In John Norman's Gor novels, a kajira is a female slave or slave girl.
Terminology
The phrase "la kajira" is said to mean "I am a slave girl." in the Gorean language, the most widely spoken lingua franca in the known regions of the planet Gor. The word is usually seen in the feminine form "kajira", as most slaves in the Gorean lifestyle are female; the masculine forms are "kajirus" and "kajiri". The construction "kajiras" is incorrect, but is occasionally seen in third-party writing.
Training
There exist various techniques in Gorean culture to teach Gorean slaves' corresponding conduct. Slave tasks may include not only sexual slavery, but also the ability to maintain a household, possess artistic skills, wear an appealing outfit and address the master in a certain manner.
Marking
To indicate a slave as a particular owner's property, a collar with the owner's name is placed upon the slave. Gorean slave women are usually branded, which means they are marked with certain signs burned into the flesh on being enslaved. The most common is the kef brand: "about an inch and a half in height, and a half inch in width. A rather simple, delicate, graceful, almost floral mark, in cursive script. Appearing slender, more vertical, more like a stem with floral, cursive curled loops. A rather severe, straight linestaff, with two, upturned, frondlike curls, adjacent to it, joined where they touch the staff on its right. It bears a distant, remote resemblance to the printed letter K."
Classifications of kajirae
Kajirae have a plethora of types of varying prestige depending on various characteristics, including the following: ;By virginity status:
Red silk girl: A kajira who is not a virgin.
White silk girl: A kajira 'not yet opened to men', a case which is depicted very rarely in the novels as a virgin kajira will usually be deflowered shortly after her enslavement.
;By origin:
Gorean-born
*Passion slave: A kajira who has been bred through selective breeding for particularly desired physical or psychological traits, as opposed to other native Gorean kajirae who were usually born free.
Barbarian: The term "barbarian" usually refers to those who do not speak the main common language of known Gor and/or who are unassimilated to typical Gorean city-state culture. In the context of kajirae, it can refer to those who were brought from Earth by a journey of acquisition. Since they have never had any home stone, barbarian girls are often considered natural slaves, occupying the lowest rank and considered the most sexual.
;By employment:
Pleasure slave: A kajira whose main function is providing sexual services. However, her training also includes broader skills, such as dancing and cooking.
*Prostitutes: Kajirae employed in prostitution by their masters.
**Coin girl: A kajira used by her master as a streetwalker.
**Camp slave: A kajira rented out for satisfying sexual needs during military campaigns.
**Bath girl: A kajira who works as a prostitute and masseuse in a bathhouse.
**Feast slave: A kajira rented out at feasts as a pleasure slave.
Paga slave or paga slut: A kajira who serves the alcoholic drinkpaga at a tavern. Their service usually includes sexual tasks.
Flute girl: A kajira versed in playing the flute. They are employed at feasts and may also serve sexual tasks.
Kettle girl / Kettle-and-mat girl: A kajira employed exclusively for domestic works is referred to as a kettle girl or pot girl. If the kajira's function is divided between household task and sexual service, she is known with the comparatively more prestigious moniker kettle-and-mat girl.
*Tower slave: A kajira owned as a maid in a private household.
*State slave: A kajira owned by a particular polity and used for the domestic needs of citizens.
Message girl: A kajira who delivers secret messages.
Kajirus
Kajiri also exist on the planet Gor, but they are far fewer than kajirae, since Gorean men can only rarely be effectively "tamed", so that most male slaves are considered inherently slightly dangerous, and have little value other than as unskilled hard labor in work gangs which must often be kept under continual armed guard. Men conquered in war who are not left free are more often than not killed than enslaved, while women in the same situation are almost always enslaved. A male slave kept by a woman owner for bedroom duties is a "silk slave". When a free woman makes use of a kajirus sexually, he is often chained so that he is unable to hold her in his arms — since allowing this would be considered to add a note of male domination to the lovemaking. Some free women carefully avoid kissing a kajirus when making sexual use of him, since they would consider it degrading to soil their lips by touching them to the body of a mere slave. Note that only a small minority of rich free women on Gor own silk slaves and it is often not very easy or convenient for a free woman to obtain the sexual use of a kajirus whom she does not personally own. The phrase "lo kajirus" is said to mean "I am a slave boy." Silk slaves are generally despised by free men on Gor and their type of slavery is often considered to be rather unnatural. Kajiri do not usually wear locked collars; rather, they wear a band of iron.
