Vagabonds of Gor by John Norman

that, in a sense, the brand and collar, as lovely and decorative as they are, and as exciting and profoundly meaningful as they are, when they are fixed on a woman, and she wears them, and as obviously important as they are from the point of view of property law, may be viewed not so much as instituting or producing bondage as recognizing it, as serving, in a way, as tokens, or outward signs, of these marvelous inward truths, these ultimate realities.
     
    The true slave knows that her slavery, her natural slavery, is not a matter of the brand and collar, which have more to do with legalities, but of herself. She may love her brand and collar, and beg them, and rejoice in them, but I do not think this is merely because they make her so exciting, desirable and beautiful; I think it is also, at least, because they proclaim publicly to the world what she is, because by means of them her deepest truth, freeing her of concealments and deceits, cutting through confusions, resolving doubts, ending hesitancies, making her at last whole and one, to her joy, is marked openly upon her. The true slave is within the woman. She knows it is there. She will not be happy until she terminates inward dissonances, until she casts out rending contradictions, until she achieves emotional, moral, physiological and psychological consistency, until she surrenders to her inward truths.
     
    "May I speak, Master?" Temione asked of the burly fellow, swaying before him.
     
    How bold she was!
     
    "Yes," he said, huskily.
     
    "Does Master find a slave pleasing?" he asked.
     
    "Yes!" he said.
     
    "Perhaps even exciting?" she inquired.
     
    "Yes, yes!" he said, almost in pain.
     
    "I am not too fat, am I?" she asked.
     
    "No!" he said. "No!" It might be mentioned that as a slave girl is a domestic animal her diet is subject to supervision. Most masters will give some attention to the girl's diet, her rest, exercises, training, and so on. Some slavers, with certain markets in mind, such as certain of the Tahari markets, deliberately fatten slaves before their sale, sometimes keeping them in small cages, sometimes even force-feeding them, and so on. Most masters, on the other hand, will try to keep their slaves at whatever dimensions and weights are thought to be optimum for her health and beauty.
     
    "Perhaps Master thinks I am stupid," she said.
     
    "No," he said. "No!" Properties such as intelligence and imagination are prized in female slaves. It helps them, obviously, to be better slaves. Too, it is pleasant to dominate such women, totally.
     
    "Does Master think I am a she-tarsk?" she asked.
     
    "No!" he cried.
     
    "Beware," Philebus cautioned her, his whip in hand.
     
    "Let her speak, let her speak," said the burly fellow, tensely.
     
    I did not think the swaying slave would be likely to be mistaken for a she-tarsk. She might, however, as she was acting, be mistaken for something of a she-sleen. To be sure, the whip can quickly take that sort of thing from a woman.
     
    "Alas," she lamented, "I am not worth even sleen feed!"
     
    "No!" cried the burly fellow. "Do not say that! You are exquisite!"
     
    "But such a charge has been cited against me," she moaned.
     
    "By some wretch I wager!" said he, angrily.
     
    "If Master will have it so," she demurred.
     
    "Would that I had him here," he said. "I would well chastise him, and with blows, did he not retract his judgment, belabor him for his lack of taste!" In fairness to the burly fellow, it had been Temione the free woman against whom he had leveled that charge, not Temione, the slave. There was obviously a great deal of difference between the two, even if Temione herself was not yet that aware of it.
     
    "Alas that I am so ugly!" she said.
     
    "Absurd!" he cried. "You are beautiful!"
     
    "Master is too kind," she said.
     
    "You are the most beautiful slave I have ever seen!" When he said this I noted that a pleased look came over the features of Philebus. He would not now, I