"It is transmitted by the bites of lice. The pox had appeared in Bazi some four years ago. The port had been closed for two years by the merchants. It had burned itself out moving south and eastward in some eighteen months. Oddly enough some were immune to the pox, and with others it had only a temporary, debilitingeffect. With others it was swift, lethal and horrifying. Those who had survived the pox would presumably live to procreate themselves, on the whole presumably transmitting their immunity or relative immuntiy to their offspring. Slaves who contracted the pox were often summarily slain."

"He did little more than look into our eyes and examine our forearms. But our eyes were not yellowed nor was there signs of the broke pustules in our flesh."

"Once, however, Talena dragged me to the side of the road, and, scarcely able to conceal our horror, we watched while a sufferer from the incurable Dar-kosis disease, bent in his yellow shouds, hobbled by, periodically clacking that wooden device which warns all within hearing to stand clear from his path. "An Afflicted One," said Talena, gravely, using the expression common for such plagued wretches on Gor. The name of the disease itself, Dar-kosis, is almost never mentioned."

"The figure seemed to shrink backward and grow smaller in its yellow rags. Pointing to its shadowed, concealed face, it whispered, "The Holy Disease."
"That was the literal translation of Dar-kosis---the Holy Disease---or, equvilanlently, the Sacred Affliction. The disease is named that because it is regarded as being holy to the Priest-Kings, and those who suffer from it are regarded as consecrated to the Priest-Kings. Accoridingly, it is regarded as heresy to shed their blood. On the other hand, the Afflicted, as they are called, have little to fear from their fellow men. Their disease is so hightly contagious, so invaribly devistating in its effect, and so feared on the planet that even the boldest of outlaws gives them a wide berth. Accordingly, the Afflicted enjoy a large amout of freedom of movement on Gor. They are, of course, warned to stay away from the habitations of men, and, if they approach too closely, they are sometimes stoned. Oddly enough, cauistically, stoning the Afflicted is not regarded as a violation of the Priest-Kings' supposed injunction against shedding their blood."

"As an act of charity, Initiates have arranged at various places Dar-Kosis Pits where the Afflicted may voluntarily imprison themselves, to be fed with food hurled downward from the backs of passing tarns. Once in a Dar-Kosis Pit, the Afflicted are not allowed to depart."

"Tobacco is unknown on Gor, though there are certain habits or vices to take its place, in particular the stimulation afforded by chewing on the leaves of the Kanda, the roots of which, oddly enough, when ground and dried, constitute an extremely deadly poison."

"The roots of the kanda plant, which grows largely in the desert regions on Gor, are extremely toxic, but, surprisingly, the rolled leaves of this plant, which are relatively innocuous, are formed into strings and, chewed or sucked, are much favored by many Goreans, particulary in the southern hemisphere, where the leaf is more abundant."

"...the Mul-Pellets are undoubtedly some type of dietary supplement..."