Gathol: This
is an exceeding wealthy city state located in the NW hemisphere thought to be
the oldest inhabited city upon Barsoom.
"Your ancient history has doubtless told you that
Gathol was built upon an island in Throxeus, mightiest of the five oceans of
old Barsoom. As the ocean receded Gathol crept down the sides of the mountain,
the summit of which was the island upon which she had been built, until today
she covers the slopes from summit to base, while the bowels of the great hill
are honeycombed with the galleries of her (diamond) mines. Entirely surrounding
us is a great salt marsh, which protects us from invasion by land, while the
rugged and ofttimes vertical topography of our mountain renders the landing of
hostile airships a precarious undertaking . . .
"Our
natural barriers, while they have doubtless saved us from defeat on countless
occasions, have not by any means rendered us immune from attack," he
explained, "for so great is the wealth of Gathol's diamond treasury that
there yet may be found those who will risk almost certain defeat in an effort
to loot our unconquered city; so thus we find occasional practice in the
exercise of arms; but there is more to Gathol than the mountain city. My
country extends from Polodona (Equator) north ten karads and from the tenth
karad west of Horz to the twentieth west, including thus a million square
haads, the greater proportion of which is fine grazing land where run our great
herds of thoats and zitidars.
"Surrounded as we are by predatory enemies our
herdsmen must indeed be warriors or we should have no herds, and you may be
assured they get plenty of fighting. Then there is our constant need of workers
in the mines. The Gatholians consider themselves a race of warriors and as such
prefer not to labor in the mines. The law is, however, that each male Gatholian
shall give an hour a day in labor to the government. That is practically the
only tax that is levied upon them. They prefer however, to furnish a substitute
to perform this labor, and as our own people will not hire out for labor in the
mines it has been necessary to obtain slaves, and I do not need to tell you
that slaves are not won without fighting. We sell these slaves in the public
market, the proceeds going, half and half, to the government and the warriors
who bring them in. The purchasers are credited with the amount of labor performed
by their particular slaves. At the end of a year a good slave will have
performed the labor tax of his master for six years, and if slaves are
plentiful he is freed and permitted to return to his own people. . .
Miniatures from
BronzeAgeMin
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