No fossil remains of the thorse have ever been found, and many biologists have wondered about its apparently sudden introduction, Imperium-wide, within a few hundred years after the accession of Leto II, It was first found on Bela Tegeuse but was soon carried to hundreds of other planets, where its characteristics made it a common "burden animal of choice," displacing other, older species such as the horse, the rhino-zebra, and the fandor. One scholar in the later Letonian era, whose name was ordered expunged from Imperial records, suggested that Leto himself had ordered the Tleilaxu to breed an animal to his specifications. If this indeed be the case, it would mark the first time, aside from the preservation of the Duncan Idahos, that Tleilaxu biological science had been suborned to Imperial whim. The thorse itself varies in colors, although its distinctive physical characteristics are quite uniform. Its gestation period is approximately 210 standard days, and multiple births are the norm. Some people raise the thorse to provide food. While stringy, the meat is tasty, and its flavor resembles that of other quadrupeds. W.M. THUMPER. The Fremen apparatus used to attract sandworms. An indispensable aid for travel and often for survival, the Fremen thumper was a spiceplastic stake pointed at one end and attached to a spring-driven clapper at the other. Zensunni records give credit 489 TLEILAXU for its invention to Naib Trekam of Sieteh Alraab Predecessors of the thumper include another tool, called an impact hammer, used by Imperial geologists before the invention of ultrasound scanners to study subsurface rock structures Similar in appearance, both tools produce rhythmic, low-frequency sound waves Such sounds appear to have triggered the destruction of the unfortunate Arrakis Geological Survey Team, whose report was available to Trekam The only survivor res cued by die Naib's tribe told Trekam that just moments after the activation of the impact hammer they were attacked by a giant "serpent" The shift to ultrasound scanners began soon after that accident, and impact hammers slipped from common use But Trekam realized the value of the chance occurrence A thumper was part of every Fremkit and was used for two purposes First, it called a sandworm The caller drove his Mumper into the more compact, windward face of a dune He activated the clapper mechanism, which produced the drumlike ' 'thumping '' A long spring was held m tightly wound position bv a fabric tie Flipping the tie away freed the spring to unwind As it flapped around, the spring clapped against a hollowed tube protruding from the top of the stake just above the spring (see diagram) The tube and stake resonated together to send out the low frequency sound waves which lured the sand worm to the thumper The second purpose of the thumper was to decoy a sandworm away from a Fremen When this was necessary a fuse was put in a hole close to the spring, keeping the spring from unwinding until die tie had been igmt ed and burned away The hunted Fremen would escape while the fuse burned and marauding worms would attack the thumper Thumpers were simple, rather rough adap tations of a tool that had gone out of fashion But they called sandworms to their location effectively, and so were useful when Fremen wanted to mount or to evade the great makers JHG Further reference FREMKIT TLEILAXU.