Trading
I had learned, to my surprise, that trade did occasionally take place with Turia. Indeed, when I had learned this, it had fired my hopes that I might be able to approach the city in the near future, hopes which, as it turned out, were disappointed, though perhaps well so. The Wagon Peoples, though enemies of Turia, needed and wanted her goods, in particular materials of metal and cloth, which are highly prized among the Wagons. Indeed, even the chains and collars of slave girls, worn often by captive Turian girls themselves, are of Turian origin.The Turians, on the other hand, take factor or trade in trade for their goods obtained by manufacturing with other cities, principally the horn and hide of the bosk, which naturally the Wagon Peoples, who live on the bosk, have in plenty. The Turians also, I noted, receive other goods from the Wagon Peoples, who tend to be fond of the raid. Goods looted from caravans perhaps a thousand pasangs from the herds, indeed some of them even on the way to and from Turia itself. From these raids the Wagon Peoples obtain a miscellany of goods which they are willing to barter to the Turians, jewels, precious metals, spices, colored table salts, harnesses and saddles for the ponderous tharlarion, furs of small river animals, tools for the field, scholarly scrolls, inks and papers, root vegetables, dried fish, powdered medicines, ointments, perfume and women, customarily plainer ones they do not wish to keep for themselves; prettier wenches, to their dismay, are usually kept with the wagons; some of the plainer women are sold for as little as a brass cup; a really beautiful girl, particularly if of free birth and high caste, might bring as much as forty pieces of gold; such are, however, seldom sold; the Wagon Peoples enjoy being served by civilized slaves of great beauty and high station; during the day, in the heat and dust, such girls will care for the wagon bosk and gather fuel for the dung fires; at night they will please their masters. (Nomads of Gor)
It was the last thing out of Sakmeta's mouth, "You have nothing I want or need, Kazhuye! NOTHING!"
Women!
I had
heard talk among a few of the outriders that there was to be a raid on a merchant caravan on its way to Turia from Turmas. Because there was so little interest in the spoils from my own recent kill, I headed out to the furthest reaches of the Turian Plains and there made my trades with other Wagon Peoples. The trip lasted me over five days, and I now have forty new quivas to add to my armory in preparation for the Wintering journey north and the coming Love War in spring.
Fortunately when I arrived, there were several who both needed and wanted what I had. A whole lot of bull! Bosk, that is. On the black market, the leather hides especially can go for triple the normal exchange rate officiated by fair trade agreements under Merchant Law. Not that I give a damn about Merchant Law! It holds the same value as a gold ring hung from a bosk's snout does. Yet in my eyes, a sack of bosk dung holds the far greater value. For neither the Laws of city dwellers nor the gold rings hung in the snouts of bosk will keep a Tuchuk from freezing to death once the colder season turns severe.
Nevertheless, I returned home again to my wagon by the end of the hand, eight diamond necklaces, three brass cups, four Turian eating prongs, and nine bottles of paga richer. Oh... and twelve of those silver coins as well. Turian's seem fond of trading for them during Omen Year festivals. We shall see soon enough.
