There were bells, three rows of them, small and golden, thronged
tightly about the girl's left ankle.
The entire floor of the chamber, shining, richly mosaiced, broad, reflecting the
torchlight, was a map.
I watched the girl. Her knees were slightly bent. Her weight was on her heels, freeing her
hips. Her rib cage was lifted, but her shoulders, relaxed, were down.
Her abdominal muscles, too, were relaxed, loose. Her chin was lifted, haughtily. She did
not deign to look at us. Dark hair flowed behind her.
The left ankle of the girl, under the bells, the brown thong, the golden metal, was
tanned.
The girl wore Gorean dancing silk. It hung low upon her bared hips, and fell to her
ankles. It was scarlet, diaphanous. A front corner of the silk was taken behind her and
thrust, loose and draped, into the rolled silk knotted about her hips; a back corner of
the silk was drawn before her and thrust loosely, draped, into the rolled silk at her
right hip. Low on her hips she wore a belt of small denomination, threaded, overlapping
golden coins. A veil concealed her muchly from us, it thrust into the strap of the coined
halter at her left shoulder, and into the coined belt at her right hip. On her arms she
wore numerous armlets and bracelets. On the thumb and first finger of both her left and
right hand were golden finger cymbals. On her throat was a collar.
'Yes,' said Samos. He clapped his bands. Immediately the girl stood beautifully, alert,
before us, her arms high, wrists outward. The musicians, to one side, stirred, readying
themselves. Their leader was a czehar player.
He looked at the girl. He clapped his hands, sharply.
There was a clear note of the finger cymbals, sharp, delicate, bright, and the slave girl
danced before us.
I regarded the coins threaded, overlapping, on her belt and halter. They took the
firelight beautifully. They glinted, but were of small worth. One dresses such a woman in
cheap coins; she is slave. Her hand moved to the veil at her right hip. Her head was
turned away, as though unwilling and reluctant, yet knowing she must obey.
The dancer was now moving slowly to the music.
I turned to watch the dancer. She danced well. At the moment she writhed upon the 'slave
pole,' it fixing her in place. There is no actual pole, of course, but sometimes it is
difficult to believe there is not. The girl imagines that a pole, slender, supple,
swaying, transfixed her body, holding her helplessly. About this imaginary pole, it
constituting a hypothetical center of gravity, she moves, undulating, swaying, sometimes
yielding to it in ecstasy, sometimes fighting it, it always holding her in perfect place,
its captive. The control achieved by the use of the 'slave pole' is remarkable. An
incredible, voluptuous tension is almost immediately generated, visible in the dancers
body, and kinetically felt by those who watch. I heard men at the table cry out with
pleasure. The dancer's hands were at her thighs. She regarded them, angrily, and still she
moved. Her shoulders lifted and fell; her hands touched her breasts and shoulders; her
head was back, and then again she glared at the men, angrily. Her arms were high, very
high. Her hips moved, swaying. Then, the music suddenly silent, she was absolutely still.
Her left hand was at her thigh; her right high above her head; her eyes were on her hip;
frozen into a hip sway; then there was again a bright, clear flash of the finger cymbals,
and the music began again, and again she moved, helpless on the pole. Men threw coins at
her feet.
The dancer moaned, crying out, as though in agony. Still she remained impaled upon the
slave pole, its prisioner.
The hips of the dancer now moved, seemingly in isolation from the rest of her body, though
her wrists and hands, ever so slightly, moved to the music.
Samos, with a snap of his fingers, freed the dancer from the slave pole. She moved,
turning, toward us. Before us, loosening her veil at the right hip, she danced. Then she
took it from her left shoulder, where it had been tucked beneath the strap of her halter.
With the veil loose, covering her, holding it in her hands, she danced before us. Then she
regarded us, dark-eyed, over the veil, it turned about her body; then, to the misery of
the blondish girl, she wafted the silk about her, immeshing her in its gossamer softness.
I saw the parted lips, the eyes wide with horror, of the kneeling, harnessed girl, through
the light, yellow veil; then the dancer had drawn it away from her, and, turning, was
again in the center of the floor.
Tribesmen of Gor, Pg. 7 - 13
