Blood Brothers of Gor Page 4

  Our eyes met. "A slave is grateful that a master deigned to touch her," she whispered.

  "You may come with us, if you wish," I assured her.

  "Perhaps," she smiled.

  "Hurry!" said Cuwignaka, impatiently. "You know she is yours whenever you wish. Grunt has told you as much. Now hurry. There are important things to do!"

  I kissed the girl then, and left her behind me. She would get dressed, donning the brief, simple shirtdress of hide she had been given, and report back, head down and kneeling, to Grunt, her master.

  "Throw the hoop, throw the hoop, Tatankasa!" cried out a lad.

  I took the hoop and, after two false starts, suddenly flung it to my left. The lad turned swiftly, seeing the movement with his peripheral vision, and fired a small arrow expertly through the rolling object.

  "Eca! Well done!" I cried. I was truly amazed at the little devil's expertise.

  "Again! Again, Tatankasa!" cried the little fellow. Such games, of course, have their role to play in honing skills and sharpening reflexes that may be of great importance in adulthood.

  "I cannot," I told him.

  "Please, Tatankasa!" cried the lad.

  "I am a slave," I told him. "I must accompany Cuwignaka."

  "Yes," said Cuwignaka, firmly.

  "I understand," said the lad. "You are a slave. You must obey."

  "Yes," I said.

  I then hurried after Cuwignaka, who was almost darting between lodges.

  A domestic sleen snarled at me. I gave it a wide berth.

  "There!" said Cuwignaka. "There, you see!"

  "They are the Isanna?" I asked.

  "Yes!" said Cuwignaka.

  The Isanna was the Little-Knife Band of the Kaiila. They came from the countries around Council Rock, north of the northern fork of the Kaiila River and west of the Snake, a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The normal distributions, given food supply and such, of the bands of the Kaiila are usually rather as follows. First, understand that there exists the Kaiila River, flowing generally in a southwestward direction. At a given point, high in the territory of the Kaiila tribe, it branches into two rivers, which are normally spoken of as the Northern Kaiila and the Southern Kaiila. The Snake, flowing in an almost southern direction, is a tributary to the Northern Kaiila. The land of the Napoktan, or Bracelets band of the Kaiila, is east of the Snake, and north of the Northern Kaiila, and the Kaiila proper. The Wismahi, or Arrowhead band of the Kaiila, holds the more northern lands in and below, to some extent, the fork of the Kaiila. The Isbu's lands are the more southern lands between the Northern and Southern branches of the Kaiila. The lands of the Casmu, or Sand band of the Kaiila, lie to the west of the Isanna, and to the north and west of the Isbu, above the descending northern branch of the Northern Kaiila. It is not clear, historically, whether the river is named for the red savages through whose territories it tends to flow, or whether the savages have taken their name from the river system. My own suspicion in this matter, borne out by tribal stories, is that the early savages in this area found large herds of wild kaiila roaming the plains. They took, then, probably for medicine reasons, the name of the Kaiila for themselves. Subsequently, one supposes, watercourses originally understood to be, say, the rivers of the Kaiila people, or the rivers in the country of the Kaiila people, came to be known more simply as the Kaiila River, or Rivers.

  "It is a splendid sight!" said Cuwignaka.

  "It is," I granted him.

  The Isanna Kaiila number between some seven and eight hundred. They were now entering the camp, from the east, in long lines, in their full regalia. The Casmu, the Wismahi and the Napoktan had already joined the Isbu in the summer gathering. The Casmu numbered in the neighborhood of one thousand; the Wismahi, one of the smaller bands, numbered about five or six hundred. The Isbu was the largest band, containing between sixteen and seventeen hundred members. The Napoktan, which had arrived at the camp only yesterday, was the smallest of the bands of the Kaiila, numbering between some three and four hundred members. These bands, within their own territories, are often divided into separate villages or encampments. In a given encampment, usually under a minor chief, there is seldom more than two or three hundred individuals. Indeed, sometimes an encampment contains only seven or eight families.

  "Splendid! Splendid!" said Cuwignaka.

  Three or four abreast, in long lines, led by their civil chief, Watonka, One-Who-Is-Rich, and subchiefs and high warriors, the Isanna entered the camp of the Isbu. They carried feathered lances, and war shields and medicine shields, in decorated cases. They carried bow cases and quivers. They were resplendent in finery and paint. Feathers, each one significant and meaningful, in the codes of the Kaiila, recounting their deeds and honors, adorned their hair. Necklaces and rude bracelets glinted in the sun. High-pommeled saddles were polished. Coins and beads hung from the reins. Exploit markings and luck signs were painted on the flanks and forequarters of their animals, and ribbons and feathers were fixed in the braided, silken manes. Women, too, in their shirtdresses and knee-length leggings, and beads, bracelets and armbands, and colorful blankets and capes, astride their kaiila, riding as red savages ride, participated in this barbaric parade.

  Some of these rode kaiila to which travois were attached. Some had cradles slung about the pommels of their saddles. These cradles, most of them, are essentially wooden frames on which are fixed leather, open-fronted enclosures, opened and closed by lacings, for the infant. The wooden frame projects both above and below the enclosure for the infant. In particular it contains two sharpened projections at the top, like picket spikes, extending several inches above the point where the baby's head will be located. This is to protect the infant's head in the event of the cradle falling, say, from the back of a running kaiila. Such a cradle will often, in such a case, literally stick upside down in the earth. The child, then, laced in the enclosure, protected and supported by it, is seldom injured.

  Such cradles, too, vertically, are often hung from a lodge pole or in the branches of a tree. In the tree, of course, the wind, in its rocking motion, can lull the infant to sleep. Older children often ride on the skins stretched between travois poles. Sometimes their fathers or mothers carry them before them, on the kaiila. When a child is about six, if his family is well-fixed, he will commonly have his own kaiila. The red savage, particularly the males, will usually be a skilled rider by the age of seven. Bareback riding, incidentally, is common in war and the hunt. In trading and visiting, interestingly, saddles are commonly used. This is perhaps because they can be decorated lavishly, adding to one's appearance, and may serve, in virtue of the pommel, primarily, as a support for provisions, gifts and trade articles.

  "It is simply splendid," said Cuwignaka, happily.

  "Yes," I said.

  Children, too, I noted, those not in cradles, greased, their hair braided, their bodies and clothing ornamented, in splendid finery, like miniature versions of the adults, some riding, some sitting on the skins stretched between travois poles, participated happily and proudly, or bewilderedly, in this handsome procession.

  "They are bringing their goods with them," I said. The travois with them were heavily laden, with bundles, and lodge skins and poles. Indeed, the travois poles themselves, when untied and freed from the kaiila, would be used as lodge poles.

  "It is the way our peoples move," said Cuwignaka. Goods would not be left behind, save occasionally in hidden caches.

  At the flanks of some of the warriors' kaiila marched stripped white women, in beaded collars. Their wrists were tied behind them. About their throats, on thong loops, below the collars, dangling between their breasts, hung leather, braided kaiila quirts. There was little doubt as to what such women were. I met the eyes of one, and she looked away, tossing her head, disdainfully, in her bonds and collar, the quirt about her neck. She was the property of a red master. I then met the eyes of another. This one, too, looked away, but she did so quickly, fearfully. She was very frightened. I gathered that sh
e was terribly afraid of her master. She did not so much as dare to look at another man. These girls had both been blond. So, too, I noted, were most of the other such women.

  "The two-legged, female animals here are mostly blond," I said to Cuwignaka.

  "Yes," he said. "They are being displayed."

  I nodded. Such a hair color is a rarity in the Barrens. I supposed the women understood clearly that they, like the silver pendants tied in the manes, like the coins fastened on the reins, like the saddles inlaid with gold, with golden wire wrapped about the pommels, were being displayed as portions of the wealth of the Isanna.

  "The others," said Cuwignaka, "stripped, are kept in small herds, with the kaiila, outside the camp, watched over by boys."

  "I understand," I said. The Isanna would probably see little point in marching more familiar types, more common women, before the Isbu.

  I saw another blonde moving by. She was half stumbling, half being dragged along, weeping, on a short neck tether, not more than five feet long. She was, I would guess, about seventeen. The tether was in the fist of a red master. I did not think he was more than eighteen years of age. He was moving his kaiila quickly, along the side of the lines, probably hurrying to occupy his designated place in the procession. He was not gentle with his lovely property. She was crying. She seemed new to her collar. I suspected she had not been a slave long. She was a survivor, perhaps, of the wagon train which had been attacked several days ago. She was doubtless still in the process of learning her new purposes in life. I saw no woman with the Isanna, incidentally, who had a hair color remotely like that of the slender, lovely Winyela, Canka's slave. I wondered if she knew the extent to which she was a prize in the Barrens.

  "Mahpiyasapa is going to greet Watonka," said Cuwignaka. "Let us hurry forward, that we may see."

  I was not at all certain that this was a good idea, but I accompanied Cuwignaka. He was so young, so insuppressible, so elated to be again with the Isbu, his people, that, I think, he did not soberly consider whether or not he would be likely to be welcome at such an encounter, even as a bystander.

  Mahpiyasapa, Black Clouds, civil chief of the Isbu, greeted Watonka, One-Who-Is-Rich, on foot, welcoming him officially to the Isbu camp. This honor accorded him, Watonka dismounted. The two men embraced. About them were gathered medicine men and high warriors. With Mahpiyasapa were his son, Hci, and members of the Sleen Soldiers. Canka, too, was there, and several of the All Comrades. Chiefs and representatives of the Casmu, Napoktan and Wismahi, too, were present. Among them I saw Kahintokapa, One-Who-Walks-Before, of the Casmu, and two other members, as well, of the prestigious Yellow-Kaiila Riders.

  "Greetings, Iwoso," said Cuwignaka. "How beautiful you have become."

  He had spoken to a girl who was standing near the stirrup of another girl, mounted on a kaiila. The standing girl, to whom Cuwignaka had spoken, had come with the Isanna. She had come walking at the stirrup of the mounted girl. She wore a rather plain shirtdress, with knee-length leggings and moccasins. Her braided hair was tied with red cloth. There were glass beads about her neck. She was quite lovely. The girl on the kaiila, too, was very lovely, indeed, perhaps even more lovely than she afoot. But her beauty, in any event, was much enhanced by her finery. Her dress was of soft-tanned hide, almost white, fringed, into which, about the breasts and shoulders, were worked intricate patterns of yellow and red beading. Her leggings and moccasins were similarly decorated. Her braided hair, glossy and long, was bound with silver string. Two golden bracelets adorned her left wrist. She wore two necklaces of beads, and another on which were threaded tiny, heavy tubes and pendants, spaced intermittently, of silver and gold. Across her forehead hung a tiny silver chain on which were tiny silver droplets.

  "You, too, Bloketu," said Cuwignaka, looking up at the mounted girl.

  "Do not speak to my maiden," said the girl on the kaiila.

  "Iwoso is a Yellow Knife," said Cuwignaka. "She was taken when she was twelve. Bloketu is the daughter of Watonka."

  "I see," I said. The girl, Iwoso, did not wear a collar. I had suspected, however, from the plainness of her dress, the fact that she was on foot, with the Isanna, and seemed clearly in attendance on the girl astride the kaiila, that she was not of the Isanna, but was, rather, one owned by them, or, at least, living with them.

  "Iwoso has high status with the Isanna," said Cuwignaka. "You can see that she is not even collared."

  "Yes," I said. The name 'Iwoso', incidentally, means "Pouting Lips." Her lips, on the other hand, were not protrusive. The name, thusly, I conjectured, might once have been given to her for other than anatomical reasons. Probably she had once been sullen or petulant. She had then discovered that, by the decision of her master or mistress, she was "Pouting Lips." The expression 'Bloketu', incidentally, the name of the girl on the kaiila, the daughter of the Isanna chieftain, Watonka, means "Summer" or "Summertime."

  "What have we here?" asked Watonka, chieftain of the Isanna.

  "I do not know her," said Bloketu, not deigning to look upon Cuwignaka.

  "From the summer dances, long ago," said Cuwignaka. "You remember me, surely. I was Petuste. I found flowers for you. We rode kaiila together."

  "Perhaps my maiden remembers you," said the girl. 'Petuste' means "Fire-Brand." More broadly, of course, it can refer to any piece of burning wood. He was the brother of Canka, of course, Fire-Steel. This was the first time I had ever heard the former name of Cuwignaka.

  "Do you remember her, Iwoso?" asked the girl on the kaiila of the girl at her stirrup.

  "No," said Iwoso.

  "Iwoso!" protested Cuwignaka.

  "You see," said Bloketu, from the height of the saddle, "you are not remembered."

  "Who is she?" inquired Watonka.

  "A shame of the Isbu," said Mahpiyasapa. He was still furious with Canka, who had seen fit, in virtue of capture rights, muchly desiring her, to put his collar on the lovely Winyela.

  "Obviously she is only a female of the Isbu," said one of the men with Watonka.

  "Go away," said Canka to Cuwignaka, angrily. "You do us shame."

  "That is her brother," said Hci to one of the Isanna. "He has such a one for a sister, and yet was permitted to serve as Blotanhunka for the All Comrades."

  "Oh?" said the man.

  "Yes," said Hci.

  "Beware, Hci!" said Canka.

  "Of what?" asked Hci. "Do I not speak the truth?"

  Canka clenched his fists, in fury.

  "What do you think of one who takes a woman brought into our country to be sold to his chieftain?" asked Mahpiyasapa of Watonka.

  "I think such a one should be punished," said Watonka. "Then the woman should be given to the chief."

  "I was within my rights," said Canka.

  "Let me, and the Sleen Soldiers, punish him," said Hci. "Let us destroy his lodge and break his weapons. Then we will bring you the woman naked, and tied in leather."

  "I will think on it," said Mahpiyasapa.

  "I was within my rights," said Canka.

  "Deliver the woman to me," said Mahpiyasapa.

  "No," said Canka. "She is mine."

  "Perhaps I will take her," said Mahpiyasapa. "I will think on it."

  "She is mine," said Canka.

  Mahpiyasapa shrugged. "If I want," he said, "I will take her."

  Canka, in fury, turned about and strode from the group.

  "Beware of an angry young man," said Watonka to Mahpiyasapa. Hci looked after Canka.

  "Perhaps you will come sew with us sometime," said Bloketu, lofty and beautiful on the kaiila, to Cuwignaka.

  Cuwignaka did not respond to her.

  "Is she not pretty, Iwoso?" asked Bloketu.

  "Yes," said Iwoso.

  "I wonder if she is the sort of woman who must please warriors," said Bloketu.

  Cuwignaka regarded her with fury. I saw that he would not have minded teaching the lofty Bloketu something about the pleasing of men.

  "Perhaps," laughed Iwo
so.

  This, too, stung Cuwignaka. He, Kaiila, did not care to be the butt of the humor of one who, when all was said and done, was naught but a slave.

  "You were told to go away," said Hci to Cuwignaka. "Does a sister not obey her brother?"

  "He is my older brother," said Cuwignaka. "I will go away." He then turned and left. I followed him. Behind us we heard the laughter of the two girls.

  "It was a mistake," I told him, when we were between the lodges, "to intrude yourself so closely upon the meeting of the Isanna and Isbu."

  "Not at all," said Cuwignaka. "How often does such a meeting take place? Who would wish to miss it? Too, I wanted to see the white slaves, and Bloketu and Iwoso."

  "You have feelings toward such women?" I asked.

  "Yes," said Cuwignaka. "I would like to own them. In my lodge I would have them naked and I would then, with my quirt, if necessary, teach them to obey me well."

  "What of Bloketu and Iwoso?" I asked.

  "If they were slaves," said Cuwignaka, "I would strip them and teach them, like the slaves they would then be, no different from others, to obey me well."

  "Would you quirt them?" I asked.

  "Of course," said Cuwignaka. "If they were even the least bit displeasing they, like the others, would be well quirted."

  "Iwoso is already a slave," I said.

  "Yes," said Cuwignaka, "in a sense. But she is really almost free. She is a girl's maiden."

  "That is true," I said. Iwoso did not even wear a collar.

  "Where are you going?" I asked.

  "After the hunt," said Cuwignaka, "the great dance will be held."

  I had to walk quickly to keep up with Cuwignaka.

  "Where are you going now?" I asked Cuwignaka.

  "To see the cutting of the pole," he said.

  "Where does this take place?" I asked. I did not understand what was going on.

  "This year it is only three pasangs from camp," he said.

  "I do not understand," I said.

  "This year," Cuwignaka, "I am going to dance. I am going to show them I am a man."

  "The pole," I said, "is used in this dance?"