Civitatis Ar, Plus!

Places - Baths

Generalities

It was not a pleasant path to Turia that Harold the Tuchuk showed to me, but I followed him.
"Can you swim?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. Then I inquired, "How is it that you, a Tuchuk, can swim?" I knew few Tuchuks could, though some had learned in the Cartius.
"I learned in Turia," said Harold, "in the public baths where I was once a slave."
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 Bath--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 belo--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 underwater 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."
"And where did you follow it to?" I asked.
"Here," said Harold, pointing to a cut between two rocks, only about eight inches wide, through which from some underground source a flow of water was emerging, entering and adding to the small stream at which, some four pasangs from the wagons, Aphris and Elizabeth had often drawn water for the wagon bosk. NOMADS OF GOR-, (4) Pages 188-189

"The darkness," I said, "will conceal somewhat the wetness of our garments and by the time we arrive we may be rather dry."
"Of course," said Harold. "That was part of my plan."
"Oh," I said.
"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-, (4) Page 192

Lydius is one of the few cities of the north which has public baths, as in Ar and Turia, though smaller and less opulent. HUNTERS OF GOR-, (8) Page 45

Many men of the Tahari, incidentally, and interestingly, can swim. Nomad boys learn this in the spring, when the waterholes are filled. Those who live at the larger, more populous oases can learn in the baths. The "bath" in the Tahari is not a matter of crawling into a small tub but is more in the nature, as on Gor generally, of a combination of cleaning and swimming, and reveling in the water, usually connected with various oils and towelings. One of the pleasures at the larger oases is the opportunity to bathe. At Nine Wells, for example, there are two public baths. TRIBESMEN OF GOR-, (10) Page 169

"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-, (14) Page 172

The fellow looked down. I did not blame him. I myself did not relish bathing in cold streams. I preferred warm baths, being attended by a beautiful female slave. After all, should a free man be expected to apply his own oils, scrape the dirt from his own skin with the strigil and towel himself? SAVAGES OF GOR-, (17) Page 292

"Please, Master," I begged.
"You want to go to the alcove, don’t you?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"And you would dance and beg for it?" he asked.
"I love to dance, Master," I said, "but even if it did not, yes, I would dance and beg for it!"
"Are you any good at bringing the whip to a man in your teeth?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"But are you not a woman of Earth?" he asked.
"Once I was a woman of Earth," I said. "Now I am only a Gorean slave."
"In the baths," he said, "I have seen the names of slaves and taverns scrawled on the walls."
"Oh?" I said, uneasily.
"And sometimes they are ranked in order of someone’s opinion as to their desirability," he said.
"I see," I said.
"May I speak, Master?" asked Tupita, with an almost catlike movement of her body. I thought I must learn to do that.
"Yes," he said.
"Were slaves in the tavern of Hendow so ranked?" she asked.
"Yes," he smiled.
"And did the name of Tupita not head the list?" she asked, glancing meaningfully at me.
"No," he said.
"Who was first?" she asked.
"Inger," he said.
"My name then was second," she said.
"No," said he, "it was third."
"And who was second?" she asked, angrily.
"Doreen," he smiled.
"The fellow who wrote the names up was surely mistaken," she said, angrily.
"I can give you my opinion on that," he said, "at some later date. I have used you before. You’re quite good. Even excellent. There is no doubt about it. But tonight I shall try something different. I shall try the dancer, Doreen." DANCER OF GOR-, (22) Page 220

"Do you know that you are beautiful?" he asked.
"Some men have been kind enough to tell me so," I said. "I do not know, of course, if they are correct or not."
"They are correct," he said.
"Thank you, Master," I said. It pleased me if Mirus should find me beautiful. He was a strong and handsome master. I wanted to serve him.
"Are you familiar with the ratings posted in the baths?" he asked.
"I have heard of such things," I said, reddening.
"In several of them," said he, "you now hold highest ranking in the tavern of Hendow."
"Higher than Inger?" I asked. "Then Aynur, than Tupita?"
"Yes," he said. "In some of them, at least."
"I am not better than them, really," I said. "I am sure of that."
"That is for men to decide," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said, frightened.
"But," said he, grinning, "you are probably right. You are all, doubtless, ultimately, very similar. You are all marvelous slaves. Such ratings are notoriously subjective. Some women will appeal more to one man, and some to another. Too, you are newer, and thus fresher to the tastes, and this perhaps accounts at least in part for your position in the rankings. When your popularity has crested you will perhaps subside to being merely another luscious and marvelous slave."
I looked at him.
"Too, you are a dancer," he said, "and this has undoubtedly improved your position. Many dancers, even plainer ones, hold high rankings."
"Yes, Master," I said.
"But one thing is certain," he said, "such rankings, even granting their subjectivity, and their silliness, and all the nonsense and absurdity associated with them, point to something, and that is your beauty and desirability." DANCER OF GOR-, (22) Page 232

"You are an excellent and valuable slave," he said.
"Thank you, Master," I said, relieved. Perhaps I had been brought here to be praised.
"You are a superb dancer," he said, "perhaps one of the best in Brundisium."
"Thank you, Master," I said.
"Your name is written high in the lists at the baths," he said.
"Thank you, Master," I said.
"The business of the tavern has increased considerably since your acquisition," he said.
"I am pleased if I have been of value to my master," I said.
"Did Mirus tell you things of this sort two nights ago?" he asked.
"To some extent, yes, Master," I said. I had not seen Mirus since the day before yesterday.
"They are true," he said.
"Then I am pleased, Master," I said. DANCER OF GOR-, (22) Page 266

Later in the afternoon, many men congregate in the baths. The baths in many Gorean towns are important social centers. Some are private, for a reserved clientele, but most are public, and their facilities, for a fee, are available to all free persons. They tend to be segregated, of course. Free persons of different sexes do not bathe together publicly. This reservation, of course, does not preclude the presence of female bath attendants in the mens’ baths or of silk slaves in those for the women. In the late afternoon, after the baths, the men tend to wend their way home, looking forward to their evening meal. DANCER OF GOR-, (22) Page 280

I closed my eyes in one of the second tubs, the cleaning 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 eighteen inches deep. On a hook, behind me, kept for towels, and such, I had slung 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 small ball. Similarly, there were no recreational gardens, no art galleries, no strolling lanes, no arcades of merchants, no physicians’ courts, no music rooms, or such.  RENEGADES OF GOR-, (23) Pages 57-58

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 elections 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 be 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 levels, 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.  RENEGADES OF GOR-, (23) Page 58

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.
If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure. 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. 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."
"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 in 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 the 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 the 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.
"Aiii!" 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 his way from the bath area.
The newcomer then returned his blade to the sheath. He then climbed into the tub. "Ahhh," 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 and 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.  RENEGADES OF GOR-, (23) Pages 58-61

"Attendant!" cried the burly fellow, from one of the second tubs, that immediately behind one of the first tubs, that most convenient to the entrance to the baths. "Stir up the fire!" It was early, but most of the fellows who had been sleeping on the floor of the baths during the night had now taken their leave.
The fellow then attending on the baths, rather large for such a fellow, it might seem, hooded, too, perhaps to disguise scarring of such a nature as might turn the stomachs of bathers, enveloped in a cloak, hobbling, perhaps the result of a fall from tarnback, hurried, seemingly alarmed, to the bricked platform beneath his tub and stirred the fire with the fire rake.
"Build up the fire! Hurry, fellow!" said the bather.
"Yes, Sir, yes, Sir," rasped the hooded, cloaked fellow.
I had been confident, of course, from what I had seen last night, that if the fellow were to bathe he would pick that first tub, and then, behind it, that second tub. Some, and he was apparently among them, regard such as the most prestigious tubs. It was natural, then, that he, such a fellow, should select them. Somehow, it seemed that the fire in the platform under the tub in which he now reclined had not been built up this morning. He who was now in attendance on the baths hurried now, of course, to do so. The fellow, thus, who seemingly was fond of his luxuries, would have to wait for a time, and then, when the water was comfortably warm, could presumably be counted upon, if only in compensation for his discomfort and inconvenience, to dally for a while.
He in attendance on the baths, shuffling about, occasionally muttering to himself, tended the fire.
I had anticipated that the fellow would wish to use the baths in the morning. For example, he had drunk heavily the night before and presumably could be counted upon to awaken in a few hours, thirsty and drenched with sweat. A horrifying hangover, too, considering the entire situation, was not too much to expect. In case he was less fastidious than we had anticipated, we had also taken the liberty of anointing the floor around his place with some representative elements extracted from the level’s wastes’ bucket. The presence of these in his area, particularly given the nature of his preceding evening, we naturally hoped he would explain to himself in the most natural way possible.
"Ahhh," said the bather, leaning back.
"Is the temperature of the water satisfactory?" inquired he in attendance, hobbling over to the tub.
"Yes," growled the bather.
He in attendance put an armload of wood and shavings near the bather’s tub, on the platform. In such a way, on a busy day at the baths, might some trips to the bins be saved. It is an old bath attendant’s trick. He in attendance, however, was somewhat clumsy in doing this. The striking of a piece of kindling on the tub, for example, rather on the left of the tub, seemed to cause distress to the bather.
"Get out," ordered the bather.
"May I be of further service?" inquired he in attendance.
"Get out!" said the bather. "Get out!"
"Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir!" rasped the bent fellow, hobbling away quickly, as though frightened. Then, in a moment, he was on the other side of the latticework.  RENEGADES OF GOR-, (23) Pages 115-116

"Here it is," said Marcus, calling back to me, "on the public boards." The public boards are posting areas, found at many points in Ar, usually in plazas and squares. These boards were along the Avenue of the Central Cylinder , and were state boards, on which official communiqués, news releases, announcements and such, could be posted. Some boards are maintained by private persons, who sell space on them for advertising, notifications, and personal messages. To be sure, many folks, presumably poorer folks, or at least folks less ready to part with a tarsk bit, simply inscribe their messages, in effect as graffiti, on pillars, walls of buildings, and such. Too, posters, and such, usually hand-inked, are common in public places, usually put up by the owners or managers of palestrae, or gymnasiums, public baths, taverns, race courses, theaters, and such. Sales of tharlarion and slaves, too, are commonly thusly advertised.   MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Page 75

 Graffiti, too, in Gorean public places, as the markets and baths, is not uncommon. Whereas this graffiti is mostly of a predictable sort, as one might expect, names, proclamations of love, denunciations of enemies, obscenities, and such, some of it is, in my opinion, at least, of quite high quality.   MAGICIANS OF GOR-, (25) Page 378
 

Kudos to you, Mr. Norman for writing the Gorean series!
A rich, yet utterly simple saga; a world, a time, a people;
those of the Counter-Earth .. the planet .. Gor.
Thank you!

The material presented herein was researched and compiled by me, naia{Saul}.
The material referenced comes from John Norman's Gor Series, The Counter-Earth Saga.
This is a work in process.
Please, do not take, copy, duplicate, or use this work as your own.
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