"I now need a man," she said. "I will do anything to be taken into a lodge, to serve."

"You are helpless now, aren't you?" I said.

"Yes, Master," she said. "May I leave the robe?"

"Yes," I said.

She went to the small hide in which the quirt had been wrapped. She picked it up and brought it to the edge of the robe. She spread it out there. "You told me," she said, smiling, "that this hide was about the size of a Tahari submission mat."

"Yes," I said.

"Behold," she said, smiling, her head down. "I kneel upon the mat."

I regarded her. A thousand memories rushed int my mind, of the vast, tawny Tahair, of its bleakness, and its dunes, of its caravans, of its oases and palaces. In the Tahari culture the submission mat has its place.

"In the Tahari," she asked, "might not girls, such as I, kneel on such mats?"

"Yes," I said. Many times I had seen such slaves, blond and beautiful, kneeling on such mats before dark masters.

"Oh!" she cried, seized and taken.

The girl knelt before me on the robe. Her head was down. "I beg your caress, Master," she said.

I smiled. Well did she remember our earlier conversation.

I looked at the sun though the trees. I thought there was time.

"Earn it," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said, happily.

Later I held her, again, in my arms. "We must start back now," I said.

"I know," she whispered.

I got up, and gathered my things together. "Roll the robe," I said. She did so. Then she knelt on the grass.

"Bind my hands and arms," she said, "so tightly that I cannot move the. Then march me back to the herd, a rope on my neck."

"No," I said. "You will walk back, quietly, before me."

"Yes, Master," she smiled.

I tied my things together with the rope. Then, the girl preceding me, we left the small grove. I looked back on it once. I had had a good time there.

"Bring her forth, the red-haired slave," said Mahpiyasapa, cheiftain of the Isbu Kaiila, standing before the lodge of Canka.

Canka stood, unafraid, his arms folded. "Winyela," he called.

The girl, frighened, emerged from the lodge and knelt down, near its threshold.

"It is she," said one of the men with Mahpiyasapa.

"It is she, who danced at the pole," said another.

"A pretty slave," said another.

"I want the woman," said Mahpiyasapa to Canka, indicating Winyela.

"You may not have her," said Canka.

"Speak, Wopeton," said Mahpiyasapa to Grunt, whom he had brought with him.

"My friend, Canka," said Grunt, "the woman was brought into the Barrens for Mahpiyasapa. He had ordered such a woman last year. It was for him that I purchased her in Kailiauk, near the Ihanke, and for him that I marched her eastward on my chain. The bargin was an old one, sealed last year. He is your chief. Give him the woman."

"No," said Canka.

"I was to receive five hides of the yellow kailiauk for her," said Grunt. "I do not wish, however, to have bad blood between two great warriors of the Isbu. Give her to mahpiyasapa. I will forgo the hides."

"No," said Mahpiyasapa. "It will never be said that Mahpiyasapa did not speak with a straight tongue. When I receive the woman I will give you the hides."

"He may not have the woman," said Canka. "By captrue rights she is mine. Mahpiyasapa, my chieftain, knowns this. Mahpiyasapa, my chieftain, is Kaiila. He will not violate the customs of the Kaiila."

"There is truly to be peace between the Kaiila and the Yellow Knives," said Mahpiyasapa. "Watonka has arranged it. Even now civil chieftains of the Yellow Knives reside in his lodge."

"What is this to me?" asked Canka.

"You have not behaved well," said Mahpiyasapa. "The woman should be mine. As chief I could take her to my lodge. But as chief I will not do this. I do not want to make you angry."

"Let me buy you two women, and give them to you for her," said Canka.

"That is the one I want," said Mahpiyasapa, indicating Winyela.

"That one," said Canka, "is mine."

"I want her," said Mahpiyasapa.

"She is mine, by capture right," said Canka.

Mahpiyasapa fell silent. He was angry.

"I am sorry, my chief," said Canka, "if I do not behave well. I am sorry if I have not acted in a way that is becoming to me. Had it been another woman I do not think I would have hesitated to bring her, her neck in a rope, to your lodge. This woman, however, as soon as I saw her, I knew that I wanted her. I know I could not rest until her neck was in my collar, until she was mine."

"I do not want her for myself," said Mahpiyasapa. "I want her for Yellow Knives. I and my fellows are going about the camp, gathering gifts for the Yellow Knives, kaiila and saddles, blankets, robes, cloth and women."

"I will give you a kaiila," said Canka.

"She is beautiful and her coloring and hair are rare in our contry," said Mahpiyasapa. "She would make a superb gift."

"Neither you nor the Yellow Knives may have her," said Canka.

"Her breasts are too small," said Mahpiyasapa.

"I am keeping her," said Canka. "She is mine, I want her."

When Mahpiyasapa had made this remark about her breasts, Winyela, troubled, puzzled, had inadvertently touched them. I myself though that her breasts were very lovely, and sweetly proportionate to her figure as a whole. Mahpiyasapa, however, it seemed, as is not all that unusual among the men of the red savages, preferred large-breased women. This preference for meatier, more ample bodied women, incidentally, is also common among the men of the Tahari. On Gor, generally, as far as I can tell, on the other hand, there is no particularly desiderated female type. Female beauty, it is recognized, is a complex and subtle thing, lovely and rich in its almost countelss variations. So much, as always, depends on the individual woman. There are so many ways of being beautiful.

"This is your last word on the matter?" asked Mahpiyasapa.

"Yes," said Canka.

Mahpiyasapa, then, turned about and strode away, followed by those who were with him.

Canka, turned, then, and looked down at Winyela, who was kneeling by the entrance to his lodge. She lowered her head.

REstrictive, stereotypical conceptions of female beauty, it might be added, are generally alien to the Gorean conscioiusness. That female beauty should be regarded as being restricted, for example, to a certain type of woman, say, perhaps, to women who are unusually tall for women, thin and small breasted, would be regarded as preposterous, if not even incomprehensible, to the Gorean. That conception would be just too limited for him. Too, of course, he is interested in a woman for such things as service and love, not fore being photographed in barbaric garments. Most Gorean women, like most human females, in general, tend to be short, curvaceous and dark-haired. Most women sold in slave markets, too, of course, are of this sort. They look well in chains, kneeling before one.

Winyela lifted her head to Canka. There were tears in her eyes. "Perhpas you should give me to him, Master," she said. "Perhaps my breasts are too small."

"Do not be stupid," said Canka. "They are perfect. Go cook."

"Yes, Master," she said, happily.

"Do you not fear," I asked, "that there will be trouble over this?" Cuwignaka and I had been standing nearby, listening to Canka and Mahpiyasapa. We had been invited to the lodge of Canka this night for boiled meat, a way of preparing meat of which the red savages are fond.

"I do not think so," said Canka. "But let us not worry about such things. These are to be days of joy and feasting."

"Tomorrow I will enter the lodge of the dance," said Cuwignaka.

"I have seen many gifts being exchanged about the camp," I said.