The Second Book of Lankhmar

it is mittens only. The girls the same, goes without saying."
           Cif shot back, "We at Rime Isle are but one twig of the sisterhood. Doubtless they have different local customs in Tovilyis."
           The Mouser smiled. "Dear lady, you are far too innocent, and limited in your knowledge by your island life. There's more evil in gloves than you ever dreamed, more uses for a yashmack than a badge of purity or advertisement of a man's possession, or for a mask. Amongst the more knowing Ilthmar cabin-girls (and this one is no novice I'll he bound!) it is the practice to wear such things to keep their hands soft, also their lips and faces, while as for their privities, you may be sure they enjoy the close covering of oily wool, being tweaked shamelessly hairless besides. For, hark you, on Ilthmar ships the cabin-girl delights the crewmen by her hands alone, the short knowing dance of her most pliant fingers; there'd be too much risk of damage to her otherwise, and fresh cabin-girls do not grow on sea trees, as they say. That, by the by, is why her name is proof. The mates and lesser officers have the freedom of her face and teats, all above waist, while what's below is reserved for his eminence the captain alone, besides all else he wants. But he, the wisest aboard, can be trusted to see she doesn't conceive. The arrangement is swift, efficient, and practical — helps maintain discipline and status both."
           By this time the girls were all gathered close around, four of them goggle-eyed, Fingers respectfully attentive.
           "But is this true he says?" Afreyt asked Fafhrd with some indignation. "Are there such cabin-girls and naughty practices?"
           "I'd like to lie to spite him for his boorishness," the Northerner averred, "but I must agree there are such practices and cabin-girls, and not alone on Ilthmar ships. Mostly their parents sell them to the trade. Some grow up to become hardy sailors themselves, or wed a passenger, though that is rare."
           "All men are beasts," Cif said darkly. "New proofs keep coming in."
           "And women beastesses," the Mouser added sotto voce , "Or animalesses?"
           Afreyt shook her head, then looked at Fingers, who did, alas, appear to have been hearing all these enormities with remarkable coolness.
           "What say you to all this, child?" she asked, straight out.
           "All Captain Mouser said is mostly true," Fingers replied simply, making a little grimace suiting her piquant mien, "about cabin-girls and such, I mean, although I only know what I learned serving aboard Weasel. Unwillingly. But on the first legs of our voyage there was a two-years-older cabin-girl, jumped ship at Ool Plerns, who taught me much. And my parent did not hire or sell me into the trade. I was stolen from her — that much is true of 'kidnapped.' But I did not tell you about these matters, Lady Afreyt and Lady Cif, when I escaped and brought you my warning, singling out you two because you wore the color and the yashmack, because I did not think that they were vital."
           The Mouser butted in complacently with, "So much for the story of Weasel being a slaver. Her tale is fishy."
           "She never told us Weasel was a slaver!" Afreyt snapped.
           "She lost one cabin-girl at Ool Plerns," Cif put in eagerly. "What more natural than that the brutes should plot to steal a replacement here? — where are none such for hire, I'll be bound. All Rime Isle women serving sailors must be full-grown."
           The Mouser launched in again satisfiedly with, "But surely, Lady Afreyt, you and Cif cannot have taken this tale of multiple slavings and kidnappings very seriously. Else you'd not now be letting Weasel sail free away without thorough search of every space aboard might harbor prisoners?"
           "Again, you're wrong," the tall woman told him angrily. "The two men sent aboard to discover boreworm holes searched her most thoroughly before they found them!"
           "No other girls aboard Weasel ?" the Mouser inquired ingenuously. "No females at all?" Both women nodded, glaring at him. "So, no evidence at all for kidnap theories," he concluded blandly.
           "But Cif's suggestion about their lusting after a second cabin-girl — or maybe four — " Afreyt began exasperatedly.
           "Your pardon, my dear," Fafhrd interrupted without heat yet commandingly, "but would it not be