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The Memory of the Red Savages
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The Memory: although the Red Savages, described as ruthless and ferocious, seem to thrive on internecine warfare, there is one common tradition that will unite them over customary conflicts and rivalries. Their hatred of the white man, called simply, 'The Memory' always takes priority.
Book 17: Savages of Gor, pages 35, 148 and 248
Book 17: Savages of Gor, pages 35, 148 and 248
The Red Savages, as they are commonly called on Gor, are racially and culturally distinct from the Red Hunters of the north. They tend to be a more slender, longer-limbed people; their daughters menstruate earlier; and their babies are not born with a blue spot at the base of the spine, as in the case with most of the red hunters. Their culture tends to be nomadic, and is based on the herbivorous, lofty kaiila, substantially the same animal as is found in the Tahari, save for the wider footpads of the Tahari beast, suitable for negotiating deep sand, and the lumbering, gregarious, short-tempered, trident-homed kailiauk. To be sure, some tribes do not have the kaiila, never having mastered it, and certain tribes have mastered the tam, which tribes are the most dangerous of all. Although there are numerous physical and cultural differences among these people they are usually collectively referred to as the red savages. This is presumably a function of so little being known about them, as a whole, and the cunning, ruthlessness and ferocity of so many of the tribes. They seem to live for hunting and internecine warfare, which seems to serve almost as a sport and a religion for them. Interestingly enough most of these tribes seem to be united only by a hatred of whites, which hatred, invariably, in a time of emergency or crisis, takes precedence over all customary con- and rivalries. To attack whites, intruding into their lands, once the war lance has been lifted, even long-term blood enemies will ride side by side. The gathering of tribes, friends and foes alike, for such a battle is said to be a splendid sight. These things are in virtue of what, among these peoples, is called the Memory.
Hand sign, I suspected was the key to the capacity of the tribes to unite and protect their territories against outside encroachment, that and what they called the Memory.
Are we not yet in the country of the Dust Legs?" I inquired. This was a perimeter tribe, which, on the whole, was favorably disposed towards whites. Most trading was done with Dust Legs. Indeed, it was through the Dust Legs that most of the goods of the interior might reach civilization, the Dust Legs, in effect, acting as agents, and intermediaries. Many tribes, apparently, would not deal on a face-to-face basis with whites. This had to do with the hatred and suspicion fostered by that tradition called the Memory. The Memory, as it is called, and their hatred for the white man, had taken priority, as it commonly did, over their bloody and almost continuous intertribal differences. The red savages, I speculated, if they wished, with their numbers, and their unity, conjoined with an approximate technological parity in weapons, should be able to hold the Barrens indefinitely against white intrusion
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