Free Blood Brothers of Gor by John Norman Page B

intimate and cozy, to one with a differing acculturation. Family and communal closeness, for better or for worse, are characteristics of the life of the red savage. I do not think he would want it any other way. To be sure, it is not unknown for a man to occasionally seek the lodge of his warrior society, where his children and women cannot follow him. In his clut, so to speak, he might be able to find a bit of peace and quiet which seems to have eluded him at home. Too, of course, meditation and the seeking of visions and dreams are solitary activities. A man may indicate that he is meditating by as little as putting his blanket over his head, even in a crowded camp. He will then be left alone. Dreams and visions, on the other hand, are usually sought in the willderness.
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    "Howo, Tatankasa!" said Cuwignaka, thrusting his head into the lodge. "Come on. Come along, Red Bull!"
    "I am coming," I said. I went outside. It was still quite dark. I could see shapes moving about, however. Cuwignaka had the two travois already hitched up.
    There was much movement and excitement in the camp. I wandered off, behind the lodges.
    "Where have you been?" asked Cuwignaka, when I returned.
    "Where do you think?" I asked. "I was relieving myself."
    I saw two red savages riding by. They were Sleen Soldiers. One was Hci.
    "We will be leaving any moment," said Cuwignaka.
    "I doubt it," I said.
    Hci turned back his kaiila and brought it to a stop before us. He wore breechclout and moccasins. About his neck was a necklace of sleen claws. His long hair was braided. He carried his bow, not yet strung, and a quiver of arrows, at his left hip. On his belt, that holding the breechclout, there was a knife, in a beaded sheath. Hci's kaiila wore a jaw rope, looped over the back of its neck. This rope, however, is not used, or much used, in either the hunt or war. The rider guides the animal primarily by his knees. His hands, thus, are freed for the use of the bow, or other impliments. There was, however, a rope looped about the neck of the kaiila. This rope is thrown to the side and behind the kaiila. If the rider, then, is dismounted in the tumult of the hunt, he may, hopefully, by seizing this rope, sometimes a strap, retain control over his mount and, hastily, safely, regain his seat. Hci's animal, incidentally, was a prize kaiila. This was indicated by its notched ears. The Kaiila notch both ears of such a kaiila. Certain other tribes, such as the Fleer, notch only one ear, usually the left.
    "Remember, pretty Siptopto," said Hci, sneeringly, to Cuwignaka, "you are not to hunt. You are to remain back from the hunt. It is yours only to cut meat, with the other females." 'Siptopto' was an insulting pet name by which Hci occasionally addressed Cuwignaka. It was the sort of name, though not necessarily, that might be given to a female slave. It means "Beads."
    "I am not a woman," said Cuwignaka.
    "You will stay back from the hunt," said Hci. "You will cut meat with the other women."
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    "I will stay back from the hunt," said Cuwignaka. "I will cut meat with the women."
    "You, and the slave," said Hci.
    "We will stay back from the hunt," said Cuwignaka. "We will cut meat with the women."
    Hci then turned his kaiila about, and went, following his fellow rider.
    "Make ready your arrows!" I heard again. "Make ready your arrows! Sharpent your knives! Sharpen your knives! We are going to make meat! We are going to make meat!" Slowly, though the camp, in the darkness, now crowded with men and women, rode Agleskala, the crier of the Sleen Soldiers.
    Behind him, in line, coming from the vicinity of the lodge of the Sleen Soldiers, the society lodge, came several members of the Sleen-Soldiers Society. They were garbed and accountered much as had been Hci. Two, however, carried long, heavy, stout hunting lances, rather than bows and arrows.
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