"John Norman - Gor 01- Tarnsman of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

that I should profit by his instruction.

Oddly enough, there was little religious instruction, other than to encourage awe of the Priest-
Kings, and what there was, Torm refused to administer, insisting it was the province of the
Initiates. Religious matters on this world tend to be rather carefully guarded by the Caste of
Initiates, who allow members of other castes little participation in their sacrifices and
ceremonies. I was given some prayers to the Priest Kings to memorize, but they were in Old Gorean,
a language cultivated by the Initiates but not spoken generally on the planet, and I never
bothered to learn them. To my delight, I learned that Torm, whose memory was phenomenal, had
forgotten them years ago. I sensed that a certain distrust existed between the Caste of Scribes
and the Caste of Initiates.

The ethical teachings of Gor, which are independent of the claims and propositions of the
Initiates, amount to little more than the Caste Codes-collections of sayings

whose origins are lost in antiquity. I was specially drilled in the Code of the Warrior Caste.

"It's just as well," said Torm. "You would never make a Scribe."

The Code of the Warrior was, in general, characterized by a rudimentary chivalry, emphasizing
loyalty to the Pride Chiefs and the Home Stone. It was harsh, but with a certain gallantry, a
sense of honor that I could respect. A man could do worse than live by such a code.

I was also instructed in the Double Knowledge-that is, I was instructed in what the people, on the
whole, believed, and then I was instructed in what the intellectuals were expected to know.
Sometimes there was a surprising discrepancy between the two. For example, the population as a
whole, the castes below the High Castes, were encouraged to believe that their world was a broad,
flat disk. Perhaps this was to discourage them from exploration or to develop in them a habit of
relying on commonsense prejudices-something of a social control device.

On the other hand, the High Castes, specifically the Warriors, Builders, Scribes, Initiates, and
Physicians, were told the truth in such matters, perhaps because it was thought they would
eventually determine it for themselves, from observations such as the shadow of their planet on
one or another of Gor's three small moons during eclipses, the phenomenon of sighting the tops of
distant objects first, and the fact that certain stars could not be seen from certain geographical
positions; if the planet had been flat, precisely the same set of stars would have been observable
from every position on its surface.

I wondered, however, if the Second Knowledge, that of the intellectuals, might not be as carefully
tailored to preclude inquiry on their level as the First Knowledge apparently was to preclude
inquiry on the level of the Lower Castes. I would guess that there is a Third Knowledge, that
reserved to the Priest-Kings.
"The city-state," said my father, speaking to me late one afternoon, "is the basic political
division on Gorhostile cities controlling what territory they can in their environs, surrounded by
a no-man's land of open ground on every side."

"How is leadership determined in these cities?" I asked.

"Rulers," he said, "are chosen from any High Caste."