The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is agigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty- five hands atthe shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost neverhunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. Fromkaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter cankill one with a- single arrow. He rides close to the animal, not a yard from itsside, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement the strikingpower 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, producinglarge-scale internal hemorrhaging he closely behind the left shoulder blade,thence piercing the eight-valved heart.
The hunting arrow, incidentally, has a long, tapering point, and this point isfirmly fastened to the shaft. This makes it easier to withdraw the arrow fromits target. The war arrow, on the other hand, uses an arrowhead whose base, iseither angled backwards, forming barbs, or cut straight across, the result inboth cases being to make the arrow difficult to extract from a wound. The headof the war arrow, too, is fastened less securely to the shaft than is that ofthe hunting arrow. The point thus, by intent, if the shaft is pulled out islikely to linger in the wound. Sometimes it is possible to thrust the arrowthrough the body, break off the point and then withdraw the shaft backwards. Atother times if the point becomes dislodged in the body, it is common to seek itwith a bone or greenwood probe, and then, when one has found it, attempt to workit free with a knife. There are cases where men have survived this. Muchdepends, of course, on the location of the point.
The heads of certain war arrows and hunting arrows differ, too, at least in thecase of certain warriors, in an interesting way, with respect to the orientationof the plane of the point to the plane of the nock. In these war arrows, thePlane of the point is perpendicular to the plane of the nock. In level shooting,then, the plane of the point is roughly parallel to the ground. In these huntingarrows, on the other hand, the plane of the point is parallel to the plane ofthe nock. In level shooting, then, the plane of the point is roughlyperpendicular to the ground. The reason for these different orientations isparticularly telling at close range, before the arrow begins to turn in the air.
The ribs of the kailiauk are vertical to the ground; the ribs of the human arehorizontal to the ground.
The differing orientations may be done, of course, as much for reasons of feltpropriety, or for medicine purposes, as for reasons of improving the efficiencyof the missile. They may have some effect, of course, as I have suggested, atextremely close range. In this respect, however, it should be noted that mostwarriors use the parallel orientation with respect to both their war and huntingpoints. It is felt that this orientation improves sighting. This seems to me,too, to be the case. The parallel orientation, of course, would be moreeffective with kailiauk, which are usually shot at extremely close range,indeed, from so close that one might almost reach out and touch the beast. Also,of course, in close combat with humans, if one wishes, the perpendicularalignment may be simply produced; one need only turn the small bow.
'Toward noon,' said Kog, slowly turning the hide, 'we see that the weather hascleared. The wind has died down. The snow has stopped falling. The sun hasemerged from Clouds. We may conjecture that the day is bright. A rise intemperature has apparently occurred as well. We see that the man has opened hiswidely sleeved hunting coat and removed his cap of fur.'
'I had not hitherto, before seeing this skin,' said Samos 'realized that thesavages wore such things.
'They do,' said Kog. 'The winters in the Barrens are severe, and one does nothunt in a robe.'
'Here,' said Samos, 'the man is lying down.'
'He is surmounting a rise,' said Kog. 'Surmounting it with care.'
I nodded. It is seldom wise to silhouette oneself against the sky. A movement insuch a plane is not difficult to detect. Similarly, before entering a terrain,it is sensible to subject it to some scrutiny. This work, whether done fortribal migrations or, war parties, is usually done by a scout or scouts. When aman travels alone, of course, he must be his own scout. Similarly it is commonfor lone travelers or small parties to avoid open spaces without cover, wherethis is possible, and where it is not possible, to cross them expeditiously. Anoccasional ruse used in crossing an open terrain, incidentally, is to throw akailiauk robe over oneself and bend down over the back of one's kaiila. From adistance then, particularly if one holds in one's kaiila, one and one's mountmay be mistaken for a single beast, a lone kailiauk.
Scouts are sometimes called sleen by the red savages. The sleen is Gor's mostefficient and tenacious tracker. They are often used to hunt slaves. Too, thescout, often, in most tribes, wears the pelt of a sleen. This pelt, like agarment, which is at one time both cowl and cape, covers both the head and back.
It is perhaps felt that something of the sleen's acuity and tenacity is thusimparted to the scout. Some scouts believe that they become, when donning thispelt, a sleen. This has to do with their beliefs as to the mysteriousrelationships which are thought to obtain between the world of reality and themedicine world, that, at times, these two worlds impinge on one another, andbecome one. To be sure, from a practical point of view, the pelt makes anexcellent camouflage. It is easy, for example, to mistake a scout, on all fours,spying over a rise, for a wild sleen. Such animals are not uncommon in theBarrens. Their most common prey is tabuk.
'And this, you see,' said Kog, turning the hide, 'is what he saw on that brightand thawing morning.'
'It is what he said he saw,' said Samos.
In the declivity below the rise there lay a slain kailiauk, dark in the snow.
There could be no mistaking what, alert, huge, catlike, like a larl, crouchedbehind the kailiauk.
'You see?' asked Kog.
'The dark guest,' said Samos.
'Clearly delineated,' said Samos.
'Yes,' said Kog, 'seen clearly now, in its own form.'
I could not speak.
'Surely this is only the product of the imagination of the artist,' said Samos.
'Too, there are five riders of the kaiila, with kaiila lances, between thekailiauk and the dark guest, and the man.'
'These are the other hunters, those whose tracks were found, those who had alsobeen following the kailiauk,' said Samos.
'Yes,' said Kog.
The kaiila lance is used in hunting kailiauk as well as in mounted warfare. Itis called the kaiila lance because it is designed to be used from kaiilaback. Itis to be distinguished in particular from the longer, heavier tharlarion lance,designed for use from tharlarionback, and often used with a lance rest, and thesmaller, thicker stabbing lances used by certain groups of pedestrian nomads.
The kaiila lance takes, on the whole, two forms, the hunting lance and the warlance. Hunting lances are commonly longer, heavier and thicker than war lances.
Too, they are often undecorated, save perhaps for a knot of the feathers of theyellow, long-winged, sharp- billed prairie fleer, or, as it is sometimes called,the maize bird, or corn bird, considered by the red savages to be generally thefirst bird to find food.
The point of the hunting lance is usually longer and narrower than that of thewar lance, a function of the depth into which one must strike in order to findthe heart of the kailliauk. The shafts of the kaiila lances are black, suppleand strong; they are made of tem wood, a wood much favored on Gor for this typeof purpose. Staves for the lances are cut in the late winter, when the sap isdown. Such wood, in the long process of smoking and drying over the lodge fire,which consumes several weeks, seasoning the wood and killing any insects whichmight remain in it, seldom splits or cracks. Similarly, old- growth wood, orsecond-growth wood, which is tougher, is preferred over the fresher, less densefirst-growth, or new-growth, wood.
After drying the shafts are rubbed with grease and straightened over the beat ofa fire. Detailed trimming and shaping is accomplished with a small knife. Arubbing with sandstone supplies a smooth finish. The head, of metal, or of boneor stone, with sinew or rawhide, and also sometimes with metal trade rivets, isthen mounted on the lance. Lastly, grips, and loops, and decorations, ifdesired, are added. The sinew and rawhide, before being bound on the lance, aresoaked with hot water. The heated water releases a natural the water itself, ofcourse, produces a natural shrinking and contraction in drying. The mounting,thus, is extremely solid and secure. The tarn lance, it might be mentioned, asis used by the red savages who have mastered the tarn, is, in size and shape,very similar to the kaiila lance. It differs primarily in being longer and moreslender. These lances are used in a great variety of ways, but the most commonmethod is to thrust one's wrist through the wrist loop, grasp the lance with theright hand, and anchor it beneath the right arm. This maximizes balance, controland impact. With the weight of
