Brush palms together twice and offer blessing to show respect:
"The noble Samos has been most kind" said Ibn Saran. His hospitality has been most generous." I extended my hand to Ibn Saran and he, bowing twice, brushed twice the palm of his hand against mine. "I am pleased to make the acquaintance of he who is friend to Samos of Port Kar," said Ibn Saran. "May your water bags be never empty. May you have always water." "May your water bags be never empty," I said. "May you have always water."
Sharing of salt; the equivalent of becoming Blood Brothers:
"Let there be salt between us," he said. "Let there be salt between us," I said. He placed salt from the small dish on the back of his right wrist. He looked at me. His eyes were narrow. "I trust," said he, "you have not made jest of me." "No," I said..."Who are you?" he asked. I placed salt on the back of my right wrist. "One who shares salt with you," I said. "It is enough," he said. I touched my tongue to the salt in the sweat of his right wrist, and he touched his tongue to the salt on my right wrist. "We have shared salt," he said.
Sharing of water
I lifted the bag, drinking deeply. I replaced the plug and put back the bag, wiping my mouth on my sleeve. . . In sharing their water I had made myself, by custom of the Tahari, their guest.
Thieves are dealt swift justice:
Some other thieves had not done so well in the bazaar. Several right hands, severed, were nailed to a board on which salt prices were affixed. There were no feminine hands on the board. A female thief in Tor, even on the first offense, is immediately reduced to slavery.
Never destroy a water well; it's bad form to waste any water:
It is difficult for one who is not of the Tahari to conjecture the gravity of the offense of destroying a source of water. It is regarded as an almost inconceivable crime, surely the most heinous which might be perpetrated upon the desert. Such an act, regarded as a monstrosity, goes beyond a simple act of war. Surely, in but a few days, word that Aretai tribesmen had destroyed, or attempted to destroy, a well at Two Scimitars would spread like fire across the desert, inflaming and outraging men from Tor to the Turian outpost merchant fort, and trading station, of Turmas. This act, perpetrated against the Bakahs at Two Scimitars, a vassal tribe of the Kavars, would doubtless bring full-scale war to the Tahari.
Right hand is preferred to use when eating:
I noted that Ibn Saran ate only with the right hand. This was the eating hand, and the scimitar hand. He would feed himself only with the hand which, wielding steel, could take blood.
Maps of the Tahari are forbidden and can lead to immediate death:
Had I not seen Suleiman shortly I would have had to strike eastward myself. Without a guide this would have been incredibly dangerous. The men of the Tahari kill those who make maps of it. They know their own country, or their districts within it; they are not eager that others know it as well. Without a guide, who knew the location of water, to enter the Tahari would be suicidal. ~ Tribesmen of Gor, p.101
Sayings of the Tahari
"May your eye be keen, your steel swift."
"More real than the law, is the heart."
"The desert is my mother and my father."
"More real than the law, is the heart."
"The desert is my mother and my father."