Dyes on Gor (Cloth Workers, etc.)

 DYES ON GOR

Ingredients of natural dyes

Vegetable dyes - from bark, leaves, roots, flowers, crushed insects, animal products

The dyes used in the making of these rugs are, on the whole, natural dyes, vegetable dyes, some made from barks and leaves, and roots and flowers, others from animal products, crushed insects, etc. At various places in the bazaar, from a latticework laid between the buildings, numerous skeins of wool hung, dyed in various bright colors, drying.

(Tribesmen)

A red dye from mashed roots of telekint mixed with water

The drover threw back the hood of his burnoose, and pulled down the veil about his face. Beneath the burnoose he wore a skullcap. The rep-cloth veil was red; it had been soaked in a primitive dye, mixed from water and the mashed roots of the telekint; when he perspired, it had run; his face was stained. He thrust back the sleeve of his trail shirt. 

(Tribesmen)

A red dye of unknown origin is mixed with palm oil

Kisu, with a knife, was cutting a length from the rough, red-dyed cloth, plaited and pounded, derived from the inner bark of the pod tree, which we had obtained in trade some days ago at the fishermens village. It has a cordage of bark strips resembling a closely woven burlap, but it is much softer, a result in part perhaps due to the fact that the dye in which it is prepared is mixed with palm oil.

(Explorers)

A blue dye from the blood of the Vosk sorp

It was Luma, the chief scribe of my house, in her blue robe and sandals. Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, dyed in the blood of the Vosk sorp. 

(Marauders)

Chemical dyes of unknown origin

My goods, substantially, consisted of blankets, colored cloths, ribbons, mirrors and beads, kettles and pans, popular in the grasslands, hard candies, cake sugar and chemical dyes. 

(Savages)

DYED GARMENTS

Rep cloth patches 

Generally, it was a small faction patch sewn on the left shoulder; the faction patches of the High-Caste women tended to be fine silk, and tastefully done; those of low-caste women merely a square of crudely stitched, dyed rep-cloth; some of the masters had dressed their slave girls in slave livery of the color of the faction they favored; others had twined a colored ribbon about their hair or in their collar. 

(Assassin)

Rep cloth, dyed purple with unknown dye

Her hair was tied behind her head with a strip of purple cloth, dyed rep-cloth.

(Raiders)

Rep cloth takes dyes well

Rep is a whitish fibrous matter found in the seed pods of a small, reddish, woody bush, commercially grown in several areas, but particularly below Ar and above the equator; the cheap rep-cloth is woven in mills, commonly, in various cities; it takes dyes well and, being cheap and strong, is popular, particularly among the lower castes. 

(Raiders)

Dyed wool garments

She had a scarlet vest, embroidered in gold, worn over a long-sleeved blouse of white wool, from distant Ar. She wore, too, a long woolen skirt, dyed red, which was belted with black, with a buckle of gold, wrought in Cos.

(Marauders)

Some wore trousers of skin, others tunics of dyed wool. 

(Marauders)

Her kirtle was of the finest wool of Ar, dyed scarlet, with black trimmings. 

(Marauders)

Dyed fur garments

He wore a collar of fur, dyed scarlet, and a long cloak, over the left shoulder, of purple-dyed fur of the sea sleen. He wore beneath his cloak yellow wool, and a great belt (...)

(Marauders)

Dyed leathers

In another place tanned, dyed leathers were hanging, purple, red, yellow. 

(Tribesmen)

I could smell, however, tanning fluids and dyes, from the shops and compounds of leather workers.

(Explorers)

Dyed bark cloth

The results of our trading had been two baskets of dried fish, a sack of meal and vegetables, a length of bark cloth, plaited and pounded, from the pod tree, dyed red, a handful of colored, wooden beads, and, most importantly, two pangas, two-foot-long, heavy, curve-bladed bush knives. 

(Explorers)

HAIR DYES

An unknown dye that can turn red hair black

Accordingly, for the next few days, I remained with Kazrak and bided my time. I dyed my hair black and acquired the helmet and gear of an Assassin.

(Tarnsman)

I stayed four days in the rooms above the shop of Dina of Turia. There I dyed my hair black and exchanged the robes of the merchant for the yellow and brown tunic of the Bakers, to which caste her father and two brothers had belonged. 

(Nomads)

I was not much afraid of being recognized. I had dyed my hair black, I had not been in Ar in several years.

(Assassin)

This dye washes out easily in a water fountain

I accompanied him, stopping only long enough to rip away most of the upper portions of the baker's tunic and rinse the dye from my hair in a street fountain. 

(Nomads)

MISCELLANEOUS USES FOR DYES

Dyed whale tooth

About his neck, from a fine, golden chain, pierced, hung the tooth of a Hunjer whale, dyed blue. 

(Marauders)

Dyed tharlarion egg

"Have you examined the golden sphere carefully?"

Kamchak was asking.

"I never had the opportunity,' I said.

"You might do so now," said Kamchak.

I shook my head negatively.

"Look," said Harold, thrusting his hand under my face. I saw that his thumb and forefinger were marked with a golden stain.

I gazed at his hand, not comprehending.

"It is dye," he said.

"Dye?" I asked.

Harold got up and went to the shattered, stiff shard of the egg. From it, wet, wrinkled, rotted, dead for perhaps months or years, he drew forth the body of an unborn tharlarion.

"I told you," said Kamchak, kindly, "the egg was worth less."

I staggered to my feet, standing now and looking down at the shattered fragments of the egg. I stooped down and picked up one of the stiff shards and rubbed it, seeing the golden stain now left on my fingertips. 

(Nomads)