even when he had seen me, which occurrence had apparently caused him agitation. I had waved the courier's pouch to him, cheerily. There had been no hard feelings on my part.

e-book page 58

I thought of Ephialtes, the sutler, at the Crooked Tarn, and seen later at the camp of Cos outside Ar's Station. I supposed him to be traveling with the expeditionary force. He, rather like Temione, had been much abused by Borton, the courier. Indeed, Borton, wanting his space at the Crooked Tarn, a rather good space, a corner space, had simply thrown Ephialtes out of it, and taken it. It had been fairly neatly done. Ephialtes had later assisted me in discomfiting the courier. We had arranged that the courier, thinking himself at fault, would wish a bath in the morning, a circumstance which I turned to my advantage, making away with the fellow's uniform, belongings, tarn and dispatch case.
e-book page 91

Magicians

Bathing

. The net and the room doubtless constituted a capture cubicle, simpler perhaps, but not unlike those in certain inns, in which a woman, lulled by the bolting on the doors, and feeling herself secure, may complete her toilet at leisure, bathing, combing her hair, perfuming herself and such, before the trap doors, dropped from beneath her, plunge her into the waiting arms of slavers

e-book page 40-41

. I had already arranged that a sealed message, conveyed by courier, would reach the Central Cylinder tomorrow, after the tenth Ahn. I wondered if she had been yet missed. Quite possibly. If not now, surely by morning, when her women would arrive for her robing, her bathing, the breaking of her fast, her morning audiences. How frantic would then be the Central Cylinder.

e-book page 552

Bath

then stood up, and looked down at her. “Tomorrow,” I said, “guardsmen will come to free you of your bonds, and return you to the Central Cylinder. You must not forget, of course, even in the Central Cylinder, that you are my slave girl. Too, you must remember that I will come for you. When will it be? You will not know. Will you fear to enter a room alone, or a corridor unescorted, for fear someone may be there, waiting? Will you fear dark places, or shadows? Will you fear high bridges, and roofs, and promenades, because you fear that loop of a tarnsman tightening on your body, dragging you into the sky, his capture? Will you fear even your own chambers, perhaps even to open the portals of your own wardrobe, for fear someone might be waiting? Will you fear to remove your clothing, for fear someone, somehow, somewhere, might see? Will you fear to enter the bath, for fear you might be surprised there? Will you fear to sleep, I wonder, knowing that someone might come to you in the night,that you might waken suddenly to the gag, and helplessness?” I looked down at her. There were tears in her eyes, over the gag. She looked well in bonds. She was a pretty slave.

e-book page 550

[pup]

Telnarian Histories 01 – The Chieftain (v3.0) (am not sure if this a gorean book but it was in the e-books I was given)

Bath

She, too, was similarly secured. She had been there earlier, as she had not been subjected to a bath, it not having been deemed that she needed one.

e-books page 393

Outlaw (none I could find)

Captive

Bathing

I do not know when I was noticed. It may have been on a street in New York, on a sidewalk in London, at a café in Paris. It may have been while sun-bathing on the Riviera. It may even have been on the campus of my college. Somewhere.Unknown to me, I was noted, and would be acquired.
e-book page 2

Hunter

Bath

He will require food, clothing, what weapons he chooses, a room, drink.” I looked at the man, and smiled. The stink of the pens was still upon him. “And, too, I suggest,” said I, “a warm bath, and suitable oils.”

e-book page 10

Rim lifted the girl to the feet by the hair, twisting her head and bending her body. “Go to the Torian room,” he said, “and prepare me a bath, and foods and wines, and gather together whatever you might need, bells and cosmetics, and such, to please my senses.”

e-book page 11

Assassin

Bath

On our side of the glass there was a metal grillwork, with rectangular openings about twelve inches long and four inches high. I gathered this was in case someone on the other side would attempt to break the mirror. I saw an open wardrobe closet, some chests of silks, a silken divan of immense size, several choice rugs and cushions about, and a sunken bath to one side. It might have been the private compartment of a lady of High Caste save that, of course, in this house it was a cell.

e- book Page 142

I so not see how it could have happened," Nela was saying, bending over me as I lay sleepily on my stomach on the heavy striped piece of toweling, about the size of a blanket, her strong dutiful hands rubbing oils of the bath into by body.

e-book page 195

this passage covers bath and bath girls

Nela was a sturdy girl, a bit short. She had wrapped about her a piece of toweling. Her eyes were blue. She was a magnificent swimmer, strong and vital. Her blond hair was cut very short to protect it from the water; even so, in swimming, such girls often wrapped a long broad strap of glazed leather about their head, in a turban of sorts. Beneath the toweling Nela wore nothing; about her neck, rather than the common slave collar, she, like the other bath girls, wore a chain and plate. On her plate was the legend: I am Nela of the Capacian Baths. Pool of Blue Flowers. I cost one tarsk. Nela was an expensive girl, though there were pools where the girls cost as much as a silver tarn disk. The tarsk is a silver coin, worth forty copper tarn disks. All the girls in the Pool of Blue Flowers cost the same, except novices in training who would go for ten or fifteen copper tarn disks. There were dozens of pools in the vast, spreading Capacian Baths. In some of the larger pools the girls went as cheaply as one copper tarn disk. For the fee one was entitled to use the girl as he wished for as long as he wished, his use, of course, limited by the hours of the pool's closing. The first time I had seen Nela, several days ago, she had been playing in the pool alone, rolling about. It took but one glance and I dove into the water, swam to her, seized her by the ankle and dragged her under, kissing her, rolling about beneath the surface. I liked the lips and feel of her and when we broke the surface, she and I laughing, I asked her how much she went for. "For a tarsk," she laughed, and turned about, looking at me, "but you have to catch me first." I knew this game of bath girls, as though they, mere slaves, would dare to truly flee from one who pursued them, and I laughed, and she, too, sensing my understanding, laughed. The girl commonly pretends to swim away but is outdistanced and captured. I knew that few men could, if a bath girl did not wish it, come close to them in the water. They spend much of the day in the water and, it is said, are more at ease in that element than the Cosian song fish. "Look," I said, pointing to the far end of the curving pool, some hundred and fifty yards away, "if I do not catch you before you reach the edge you will have your freedom for the day." She looked at me, puzzled, her feet and hands moving. "I will pay the tarsk," I said, "and I will not use you, nor make you serve me in any way." She looked over to the side of the pool where a small man in a tunic of toweling was standing about, a metal box with a slot strapped over his shoulder. "Is Master serious?" she asked. "Yes," I said.
"You cannot catch me if I do not wish it," she said, warning me. "Then," I said, "you will have your freedom for a day." "Agreed," she said. "Go!" I said. She looked at me and laughed, and then, on her back, began to move gracefully toward the opposite end of the pool. Once she stopped, seeing that I was not yet following. She, I noted, had not been hurrying. I knew that she could, if she wished, swim like a water lizard making a strike. Yet it was enough for her to play with me, to tease me, if I should follow her, keeping just out of my reach. She was puzzled that I was not yet thrashing after her. She was about half of the way to the far edge of the pool when she straightened herself in the water, and looked back at me. At that moment I began to swim. I gather, from the sound of a fellow watching us, that she began to swim again when I began to follow her. Apparently, from what I later learned, she began to swim slowly on her back until it became clear to her that I was gaining with some swiftness. Then she rolled onto her stomach and began to stroke easily toward the far edge, looking back now and then. In a matter of about ten Ihn, however, seeing me approach ever more closely, she began to move with a deliberate, swift ease. But still I gained. I swam as I never had before, knifing through the water. The thought went through me, bubbling to the roar of water passing my ears, that tomorrow I would scarcely be able to move; each breath was a cruel explosion in my lungs. At that point, looking back once more, and noting that I was still moving quickly toward her, and not willing to lose a possible rare day's freedom, she began, with the marvelous, strong trained stroke of her legs and arms, to slice swiftly through the water. Still I gained. Now she was moving as rapidly as she could, determinedly, a fury of beauty in the water. Yet I pressed on, ever gaining, each of my muscles suddenly charged with the excitement of the pursuit of her. I now sensed her but feet from me, swimming desperately, the pool's edge long yards away. Faster yet I swam. I knew now I would overtake her. Suddenly she, sensing this too, became like a maddened, terrified water animal. She cried out in frustration. She lost her stroke. She threw all her energies now into her panic-stricken flight; but the beauty of the rhythm, that powerful, even rhythm, was gone; her stroke was uneven; she lifted too much water; she missed a breath; she thrashed; but still she fled wildly for safety, kicking madly, trying to escape. And them my hands closed on her waist and she cried out in rage, struggling, trying to break free. I turned her about on her back and put my hand in the chain about her throat, staying behind her. She tried to put her hands back but could not remove my hand from the chain. Then, slowly, in triumph, my hand in the chain, I towed her on her back, she helpless, to the other end of the pool. In a secluded place, among the planted grasses and ferns, sheltered from view, I had lifted Nela from the pool and placed her on a large piece of orange toweling on the grass, near which I had left my clothes and pouch. "It seems you have lost your freedom for the day," I said. I liked the feel of her wet body. There were tears in her eyes. "It will be a silver tarsk for that one," said a thin voice behind me. I motioned that the man should get the coin from my pouch and he did so. I heard the coin drop into the metal box, and heard him leave. "What is your name?" I asked. "Nela," said she, "if it pleases Master began, with the marvelous, strong trained stroke of her legs and arms, to slice swiftly through the water. Still I gained. Now she was moving as rapidly as she could, determinedly, a fury of beauty in the water. Yet I pressed on, ever gaining, each of my muscles suddenly charged with the excitement of the pursuit of her. I now sensed her but feet from me, swimming desperately, the pool's edge long yards away. Faster yet I swam. I knew now I would overtake her. Suddenly she, sensing this too, became like a maddened, terrified water animal. She cried out in frustration. She lost her stroke. She threw all her energies now into her panic-stricken flight; but the beauty of the rhythm, that powerful, even rhythm, was gone; her stroke was uneven; she lifted too much water; she missed a breath; she thrashed; but still she fled wildly for safety, kicking madly, trying to escape. And them my hands closed on her waist and she cried out in rage, struggling, trying to break free. I turned her about on her back and put my hand in the chain about her throat, staying behind her. She tried to put her hands back but could not remove my hand from the chain. Then, slowly, in triumph, my hand in the chain, I towed her on her back, she helpless, to the other end of the pool. In a secluded place, among the planted grasses and ferns, sheltered from view, I had lifted Nela from the pool and placed her on a large piece of orange toweling on the grass, near which I had left my clothes and pouch. "It seems you have lost your freedom for the day," I said. I liked the feel of her wet body. There were tears in her eyes. "It will be a silver tarsk for that one," said a thin voice behind me. I motioned that the man should get the coin from my pouch and he did so. I heard the coin drop into the metal box, and heard him leave. "What is your name?" I asked. "Nela," said she, "if it pleases Master.

It pleases me," I said. I took the girl into my arms, and pressed my lips to hers, as she lifted her arms and placed them about my neck. After we had kissed we swam together, and then again kissed and swam. Afterwards, Nela gave me the first rubbing, with coarse oils, loosening dirt and perspiration, and scraped me with the thin, flexible bronze strigil; then she gave me the second rubbing, vigorous and stimulating, with heavy toweling; then she gave me the third rubbing, that with fine, scented oils, massaged at length into the skin. After that we lay side by side for a long time, looking up at the bluish translucent dome of the Pool of Blue Flowers. There are, as I mentioned, many pools in the Capacian Baths, and they differ in their shapes and sizes, and in their decor, and in the temperatures and scents of their waters. The temperature of the Pool of Blue Flowers was cool and pleasing. The atmosphere of the pool was further charged with the fragrance of Veminium, a kind of bluish wild flower commonly found on the lower slopes of the Thentis range; the walls, the columns, even the bottom of the pool, were decorated with representations of Veminium, and many of the plants themselves were found in the chamber. Though the pool was marble and the walkways about it, much of the area was planted with grass and ferns and various other flora were in abundance. There were many small nooks and glades, here and there, some more than forty yards from the pool, where a man might rest. I had heard the Pool of the Tropics was an excellent pool in the Capacian; and also the Pool of Ar's Glories, and the Pool of the Northern Forests; there was even, of recent date, a Pool of the Splendor of the Hinrabians; I myself, however, with one arm about Nela, who nestled against me, felt content with the Pool of the Blue Flowers.

"I like you," she said to me. I kissed her, and looked again to the ceiling. I recalled Harold of the Tuchuks. The pools were beautiful, and yet I knew that somewhere, chained in darkness, were gangs of male slaves who cleaned them each night; and there were of course the Bath Girls of Ar, of which Nela was one, said to be the most beautiful of all Gor. Harold, as a boy, had once been a slave in the baths, those of the city of Turia, before he had escaped. He had told me that sometimes a Bath Girl, to discipline her, is thrown to the slaves in the darkness. I held Nela a bit more closely to me, and she looked at me, puzzled. Nela had been a slave since the age of fourteen. To my surprise she was a native of Ar. She had lived alone with her father, who had gambled heavily on the races. He had died and to satisfy his debts, no others coming forth to resolve them, the daughter, as Gorean law commonly prescribes, became state property; she was then, following the law, put up for sale at public auction; the proceeds of her sale were used, again following the mandate of the law, to liquidate as equitable as possible the unsatisfied claims of creditors. She had first been sold for eight silver tarsks to a keeper of one of the public kitchens in a cylinder, a former creditor of her father, who had in mind making a profit on her; she worked in the kitchen for a year as a pot girl, sleeping on straw and chained at night, and then, as her body more adequately developed the contours of womanhood, her master braceleted her and took her to the Capacian Baths where, after some haggling, he received a price of four gold pieces and a silver tarsk; she had begun in one of the vast cement pools as a copper-tarn-disk girl and had, four years later, become a silver-tarsk girl in the Pool of Blue Flowers. Now, days after I had first met Nela, I lay thinking on the thick square of striped toweling and felt her message the final oils of the bath into my body. "I hope," said Nela, kneading my flesh rather harder than was necessary, "Claudia Tentia Hinrabia is made a slave.

I lifted my head and got up on my elbows, looking at her. "Are you serious?" I asked. "Yes," said Nela, bitterly, "let her be branded and collared. Let her be forced to please men." "Why do you hate her so?" I asked. "She is free," said Nela, "and of high birth and rich. Let such women, I say, feel the iron. Let it be they who dance to the whip." "You should feel sorry for her," I recommended. Nela threw back her head and laughed. "She is probably an innocent girl," I said. "She once had the nose and ears of one of her girls cut off for having dropped a mirror," said Nela. "How do you know that?" I asked. The girl laughed. "Everything that goes on in Ar," she said, "is heard in the Capacian." Then she looked at me bitterly. "I hope she is made a slave," she said. "I hope she is sold in Port Kar." I gathered that Nela must hate the Hinrabian girl much indeed. "Are the Hinrabians popular in Ar?" I asked. Nela stopped massaging my back.

"Do not answer if you do not wish," I said. "No," she said, and I could sense her looking about. "They are not popular." "What of Kazrak?" I asked. "He was a good Administrator," she said. "He is gone now." She began to massage my back. The oil was fragrant. It felt warm from her hands. "When I was a little girl," she said, "when I was free I once saw Marlenus of Ar." "Oh?" I asked. "He," she said, "was the Ubar of Ubars." There was something of awe in her voice. "Perhaps," I said, "someday Marlenus will return." "Do not speak so," she whispered. "Men have been impaled in Ar for less." "I understand he is in the Voltai," I said. "Minus Tentuis Hinrabius," she said, "has a dozen times sent Prides of a hundred Warriors to the Voltai to seek him out and slay him, but never have they found him." "Why should he wish to slay him?" I asked. "They fear him," she said. "They fear he will return to Ar." "Impossible," I said.
"In these days," she said, "much is possible." "Would you like to see him again in Ar?" I asked. "He was," said the girl, her voice proud, "the Ubar of Ubars." Her hands were powerful now, and I could feel the thrill in her. "When he was publicly refused bread, salt and fire on the height of the central cylinder, when he was exiled from Ar, not to return on pain of death, do you know what he said?" "No," I said, "I do not." "He said 'I will come again to Ar'." "Surely you do not believe it," I said. "I could speak to you of things I have heard," she said, "but it is better that you not know of them." "As you wish," I said. I heard her voice, something of awe in it. "He said," she repeated, " 'I will come again to Ar'." "Would you like to see him once more upon the throne?" I asked. She laughed. "I am of Ar," she said. "He was Marlenus. He was the Ubar of Ubars!" I rolled over, took Nela by the wrists, drew her to me and kissed her. I saw no reason to tell her that this very afternoon, in the arcade of the stadium, I had seen Marlenus of Ar. Upon leaving the baths I encountered by chance a the Tarn Keeper whom I had met briefly when observing the game outside the tavern of Spindius, that fought between the blind Player and the Vintner. He was short, small, with close-cropped brown hair. He had a rather heavy, squarish face, large considering his size. I saw he ware a patch of green on his shoulder, indicating he was of the Greens.

e-book Page197 – 206

Bath
===

Once again I found myself looking through the glass, which on the other side was a mirror, into the luxurious compartment, with wardrobe, chests of silk, rugs and cushions, a silken divan and a scented, sunken bath, now drawn.

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She ran even to the bath and took oils, rubbing them on her wrists, but still the steel would not release her. Then she sobbed and ran back to the center of the room, striking again and again the divan with the chain. Then, still chained, she knelt on the divan, pounding it with her fists

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Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, though she had now been gone months from the House, had been kept for better than two months in the cell for Special Captures. In this time her head had been shaved at various times. She was commonly permitted to wear lavish and luxurious robes of concealment, save for hood and veil. The bracelets and chain on her wrists, during this time, save in dressing and in the bath, were never removed. And during such times, before the bracelets and chain were removed, a steel slave anklet would be placed on her left ankle, in order that there be no time that her body would be completely free of slave steel; this anklet she wore even in her bath; it would be removed only after the bracelets and chain had been replaced. Each evening five lovely, long-haired, uncollared serving slaves would come to her cell, to bathe her and perfume her, to prepare her for love. These girls, under the instructions of Cernus, were extremely deferential, save that they were continually to amuse themselves at the prisoner's expense, making sport of her shaved head, laughing and joking about it among themselves. Four times Claudia Tentia Hinrabia had attempted to kill one of the girls but the others would easily overpower her; and the Hinrabian must endure her bath and her perfuming; when finished the girls would lock her raiment in a chest and then draw a slave hood over her head, locking it in place, and the Hinrabian, stripped, perfumed, hooded, chained, must wait for he for whom she has been prepared.

book page 235

Mercennaries (none I could find)

Regegades

Bathing

I thought the storm might have abated a bit but the rain was still heavy. Too, from time to time, lightning shattered across the sky, suddenly bathing the road and countryside in flashes of wild, white light, this coupled almost momentarily, sometimes a little sooner, sometimes a little later, with a grinding and explosion of thunder.

e-book page 11 (this is not about washing but about the weather)

Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only be the time of day. This does not mean that bath girls may not be available to tend to a strong male’s various wants in the men’s baths, or that handsome silk slaves, if they are summoned, may not appear in attendance in the baths of free women. A latticework separated the bathing area from the outer area. It was open now. I heard a fellow stirring in his sleep a few feet away, on the floor, near the bricked platform. Some seven or eight fellows, the latticework open, were sleeping in the bath area. I supposed they preferred the warmth of the baths to their spaces in the unheated levels, or lofts, of the inn. This sort of thing is not unusual in Gorean towns, incidentally, in cold weather, that folks should sleep in the baths. They are often warmer than their houses.

e-book page 49

Bath

But I proceeded under the overhang to the open space between the two parts of the inn, the covered way there, with (pg.50) its high roof, that which it shared with the two parts of the inn, and then across it, to the right portion of the inn, in which the porter had informed me was the keeper’s desk. In this covered way, too, it might be mentioned, passengers, with some protection from the weather, may board and alight from fee carts, and such. It was late. It was not raining much now. The night had turned chilly, however. I was looking forward to a hot bath, a place to dry my clothes, some food, some drink, a warm bed. “Please!” I heard the first woman calling after me. “Please!” But I left them behind me, at the wall, stripped and shackled, and tasted.

e-book page 42

There was a tharlarion oil lamp hanging on three chains from the ceiling, to my right, above the desk. Sample items from the list were as follows: Bread and paga…………………………………………………….2 C.T. Other food……………………………………………………...3 – 5 C.T. Lodging……………………………………………………………10 C.T. Blanket(s)……………………………………………………………2 C.T. Bath………………………………………………………………….1 C.T. Bath girl……………………………………………………………...2 C.T. Sponge, oil and strigil………………………………………………..1 C.T. Girl for the night……………………………………………………..5 C.T. T., Greens and Stable………………………………………………...2 C.T. T., Meat and Cot……………………………………………………..5 C.T. A comment, or two, might be in order on this list of prices. First, it will be noted that they are not typical. In many inns, depending on the season, to be sure, and the readiness of the keeper to negotiate, one can stay for as little as two or three (pg.52) copper tarsks a day, everything included, within reason, of course, subject to some restraint with respect to page, and such. Also, the bath girl, and the sponge, oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with the price of the bath itself. The prices on the list on the wall seemed excessive, perhaps to a factor of five or more. The prices, of course, were in terms of copper tarsks.

e-book page 43

I would like a bath, the sponge, and such, and a bath girl.” “That will add two to your bill,” he said. “Should it not add four?” I asked. “No bath girl,” he said. “Because of the crowding, and the demand, we are using them as inn girls.” “I see,” I said. “You will have to sponge, oil and strigil yourself,” he said. “That seems somewhat barbaric,” I said. Also it was hard to reach certain spots on the back. “Times are hard,” he said

E-book Page 45

Ten for lodging, two for the bath and supplies.”

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[pup]

The Baths (pg.57) I closed my eyes in one of the second tubs, the cleaning tubs. There were five first tubs, and five second tubs. These were all large, shallow, round tubs, of clay, covered with porcelain, mounted on open-bricked platforms, each platform about a yard high. In this particular bath, adequate enough, I suppose, for the area, the fires beneath the bricked platforms were stirred, tended and cleaned with long-handled fire rakes. To be sure, it was late, and I suspected that the fires had not been tended since perhaps the eighteenth Ahn. The water, however, happily, was still comfortably warm. They would probably be built up again around the fifth Ahn. I had hung my wet garments on racks about the brick platform, behind the tub. They would probably be dry by now. Each tub was some seven feet in width and some eighteen inches deep. On a hook, behind me, kept for towels, and such, I had slung my scabbard More than one fellow, and even a Ubar or two, as history has it, had been attacked in the bath. The baths here, of course, were very simple and primitive. For example, they were heated in the same room, and not in virtue of subterranean furnaces, heat from which would normally be conveyed upward through vents and pipes. Here, too, there were no scented pools, no massaging rooms, no steaming rooms. Too, of course, here there were no exercising yards, where one might try a fall or two in wrestling or, say, have a game of (pg.58) catch, either with the large or small ball. Similarly, there were no recreational gardens, no art galleries, no strolling lanes, no arcades of merchants, no physicians’ courts, no music rooms, or such. The baths, in many Gorean cities and towns, are convenient and popular gathering places. One can pick up the latest news and gossip there, for example. Many of these establishments are opulently appointed. Many are capacious and even palatial. Sometimes public funds are lavished upon them, as they are objects of civic pride. Even poor men may feel rich seeking electric sometimes dispense admittance ostraka to the poor. Some of these edifices, as in Turia or Ar, are monumental in size, almost like vaulted, pillared stadiums, with dozens of rooms and pools. One can become lost in them. Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only be the time of day. This does not mean that bath girls may not be available to tend to a strong male’s various wants in the men’s baths, or that handsome silk slaves, if they are summoned, may not appear in attendance in the baths of free women. A latticework separated the bathing area from the outer area. It was open now. I heard a fellow stirring in his sleep a few feet away, on the floor, near the bricked platform. Some seven or eight fellows, the latticework open, were sleeping in the bath area. I supposed they preferred the warmth of the baths to their spaces in the unheated levels, or lofts, of the inn. This sort of thing is not unusual in Gorean towns, incidentally, in cold weather, that folks should sleep in the baths. They are often warmer than their houses. They leave in the morning, of course, some of them doubtless to call on their patrons, hoping for a breakfast or an invitation to dinner. I opened one eye, hearing the outer door, that beyond the latticework, open There are many types of baths, and ways to take them, for example, depending on the temperatures of the tubs, or pools, and the order in which one uses them. A common fashion is to use the first tub for a time, soaking, and, if one wishes, sponging, and then, emerging, to apply the oil, or oils. These are rubbed well into the skin and then removed with the strigil. There are various forms of strigil, and some of them (pg.59)are ornately decorated. They are usually of metal and almost always of a narrow, spatulate form. With the strigil one scrapes away the residue of oil, and, with it, dirt and sweat, cleaning the pores. One then generally takes the “second tub”, which consists of clean water, sponges away any remaining grime, residues of oil and dirt, and such, and then, luxuriating, soaks again. If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure. Sometimes the services of a bath girl, including massage and love, in whatever modalities the customer may elect, come in the price of the bath, and, at other times, as here, at the Crooked Tarn, I gathered, at least normally, they are extra. Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes, in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such. After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons, and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in effect, “spoiled for freedom.” “Ai!” cried a fellow, stepped on by the newcomer. Another rose up, in the half darkness, and was kicked aside. I opened my other eye, to consider matters. It was a swaggering fellow. He was naked, his clothes doubtless being hung on one of the pegs beyond the latticework, in the outer area. Normally, particularly when the baths are in full use, and the air is steamy in their vicinity, that would be done. Mine, which had been wet, I had put behind the bricked platform to dry. He held a sack in one hand, containing, I supposed, his bath supplies, and, in the other, held by their straps, a scabbard and blade, and what appeared to be a flat, rectangular pouch. He had chosen, too, I saw, not to come unarmed to the baths. It is thought to be very bad form, incidentally, to carry weapons in the baths, and, in large public baths, they must often be checked upon entry. On the other hand, I certainly did not blame him for carrying a blade into the baths, particularly in a place such as this. I had done so, myself. I did not know, but I suspected that on the peg outside, by its straps, there might hang a (pg.60) helmet. I recalled the tarn in the inn’s tarncot. Though no insignia or harness had been about, it had seemed clearly a war tarn, a warrior’s mount. That he had brought the rectangular pouch into the baths with him, as well as the blade, suggested to me that it might be important, too important to be left back at his space, or on the peg outside the latticework. He hung his blade, and the pouch, on one of the tub hooks. “What are you doing?” asked a fellow. He was the only other in the room who was actually utilizing a tub. He had arrived later even than I, and was still soaking in one of the first tubs, indeed, that which was most convenient to the entrance through the latticework. I myself, in my choice of a first tub had, and, indeed, of the second, as well, in which I now reclined, taken those farthest from the entrance. In that way I would have the longest reaction interval possible between someone’s entry and their possible arrival in my vicinity. “I take the first of the first tubs,” said the fellow. “I do not share tubs,” said the fellow soaking in the tub, not too pleasantly. Most Goreans, in the baths, at least in their own towns or cities, do share tubs, of course. That is one reason the tubs are so large. To be sure, even in one’s own area, one usually shares a tub only with friends or acquaintances. If the baths are crowded, of course, it would be only polite to share with one’s fellow citizens. The same customs, of course, generalized even further, normally govern the use of pools, which, on Gor, are normally located at the baths, and, indeed, are usually considered a part of them. “Nor do I,” said the newcomer, climbing to the platform. “Aiii!” cried the fellow in the tub, seized, and, in a moment, flung over its edge to the slotted wooden bath floor. He struggled to his feet, to see, in the half darkness, lit by a single lamp, and the reddish embers within the bricked platforms, the unsheathed sword now in the newcomer’s hand. “Stir up the fire,” said the newcomer.
Hastily the ejected fellow seized a fire rake and poked about within the platform. “Bring more wood,” said the newcomer. “Then tend the fire. Do not leave until it is suitable.” From one of the large barrels to the side, open near the bottom, the ejected fellow scooped out, and returned with, a (pg.61) bucket of wood chips, which he flung into the bricked platform. He then arranged these with the fire rake. He then returned the bucket to its place by the barrel and, from one of the wood bins, to the right, near the barrels, fetched an armload of kindling, then some narrow hardwood logs. In a few moments the chips were burning well. He then added kindling, and then, a bit later, thrust the narrow logs into the platform. He then, the reddish glow of the flames from within the platform reflected on his countenance, looked up, questioningly, frightened, at the newcomer. “Get out,” said the newcomer. Only too eagerly the ejected fellow hurried through the latticework, seized his garments, and took his way from the bath area. The newcomer then returned his blade to the sheath. He then climbed into the tub. “Ahhh,” he grunted, settling back. I did not think he had behaved well, but then it was not my affair. Some of the fellows who had been reclining about the platforms then came closer to the platform where the fire was built up. they did take care, however, to leave open a generous passage through which the tub’s occupant, when he chose, might make an unimpeded and convenient exit. Being hungry then, and having, to my mind, soaked long enough, I emerged from the tub, dressed, gathered my things, and the oil and such, and, picking my way among the recumbent bodies, left the bath area. I did take the opportunity, in leaving, once on the other side of the latticework, to inspect the pegs.

e-book page 48- 52

“There must be some mistake!” said the fellow. He was the same fellow, incidentally, happily, as I now noted, whom the newcomer had earlier ejected from his bath, and then drafted into service as a bath attendant. He was probably the sort of fellow who was very organized and rational, had come early to the inn, generally conducted his life in a sensible manner, and so on.

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He in attendance put an armload of wood and shavings near the bather’s tub, on the platform. In such a way, on a busy day at the baths, might some trips to the bins be saved. It is an old bath attendant’s trick. He in attendance, however, was somewhat clumsy in doing this. The striking of a piece of kindling on the tub, for example, rather on the left of the tub, seemed to cause distress to the bather. “Get out,” ordered the bather. “May I be of further service?” inquired he in attendance. “Get out!” said the bather. “Get out!” “Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir!” rasped the bent fellow, hobbling away quickly, as though frightened. Then, in a moment, he was on the other side of the latticework. On the other side of the latticework I looked back into the room of baths, not yet straightening up. beneath my cloak, of course, were the belt, scabbard and sword, his wallet, and the rectangular pouch, taken from the tub hook, under the (pg.117) diversion of the sound and blow of kindling to the left, on the tub. The bather, I noted, now lay back in the tub, his eyes closed. The real attendant was probably upstairs in the paga room, enjoying cakes and Bazi tea, a breakfast popular with Gorean on holidays. Certainly he had the means to do so. I had given him five copper tarsks. I removed the burly fellow’s helmet and clothing from the peg in the outer room. I then left the outer room of the baths

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The itemization of that bill, frightful to contemplate, had been ten for lodging, two for the bath and supplies, two for blankets, five for bread, paga and porridge, and the tarsk bit for the use of the Lady Temione, the only particular on the bill which might have been argued as within reason.

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bath girl

Bread and paga…………………………………………………….2 C.T. Other food……………………………………………………...3 – 5 C.T. Lodging……………………………………………………………10 C.T. Blanket(s)……………………………………………………………2 C.T. Bath………………………………………………………………….1 C.T. Bath girl……………………………………………………………...2 C.T. Sponge, oil and strigil………………………………………………..1 C.T. Girl for the night……………………………………………………..5 C.T. T., Greens and Stable………………………………………………...2 C.T. T., Meat and Cot……………………………………………………..5 C.T.

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Also, the bath girl, and the sponge, oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with the price of the bath itself.

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I would like a bath, the sponge, and such, and a bath girl.” “That will add two to your bill,” he said. “Should it not add four?” I asked. “No bath girl,” he said. “Because of the crowding, and the demand, we are using them as inn girls.” “I see,” I said. “You will have to sponge, oil and strigil yourself,” he said. “That seems somewhat barbaric,” I said. Also it was hard to reach certain spots on the back

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If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure. Sometimes the services of a bath girl, including massage and love, in whatever modalities the customer may elect, come in the price of the bath, and, at other times, as here, at the Crooked Tarn, I gathered, at least normally, they are extra. Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes, in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such. After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons, and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in effect, “spoiled for freedom.”

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bath girls

Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only be the time of day. This does not mean that bath girls may not be available to tend to a strong male’s various wants in the men’s baths, or that handsome silk slaves, if they are summoned, may not appear in attendance in the baths of free women

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Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes, in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such. After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons, and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in effect, “spoiled for freedom.”

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