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Animals
The Bosk The bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike creature. It is a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long, wicked horns that reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate in fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears. Not only does the flesh of the bosk and the milk of its cows furnish the Wagon Peoples with food and drink, but its hides cover the domelike wagons in which they dwell; its tanned and sewn skins cover their bodies; the leather of its hump is used for their shields; its sinews form their thread; its bones and horns are split and tooled into implements of a hundred sorts, from awls, punches and spoons to drinking flagons and weapon tips; its hoofs are used for glues; its oils are used to grease their bodies against the cold. Even the dung of the bosk finds its uses on the treeless prairies, being dried and used for fuel. The bosk is said to be the Mother of the Wagon Peoples, and they reverence it as such. The man who kills one foolishly is strangled in thongs or suffocated in the hide of the animal he slew; if, for any reason, the man should kill a bosk cow with unborn young he is staked out, alive, in the path of the herd, and the march of the Wagon Peoples takes its way over him. ---Nomads of Gor, 1:4-5 Ever present are the bosk, even when out of sight, so integral to the daily lives of the our people. There might be close to a million beasts grazing near the camp, and we ride hard through their midst, herding them. Huge, dangerous mammals with ill tempers, a ponderous gait and murderous horns, they are tended by our slave girls who make countless trips to the nearest river for water. During the winter migration north, it is not uncommon to find free and slave alike crying with the relief of finding green grass for their bosk to graze and thusly survive. Without the bosk, our people could not survive, utilizing all parts of these mammals in everyday life. Kaiila �The children of the Wagon Peoples are taught the saddle of the kaiila before they can walk. ---Nomads of Gor, 3:17 The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young. The young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as they can struggle to their feet, they hunt. It is an instinct of the mother, sensing the birth, to deliver the young animal in the vicinity of game. I supposed, with the domesticated kaiila, a bound verr or a prisoner might be cast to the newborn animal. The kaiila, once it eats its fill, does not touch food for several days. ---Nomads of Gor, 2:13 The bosk is not the only animal to be found in a wagon camp, although it is certainly the most important. The kaiila is the mount of our warriors, and several of these are kept with each wagon, the actual number being determined by the wealth of the individual warrior. The kaiila is both swift and graceful in its silken glory, standing twenty to twenty-two hands high at the shoulder. It is also vicious as well as beautiful, and inhabits only the southern hemisphere of Gor. It does not suckle its young, which must hunt and kill from the moment of birth. The kaiila must only be fed once every few days, and it is has extraordinary powers of endurance, being able to travel as much as six hundred pasangs in a day. Verr The verr is a Gorean goat. The wild variety is from the mountainous areas, but a smaller, longhaired domesticated variety is more commonly seen. It is used for meat, and its skin can be used for the making of garments, vellum, or wineskins. Its hide is, of course, much lighter than the hide of the bosk. Prairie Sleen If I were found on the plains near the camps or the bosk herds I knew I would be scented out and slain by the domesticated, nocturnal herd sleen, used as shepherds and sentinels by the Wagon Peoples, released from their cages with the falling of darkness. These animals, trained prairie sleen, move rapidly and silently, attacking upon no other provocation than trespass on what they have decided is their territory. They respond only to the voice of their master, and when he is killed or dies, his animals are slain and eaten. ---Nomads of Gor, 2:9 Prairie Sleen 7 feet in length ...farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads mov- ing from side to side, continually testing the wind; Nomads The last of the animals most important to us is the prairie sleen. This animal is the nocturnal guardian of the camp. The sleen is a vicious carnivore, caged during the day, and set free only at night to roam the peripheries of the bosk herd. They are also used as trackers for escaped slaves, and can follow a scent that is as much as a month old. When they find their quarry, they kill and eat it. A sleen cannot be approached by anyone but its own master; anyone else, it will kill. Each night, it is imperative that everyone be safe in the camp before the sleen are released. When a sleen's master dies, the sleen itself must be slain, and fed to its own kind. |
