Animals, Insects and Fish of Gor
|
|
Animals, Insects and Fish of Gor |
|
|
|
||
|
Bosk A huge, shaggy, ox-like animal that provides, meat, milk and leather. It is a symbol of the Wagon Peoples. "...or the ill-tempered,
cumbersome bosk, a shaggy, long-haired wild ox of the Gorean plains."
"It is a huge shambling
animal, with a thick, humped neck, and long, shaggy hair. It has 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 the larger animals,
measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears." "The bosk is said to
be the Mother of the Wagon Peoples, and they reverence it as such."
"The bosk is a large,
horned, shambling ruminant of the Gorean plains. It is herded below the
Gorean equator by the Wagon Peoples, but there are Bosk herds on ranches
in the north as well, and peasants often keep some of the animals."
"...I heard the mating
whistles of the tiny, lovely Cosian wingfish. This is a small, delicate
fish; it has three of four slender spines in its dorsal fins, which are
poisonous. It is called the wingfish because it can, on its stiff pectoral
fins, for short distances, glide through the air, usually in an attempt
to flee small sea thalarion, who are immune to the poisonous spines. It
is also called a songfish, because, in their courtship rituals, males
and females thrust their head from the water, uttering a kind of whistle."
" 'Now this,' Saphrar
the merchant was telling me, 'is the braised liver of the blue, four-spired
Cosian wingfish.'
Black eels...roughly four
feet in length, weighing 8 to 10 pounds. They are ferocious hunters and
are attracted by blood. They can gouge ounces of flesh in one bite. "The dock eels, black,
about four feet long, are tenacious creatures. They had not relinquished
their hold on the flesh in their jaws when they had been forcibley struck
away from the leg, back into the water." "Below me the water
was swarming with eels. The blood from my back, I realized, running down
the blade and dripping into the water, had attracted them." "I was only dimly conscious
of the wetness of my back. Then something wet and heavy, slithering; leapt
upward out of the water, and splashed back. My leg felt stinging. It had
not been able to fasten its jaws on me. I looked downward. Two more heads,
tapering, menacing, solid, were emerged from the water, looking up at
me. Then, streaking from under the water, suddenly breaking its surface,
another body, some four feet in length, about eight or ten pounds in weight,
leapt upward...I knew that the fastening of those jaws, in a fair bite,
could gouge ounces of flesh from a man's body...."
There are 2 kinds of Gant.
Jungle and Marsh Horned Gim: "...the call of a tiny
horned gim, the tiny purplish owllike bird." "I heard the throaty
warbling, so loud for such a small bird, of the tiny horned gim."
Found in the Nest of the Priest-Kings. It gives off an odor that acts as a narcotic to the Priest-Kings and hypnotizes them, luring them to their deaths. " 'What does the Golden
Beetle kill?' I asked. 'Priest-Kings,' said the second slave." "It was about the size
of a rhinoceros and the first thing I noticed after the glowing eyes were
two multiply hooked, tubular, hollow, pincerlike extension that met at
the tips perhaps a yard beyond its body.They seemed clearly some aberrant
mutation of its jaws. Its antennae, unlike those of the Priest-Kings,
were very short. They curved and were tipped with a fluff of golden hair.
Most strangely perhaps were several long, golden strands, almost a mane,
which extended from the creatures head over its domed golden back and
fell almost to the floor behind it. The back itself seemed divided into
two thick casings which might once, ages before, have been horny wings,
but now the tissues had, at the points of touching together, fused in
such a way as to form what was for all practical purposes a thick, immobile
golden shell." "The exudate which
forms on the mane hairs of the Golden Beetle, which had overcome me in
the close confines of the tunnel, apparently has a most intense and, to
a human mind, almost incomprehensibly compelling effect on the unusually
sensitive antennae of the Priest-Kings, luring them helplessly, almost
as if hypnotized, to the jaws of the Beetle, who then penetrates their
body with its hollow, pincerlike jaws and drains its body of fluid."
There are two kinds of Grunt,
a Blue and a White. "Before each guest
there were tiny slices of tospit and larma, small pastries, and in a tiny
golden cup, with a small golden spoon, the clustered, black, tiny eggs
of the white grunt." "Three other men of
the Forkbeard attended to fishing, two with a net, sweeping it along the
side of the serpent, for parsit fish, and the third, near the stem, with
a hook and line, baited with vulo liver, for the white-bellied grunt,
a large game fish which haunts the plankton banks to feed on parsit fish."
" 'Those are Vosk gulls,'
said Kamchak, 'In the spring, when the ice breaks in the Vosk, they fly
north.' " The Gorean Python "In another case, somnolent
and swollen, I saw a rare golden hith, a Gorean python whose body, even
when unfed, it would be difficult for a full-grown man to encircle with
his arms."
Hurlit
Provides wool, thought to
be kangaroo like? "Two peasants walked
by, in their rough tunics, knee-length, of the white wool of the Hurt."
"I wore a white robe,
woven of the wool of the Hurt, imported from distant Ar,..." "Her hair was blond
and straight, tied behind her with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding
Hurt, dyed in the blood of the Vosk sorp."
Gorean vultures "Fluttering jards,
covering many of the carcasses like gigantic flies, stirred, swarming
upward as Inmak passed them, and then returned to their feeding."
A large reptile looking animal, used by the Wagon Peoples and in the Tahari as a mount. The Kaiila is well-suited for the harsh conditions of the Tahari and the Plains. Its viciousness makes it a formidable mount for a Warrior as well. "The mount of the Wagon
Peoples, unknown in the northern hemispheres of Gor, is the terrifying
but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivourous, lofty creature, graceful,
long-necked, smooth gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian,
though there is no suckling of the young...The kaiila is extremely agile...normally
stands about tweny to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much
as six hundred pasangs in a single day's riding. The head of the kaiila
bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded
probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked
by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent
third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that
force other prairie animals to back into the wind, or like the sleen,
to burrow into the ground." "The kaiila of these
men were as tawny as the brown grass of the prairie, save for that of
the man who faced me, whose mount was a silken, sable black..." "My mount, a lofty
black kaiila, silken and swift, shifted nervously beneath me." "I then saw the kaiila
pass. It was lofty, stately, fanged and silken. I had heard of such beasts,
but this was the first time I had seen. It was yellow, with flowing hair.
Its rider was mounted in a high, purple saddle, with knives in the saddle
sheaths."
Another plains bison-type animal. The descriptions make it seem related to the bosk, though with more horns. The kailiauk is a 'symbol' to the Red Savages much as the bosk is to the Wagon Peoples...perhaps the differences in the two are related more to the climates they inhabit? "I looked beyond Hci
to the beasts, some two to three pasangs away. The kailiauk is a large,
lumbering, shaggy, trident-horned ruminant. It has four stomachs and an
eight valved heart. It is dangerous, gregarious, small eyed and short
tempered. Adult males can stand as high as twenty or twenty five hands
at the shoulder and weigh as much as four thousand pounds." "It is difficult to
make clear to those who are not intimately acquainted with such things
the " 'Over there,' said
Hci, to us, pointing east by southeast, 'there is a draw. In the draw
there is a fallen bull, a Smooth Horns, no more than some six winters
in age. Attend to it.' "Almost at the same
time, suddenly, about a bend in the draw, turning, lurching, its shoulder
striking the side of the draw, its feet almost slippping out from under
it, in its turn, in the soft footing, covered with dust, its eyes wild
and red, foam at its nostrils and mouth, some twenty five hundred pounds
or better in weight, snorting, kicking dust behind it hurtled a kailiauk
bull. "Even past me thundered
a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward
ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red
and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they
had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle
of tridents..." "The kailiauk in question,
incidently,is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic,dangerous
beast, often standing from twenty to twenty five hands at the shoulder
and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. it is almost never hunted
on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback,
riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill
one with a single arrow. He rides close to the animal,not a yard from
its side, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement
the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can sink
in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind
the last rib, producing large scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely
behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight valved heart."
"To the oases, caravans
bring various goods, for example, rep-cloth, embroidered cloths, silks,
rugs, silver, gold, jewelries, mirrors, kailiauk tusks..."
In Torvoldsland, the word Kur means beast. Kurii eat humans and are the enemies of Goreans. Cabot spends much of his time in several of the books fighting Kurii. "In the doorway, silhouetted
against flames behind them, we saw great, black, shaggy figures."
"Its head was approximately
the width of the chest of a large man. It had a flat snout, with wide
nostrils. Its ears were large, and pointed....The beast was approximately
nine feet in height; I conjectured its weight in the neighborhood of eight
or nine hundred pounds. Interestingly, Priest-Kings, who are not visually
oriented organisms, find little difference between Kurii and men...One
difference they do remark between the human and the Kur,and that is that
the human,commonly, has an inhibition against killing. This inhibition
the Kur lacks." "The Kur has two rows
of fangs. Its mouth is large enough to take into it the head of a full
grown man." "The prehensile paws,
or hands, of the Kurii are six-digited and multiple jointed. The legs
are thick and short."
" 'The first southern
migrations of meadow kites,' he said, 'have already taken place.'"
Resembles the large jungle felines of Earth...tigers, lions and the like. They cannot be tamed. "The larl is a predator,
clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder.
I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any
rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarily
jungle cats of my old world....The larl's head is broad, sometimes more
than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull
something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and
the pupils of the eyes like the cat's...the pelt of the larl is normally
a tawney red or sable black. The black larl, which is predominately nocturnal,
is maned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry,
regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, posesses no mane."
"None of the men below
the mountains, the mortals, had ever succeeded in taming a larl. Even
larl cubs when found and raised by men would, on reaching their majority,
on some night, in a sudden burst of atavistic fury slay their masters
and under the three hurtling moons of Gor, lope from the dwellings of
men, driven by what instincts I know not, to seek the mountains where
they were born." "I once asked a Gorean
hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten
his reply. 'Because it is beautiful,' he said, 'and dangerous, and because
we are Goreans.' "
Lelt A small, blind white fish which inhabits the brine pits at Klima. "The lelt is commonly
five to seven inches in length. It is white and long-finned." "Lelts are often attracted
to the salt rafts, largely by the vibrations in the water, picked up by
their abnormally developed lateral-line protrusions, and their fernlike
craneal vibration receptors, from the cones and poles. Too, though they
are blind, I think either the light, or the heat, perhaps, from our lamps,
draws them. The tiny eyeless heads will thrust from the water, and the
fernlike filaments at the side of the head will open and lift, orienting
themselves to one or the other of the lamps." "It swims slowly and
smoothly, its fins moving the water very little..."
"...turning as it made
a swift strike, probably a Vosk carp or marsh turtle."
A small, venomous snake whose bite will cause a painful death within seconds. Commonly they are bright orange, but the banded ost is yellowish orange with black rings. Both are poisonous. "One to be feared even
more perhaps was the tiny ost, a venomous, brilliantly orange reptile
little more than a foot in length, whose bite spelled an excruciating
death within seconds." "The banded ost is
a variety of ost, a small, customarily brilliantly orange Gorean reptile.
The banded ost is yellowish orange and is marked with black rings.
A small, silvery striped fish commonly used (cut up and raw) in the bond-maid gruel of Torvordsland. It is also salted or dried and sold to more southern cities. "The main business
of Kassau is trade, lumber and fishing. The slender striped parsit fish
has vast plankton banks north of the town, and may there, particularly
in the spring and the fall, be taken in great numbers." "The men with the net
drew it up. In it, twisting and flopping, silverish, striped with brown,
squirmed more than a stone of parsit fish. They threw the net to the planking
and, with knives, began to slice the heads and tails from the fish."
"The men of Torvoldsland
are skilled with their hands. Trade to the south, of course is largely
in furs acquired from Torvoldsland, and in barrels of smoked, dried parsit
fish." "The men who had fished
with the net had now cleaned the catch of parsit fish, and chopped the
cleaned, boned, silverish bodies into pieces, a quarter inch in width.
Another of the bond-maids was then freed to mix the bond-maid gruel, mixing
fresh water with Sa-Tarna meal, and then stirring in the raw fish."
Three-toed, dun colored mammals with stiff brushy manes of black hair. "I saw what I first
thought was a shadow, but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering
flock of tiny creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called
qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff, brushy mane of black hair."
"...and these are often
used for hunting light game, such as the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae,..."
Poisonous, crab-like desert insects. "...that once an army
of a thousand wagons turned aside because a swarm of rennels, poisonous,
crablike desert insects, did not defend its broken nest..."
Inhabiting the brine pits along with the lelts; the salamanders are also white and blind. Unlike the lelts, though, salmanders have legs and external gills. "Among the lelts, too,
were, here and there, tiny salamanders, they, too, white and blind. Like
the lelts, they were, for their size, long-bodied, were capable of long
periods of domancy and posessed a slow metabolism, useful in an environment
in which food is not plentiful. Unlike the lelts, they had long stemlike
legs....but the filaments, in the case of the salamanders, interestingly,
are not vibration receptors, but feather gills, an external gill system."
Salt
Leaches
"Following such rains,
great clouds of sand flies appear, wakened from dormancy. These feast
on kaiila and men. Normally, flying insects are found only in the vicinity
of the oases."
There are several varieties of shark on Gor; the marsh and river sharks as well as the salt shark that inhabits the brine pits of Klima. The marsh shark is eel-like, long, and has nine gills. The river shark is black with triangular dorsal fins and lives in the fresh waters of Gor. The salt shark is white, blind, and also has a dorsal fin and is nine gilled. "Beyond them would
be the almost eel-like, long-bodied, nine-gilled Gorean marsh sharks."
"I saw a sudden movement
in the water. Something, with a twist of its great spine had suddenly
darted from the waters under the pier and entered the current of the Laurius.
I saw the flash of a triangular, black dorsal fin. "We saw the broad,
blunt head, eyeless, white...On the whitish back, near the high dorsal
fin, there was a long scar. Part of the dorsal fin itself was rent, and
scarred. These were lance marks....At the top of the food chain in the
pits, a descendant, dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas,
stood the long-bodied, nine-gilled salt shark." "A recalcitrant girl
may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however some danger in
this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt
to tear such a girl from the oar."
Six-legged, furred mammal. Used to track, hunt, guard herd of bosk (and slave girls) and also to herd slave girls. There are forest and prairie sleen as well as the snow and sea sleen on Gor. "It is at night that
the sleen hunts, that six-legged, long-bodied mammalian carnivore, almost
as much a snake as an animal." "The vicious, six-legged
sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian but resembling a furred, serpentine
lizard, was a reliable, indefatigable hunter. He could follow a scent
days old with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of pasangs, and days, later,
be unleashed for the sport of the hunters, to tear his victim to pieces."
"I caught a strange,
unpleasant scent, much like a common weasel or ferret, only stronger.
In that instance every sense was alert...I thought I heard a slight sniffling,
a grunt, a small doglike whine...Most likely it was a sleen, hopefully
a young one...Then I saw it, on its six short legs, undulate across the
road, like a furred lizard, its pointed, whiskered snout swaying from
side to side testing the wind...It was indeed a young sleen, not more
than eight feet long..." "The sleen is Gor's
most perfect hunter." "...I saw the sleen,
this time a full grown animal, some nineteen or twenty feet long, charging
toward me, swiftly, noiselessly, its ears straight against its pointed
head, its fur slick with rain, its fangs bared, its wide nocturnal eyes
bright with the lust of the kill." "There are many varieties
of sleen, and most varieties can be, to one extent or another, domesticated.
The two most common sorts of trained sleen are the smaller, tawny prairie
sleen, and the large, brown or black forest sleen, sometimes attaining
a length of twenty feet. In the north, I am told the snow sleen has been
domesticated. The sleen is a dangerous and fairly common animal on Gor,
which has adapted itself to a variety of environments. There is even an
aquatic variety, called the sea sleen, which is one of the swiftest and
most dreaded beasts in the sea." "Sleen are used for
a multitude of purposes on Gor, but most commonly they are used for herding,
tracking, guarding and patrolling. The verr and the bosk are the most
common animals herded; tabuk and slave girls are the most common animals
tracked; the uses to which the sleen is put to guarding and patrolling
are innumerable; it is used to secure borders, to prowl walls and protect
camps; it may run loose in the streets after curfews...." "I saw its belly lower
itself to the ground, the head still lifted, watching me. Its tail lashed,
its eyes blazed. It inched forward. It had two rows of fangs." "The hides can serve
as harnesses for the snow sleen..." "A recalcitrant girl
may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however some danger in
this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt
to tear such a girl from the oar." "She wore, over her
shoulder, a cape of white fur of the northern sea sleen." "...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 moving from
side to side continually testing the winds..."
"We had not walked
far when we passed a long, wormlike animal, eyeless, with a small red
mouth, that inched its way along the corridor, hugging the angle between
the wall and the floor....
A shellfish, oyster-like "Ho-Hak looked at the
man who wore the headband of pearls of the Vosk sorp." "He sat upon a giant
shell of the Vosk sorp, as on a sort of throne, which for these people,
I gather it was." "Her hair was blond
and straight, tied behind her with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding
Hurt, dyed in the blood of the Vosk sorp."
Actually these are known as the Spider People. They are rational and speak to humans through the use of a translator device. They are large spiders that live in the swamps near Ar. "Approaching me, stepping
daintily for all its bulk, prancing over the strands, came one of the
Swamp Spiders of Gor....and I caught sight of the mandibles, like curved
knives...He then backed away from me on his eight legs...I saw then for
the first time that strapped to his abdomen, was a translation device....They
hunt us and leave only enough of us alive to spin the Cur-lon Fiber used
in the mills of Ar."
Two varieties inhabit Gor; the smaller yellow tabuk of the plains, and the larger Northern Tabuk. Both are hunted for meat and hides. "They were northern
tabuk, massive, tawny and swift; many of them ten hands at the shoulder,
a quite different animal from the small, yellow-pelted antelope-like quadruped
of the south. On the other hand, they too were distinguished by the single
horn of the tabuk. On these animals, however, that object, in swirling
ivory, was often, at its base, some two and one half inches in diameter,
and better than a yard in length. A charging tabuk, because of the swiftness
of its reflexes, is quite a dangerous animal." "Gripped in the talons
of the tarn was the dead body of an antelope, one of the one-horned, yellow
antelopes called tabuks that frequent the bright Ka-la-na thickets of
Gor." "At the end of the
wall, Inmak wept, seeing the strewn fields of slaughtered tabuk. The fur
and hide of the tabuk provides the red hunters not only with clothing,
but it can also be used for blankets, sleeping bags and other articles...Too,
they may be used for buckets and tents, and for kayaks, the light narrow
hunting canoes of skin from which sea mammals may be sought. Lashings,
harpoon lines, cords and threads can be fashioned from its sinews. Carved,
the bone and horn of the animal can function as arrow points, needles,
thimbles, chisels, wedges, and knives. It's fat and bone marrow can be
used as fuel. Too, almost all of the animal is edible."
The large, winged mounts of the Warrior Tarnsmen of Gor. The birds resemble hawks of Earth, only much much larger. The birds are vicious and fierce. They are carnivorous, and sometimes turn on their own riders. War tarns commonly have armored talons and are trained to serve not only as a mount, but as a weapon in their own right. Racing tarns are lighter and trained for the racing arena. " Though the tarn,
like most birds, is surprisingly light for its size, this primarily having
to do with the comparative hollowness of the bones, it is an extremely
powerful bird, powerful even beyond what one would expect from such a
monster. Whereas large Earth birds, such as the eagle, must, when taking
flight from the ground, begin with a running start, the tarn with its
incredible musculature, aided undoubtedly by the somewhat lighter gravity
of Gor, can with a spring and a sudden flurry of its giant wings lift
both himself and hi rider into the air. In Gorean, these birds are sometimes
spoken of as Brothers of the Wind. "The platform drew
closer, and the the wonder of the crowd I went to meet it. My heart was
beating wildly. I scrutinized the tarn. Its lineaments were not unfamiliar.
I examined the glistening, sable plumage; the monstrous yellow beak now
cruelly belted together. I saw the great wings snap, smitting the air,
the hurricane from their blow spilling slaves into the sand, tangling
chains, as the great beast, lifting its head and smelling the open air,
struck it with his wings. It would not attempt to fly while hooded; indeed,
I doubted that the bird wouldattempt to fly while it dragged its bar of
silver. If it was the bird I thought it to be it would not futilely contest
the weight of the degrading hobble, would not provide a spectacle of its
helplessness for its captors. I know this sounds strange, but I believe
some animals have pride, and if any did, I knew that this monster was
one of them." "The tarn is guided
by virtue of a throat strap, to which are attached, normally, six leather
"During the day I freed
my tarn to allow him to feed as he would. They are diurnal hunters and
eat only what they catch themselves, usually one of the fleet Gorean antelopes
or a wild bull, taken on the run and lifted in the monstrous talons to
a high place, where it is torn to pieces and devoured." "The tarns were, of
course, racing tarns, a bird in many ways quite different from the common
tarns of Gor, or the war tarns. The differences among these tarns are
not simply in the training, which does differ, but in size, strength,
build and tendencies of the bird. Some tarns are bred primarily for strength
and are used in transporting wares by carrying basket. Usually these birds
fly more slowly and are less vicious than the war tarns or racing tarns.
The war tarns, of course, are bred for both strength and speed, but also
for agility, swiftness of reflex, and combative instincts. War tarns,
whose talons are shod with steel, tend to be extremely dangerous birds,
even more so than other tarns, none of whom could be regarded as fully
domesticated. The racing tarn, interestingly, is and extremely light bird;
two men can lift one; even its beak is narrower and lighter than the common
tarn or war tarn; its wings are commonly broader and shorter than those
of other tarns, permitting a swifter take off..."
Resembles the Earth pig. It has six tusks and is wild (like the wild boar) although there are also domestic tarsks. Used primarily for meat. "I thought of the yellow
Gorean bread, baked in the shape of round, flat loaves, fresh and hot;
my mouth watered for a tabuk steak or, perhaps, if I were lucky, a slice
of roast tarsk, the formidable six-tusked wild boar of Gor's temperate
forests." "I heard the squealing
of a domestic tarsk running nearby..."
A lizard like animal used
in various ways. Thalarions inhabit many parts of Gor; there exist High
Thalarions, used by Warriors, they are carnivorous; Broad Thalarions,
used as draft animals are not carnivorous; River Thalarions, also used
as draft animals to pull the barges on the rivers, though there is one
type of river thalarion, called a Mamba, both of which are carnivorous;
a predator;Rock Thalarions, a small reptile of the Tahari; and Water Thalarions,
which inhabit the marshes, these, too, are carnivorous. Thalarion fat
is rendered to make lamp oil. "The ringing of the
thalarions shod claws on the rode grew louder...He rode the species of
thalarion called the high thalarion, which ran on it's two back feet in
great bounding strides. Its cavernous mouth was lined with long, gleaming
teeth. Its two small, ridiculously disproportionate forelegs dangled absurdly
in front of its body." "When the high thalarion
moves slowly, its stride is best described as a proud, stalking movement,
each great clawed foot striking the earth with a measured rhythm. When
urged to speed, however, the high thalarion bounds, in great leaping movements
that carry it twenty paces at a time." "Behind them, stretching
into the distance, came a long line of broad thalarions, or the four-footed
draft monsters of Gor. These beasts, yoked in braces, were drawing mighty
wagons, filled with merchandise protected under the lashings of its red
rain-canvas." "To my right, some
two or three feet under the water, I saw the sudden, rolling yellowish
flash of the slatted belly of a water thalarion, turning as it made its
swift strike..." "A huge thalarion,
seeing the image on the water, half rose from the marsh, jaws clashing,
and then dropped back into the water." "A broad, low-sided
barge began to back toward the pier. It had two large steering oars, manned
by bargemen. It was draw by two gigantic, web-footed river thalarion....They
were scaled, vast and long-necked. Yet in the water it seemed, for all
their bulk, they moved delicately. One dipped its head under the surface
and, moments later, the head emerged, dripping, the eyes blinking, a silverish
fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed jaws."
Large, flightless, carnivorous birds of the plains. "...beyond them I saw
one of the tumits, a large, flightless bird whose hooked beak, as long
as my forearm, attested only too clearly to its gustatory habits; I lifted
my shield and grasped the long spear, but it did not turn in my direction;
it passed, unaware;..." "I gathered that the
best season for hunting tumits, the large, flightless carnivorous birds
of the southern plains was at hand..."
A predatory, winged thalarion, pterodactyl-like "Only one creature
in the marshes dares to outline itself against the sky, the predatory
Ul, the winged thalarion." "Also, at night, crossing
the bright disks of Gor's three moon, might ocassionally be seen the silent,
predatory shadow of the ul, a giant pterodactyl ranging far from its native
swamps in the delta of the Vosk."
A rodent/rat-like animal that can be quite large or small. Like mice and rats, it is able to live in just about any environment; such as sewers or forests alike. "It was a giant urt,
fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of needlelike white teeth
at me and squealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved
from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of
the bony tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over
those gleaming eyes that seemed to feast themselves upon me..." "The urt is a loathsome,
horned Gorean rodent; some are quite large, the size of wolves or ponies,
but most are very small, tiny enough to be held in the palm of one hand."
"I heard one of the
giant canal urts twist in the water somewhere beneath me." "The giant urts, silken
and blazing-eyed, living mostly on the garbage in the canals, are not
stranger to bodies, both living and dead, found cast into their waters."
"Over her shoulders
she had two small, furred animals, hideous forest urts, about the size
of cats, and in her left hand she carried four small, green-and-yellow-plumaged
birds." "Their catch, returned
to the Tesephone, in a cage, covered with canvas, carried on the back
of Thurnus, had been six, rather large forest urts, about the size of
tiny dogs."
A batlike flying rodent, often the size of a small dog. It is blind, and carnivorous.
"I could, however,
recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down like large matted
fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch
in their case." "Tyros is a rugged
island, with mountains. She is famed for her vart caves, and indeed, on
that island, trained varts, batlike creatures, some the size of small
dogs, are used as weapons."
Mountain goat/goat like animal used for milk and meat. Some are domesticated. "...perhaps after the
agile and bellicose Gorean mountain goat, the long haired, spiral horned
verr..." "The verr was a mountain
goat indigenous to the Voltai. It was a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast,
long-haired and spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth
one's life to come within twenty yards of one." "I passed fields that
were burning, and burning huts of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna
granaries, the shattered, slatted coops for vulos, the broken walls of
keeps for the small, long-haired domestic verr, less belligerent and sizable
than the wild verr of the Voltai ranges." "Kaiila and verr are
found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals
are found in the desert. They are kept by nomads, who move them from one
area of verr grass to another, or from one water hole to another..."
"Behind them came another
of their caste, leading two milk verr which he had purchased."
Domesticated pigeonns used for eggs and meat. "She was a peasant,
barefoot, her garment little more than coarse sacking. She had been carrying
a wicker basket containing vulos, domesticated pigeons raised for eggs
and meat." "Soon, I smelled the
frying of vulo eggs in a large, flat pan…" "I smelled roast bosk
cooking, and fried vulo...I held the leg of the fried vulo toward one
of the girls..." "...the shattered,
slatted coops for vulos, the broken walls of keeps for the small, long-haired
domestic verr, less belligerent and sizable than the wild verr of the
Voltai ranges."
A bird of the Tahari. Feeds on the sand flies and other insects that infest the kaiila "The zadit is a small,
tawny-feathered, sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sand flies
and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila, they frequently
light on the animals, and remain for some hours, hunting insects. This
relieves the kaiila of the insects but leaves it with numerous small wounds,
which are unpleasant and irritating, where the bird had dug insects out
of its hide."
Zarlit Fly Resembles a large dragonfly; and is harmless "I did see a large,
harmless zarlit fly, purple, about two feet long with four translucent
wings, spanning about a yard, humming over the surface of the water, then
alighting and, on its padlike feet, daintily picking its way across the
surface." |
|
|
|
|