Tal Warriors, Brothers & Fellow Tarnsmen

On this page you will find a variety of useful quotes taken from John Norman's Gor series that will provide you with information about tarns and related subjects.  I hope that all will find it a helpful guide & place of resource.

I Wish You All Well!
Kyle Blackhawk
Head of House BlackNite-Treve
{RRaMC, BoW}

(The following quotes are listed in sections, pertaining to different subject headings.)
 

Tarn Equipment & Accessories

"A tarn goad," he replied.  He snapped the switch in the barrel to the "on" position and struck the table.  It showered sparks in a sudden cascade of yellow light, but left the table unmarked."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 50)

"The Older Tarl had mounted his tarn, climbed up the five-rung leather mounting ladder which hangs on the left side of the saddle and is pulled up in flight."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"He fastened himself in the saddle with a broad purple strap."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"It was a tarn whistle, with its own note, which would summon one tarn, and one tarn only, the mount which was intended of me."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"I seized the short mounting ladder swinging wildly from the saddle and climbed it, seating myself in the saddle, fastening the broad purple belt that would keep me from tumbling to my death."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 55)

"The tarn basket may or may not have guidance attachments, permitting the tarn to be controlled from the basket.  If the guidance attachments are in place, then the tarn is seldom saddled, but wears only basket harness.  If the basket is merely carried, and the tarn cannot be controlled from the basket, then the tarn wears the tarn saddle and is controlled by a tarnsman.
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 94)

"Tarn baskets, incidentally, in which I had never before ridden, are of many different sizes and varieties, depending on the function for which they are intended.  Some, for example, are little more than flat cradles for carrying planking and such; others are long and cylindrical, lined with verrskin, for transporting beverages and such; most heavy hauling, of course, is done by tharlarion wagon; a common sort of tarn basket, of the sort in which I found myself, is a general utility basket, flat bottomed, square sided, about four feet deep, four feet wide and five feet long."
(Assassins of Gor, pgs. 94-95)

"The racing harness, like the common tarn harness, works with two rings, the throat ring and the main saddle ring, and six straps.  The major difference is the tautness of the reins between the two rings; the racing saddle, on the other hand, is only a slip of leather compared to the common tarn saddle, which is rather large, with saddle packs, weapon sheaths and paired slave rings."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 171)

"On the racing saddle there are two small straps, rather than the one large strap on the common saddle; both straps fasten about the rider and to the saddle, in a sense was duplicating the work of the other; the theory is that though smaller straps can break more easily the probability of both straps breaking at the same time is extremely small; further the two straps tend to divide strain between them, thereby considerably lessening the possibility of either breaking; some saving in weight, of course, is obtained with the two smaller straps; further, the broad strap would be a bit large to fasten to the small saddle; even beyond this, of course, since races take place largely and most often over a net there is normally not as much danger in a fall as there would be in common tarn flight.  (Assassins of Gor, pg. 171)

"An attendant for the steels unlocked the hobble from the right leg of the bird and leaped aside.  The steel shod talons of the war tarn tore for a moment at the heavy beams of the platform on which it stood, furrowing it.  Then the bird threw back its head and opened its wings, and, eyes gleaming, as though among the crags of the Thentis Range or the Voltai, uttered the challenge scream of the Mountain Tarn, shrill, wild, defiant, piercing."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 363)
 

Tarn Related Quotes of Interest

"One does not learn to master a tarn.  It is a matter of blood and spirit, of beast and man, of a relation between two beings which must be immediate, intuitive, spontaneous.  It is said that a tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and that those who are not die in this first meeting."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 51)

Tarn Descriptions & Variety

"Though the tarn, like most birds, is surprisingly light for its size, this primarily having to do with the comparative hollowness of the bones, it is an extremely powerful bird, powerful even beyond what one would except from such a monster.  Whereas large Earth birds, ground, begin with a running start, the tarn, with its incredible musculature, aided undoubtedly by the somewhat lighter gravity of Gor, can with a spring and a sudden flurry of its giant wings lift both himself and his rider into the air.  In Gorean, these birds are sometimes spoken of as Brothers of the Wind."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 51)

"The plumage of tarns is various, they are bred for their colors as well as their strength and intelligence.  Black tarns are used for night raids, white tarns in winter campaigns, and multicolored, resplendent tarns are bred for warriors who wish to ride proudly, regardless of the lack of camouflage.  The most common tarn, however, is greenish brown."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 51-52)

"Disregarding the disproportion in size, the Earth bird which the tarn most closely resembles is the hawk, with the exception that it has a crest somewhat of the nature of a jay's"
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"Almost immediately from somewhere, perhaps from a ledge out of sight, rose a fantastic object, another giant tarn, even larger than the first, a glossy sable tarn which circled the cylinder once and then wheeled toward me, landing a few feet away, his talons striking on the roof with a sound like hurling gauntlets.  His talons were shod with steel--a war tarn."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 53)

"It was a War Tarn, bred for courage, for endurance, for combat in the skies of Gor."
(Outlaw of Gor, pg. 120)

"The tarns were, of course, racing tarns, a bird in many ways quite different from the common tarns of Gor, or the war tarns.  The differences among these tarns are not simply in the training, which does differ, but in the size, strength, build and tendencies of the bird.  Some tarns are bred primarily for strength and are used in transporting wares by carrying basket.  Usually these birds fly more slowly and are less vicious than the war tarns or racing tarns.  The war tarns, of course, are bred for both strength and speed, but also for agility, swiftness of reflex, and combative instincts."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 142)

"War tarns, whose talons are shod with steel, tend to be extremely dangerous birds, even more so than other tarns, none of whom could be regarded as fully domesticated.  The racing tarn, interestingly, is an extremely light bird; two men can lift one; even its beak is narrower and lighter than the beak of a common tarn or a war tarn; it's wings are commonly broader and shorter than those of the other tarns, permitting a swifter take off and providing a capacity for extremely abrupt turns and shifts in flight; they cannot carry a great deal of weight and the riders, as might be expected, are small men, usually of low caste, pugnacious and aggressive."
(Assassins of Gor, pgs. 143-144)

"Racing tarns are not used by tarnsman in war because they lack the weight and power of war tarns; meeting a war tarn in flight, a racing tarn would be torn to pieces in moments; further, the racing tarns, though marvelous in their particular ways, lack the stamina of the common tarn or the war tarn; their short wings, after a flight of perhaps only fifty pasangs, would being to fail; in a short distance dash, of course, the racing tarn would commonly be superior to the war tarn."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 144)

"To the crowd's astonishment, but not to mine, he wheeled his tarn, a rare, gloriously plumaged jungle tarn from the tropical reaches of the Cartius, to black the first of the right center rings."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 368)

"I would learn it was indeed a large bird, one called a "tarn."  And, I would later learn, it was not even a warrior's mount, bred for swiftness and aggressiveness, a war tarn, but a mere draft tarn.
(Dancers of Gor, pg. 148)
 

Tarn Training Knowledge

"Tarns, who are vicious things, are seldom more than half tamed and, like their diminutive earthly counterparts, the hawks, are carnivorous.  It is not unknown for a tarn to attack and devour his own rider.  They fear nothing but the tarn goad.  They are trained by men of the Caste of Tarn Keepers to respond to it while still young, when they can be fastened by wires to the training perches."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"Whenever a young bird soars away or refuses obedience in some fashion, he is dragged back to the perch and beaten with the tarn goad.  Rings, comparable to those which are fastened on the legs of the young birds, are worn by the adult birds to reinforce the memory of the hobbling wire and the tarn goad.  Later, of course, the adult birds are not fastened, but the conditioning given them in their youth usually holds, except when they become abnormally disturbed or have not been able to obtain food."  (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"I wondered sometimes if that bird, my Ubar of the Skies, that tarn of tarns, of a race of birds spoken of by Goreans as Brothers of the Wind, might have considered himself as above the goad, resented its shock and sparks, resented that that puny human device would pretend to teach him he, a tarn of tarns, how to fly, how swiftly and how far.  But I dismissed such thoughts as absurd. The tarn was but another of the beasts of Gor.  The feelings I was tempted to ascribe to it would lie beyond the ken of so simple a creature."
(Outlaw of Gor, pg. 125)

"The tabuk cry is the only word to which a tarn is trained to react.  Beyond this it is all a matter of the tarn straps and the tarn goad."  (Outlaw of Gor, pg. 129)

"Mip was a chipper fellow, and a bit dapper considering his caste and his close cropped hair, for his brown leather was shot with green streaks, and he wore a Tarn Keeper's cap with a greenish tassel; most Tarn Keepers, incidentally. crop their hair short, as do most metal workers; work in the tarncots and in training tarns is often hard, sweaty work."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 168)

"I patted the tarn on the neck.  "This is a domestic tarn," I said.  "It is trained.  Not only will it be unnecessary to break it but it will be of great use, in a brace harness, in training the two tarns we have already caught."  This is a common method of training new tarns."
(Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 341)

Tarnsman/Warriors

"The tarn is one of the two most common mounts of a Gorean warrior; the other is the high tharlarion, a species of saddle lizard, used mostly by clans who have never mastered tarns."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 52)

"It was perhaps the foolish affection which a tarnsman feels for these dangerous, fierce mounts, almost as much a threat to him as to anyone else."
(Outlaw of Gor, pg. 120)

"Once one has been a tarnsman, it is said, one must return again and again to the giant, savage birds.  I think that this is a true saying.  One knows that one must master them or be devoured.  One knows that they are not dependable, that they are vicious.  A tarnsman knows that they may turn upon him without warning.  Yet the tarnsman chooses no other life.  He continues to mount the birds, to climb to their saddle with a heart filled with joy, to draw upon the one-strap and, with a cry of exultation, to urge the monster aloft.  More than the gold of a hundred merchants, more than the countless cylinders of Ar, he treasures those sublime, lonely moments, high over the earth, cut by the wind, he and the bird as one creature, alone, lofty, swift, free."
(Outlaw of Gor, pgs. 130-131)

"Tarnsmen, riders of the great tarns, called Brothers of the Wind, are masters of the open sky, fierce warriors who battleground is the clouds and sky; they are not forest people; they do not care to stalk and hunt where, from the darkness of trees, from a canopy of foliage, they may meet suddenly, unexpectedly, a quarrel from the crossbow of an invisible assailant.
(Captives of Gor, pg. 63)

"I do not know why it is that women fear tarns so terribly, but we do.  But most men do, too.  It is a rare man who will approach a tarn.  It is said that the tarn knows who is a tarnsman and who is not, and if one approaches him who is not, he will seize him and rip him to pieces.  It is little wonder few men approach the beasts.
(Captives of Gor pgs. 91-92)

"They were wild men, of the caste of warriors, who spent much of their time in the taverns of laura, fighting and gambling and drinking, while slave girls, excited and with shinning eyes, served them and pressed about them, begging to be noticed and ordered to the alcoves.  It was no wonder that some men, even warriors, hated and envied the arrogant, regal tarnsmen, one night rich, the next impoverished, always at the elbow of adventure, and war and pleasure, wearing their pride and their manhood in their walk, in the steel at their side and the look in their eyes."
(Captives of Gor, pg. 92)

Tarn Riding

"The tarn is guided by virtue of a throat strap, to which are attached, normally, six leather streamers, or reins, which are fixed in a metal ring on the forward portion of the saddle.  The reins are of different colors, but one learns them by ring position and not color.  Each of the reins attaches to a small sing on the throat strap, and the reins are spaced evenly."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 55)

"One draws on the streamer, or rein, which is attached to the ring most nearly approximating the direction in which one wishes to go.  For example, to land or lose altitude, one uses the four-strap which exerts pressure on the four-ring, which is located beneath the throat of the tarn.  To rise into flight, or gain altitude, one draws on the one-strap, which exerts pressure on the one-ring, which is located on the back of the tarn's neck.  The throat-strap rings, corresponding to the position of the reins on the main saddle ring, are numbered in a clockwise fashion."
(Tarnsman of Gor pg. 55)

"I drew back on the one-strap and, filled with terror and exhilaration, felt the power of the gigantic wings beating on the invisible air.  My body lurched wildly, but the saddle belt held.  I couldn't breathe for a minute, but clung, frightened and thrilled, to the saddle-ring, my hand wrapped in the one strap.  The tarn continued to climb, and I saw the City of Cylinders dropping far below me, like a set of rounded children's blocks set in the gleaming green hills."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 56)

"Fortunately, before losing consciousness, I drew on the four-strap, and the tarn leveled out and then lifted his wings over his back and dropped like a striking hawk, with a speed that left me without breath in my body.  I released the reins, letting them hang on the saddle-ring, which is the signal for a constant and straight flight, no pressure on the throat strap."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 56)

"I waved a farewell on the Older Tarl and to my father, drew back on the one-strap, and was off, leaving the tower and their tiny figures behind me.  I leveled the tarn and drew the six-strap, setting my course for Ar." (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 65)

"I leaped upward and seized the saddle ring, inadvertently dislodging the mounting ladder.  In a instant I had attained the saddle of the tarn and drew back savagely on the one-strap."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 79)

"Letting him see the harness fully, I slowly and with measured care fastened it around his neck.  I then threw the saddle over the bird's back and crawled under its stomach to fasten the girth straps.  Then I calmly climbed the newly repaired mounting ladder, drew it up, and fastened it to the side of the saddle.  I sat still for a moment and then decisively drew back on the one-strap.  I breathed a sigh of relief as the black monster lifted himself in flight.
(Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 145-146)

"When one first ascends a new mount, or, indeed, masters a new women, it is well to put them through their paces, to see what they can do, to see what they are like.  In the case of the tarn one's very life depends on such things as understanding its speed, its rate of climb, the sharpness of its turns, and so on.  (Renegades of Gor, pg. 139)

"Then she screamed, a long, wild wailing scream, as the tarn, responding to the four-strap, began a sudden, precipitous descent.  With one hand I kept her on the saddle.  Her hair flew above us, trailing like a flag.  The tarn dove well.  The swiftness of that descent is incredible.  Its force, even arrested at the last moment, can break the back of a full grown tabuk.  I let the bird come within fifty yards of the earth before I reined back, and it swooped low leveling, over the grass."
(Renegades of Gor, pg. 140)

"We are within a man's height of the ground," I said.  In such flight one can use the screening of a forest or of low hills, even buildings, to make an approach to an objective.  Too, of course, lower flight, in general, reduces the possibilities of sightings."
(Renegades of Gor, pgs. 140-141)

"She screamed, suddenly, flung to the left, as I drew the two-strap and three-strap at the same time, the tarn veering to the right.  It was responsive.  I then tested it in a dozen ways, to speeds, to flights, to turns."  (Renegades of Gor, pg. 141)

"I went forward and seized the guide-ropes of the tarn, near the beak.  It shook its head.  The guide-ropes, or reins, of the tarn, as the Kinyanpi fashion them, seem clearly to be based on the jaw ropes used generally in the Barrens by the red savages to control kaiila.  This suggests that the Kinyanpi had probably domesticated kaiila before tarns and that their domestication of the tarn was achieved independently of white practices, as exemplified, say, by the tarnsman of such cities as Thentis.  The common guidance apparatus for tarns in most cities is an arrangement involving two major rings and six straps.  The one-strap is drawn for ascent, and the four-strap for descent, for example."  (Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 340)
 

Housing, Watering & Feeding of Tarns

"During the day I freed my tarn, to allow him to feed as he would.  They are diurnal hunters and eat only what they catch themselves, usually one of the fleet Gorean antelopes or a wild bull, taken on the run and lifted in the monstrous talons to a high place, where it is torn to pieces and devoured."  (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 73)

"At the entrance to the compound was a gigantic, temporary wire cage, a tarn cot.  I tossed a silver tarn disk to the tarn keeper and ordered him to care for the bird, to groom and feed it and see that it was ready on a instant's notice." (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 165)

"In several cases tarns have devoured their own masters, and it is not unusual for them, when loosed for feeding, to attack human being with the same predatory zest they bestow on the yellow antelope, the tabuk, their favorite kill, or the ill-tempered, cumbersome bosk, a shaggy, long-haired wild ox of the Gorean plains."  (Outlaw of Gor, pg. 125)

"The cry of "Tabuk!" is used by the tarnsman on long flights when time is precious, and he does not wish to dismount and free the bird to find prey.  When he spots a tabuk in the fields below, he may cry "Tabuk!" and this is the signal that the tarn may hunt.  It makes its kill, devours it, and the flight resumes, the tarnsman never leaving the saddle."
(Outlaw of Gor, pg. 126)

"The cot was a huge room beneath the roof of the cylinder, taking up what normally would be four floors of the cylinder.  The perches were actually a gigantic, curving framework of tem-wood four stories high, and following the circular wall of the cylinder."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 169)

"Many of the perches were empty, but there were more than a hundred birds in the room, I knew, at least once in every two days, was exercised; sometimes, when men do not wander freely in the cot, and the portals of the cot, opening to the sky, are closed, some of the birds are permitted the freedom of the cot; water for the birds is fed from tubes into canisters mounted on triangular platforms near the perches, but there is also, in the center of the cot, in the floor, a cistern which may be used when the birds are free."  (Assassins of Gor, pg. 169)

"Food for the tarns, which is meat, for that is their diet, is thrust on hooks and hauled by chain and windlass to the various perches; it might be of interest to not that, when any of the birds are free, meat is never placed on the hooks or on the floor below; the racing tarn is a valuable bird and the Tarn Keepers do not wish to have them destroy one another fighting over a verr thigh."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 169)

"He then entered the cot, to ready the bird.  I went about the shed and cot, and crossed the yard, moving between buildings.  I wanted to make certain that the gate was indeed open.  It was.  It had not been opened to facilitate my departure, of course, but, as a matter of course, during the day, for the convenience of new arrivals.  The two parts, or leaves, of the gate, within their supporting framework, of course, opened inward.  They were now fastened back.  In opening, they swung back across the landing platform, which was a foot or two above the level of the height of the palisade.  An extension of this platform, retractable when the gate was closed, and probably braced with hinged, diagonal drop supports, would extend beyond the palisade.  There was a ramp leading up to the platform on the inside, on the right.  The leaves of the gate were very large, each being some thirty feet in height and some twenty five feet in width.  They are light, however, for their size, as they consist mostly of frames supporting wire.  Whereas these dimensions permit ordinary saddle tarns, war tarns, and such, as entry in flight, the landing platform is generally used.  It is always used, of course, by draft tarns carrying tarn baskets.  The draft tarn makes a hovering landing.  As soon as it senses the basket touch the ground it alights to one side.  The sloping ramp, of course, makes it easy to take the tarn basket, on its leather runners, no longer harnessed to the tarn, down to the yard.  It is also convenient for discharging passengers, handling baggage, and such."
(Renegades of Gor, pgs. 119-120)

"I looked into the tarncot.  The tarn was finished feeding now, and was being watered.  The bone which had been within the meat lay to one side, with a tatter of rope, amidst straw.  It was deeply scratched and furrowed.  The bird thrust its beak into a tall narrow vessel.  It would draw water into that dreadful recess.  It would then put its head back.  Then, shaking its head, it would hasten the water down its throat."  (Renegades of Gor, pg. 127)

"Beyond the compound of Haakon of Skjern I could see the compound of his tarns, where hobbled, the great birds beat their wings, threw back their heads and screamed, and tore at the great pieces of bosk thrown before them.  Sometimes they tore at their hobbles and struck at their keepers with their great yellowish, scimitarlike beaks.  The wind driven by their pounding, snapping wings, with hurricanes of dust and small stones, could hurl a man from his feet.  Those great rending beaks and pressing, ripping talons could tear him in two as easily as the great thighs of bosk on which they fed"  (Captives of Gor, pg. 91)
 

Combat Techniques from Tarnback

"I saw a warrior on a tarn passing me, thrusting out with his spear.  He surely would have struck home had not my tarn veered wildly to the left, almost colliding with another tarn and its rider, who fired a bolt that sank deep in the saddle pack with a sound like slapping leather.  The third of the warriors of Ar was sweeping in from behind.  I turned, raising the tarn goad, which was looped to my wrist, to ward off the stroke of his blade.  Sword and tarn goad met in a ringing clash and a shower of glittering yellow sparks." (Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 74-75)

"I was aware that my sword was now in my hand and the tarn goad thrust in my belt.  As we crashed in the air, I sharply jerked back the one-strap, bringing the steel shod talons of my war tarn into play." (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 75)

"I crossed swords with the nearer of the two warriors in a brief passage that could have lasted only a instant.  I was suddenly aware, dizzily conscious, that one of the enemy tarns was sinking downward, flopping wildly, falling into the recesses of the swamp forest below.  The other warrior pulled his tarn about as if for another passage at arms, but then, as if suddenly realizing that his duty was to give alarm, he shouted at me in rags and wheeled his tarn again, streaking for the lights of Ar."  (Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 75-76)

"I wondered if it too recalled the thunder of the wind, the clash of arms as tarnsmen dueled in flight, the sight of Gor's tarn cavalries wheeling in formation to the beat of the tarn drums, or the long, steady, lonely soaring flights we had known together over the green fields of Gor."
(Outlaw of Gor, pg. 122)

"The girl gasped and cried out again, in fear, her back almost horizontal as the tarn climbed.  The ascent was steep and swift.  The air grew cold.  Such a maneuver is often useful.  More than once it had carried me above adversaries, their attack speed prohibiting so swift an adjustment in their trajectory."  (Renegades of Gor, pg. 139)

"Ubar of the Skies reared back, talons raking, screaming.  I saw tangles of intestines torn from the body of a tarn.  I turned the stroke of a lance with my small shield.  I heard a man scream, his arm gone.  The disemboweled tarn fell away from us, fluttering, spinning downward.  With a shake of its mighty head my tarn flung the shield from its beak, a hundred feet away, the arm still inserted in the shield straps.  Then the tarn was climbing, climbing.  Tarns swirled about us, below us.  Some struck one another.  I gave the tarn his rein.  Four tarns began to follow us.  Still did my tarn climb.  Through clouds, such bright, lofty fogs, did we ascend.  Below us, like birds springing wondrously from the snow, tarns and their riders emerged from the clouds, following us."
(Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 436)

"Will you seek the sun?" I laughed.  Could it be that, after all these years, the tactics of combat on tarnback remained so fresh, so vivid, in the eager, dark brain of my mighty mount?  Could they be retained so perfectly, with such exactness, seemingly as terrible and sharp as in the days when they were first imprinted, high above grassy fields, the walls of Ko-ro-ba in the distance?"
(Blood Brothers of Gor, pgs. 436-437)

"Out of the sun struck the great tarn.  As I had been trained to do I drew as deep a breath as possible before the dive began.  It is not impossible to breathe during such a descent, but it is generally recommended that one do not do do.  It is thought that breathing may effect concentration, perhaps altering or complicating the relationship with the target.  The bird and the rider, in effect, are the projectile.  The tarn itself, it might be noted, does not draw another breath until the impact or the vicinity of the impact, if the strike fails to find its mark.  The descent velocities in a strike of this sort are incredible, and have never been precisely calculated.  They are estimated, however in the neighborhood of four hundred pasangs per Ahn."
(Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 437)

"The fourth rider made good his escape, descending through the clouds, disappearing.  I swung the tarn about, for a moment, over the clouds, and then entered them, several hundred feet from where the foe had disappeared.  An escape trajectory, if one is dealing with a wily foe, can prove to be a tunnel of ambush."  (Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 438)

"Signals were conveyed not by tarn drums, however, but, in one of the manners of the Barrens, by Herlit-bone whistles."  (Blood brothers of Gor, pg. 439)

"As soon as I had entered the clouds I whipped out my small bow and put an arrow to the string, and held two in the bow hand, and, reseized the reins, brought the tarn about, and yet it seemed it needed no guidance.  Dark and silent in the fog it veered about.  One by one the Kinyanpi, consecutively, as I had hoped, entered the cloud.  This was the tunnel of ambush, as it is called.  The trained tarnsman is taught to avoid it.  Three tarns, rider less, returned to the formation below."
(Blood Brothers of Gor, pg. 440)

Weapons of a Tarnsman & Use

"I mounted my tarn, that fierce, black magnificent bird.  My shield and spear were secured by saddle straps; my sword was slung over my shoulder.  On each side of the saddle hung a missile weapon, a crossbow with a quiver of a dozen quarrels, or bolts, on the left, a longbow with a quiver of thirty arrows on the right." (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 64)

"Not hurrying I strung the bow.  It is small, double curved, about four feet in length, built up of layers of bosk horn, bound and reinforced with metal and leather; it is banded with metal at seven points, including the grip, metal obtained from Turia in half inch rolled strips; the leather is applied diagonally, in two inch strips, except that, horizontally, it covers the entire grip; the bow lacks the range of both the longbow and the crossbow, but, at close range, firing rapidly, it can be a devastating weapon; its mall size, like the crossbow, permits it to clear the saddle, shifting from the left to the right, or to the rear, with equal ease, this providing an advantage lacked by the more powerful but larger longbow; but, like the longbow, and unlike the crossbow, which requires strength and time to reset, it is capable of a considerable volume of fire; a Tuchuk warrior can, in swirling combat, from the saddle of the running kaiila, accurately fire twenty arrows, drawn to the point, in half a Ehn."  (Assassins of Gor, pg. 365)

"The small bow, interestingly, has never been used among tarnsmen; perhaps this is because the kaiila is almost unknown above the equator, and the lesson of kaiila back fighting has not been much available to them; perhaps it is because of tradition, which weighs heavily in Gorean life, and even in military affairs for example, the phalanx was abandoned only after more than a century of attempts to preserve and improve it; or perhaps the reason is that range is commonly more important to tarnsmen in flight than maneuverability of the bow."
(Assassins of Gor, pgs. 365-366)

"I suspect, however, that the truest reason is that tarnsmen, never having learned respect for the small bow, tend to despise such a weapon, regarding it as unworthy a Warrior's hand, as being too puny and ineffective to win the approval of a true Gorean fighting man."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 366)

"The tarnsman commonly carries, strapped to the saddle, a Gorean spear, a fearsome weapon, but primarily a missile weapon, and one more adopted to infantry."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 366)

"Far away, through the sky, from the east of Laura, following the forest line, there came a flight of tarnsmen, perhaps forty of them, mounted on the great, fierce, hawk like saddlebirds of Gor, the huge swift, predatory, ferocious tarns, called Brothers of the Wind.  The men seemed small on the backs of the great birds.  They carried spears, and were helmeted. Shields on the right sides of the saddles.  (Captives of Gor, pg. 84)

Captures Techniques & Transporting of slaves

"The girls had been now been placed on their stomachs and two tarnsmen, with short lengths of binding fiber, were fastening the ankles of each together and binding the wrists of each behind her back.  Then, because the baskets in which they were to be transported did not have covers, the girls were placed in pairs, head to feet.  The throat of each in each pair was tied to the ankle of the other.  This device used, when transporting slaves in open baskets, to prevent one from struggling to her feet and in flight throwing herself over the side of the basket.  The precautions, however, considered that the girls were drugged, seemed to be unnecessary.  On the other hand these men were slavers and not accustomed to take chances with merchandise."
(Assassins of Gor, pg. 100)

"The institution of capture is universal, to the best of my knowledge on Gor; there is no city which does not honor it, provided the females captured are those of the enemy, either free women or their slaves; it is often a young tarnsman's first mission, the securing of a female, preferably free, from an enemy city, to enslave, that his sisters may be relieved of the burden of serving him; indeed, his sisters often encourage him to be prompt in the capture of an enemy wench that their own tasks nay be made the lighter; when the young tarnsman, if successful, returns home from his capture flight, a girl bound naked across the saddle, his sisters welcome her with delight, and with great enthusiasm prepare her for the Feast of Collaring.  (Assassins of Gor, pg. 159)

"Hold still," I said.  I then, with a piece of scarflike cloth taken from my pouch, a wind veil, sometimes bound across the mouth and nostrils of a tarnsman, usually at high altitudes, blindfolded her.  A great many women, particularly the most sensitive and intelligent among them, fear tarns greatly.  It is not unusual for them to become hysterical in their vicinity.  It is not uncommon then for the tarnsman to hood or blindfold them.  This aids in their control and management.  Too, of course, if the women is a captive, or slave, one may not wish her to understand where she is, or be able to retrace her route, or know where she is being taken."
(Renegades of Gor, pgs. 132-133)

"I had been gagged, and hooded and manacled, and put on my belly, because the first sight of such a beast, at close hand, I was told, not unoften, in its size and ferocity, and terribleness, produces a miasma of terror in a female, and she is unwilling even to approach it, whips being often necessary."  (Dancers of Gor, pg. 148)

Raids

"The saddle pack contained the light gear carried by raiding tarnsmen--in particular, rations, a compass, maps, binding fiber, and extra bowstrings."
(Tarnsman of Gor, pgs. 64-65)

Misc. Information

"May your tarn lose its feathers," he roared, slapping his thigh, bringing his tarn to rest on the perch.  He leaned over and tossed me a skin bag of Paga, from which I took a long swig, then hurled it contemptuously back into his arms.  In a moment he had taken flight again, bawling out some semblance of a song about the woes of a camp girl, the bag of Paga flying behind him, dangling from its long straps."  (Tarnsman of Gor, pg. 78)

"There is even the legend of the tarntauros, or creature half man, and half tarn, which in Gorean myth, plays a similar, one might even say, equivalent, role to that of the centaur in the myths of Earth.  Too, the tarnsman retains something of the glamour which on Earth attached to the horseman, particularly so the technology laws of the Priest Kings, remote, mysterious masters of Gor, preclude the mechanization of transportation.  The togetherness of organic life, as in the relationship of man and mount, a symbiotic harmony, remains in effect on Gor."
(Renegades of Gor, pgs. 138-139)

"The tarn, my gigantic, hawk like mount, had been unsaddled and freed, for it could not accompany me into the Sardar.  Once it had tried to carry me over the palisade into the mountains, but never again would I have essayed that flight.  It had been caught in the shield of the Priest Kings, invisible, not to be evaded, undoubtedly a field of some sort, which had so acted on the bird, perhaps affecting the mechanism of the inner ear, that the creature had become incapable of controlling itself and had fallen disoriented and confused to the earth below."
(Priest Kings of Gor, pg. 7)