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

rence plant, for the delta is inhabited. Man has not surrendered it entirely
to the
tharlarion, the UI and the salt leach. There are scattered, almost invisible,
furtive
communites of rence growers who eke out their livelihood in the delta,
nominally
under the surzerainty of Port Kar. The cloth I found had probably been a trail
mark for some rence growers.
A kind of paper is made from rence. The plant itself has a long, thick root,
about four inches thick, which lies horizontally under the surface of the
water;
small roots sink downward into the mud from this main root, and several
тАЬstems,тАЭ as many as a dozen, rise from it, often of the length of fifteen to
sixteen
feet from the root; it has an excrescent, usually single floral spike.
The plant has many uses besides serving as a raw product in the
manufacture of rence paper. The root, which is woody and heavy, is used for
certain wooden tools and utensils, which can be carved from it; also, when
dried,
it makes a good fuel; from the stem the rence growers can make reed boats,
sails, mats, cords and the kind of fibrous cloth; further, its pith is edible,
and for
the rence growers is, with fish, a staple in their diet; the pith is edible
both raw
and cooked; some men, lost in the delta, not knowing the pith edible, have
died
of starvation the the midst of what was, had they known it, an almost endless
abundance of food. The pith is also used, upon occasion, as a caulking for
boat
seams, but tow and pitch, covered with tar or grease, are generally used.
Rence paper is made by slicing the stem into thin, narrow strips; those
near the center of the plant are particularyly favored; one layer of strips is
placed
longitudinally, and then a shorter layer is placed latitudinally across the
first
layer; these two surfaces are then soaked under water, which releases a
gluelike
substance from the fibers, melding the two surfaces into a single, rectangular
sheet; these formed sheets are then hammered and dried in the sun; roughness
in removed by polishing, usually with a smooth shell or a bit of kailiauk
horn; the
side of a tharlarion tooth may also be used in this work/ The paper is then
attacked, sheet to sheet, to form rolls, usually about twenty sheets to a
roll. The
best paper is on the outside of the roll, always, not to practice deceit in
the quality of the roll but rather to have the most durable paper on the
outside,
which will take the most weathering, handling and genteral wear/ Rence paper
comes in various grades, about eight in all. The rence growers market their
product either at the eastern or western end of the delta. Sometimes rence