"John Norman - Gor 04 - Nomads of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

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', some-
thing 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. There is also a system of latitude
and longitude figured on the basis of the Gorean day, calculated in
Ahn, twenty of which constitute a Gorean day, and Ehn and Ihn,
which are subdivisions of the Ahn, or Gorean hour. Ta-Sardar-Var
is a direction which appears on all Gorean maps; Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var,
of course, never appears on a map, since it would be any direction
which is not Ta-Sardar-Var. 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 inciden-
tally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the
city of Ar. From the Sardar I had gone largely Cart, sometimes Vask,
then Cart again until I had come to the Plains of Turia, or the Land
of the Wagon Peoples. I crossed the Cartius on a barge, one of
several hired by the merchant of the caravan with which I ww then


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seeing. These barges, constructed of layered timbers of Ka-la-na wood,
are towed by teams of river tharlarion, domesticated, vast,herbivo-
rous, web-footed lizards raised and driven by the Cartius bargemen,
fathers and sons, interrelated clans, claiming the status of a cast
for themselves. Even with the harnessed might of several huge thar-
larion drawing toward the opposite shore the crossing took us several
pasangs downriver. The caravan, of course, was bound for Turia. No
caravans, to my knowledge, make their way to the Wagon Peoples,
who are largely isolated and have their own way of life. I left the
caravan before it reached Turia My business was with the Wagon
Peoples, not the Turians, said to be indolent and luxury-loving; but
I wonder at this charge, for Turia has stood for generations on the
plains claimed by the fierce Wagon Peoples.
For some minutes I stood silently observing the animals
and the men who pressed toward Turia, invisible over the
brown horizon. I found it hard to understand their terror.