"John Norman - Gor 06 - Raiders of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

come from the rushes and sedge. With the pole she began to propel my rush
craft through the sedge, the several other craft accompanying us, on one or
the
other side, or following.
At one point the girl stopped the craft, and the others did too. She, and
one or two of the others, then put back their heads and uttered a kind of
piping
whistle, the call of the marsh gant. This answered from various points about
us,
most of which were several yards away. Soon other rence craft, with their
curved
prows and sterns, had joined us.
The rence growers, I had learned, communicate by means of such signals,
disguised as the cries of marsh gants.
3 Ho-Hak
The rence islands, on which the communites of rence growers dwell, are
rather small, seldom more than two hundred and fifty feet. They are formed
entirely from the interwoven stems of the rence plants and float in the marsh.
They are generally about eight to nine feet thick and have an exposed surface
above the water of about three feet; as the rence stems break and rot away
beneath the island, more layers are woven and placed on the surface. Thus,
over
a period of months, a given layer of rence, after being the top layer, will
gradually be submerged and forced dower and lower until it, at last, is the
deepest layer and, with its adjacent layers, begins to deteriorate.
To prevent an unwanted movement of the island, there are generally
several tethers, of marsh vine, to strong rence roots in the vicinity. It is
dangerous ot neter the water to make a tether fast becasue of the predators
that
frequent the swamp, but several men do so at a time, once man making fast the
tether and the others, with him beneath the surface, protecting him with marsh
spears, or pounding on metal pieces or wooden rods to drive away, or at least
to
disconcert and confuse, too inquisitive, undesired visitors, such as the water
tharlarion or the long-bodied, nine-gilled marsh shark.
When one wishes to move the island the tethers are simply chopped
away, and the community divides itself into those who will handle the long
poles
and those who will move haead in rence craft, cutting and clearing the way.
Most
of those who handle the poles gather on the edges of the island, but within
the
island there are four deep rectangular wells through which the long poles may
gain additional leverage. These deep center wells, actually holes cut in the
island, permit its movement, though slowly when used alone, without exposing
any of its inhabitants at its edges, where they might fall easier prey to the
missile
weapons of foes. In times of emergency the inhabitants of the island gather
behind wickerlike breastworks, woven of rence, in the area of the center
wells; in