"John Norman - Gor 18 - Blood Brothers of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

"Good," said Grunt, pleased at the young man's pleasure.
It is difficult to make clear to those who are not intimately acquainted
with such things the meaning of the Pte, or Kailiiauk, to the red savages. It
is a central phenomenon in their life, and much of their life revolves around
it. The mere thought of the kailiauk can inspire awe in them, and pleasure and
excitement. More to them than meat for the stomach and clothes for the back is
the kailiauk to them; too, it is mystery and meaning for them; it is heavy
with medicine; it is a danger; it is a sport; it is a challenge; and, at dawn,
with a lance or bow in one's hand, and a swift, eager kaiila between one's
knees, it is a joy to the heart.
"Look," said Grunt, pointing to the right.
A rider, a red savage, was approaching rapidly. He wore a breechclout and
moccasins. About his neck was a string of sleen claws. There were no feathers
in his hair and neither he nor his animal wore paint. Too, he did not carry
lance and shild. He was not on the business of war. He did have a bow
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case and quiver, and at the thong of his waist was a beaded sheath, from
which protruded the hilt of a trade knife.
"It is Hci," said Cuwingaka. There is no exact translation of the
expression 'Hci' from Kaiila, into either Gorean or English. This is ot all
that unusual, incidentally. One cannot expect identical regularities in
meaning and usage to obtain in diverse linguistic communities. The expression,
for most practical regularities in meaning and usage to obtain in diverse
linguistic communites. The expresion, for most practical purposes, signifies a
certain type of gap, such as, for example, might occur in the edge of a trade
ax, or hatchet, for use in drawing nails, an occupation for which red savages,
of course, have little use. It is also used more broadly for a gash, such as
an ax might cut in a tree, or for a cut or scar. It seems to be clearly in the
latter range of meanings that the name belonged. At the left side of Hci's
face, at the chin, there was an irregular, jagged scar, som two inches in
length. This dated from several years ago, when he had been seventeen, from
the second time he had set the paws of his kaiila on the warpath. It had been
given to him by a Yellow Knife in mounted combat, the result of a stroke by a
long-handled, stone-bladed tomahawk, or canhpi. Before that time, as a
stalwart, handsome lad, he had been affectionately known as Ihdazicaka, or
One-Who-Counts-Himself-Rich. Afterwards he had become, by his own wish, only
Hci. He had become morose and cruel. Immersing himself in the comraderie, and
the rituals and ceremonies of the Sleen Soldiers, it seemed he lived then for
little other than the concerns of raiding and war. There were members of his
own society who feared to ride with him, so swift, so fierce, so careless of
danger he was. Once, in a fight with Fleer, he had leaped to the ground and
thrust his lance through the long, trailing end of the society's war sash,
which, on that occasion, he had been wearing. He thus fastened himself in
place, on foot, among the charging Fleer. "I will not yield this ground!" he
had cried. The fleeing members of his society, seeing this, and knowing that
he wore the war sash, had then rallied and, though outnumbered, had charged
the Fleer. The Fleer, eventually, had left the scene of battle, feeling the
cost of obtaining a victory over such men would be too high. As they left they