Tuchuk Life

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Joking

"Wily Kassar!" he laughed. This was a joke. Even I had to smile. The Tuchuks were commonly called the Wily Ones. — Nomads of Gor, page 75.

This struck fire in Aphris of Turia. She suddenly straightened indignantly and cried out. "Not I not Aphris of Turia!" "You "said Kamchak.
A serving slave to a barbarian!"
"Yes," said Kamchak.
"Never!" cried the girl.
"Yes," roared Kamchak, throwing back his head and guffawing, "Aphris of Turia, in my wagon, will be a barbarian's serving slave!"
The girl's fists were clenched.
"And I shall see," said Kamchak, "that word of this reaches Turia'" He then bent over and started cracking his knees with his fists, so amused he was. Aphris of Turia trembled with rage before him.
"Please," said Elizabeth, "come away." She tried to take Aphris by the arm.
Aphris of Turia shrugged away her touch arrogantly, not wishing to feel her hand. But then, head in the air, she deigned to accompany Elizabeth from where we stood. "If she does not work well," called Kamchak cheerily, "beat her." — Nomads of Gor, pages 135-136

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Courtesy in public

"When I returned with the bottle I had to step through, over, and once or twice on, Tuchuks. Fortunately my clumsiness was not construed as a challenge. One fellow I stepped on was even polite enough to say, "Forgive me for sitting where you are stepping." In Tuchuk fashion, I assured him that I had taken no offense, and, sweating, I at last made my way to Kamchak's side. He had rather good seats, which hadn't been there before, obtained by the Tuchuk method of finding two individuals sitting closely together and then sitting down between them . — Nomads of Gor, page 154

A suspicous lot

Kamchak nodded. "I have no quarrel with Ha-Reel, the mercenary," he said. Then Kamchak looked at me. "You, however," he said, "now that he knows of the stakes in these games, may meet him again. He draws his sword only in the name of gold, but I expect that now, Saphrar dead, those who employed the merchant may need new agents for their work — and that they will pay the price of a sword such as that of Ha-keel" Kamchak grinned at me, the first time since the death of Kutaituchik. "It is said," remarked Kamchak, "that the sword of Ha-Keel is scarcely less swift and cunning than that of Pa-Kur, the Master of Assassin" "Pa-Kur is dead," I said. "He died in the siege of Ar."
"Was the body recovered?" asked Kamchak.
"No," I said.
Kamchak smiled. "I think, Tarl Cabot," he said. "You would never make a Tuchuk."
'Why is that?" I asked.
"You are too innocent," he said, "too trusting."
"Long ago," said Harold, nearby, "I gave up expecting more of a Koroban."
I smiled. "Pa-Kur," I said, "defeated in personal combat on the high roof of the Cylinder of Justice in Ar, turned and to avoid capture threw him self over the ledge. I do not think he could fly."
"Was the body recovered?" Kamchak asked again.
"No," I said. "But what does it matter?"
"It would matter to a Tuchuk," said Kamchak.
"You Tuchuks are indeed a suspicion lot," I remarked.
"What would have happened to the body?" asked Harold, and it seemed he was serious.
"I suppose," I said, "it was torn to pieces by the crowds below or lost with the other dead. Many things could have happened to it."
"It seems then," said Kamchak, "that he is dead."
"Surely," I said.
"Let us hope so," said Kamchak, "for your sake ." — Nomads of Gor, pages 323-324.

Not speaking of everything they may know

"If you should ever need the Tuchuks' Tarl Cabot," said Kamchak, "or the Kataii or the Kassar — or the Paravaci — you have only to — speak and we will ride. We will ride to your side, be it even to the cities of Earth." You know of Earth?" I asked. I recalled what I took to be the skepticism of Kamchak and Kutaituchik long ago when they had questioned me and Elizabeth Cardwell of such matters.
Karnchak smiled. "We Tuchuks know of many things," he said, "Of more than we tell." He grinned. "Good fortune attends you, Tart Cabot, Commander of a Thousand Tuchuks, and Warrior of Ko-ro-ba!" — Nomads of Gor, pages 343-344

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Greetings and Goodbyes



He grinned a Tuchuk grin. "How are the bosk?" he asked.
"As well as may be expected," said Kamchak.
"Are the quivas sharp?"
"One tries to keep them so," said Kamchak.
"It is important to keep the axles of the wagons greased," observed Kutaituchik.
"Yes," said Kamchak, "I believe so."
Kutaituchik suddenly reached out and he and Kamchak, laughing, clasped hands . — Nomads of Gor, page 44

"I wish you well, Tarl Cabot," said Kamchak.
"I wish you well, Kamchak of the Tuchuks," I said — Nomads of Gor, page 343.

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Cultural Customs

Nose rings

"… I supposed that Kamchak would have one of the tiny nose rings affixed; all Tuchuk females, slave or free, wear such rings …" — Nomads of Gor, page 62.

"Tuchuks," I remarked, "regard the piercing of ears as a barbarous custom inflicted on their slave girls by Turians." Elizabeth looked up, the tiny ring glinting in the light of the fire bowl.
"Are your ears pierced?" I asked.
"No," she said, "but many of my friends on Earth who owned fine earrings, had their ears pierced."
"Did that seem so dreadful to you?" I asked.
"No," she said, smiling.
"It would to Tuchuks," I said. "They do not even inflict that on their Turian slaves." I added, "And it is one of the great fears of a Tuchuk girl that, should she fall into Turian hands, it will be done to her ." — Nomads of Gor, page 281.

Free Companionship

As he turned to leave the throne room of Phanius Turmus, to return to the wagons, Aphris lightly rose to her feet to accompany him. But Kamchak turned and faced her. She looked up at him, questioningly. It was hard to read his face. She stood quite close to him. Gently, ever so gently, Kamchak put his hands on her arms and drew her to him and then, very softly, kissed her.
"Master?" she asked.
Kamchak's hands were at the small, heavy lock at the back of the steel, Turian collar she wore. He turned the key and opened the collar, discarding it. Aphris said nothing, but she trembled and shook her head slightly. She touched her throat disbelievingly. "You are free," said the Tuchuk.
The girl looked at him, incredulously, bewildered.
"Do not fear," he said. "You will be given riches." He smiled. "You will once again be the richest woman in all of Turia."
She could not answer him. The girl, and the rest of us present, stood stunned. Most of us knew the peril, the hardship and danger the Tuchuk had sustained in her acquisition; all of us knew the price he had been willing to pay only recently that she, fallen into the hands of another, might be returned to him. We could not understand what he had done. Kamchak turned abruptly from her striding to his kaiila, which had been tethered behind the throne. He put one foot in the stirrup and mounted easily. Then, not pressing the animal, he took his way from the throne room. The rest of us followed him, with the exception of Aphris who remained, stricken, standing beside the throne of the Ubar, clad perhaps Kajir, but now uncollared, now free. Her fingertips were before her mouth. She seemed numb. She shook her head . — Nomads of Gor, pages 338-339.


Outside the main gate of the palace of Phanius Turmus, Kamchak, on his kaiila, waited for us. Our beasts were tethered there, and we mounted. Hereena and Elizabeth would run at our stirrups. We turned from the gate, to ride down the long avenue leading toward the main gate of Turia. Kamchak's face was inscrutable.
"Wait!" we heard.
We turned our mounts and saw Aphris of Turia, barefoot, clad Kajir, running after us. She stopped beside Kamchak's stirrup, standing there, her head down. "What means this?" demanded Kamchak sternly. The girl did not respond, nor did she raise her head. Kamchak turned his kaiila and began to ride toward the main gate, the rest of us following. Aphris, as Hereena and Elizabeth, ran by the stirrup. Kamchak reined in, and we all stopped. Aphris stood there, her head down. "You are free," said Kamchak.
Without raising her head, she shook it negatively. "No," she said, "I am Kamchak of the Tuchuks'." She put her head timidly to Kamchak's fur boot in the stirrup.
"I do not understand," said Kamchak.
She lifted her head and there were tears in her eyes. Please,"' she said, "Master." "Why?" asked Kamchak.
She smiled. "I have grown fond of the smell of bosk," said she.
Kamchak smiled. He held his hand to the girl. "Ride with me, Aphris of Turia," said Kamchak of the Tuchuks. She took his hand and he drew her to the saddle before him, where she turned, sitting across the saddle, and placed her head against his right shoulder, weeping. "This woman," said Kamchak of the Tuchuks, brusquely, his voice stern but almost breaking, "is called Aphris — know her — she is Ubara of the Tuchuks, she is Ubara Sana, of my heart Ubara Sana!" — Nomads of Gor, pages 339-340.