Results Details

The plant itself has a long, thick root, about four inches thick, which lies horizontally under the surface of the water; small roots sink downward into the mud from this main root, and several "stems," as many as a dozen, rise from it, often of a length of fifteen to sixteen feet from the root; it has an excrescent, usually single floral spike. - (Raiders of Gor, Chapter 1, Sentence #75)

There are scattered, almost invisible, furtive communities of rence growers who eke out their livelihood in the delta, nominally under the suzerainty of Port Kar. The cloth I found had probably been a trail mark for some rence growers. A kind of paper is made from rence. The plant itself has a long, thick root, about four inches thick, which lies horizontally under the surface of the water; small roots sink downward into the mud from this main root, and several "stems," as many as a dozen, rise from it, often of a length of fifteen to sixteen feet from the root; it has an excrescent, usually single floral spike. The plant has many uses besides serving as a raw product in the manufacture of rence paper. The root, which is woody and heavy, is used for certain wooden tools and utensils, which can be carved from it; also, when dried, it makes a good fuel; from the stem the rence growers can make reed boats, sails, mats, cords and a kind of fibrous cloth; further, its pith is edible, and for the rence growers is, with fish, a staple in their diet; the pith is edible both raw and cooked; some men, lost in the delta, not knowing the pith edible, have died of starvation in the midst of what was, had they known it, an almost endless abundance of food. The pith is also used, upon occasion, as a caulking for boat seams, but tow and pitch, covered with tar or grease, are generally used. - (Raiders of Gor)