I then gave my attention to the dancer, a sweetly
hipped black girl in yellow beads.
She was skillful and, I suspected, from the use of the hands and beads, had been trained
in Ianda, a merchant island north of Anango. Certain figures are formed with the hands and
beads which have symbolic meaning, much of which was lost upon me, as I was not familiar
with the conventions involved. Some, however, I had seen before, and had been explained to
me. One was that of the free woman, another of the whip, another of the yielding, collared
slave. Another was that of the thieving slave girl, and another that of the girl summoned,
terrified, before the master. Each of these, with the music and followed by its dance
expression, was very well done. Women are beautiful and they make fantastic dancers. One
of the figures done was that of a girl, a slave, who encounters one who is afflicted with
plague. She, a slave, knows that if she should contract the disease she would, in all
probability, be summarily slain. She dances her terror at this. This was followed by the
figure of obedience, and that by the figure of joy.
Explorers of Gor, page 133
