Caste of Builders Technology - Quotes

Technology - Quotes 

Binding Fiber:

I tried to run through the binding fiber that held my wrists, rubbing it against the trunk of a fallen tree, but I could not loosed it, or rub through it. Gorean binding fiber is not made to be so easily removed from a girl’s wrists. After an hour I was bound as securely as before. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 11, page 182)

Brazier:

To one side there was a brazier filled with white-hot coals. From the brazier there protruded the handles of four irons. The fire was quite hot, and it had apparently been heating for some two or three Ahn, perhaps even from the time we had went forth to pick berries. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 15, page 308)

Builders Glass:

I heard, about a half an Ahn later, Tenrik call up to the lookout.

 The man carried a long glass of the builders. 

"Can you make out their flag?" he cried. 

"It is white," he cried, "with stripes of green.  It bears on its field the head of a bosk!"  (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 13, page 185)

From the stern castle of the Dorna, then, with a long glass of the builders, I observed, far across the waters, the masts of ram-ships, one by one, lowering. (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 14, page 197)

Cable, Metal:

There were also open slave sacks of woven, metal cable, cables a quarter of an inch in thickness, some silverish, some black, some steel-colored, with apertures in the form of two to four-inch diamonds, which could be padlocked shut at the top. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 18, page 577)

Cement: 

She wished that it was night and that she was in her cement bin. It was so much cooler there. The blanket gave her some protection from the cement. The bins had no gates or ceilings. Their walls were about four feet high, but one could not see over them once one had been chained by the neck to the ring at the back. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 12, page 244)

Cold Storage:

"What is going on?" asked Tersius Major, coming from the dark ice pantry, where slabs of meat are stored on blocks of ice, covered with sawdust. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 19, page 580)

" I brought up from the kitchen, where I had been keeping it hot, a vessel of black wine, with sugars, and cups and spoons. Too, I had brought up a small bowl of powdered bosk milk. We had finished the creams last night and, in any event, it was unlikely they would have lasted the night. If I had wanted creams I would have had to have gone to the market. My house, incidentally, like most Gorean houses, had no ice chest. There is little cold storage on Gor. Generally food is preserved by being dried or salted. Some cold storage, of course, does exist. Ice is cut from ponds in the winter, and then stored in ice houses, under sawdust. One may go to the ice houses for it, or have it delivered in ice wagons. Most Goreans, of course, cannot afford the luxury of ice in the summer."

(Guardsman Of Gor)

Compasses and Navigational Equipment:

I kept my course by the luminescent dial of my Gor compass, the needle of which pointed always to the Sardar Mountain Range, home of the Priest-Kings.  Sometimes I guided my tarn by the stars, the same fixed stars I had seen from another angle above my head in the mountains of New Hampshire. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter five, page 54)

Like most Gor compasses, mine contained a chronometer, and I took the compass, turned it over, and pressed the tab that would snap open the back and reveal the dial. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter six, page 58)

 …delighted to find my old maps and that device that serves Goreans as both compass and chronometer. (Tarnsman of Gor, Chapter 12, page 115)

Some four days after I had recovered the tarn, we sighted in the distance the Sardar Mountains.  Had I possessed a Gorean compass, its needle would have pointed invariably to those mountains, as though to indicate the home of the Priest-Kings. (Outlaw of Gor, chapter twenty, page 179)

For purposes of convenience I am recounting directions in English terms, thinking it would be considerably difficult for the reader to follow references to the Gorean compass. Briefly, for those it might interest, all directions on the planet are calculated from the Sardar Mountains, which for the purposes of calculating direction play a role analogous to our north pole; the two main directions, so to speak, in the Gorean way of thinking are Ta-Sardar-Var and Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, or as one would normally say, Var and Ki-Var; “Var” means a turning and “Ki” signifies negation; thus, rather literally, one might speak of “turning to the Sardar” and “not turning to the Sardar’, something like either facing north or not facing north; on the other hand, more helpfully, the Gorean compass is divided into eight, as opposed to our four, main quadrants, or better said, divisions, and each of these itself is of course subdivided.  -----------------------------  Accordingly, the main divisions of the map are Ta-Sardar-Var, and the other seven; taking the Sardar as our “north pole” the other directions, clockwise as Earth clocks move (Gorean clock hands move in the opposite direction) would be, first, Ta-Sardar-Var, then in order, Ror, Rim, Tun, Vask (sometimes spoken of as Verus Var, or the true turning away), Cart, Klim, and Kail, and then again, of course, Ta-Sardar-Var.  The Cartius River incidentally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the city of Ar.

 (Nomads of Gor, chapter one, page 3, from footnote by Tarl Cabot)

…the complexities of the Gorean compass, which points always to the Sardar,… (Prize of Gor, Chapter 27, page 1071)

Energy bulbs:

Inside, the tunnel, though dim, was not altogether dark, being lit by domelike, wire-protected energy bulbs, spaced in pairs every hundred yards or so.  These bulbs, invented more than a century ago by the Caste of Builders, produce a clear, soft light for years without replacement.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter eighteen, page 158)

Perhaps one of the almost inexhaustible energy bulbs, which can burn for years, had as a simple matter of fact at last burned out. (Priest-Kings of Gor, chapter eight, pg 58)

The light in the room came, interestingly, from behind a translucent blue ceiling, probably being furnished by energy bulbs. Saphrar was a rich man indeed to have energy bulbs in his home; few Goreans can afford such a luxury; and, indeed, few care to, for Goreans, for some reason, are fond of the light of flame, lamps and torches and such; flames must be made, tended, watched; they are more beautiful, more alive.  (Nomads of Gor, Chapter seventeen, page 203-204)

The room was innocent of the energy bulbs of the Caste of Builders. (Assassin of Gor, Chapter four)

Of special interest to me was the fact that this room, primitive though it might be, was lit by what, in Gorean, is called an energy bulb, and invention of the Builders. I could see neither cords nor battery cases. Yet the room was filled with a soft, gentle, white light, which the physician could regulate by rotating the base of the bulb. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 8, page 93)

Fire-makers, Fire-drills:

The man from the Caste of Builders then sat cross-legged on the ground and took from the pouch slung at his waist a tiny, cylindrical Gorean fire-maker, a small silverfish tube commonly used for igniting cooking fires.  He unscrewed the cap and I could see the tip of the implement, as it was exposed to the air, begin to glow a fiery red.  He touched the fire-maker to the wick-like projection in the hollow tube and, screwing the fire-maker shut, replaced it in his pouch.  (Priest-Kings of Gor, chapter seventeen, pg 138)

Perhaps, the most extraordinary thing Ute did, to my mind, was, with sticks, a flat piece of wood and some binding fiber, make a small fire drill. How pleased I was when I saw the dried flakes of leaves suddenly redden and flash into a tiny flame, which we then fed with leaves and twigs, until it would burn sticks. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 13, page 237)

Fish Traps:

I stood within Ute’s structure of wands. It consisted of two parts. The first, a few feet upstream, was in the form of a “V,” which had an open bottom, which pointed downstream. This formed a funnel of wands, such that a small swimming creature could easily enter it, but would not so easily find again the opening to escape. The second part of the structure was a simple, curved fence of wands a few feet downstream of the first, forming the downstream wall of the trap. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 13, page 230)

Furnishings:

It was carpeted by a large red rug on which were several cushions of different colors, mostly yellows and oranges. There was no fountain in the room but, against one wall, there were some low tables with fruits and drinks upon them.  (Nomads of Gor, Chapter nineteen, pages 219-220)

Hydraulics:

At the same time from the escarpment came a smooth, rolling sound as a great weight was effortlessly balanced and lifted by hydraulic means.  To my amazement, I saw that an immense opening had appeared in the wall.  An enormous slab, perhaps fifty feet square, had slid upward and backward, revealing a great, dim, squarish tunnel beyond, a tunnel large enough for a flying tarn.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter eighteen, page 158)

Ice House:. Ice chest 

"What is going on?" asked Tersius Major, coming from the dark ice pantry, where slabs of meat are stored on blocks of ice, covered with sawdust. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 19, page 580)

" I brought up from the kitchen, where I had been keeping it hot, a vessel of black wine, with sugars, and cups and spoons. Too, I had brought up a small bowl of powdered bosk milk. We had finished the creams last night and, in any event, it was unlikely they would have lasted the night. If I had wanted creams I would have had to have gone to the market. My house, incidentally, like most Gorean houses, had no ice chest. There is little cold storage on Gor. Generally food is preserved by being dried or salted. Some cold storage, of course, does exist. Ice is cut from ponds in the winter, and then stored in ice houses, under sawdust. One may go to the ice houses for it, or have it delivered in ice wagons. Most Goreans, of course, cannot afford the luxury of ice in the summer."

(Guardsman Of Gor)

Irons (Laundry):

From the chest I took forth several of the garments, small, clean and neatly folded. I had washed several myself, and, sprinkling them with water, and sweating, had pressed them on a smooth board, using the small, heavy, rounded Gorean irons, heated over fire. I had folded them, too, and placed them in the chest. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 15, page 294)

The smooth board was set before me, mounted on two wooden blocks. A bowl of water was nearby, and a fire, over which, on an iron plate fixed on stones, there were, heating, five, small, flat-bottomed, rounded, wooden-handled Gorean irons. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 15, pages 295-296)

The Keep:

The keep, in the private houses of Goreans, is most often a round, stone tower, built for defense, containing water and food. It is difficult to fire from the outside, and the roundness like the roundness of Gorean towers in general tends to increase the amount of oblique hits from catapult stones. (Nomads of Gor, Chapter Twenty, page 224)

It stood some seventy feet from any of the other buildings in the compound that was the House of Saphrar, but now, swaying, formed of rope and sticks, a removable footbridge extended from an open door in its side to a porch some several feet below us. The bridge permitted access to the tower from the building on the roof of which we stood. Indeed, it provided the only access, save on tarnback, for there are no doors at ground level in a Gorean keep. The first sixty feet or so of the tower would l presumably be solid stone, to protect the tower from forced entrance or the immediate, efficient use of battering rams.

The tower itself was some one hundred and forty feet in I height and had a diameter of about fifty feet. It was furnished with numerous ports for the use of bowmen. The roof of the tower, which might have been fortified with impaling spears and tarn wire, was now clear, to permit the descent of tarns and their riders. (Nomads of Gor, Chapter twenty, pages 225-226)

Lamps:

The halls were lit occasionally by tharlarion oil lamps set in iron fixtures mounted in the walls. (Outlaw of Gor, chapter eleven, page 89)

The light in the room was furnished by a single tharlarion-oil lamp which hung from the ceiling. (Nomads of Gor, Chapter nineteen, page 219)

She struck together, over a copper bow, a bit of steel and flint, the sparks falling into some dried petals of the rence.  A small flame was kindled into which she thrust a bit of rence stem, like a match.  The bit of stem took the fire and with it she lit a tiny lamp, also sitting in a shallow copper bowl, which burned tharlarion oil.  She set the lamp to one side. (Rencers, Vosk Delta) (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 4, page 33)

"Light the lamp," she said to me.

 I did so, fumbling in the darkness, striking together the flint and steel, sparks falling into the small bowl of dried petals of the rence.  In this tiny flame I thrust a bit of rence stem, from a bundle of such, and, with it, lit the tiny tharlarion-oil lamp set in its copper bowl.  I put the bit of rence stem back, as I had seen Telima do, in the small bowl of petals, where, with the flaming petals, it was soon extinguished.  The tharlarion-oil lamp, now lit, flickering, illuminated the interior of the hut with a yellowish light. (Rencers, Vosk Delta) (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 5, page 48)

"Light the lamp of love," I said. 

She looked up at me, gratefully, but saw then my eyes.  Her test was not yet done. 

Trembling she fumbled with the flint and steel, to strike sparks into the moss bowl, whence by means of a Ka-la-na shaving the lamp might be lit. 

I myself threw down, in one corner, near a slave ring, the Furs of Love.  (Port Kar) (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 9, page 117)

And, within, from extensions of certain of the tent poles, there hung, on hooks, burning tharlarion-oil lamps of brass. (Elinor describing the tent of Rask of Treve) (Captive of Gor, Chapter 14, page 274)

Ellen's master, Mirus, had apparently been reading a scroll. One portion of the roll was in his left hand, and the other in his right. There were two lamps behind the curule chair, one on each side. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 15, page 315)

The torches, and some lamps, tend to be lit toward dark by the market attendants. The two streets beyond the market were now dark. Individuals in poorer districts, leaving their homes after dark or returning to them after dark, commonly carry their own light, usually a lamp. Individuals can be hired, in squares and markets, to escort individuals to their destinations. In better districts, and on the great boulevards and such, high lamps, usually hung from poles, are usually lit after dark by employees of the city, sometimes by guardsmen. (Place: Ar) (Prize of Gor, Chapter 16, page 420)

Tersius set the lamp, a small, shallow, panlike tharlarionoil lamp, on a shelf bracket,… (Prize of Gor, Chapter 19, page 599)

Locks, key operating:

I took from my tunic the key my father had given me, the key to Sana’s collar.  I reached to the lock behind her neck, inserted the key and turned, springing open the mechanism.  I jerked the collar away from her throat and threw it and the key from the tarn’s back and watched them fly downward in a long, graceful parabola.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter five, page 52)

A large padlock, snapped about the dangling shackle ring, attached the chain to her shackle; another large padlock, at the other end of the chain, completed her securing, fastening her to the heavy ring in the cement. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 16, page 368)

Mathematics:

Common Gorean, you see, does not use an "Arabic notation," but represents various numbers by letters, combinations of letters, and such. Most figuring is done on an abacus. It is said, interestingly, that some of the higher castes, for example, the Scribes and Builders, have a secret notation which facilitates their calculations. Ellen does not know if that is true or not. (said about writing/using numbers) (Prize of Gor, Chapter 25, page 843)

Paper:

Kamchak returned to his place where he again sat down cross-legged, putting the cut collar on the rug in front of him.

I and Kutaituchik watched as he carefully spread open the collar, pressing back two edges. Then, from within the collar, he drew forth a thin, folded piece of paper, rence paper made from the fibers of the rence plant, a tall, long-stalked leafy plant which grows predominantly in the delta of the Vosk. I suppose, in itself, this meant nothing, but I naturally thought of Port Kar, malignant, squalid Port Kar, which claims suzerainty over the delta, exacting cruel tributes from the rence growers, great stocks of rence paper for trade, sons for oarsmen in cargo galleys, daughters for Pleasure Slaves in the taverns of the city.  I would have expected the message to have been written either on stout, glossy-surfaced linen paper, of the sort milled in Ar, or perhaps on vellum and parchment, prepared in many cities and used commonly in scrolls, the process involving among other things the washing and liming of skins, their scraping and stretching, dusting them with sifted chalk, rubbing them down with pumice.  (Nomads of Gor, chapter seven, page 49)

A kind of paper is made from rence. (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 1, page 7)

Rence paper is made by slicing the stem into thin, narrow strips;  those near the center of the plant are particularly favored;   one layer of strips is placed longitudinally, and then a shorter layer is placed latitudinally across the first layer;  these two surfaces are then soaked under water, which releases a gluelike substance from the fibers, melding the two surfaces into a single, rectangular sheet;  these formed sheets are then hammered and dried in the sun;  roughness in removed by polishing, usually with a smooth shell or a bit of kailiauk horn;  the side of a tharlarion tooth may also be used in this work.  The paper is then attached, sheet to sheet, to form rolls, usually about twenty sheets to a roll.  The best paper is on the outside of the roll, always, not to practice deceit in the quality of the roll but rather to have the most durable paper on the outside, which will take the most weathering, handling and general wear.  Rence paper comes in various grades, about eight in all.  The rence growers market their product either at the eastern or western end of the delta.  Sometimes rence merchants, on narrow marsh craft rowed by slaves, enter some pasangs into the delta to negotiate the transactions, usually from the western edge, that bordering the Tamber Gulf.  Rence paper is, incidentally, not the only type of writing material used on Gor.  (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 1, pages 7-8)

A milled linen paper is much used, large quantities of which are produced in Ar, and vellum and parchment, prepared in many cities, are also popular. (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 1, page 8)

For rence growers, the first of Se'Kara, the date of the Autumnal Equinox, is a time of festival.  By that time most of the year's rence will have been cut, and great stocks of rence paper, gathered in rolls like cord wood and covered with woven rence mats, will have been prepared.  (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 3, page 17)

Scroll:

llen's master, Mirus, had apparently been reading a scroll. One portion of the roll was in his left hand, and the other in his right. There were two lamps behind the curule chair, one on each side. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 15, page 315)

Scroll Reading Frame:

With annoyance, Torm poked through one of the enormous piles of scrolls and at last, on his hands and knees, fished out one skimpy scroll, set it in the reading device – a metal frame with rollers at the top and bottom – and, pushing a button, spun the scroll to its opening mark, a single sign. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, page 24)

Sleeping mats, Temperature Controlled:

In the morning I awoke on the sleeping mat in the corner of my apartment, cold and shivering.  It was shortly before dawn.  I turned off the power switch on the mat and folded back its blanket sides.  It was chilly to the touch now, because I had set the chronometric temperature device to turn to cold an hour before the first light.  One has little inclination to remain in a freezing bed.  I decided I disapproved of the Gorean devices for separating mortals from their beds as much as I loathed the alarm clock radios of my own world.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter four, page 43)

Snares:

She had shown me what could be eaten, and what could not. It was she who had shown how the water trap might be built. She had also shown me how to make snares of binding fiber, bending down small branches, and making triggers of small twigs.

She had also shown me how, with binding fiber, a log and a stick trigger, to make a snare large enough to catch a tabuk, but we did not actually make such a snare. It might have attracted the attention of a huntsman, and provoked his curiosity. The smaller snares would be more easily overlooked. Further, it would have been difficult for Ute and I to have placed the log in such a snare, and, besides, without a knife, and wishing to move swiftly, tabuk would have been heavy game for us. (Captive of Gor, Chapter 13, page 236)

Tarn-Goads:

He entered my apartment, carrying a metal rod about two feet long, with a leather loop attached.  It had a switch in the handle, which could be set in two positions, on and off, like a simple torch.  He wore another such instrument slung from his belt.  “This is not a weapon,” he said.  “It is not to be used as a weapon.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“A tarn-goad,” he replied. He snapped the switch in the barrel to the “on” position and struck the table.  It showered sparks in a sudden cascade of yellow light, but left the table unmarked.  He turned off the goad and extended it to me.  As I reached for it, he snapped it on and slapped it in my palm.  A billion tiny yellow stars, like pieces of fiery needles, seemed to explode in my hand.  I cried out in shock.  I thrust my hand to my mouth.  It had been like a sudden, severe electric charge, like the striking of a snake in my hand.  I examined my hand; it was unhurt. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, page 34)

The tarn-goad is a rod-like instrument, about twenty inches long.  It has a switch in the handle, much like an ordinary flashlight.  When the goad is switched to the on-position and it strikes an object, it emits a violent shock and scatters a shower of yellow sparks.  It is used for controlling tarns, the gigantic hawk-like saddle-birds of Gor.  Indeed, the birds are conditioned to respond to the goad, almost from the egg. (Outlaw of Gor, chapter two, pages 23-24)

Tarn Whistles:

The Older Tarl took a tarn whistle, or tarn call, from his tunic and blew a piercing blast.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, page 34)

He tossed me a small object which nearly fell from my fumbling hands.  It was a tarn whistle, with its own note, which would summon one tarn, and one tarn only, the mount which was intended for me. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, page 36)

The tarn-whistle, as one might expect, is used to summon the bird.  Usually, the most highly trained tarns will respond to only one note, that sounded by the whistle of their master.  There is nothing surprising in this inasmuch as each bird is trained, by the Caste of Tarn Keepers, to respond to a different note.  When the tarn is presented to a warrior, or sold to one, the whistle accompanies the bird.  Needless to say, the whistle is important and carefully guarded, for, should it be lost or fall into the hands of an enemy, the warrior has, for all practical purposes, lost his mount.  (Outlaw of Gor, chapter two, page 24)

Telescopes/binoculars/magnifying glasses:

The walls were crowded, and I supposed many upon them used the long glasses of the Caste of Builders to observe the field of the stakes. (Nomads of Gor, chapter ten, page 113)

He took from a silken pouch lying before him on the palanquin a small glass, with glass petal edges like a flower, mounted on a silver stem about which curled silver leaves.  Through this he looked on her more closely. (Nomads of Gor, chapter 11, page 131)

Toilet Facilities for Slaves:

As she explored, with her body, legs and fingers, behind her, as she could, hooded, her small wooden-floored, strawstrewn housing, which seemed clearly to be some sort of stall, she discovered, to her joy, within the scope of her chain, which was all that was permitted her, a large, porcelainlike bowl. It had been rinsed, but, from its size, she knew it could not be for feeding or watering, but must be for wastes. Her bladder had been crying for relief, but she had feared to soil the straw, even at the end of the chain. She feared to be again beaten. Masters are not patient with careless slaves. Such bowls, or vessels, of course, serve an obvious purpose, and are common in kennels and cells. The presence of the bowl there, and the ring in the floor, with the chain and collar, suggested that this small housing, or stall, had been prepared for, and was intended for, the keeping of a slave and, presumably, given its openness, a female slave. Ellen supposed that she was not the first slave, nor would she be likely to be the last slave, to be housed in this narrow, straw-strewn space. Gratefully, she squatted over the bowl and relieved herself. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 17, page 518-519)

Torches:

Some markets were open, these lit with torches, small, bright patches of light in the darkness. In these, various goods, as is common, were being offered. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 19, page 612)

Translators used by the Gorean People:

One of the most interesting was the Translator, which could be set for various languages. ---------- Although the machines could be set for various languages, one term of the translation symmetry, at least in the machines I saw, was always Gorean.  If I set the machine to, say, Language A and spoke Gorean into it, it would, after a fraction of a second, emit a succession of noises, which was the translation of my Gorean sentences into A.  On the other hand, a new succession of noises in A would be received by the machine and emitted as a message in Gorean.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, page 25)

These translation machines are a marvel of miniaturization, each of them, about the size of a portable typewriter, being programmed for four none-Gorean languages.  The translations, of course, are rather literal, and the vocabulary is limited to recognitions of only about 25,000 equivalencies for each language.  Accordingly, for subtle communication or the fullest expression of thought, the machine was inferior to a skilled linguist.  The machine, however, according to my father, retained the advantage that its mistakes would not be intentional, and that its translations, even if inadequate, would be honest.  (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter three, pages 25-26)

Translators used by Gorean Life Forms other than humans:

I then saw for the first time that strapped to his abdomen was a translation device, not unlike those I had seen in Ko-ro-ba.  It apparently translated sound impulses, below my auditory threshold, into the sounds of human speech.  My own replies were undoubtedly similarly transformed into some medium the insect could understand.  One of the insect’s legs twiddled with a knob on the translation device.  “Can you hear this?” he asked.  He had reduced the volume of the sound to its original level, the level at which he had asked his original question. (Tarnsman of Gor, chapter six, page 61)

Travois:

Mirus and his fellow, now muchly recovered, though still unable to walk, would leave the group and make their way toward Brundisium, Mirus dragging an improvised travois, constructed of rope, a pair of poles and a tarpaulin. This device had been constructed the preceding evening, their trek having come to a small grove of dark temwood, bordering a tiny stream. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 28, page 1183)

Water Wells:

After what seemed to me an uncomfortably long moment we emerged again, this time at the bottom of a tile-lined well. It was a rather wide well, perhaps about fifteen feet in width. A foot or so above the surface hung a huge, heavy drum, now tipped on its side. It would contain literally hundreds of gallons-of water when filled. Two ropes led to the drum, a small rope to control its filling, and a large one to support it; the large rope, incidentally, has a core of chain; the rope itself, existing primarily to protect the chain, is treated with a waterproof glue made from the skins, bones and hoofs of bosk, secured by trade with the Wagon Peoples. Even so the rope and chain must be replaced twice a year. I judged that the top of the well might lie eight or nine hundred feet above us. (place: Turia) (Nomads of Gor, chapter sixteen, pages 189-190)

Writing implements:

I smiled and took the piece of rence paper.  I glanced at it and then I smiled no longer.  I could read it, of course. It was in Gorean script, moving from left to right, and then from right to left on alternate lines.  The writing was quite legible.  It was written in black ink, probably with a reed pen.  This again suggested the delta of the Vosk. (Nomads of Gor, chapter seven, pages 49-50)

In a moment or two there proceeded through the door two men, clad in blue robes. One carried a small rectangular board on which he held some papers. At his belt there hung a small case, containing at least pens, and a tiny horn, which, as Ellen later realized, was an inkhorn. (Prize of Gor, Chapter 15, page 338)