AR
THE CAPACIAN BATHS
The Capacian Baths The Pool of Blue Flowers Bath Girl Prices of Bath Girls
Swimming Massage Bath Male Slaves
The baths of Turia The baths of Venna
The Baths at Crooked Tarn Inn
Bathing a Master Jason's bath
"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 in them, sometimes for as little as a tarsk bit. Candidates seeking election 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 by 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. (...)
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.
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 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 one. (...)
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." (...)
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."
"Renegades of Gor" pages 57/61
"Surely there are many Warriors in the city," said Kuurus. "Yes," said Portus, "but they do little they are well paid, more than twice what was done before, but they spend the mornings in practices with arms, and the afternoons and evenings in the taverns, the gaming rooms and baths of the city."
"There are, as I mentioned, many pools in the Capacian Baths, and they differ in their shapes and sizes, and in their d�cor, and in the temperatures and scents of the 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.
"Assassins of Gor" pages 163/164
"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 vial. 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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 160"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 equitably 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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 164/5
"Beneath the toweling Nela wore nothing; about her neck, rather than a 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, thought 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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 160
"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 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 will have to catch me first.�
I knew this game of the 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.
�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 her 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 then 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 to the chain about her throat, staying behind her. She tried to put her hands back cut 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 please 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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 161/3
�I do 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 the oils of the bath into my body.
�Not so hard,� I murmured to Nela.
�Yes, Master,� she responded."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 158"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 the 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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 163"Now, days after I had first met Nela, I lay thinking on the thick square of striped toweling and felt her massage the final oils of the bath into my body. (...)
She began again to massage my back. The oil was fragrant. It felt warm from her hands."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 163/166
"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."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 164
The baths of the House of Cernius
"They have interior baths which could rival the pools even of the Capacian Baths." Portus nodded in puzzlement."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 20"I have already mentioned the baths in the House of Cernus, which can rival some of the pools in the gigantic Capacian Baths, the finest of known Gor."
"Assassins of Gor" pages 110
"The baths of Turia were said to be second only to those of Ar in their luxury, the number of their pools, their temperatures, the scents and oils.
"Each night the baths were emptied and cleaned and I was one of many who attended to this task," he said. "I was only six years of age when I was taken to Turia, and I did not escape the city for eleven years." 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, "I never saw them during the day I and the other male slaves were chained in a darkened chamber 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."
Nomads of Gor" page 188/9"On the other hand," said Harold, "I might like to stop by the baths." "They are closed at this hour, are they not?" I asked. "No," said he, "not until the twentieth hour." That was midnight of the Gorean day. "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."
Nomads of Gor" page 192
"I, too, have a house in Venna," she said. "I did not know, with the state of your finances, that you had managed to retain it," said the Lady Florence. Venna is a small, exclusive resort city, some two hundred pasangs north of Ar. It is noted for its baths and its tharlarion races."
Fighting Slave of Gor" page 172"I knelt in the cool recesses of the shop of Turbus Veminius, a perfumer in Venna. Venna has many small and fine shops, catering to the affluent trade of the well-to-do, who patronize the baths and public villas of the area."
Fighting Slave of Gor" page 209
"I closed my eyes in one of the second tubs, the cleansing 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 eighteeh inches deep. On a hook, behind me, kept for towels, and such, I had shrug 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 catch, either with the large or the small ball. Similarly, there were no recreational gardens, no art galleries, no strolling lanes, no arcades of merchants, no physicians' courts, no reading rooms, no music rooms, or such. (...)
Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only by 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 level, 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 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. (...)
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. (...)
"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 m 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 helmet. I recalled file 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 tile 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.
"Alii!" 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 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 ins way from the bath area.
The newcomer then returned his blade to the sheath. He then climbed into the tub. "Ahh," 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 arid 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 in the light of the small lamp there, near the exit, I determined that the helmet bore the insignia of the company of Artemidorus of Cos."
"Renegades of Gor" pages 57/61
"Master?" she asked. "I have come to serve you." she said.
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. I 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 the 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. 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 of 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 rising jars.
She put the objects she carried on the floor to her right.
"Here Master," she said, feeling for it, "is a salve collar. You may place it on me when you wish." She put it with the 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 me.
"Am I to bathe you now, Master?" 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 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 the side. She then stood again before me her head down.
I smiled. The girl had been taught how to disrobe a Master for his 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 sensed 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 cleaning 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. Many men, I think, fail to understand the pervasiveness and radiance, the depth, and contextual richness of female sexuality. It is such a wondrous, deep, and marvelous thing. He who denies a woman her right to serve man, and particularly in such small ways, denies to her a portion of herself; that man is not only a fool, for he is the natural recipient of such attentions, but he is cruel; such a denial too, can make a woman ashamed to seek sexual gratification for such small services, usually unbeknownst to the boorish male, are intimately connected with such gratification; this is one reason, incidentally, that those who secretly fear sexuality and would repudiate it, will be among the first to denounce such homely serves of love. In the case of the slave girl, of course, such services are commanded of her. She must perform them. This tells her then, on some deep level, that it is all right, truly to be a woman. Indeed, she is given no choice but to be a woman. Thusly is her love unqualifiedly liberated. This type of thing, I think, accounts for something of the joy which is experienced by many slave girls, a joy which, otherwise, would seem inexplicable. The second major purpose with respect to the effect on the girl, is that she is touching and in effect in the bathing, caressing a man's body. She is intimately close to the male, even to the extent of sensual tactuality. Being alive and hormonally active, of course, this is arousing to her. And it is particularly arousing to a slave female, for she knows she is fit meat for the lust of men. Does her very condition not tell her that? Too, she herself, though is not touched. This is frustrating to her, naturally, and intensified her desire, usually near the surface in a slave, to be taken in the arms of 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 wrist behind her back. I thought it well that she should feel herself tied.
"Rogue of Gor" page 199/203
"I was ordered to eat and, kneeling, observed, did so. 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. I was then given a white, silken tunic. "Kneel," he then said. I knelt, and again he fastened me in my collar.
"Fighting Slave" pages 126
