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LOVECRAFT - -[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from -Weird Tales, February 1928. -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - "Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a - survival ... a survival of a hugely remote period when ... - consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long - since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity ... forms - of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory - and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts - and kinds...." - - --_Algernon Blackwood._ - - -[Illustration: "The ring of worshipers moved in endless bacchanale -between the ring of bodies and the ring of fire."][1] - -[Footnote 1: Found among the papers of the late Francis Wayland -Thurston, of Boston.] - - - - - _1. The Horror in Clay._ - -The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the -human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island -of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not -meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its -own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing -together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas -of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either -go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace -and safety of a new dark age. - -Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle -wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have -hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if -not masked by a bland optimism. But it is not from them that there -came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think -of it and maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread -glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of -separated things--in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of -a dead professor. I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing -out; certainly, if I live, I shall never knowingly supply a link in -so hideous a chain. I think that the professor, too, intended to keep -silent regarding the part he knew, and that he would have destroyed his -notes had not sudden death seized him. - -My knowledge of the thing began in the winter of 1926-27 with the death -of my grand-uncle, George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic -languages in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Professor -Angell was widely known as an authority on ancient inscriptions, and -had frequently been resorted to by the heads of prominent museums; so -that his passing at the age of ninety-two may be recalled by many. -Locally, interest was intensified by the obscurity of the cause of -death. The professor had been stricken whilst returning from the -Newport boat; falling suddenly, as witnesses said, after having been -jostled by a nautical-looking negro who had come from one of the queer -dark courts on the precipitous hillside which formed a short cut from -the waterfront to the deceased's home in Williams Street. Physicians -were unable to find any visible disorder, but concluded after perplexed -debate that some obscure lesion of the heart, induced by the brisk -ascent of so steep a hill by so elderly a man, was responsible for -the end. At the time I saw no reason to dissent from this dictum, but -latterly I am inclined to wonder--and more than wonder. - -As my granduncle's heir and executor, for he died a childless widower, -I was expected to go over his papers with some thoroughness; and for -that purpose moved his entire set of files and boxes to my quarters in -Boston. Much of the material which I correlated will be later published -by the American Archeological Society, but there was one box which I -found exceedingly puzzling, and which I felt much averse from showing -to other eyes. It had been locked, and I did not find the key till -it occurred to me to examine the personal ring which the professor -carried always in his pocket. Then, indeed, I succeeded in opening it, -but when I did so seemed only to be confronted by a greater and more -closely locked barrier. For what could be the meaning of the queer clay -bas-relief and the disjointed jottings, ramblings, and cuttings which I -found? Had my uncle, in his latter years, become credulous of the most -superficial impostures? I resolved to search out the eccentric sculptor -responsible for this apparent disturbance of an old man's peace of mind. - -The bas-relief was a rough rectangle less than an inch thick and about -five by six inches in area; obviously of modern origin. Its designs, -however, were far from modern in atmosphere and suggestion; for, -although the vagaries of cubism and futurism are many and wild, they do -not often reproduce that cryptic regularity which lurks in prehistoric -writing. And writing of some kind the bulk of these designs seemed -certainly to be; though my memory, despite much familiarity with the -papers and collections of my uncle, failed in any way to identify this -particular species, or even hint at its remotest affiliations. - -Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial -intent, though its impressionistic execution forbade a very clear -idea of its nature. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol -representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could -conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded -simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, -I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, -tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary -wings; but it was the _general outline_ of the whole which made it most -shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a -Cyclopean architectural background. - -The writing accompanying this oddity was, aside from a stack of -press cuttings, in Professor Angell's most recent hand; and made no -pretense to literary style. What seemed to be the main document was -headed "_CTHULHU CULT_" in characters painstakingly printed to avoid -the erroneous reading of a word so unheard-of. This manuscript was -divided into two sections, the first of which was headed "1925--Dream -and Dream Work of H. A. Wilcox, 7 Thomas St., Providence, R. I.," and -the second, "Narrative of Inspector John R. Legrasse, 121 Bienville -St., New Orleans, La., at 1908 A. A. S. Mtg--Notes on Same, & Prof. -Webb's Acct." The other manuscript papers were all brief notes, some -of them accounts of the queer dreams of different persons, some of -them citations from theosophical books and magazines (notably W. -Scott-Eliott's _Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria_), and the rest comments -on long-surviving secret societies and hidden cults, with references -to passages in such mythological and anthropological source-books -as Frazer's _Golden Bough_ and Miss Murray's _Witch-Cult in Western -Europe_. The cuttings largely alluded to outré mental illnesses and -outbreaks of group folly or mania in the spring of 1925. - - * * * * * - -The first half of the principal manuscript told a very peculiar -tale. It appears that on March 1st, 1925, a thin, dark young man of -neurotic and excited aspect had called upon Professor Angell bearing -the singular clay bas-relief, which was then exceedingly damp and -fresh. His card bore the name of Henry Anthony Wilcox, and my uncle -had recognized him as the youngest son of an excellent family slightly -known to him, who had latterly been studying sculpture at the Rhode -Island School of Design and living alone at the Fleur-de-Lys Building -near that institution. Wilcox was a precocious youth of known genius -but great eccentricity, and had from childhood excited attention -through the strange stories and odd dreams he was in the habit of -relating. He called himself "psychically hypersensitive", but the staid -folk of the ancient commercial city dismissed him as merely "queer". -Never mingling much with his kind, he had dropped gradually from social -visibility, and was now known only to a small group of esthetes from -other towns. Even the Providence Art Club, anxious to preserve its -conservatism, had found him quite hopeless. - -On the occasion of the visit, ran the professor's manuscript, the -sculptor abruptly asked for the benefit of his host's archeological -knowledge in identifying the hieroglyphics on the bas-relief. He -spoke in a dreamy, stilted manner which suggested pose and alienated -sympathy; and my uncle showed some sharpness in replying, for the -conspicuous freshness of the tablet implied kinship with anything but -archeology. Young Wilcox's rejoinder, which impressed my uncle enough -to make him recall and record it verbatim, was of a fantastically -poetic cast which must have typified his whole conversation, and which -I have since found highly characteristic of him. He said, "It is new, -indeed, for I made it last night in a dream of strange cities; and -dreams are older than brooding Tyre, or the contemplative Sphinx, or -garden-girdled Babylon." - -It was then that he began that rambling tale which suddenly played upon -a sleeping memory and won the fevered interest of my uncle. There had -been a slight earthquake tremor the night before, the most considerable -felt in New England for some years; and Wilcox's imagination had been -keenly affected. Upon retiring, he had had an unprecedented dream of -great Cyclopean cities of Titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths, all -dripping with green ooze and sinister with latent horror. Hieroglyphics -had covered the walls and pillars, and from some undetermined point -below had come a voice that was not a voice; a chaotic sensation which -only fancy could transmute into sound, but which he attempted to render -by the almost unpronounceable jumble of letters, "_Cthulhu fhtagn_". - -This verbal jumble was the key to the recollection which excited and -disturbed Professor Angell. He questioned the sculptor with scientific -minuteness; and studied with almost frantic intensity the bas-relief -on which the youth had found himself working, chilled and clad only -in his nightclothes, when waking had stolen bewilderingly over him. -My uncle blamed his old age, Wilcox afterward said, for his slowness -in recognizing both hieroglyphics and pictorial design. Many of his -questions seemed highly out of place to his visitor, especially those -which tried to connect the latter with strange cults or societies; -and Wilcox could not understand the repeated promises of silence -which he was offered in exchange for an admission of membership in -some widespread mystical or paganly religious body. When Professor -Angell became convinced that the sculptor was indeed ignorant of any -cult or system of cryptic lore, he besieged his visitor with demands -for future reports of dreams. This bore regular fruit, for after the -first interview the manuscript records daily calls of the young man, -during which he related startling fragments of nocturnal imagery whose -burden was always some terrible Cyclopean vista of dark and dripping -stone, with a subterrene voice or intelligence shouting monotonously -in enigmatical sense-impacts uninscribable save as gibberish. The two -sounds most frequently repeated are those rendered by the letters -"_Cthulhu_" and "_R'lyeh_". - -On March 23rd, the manuscript continued, Wilcox failed to appear; and -inquiries at his quarters revealed that he had been stricken with an -obscure sort of fever and taken to the home of his family in Waterman -Street. He had cried out in the night, arousing several other artists -in the building, and had manifested since then only alternations of -unconsciousness and delirium. My uncle at once telephoned the family, -and from that time forward kept close watch of the case; calling -often at the Thayer Street office of Dr. Tobey, whom he learned to -be in charge. The youth's febrile mind, apparently, was dwelling on -strange things; and the doctor shuddered now and then as he spoke of -them. They included not only a repetition of what he had formerly -dreamed, but touched wildly on a gigantic thing "miles high" which -walked or lumbered about. He at no time fully described this object, -but occasional frantic words, as repeated by Dr. Tobey, convinced the -professor that it must be identical with the nameless monstrosity -he had sought to depict in his dream-sculpture. Reference to this -object, the doctor added, was invariably a prelude to the young man's -subsidence into lethargy. His temperature, oddly enough, was not -greatly above normal; but the whole condition was otherwise such as to -suggest true fever rather than mental disorder. - -On April 2nd at about 3 p. m. every trace of Wilcox's malady suddenly -ceased. He sat upright in bed, astonished to find himself at home and -completely ignorant of what had happened in dream or reality since the -night of March 22nd. Pronounced well by his physician, he returned -to his quarters in three days; but to Professor Angell he was of no -further assistance. All traces of strange dreaming had vanished with -his recovery, and my uncle kept no record of his night-thoughts after a -week of pointless and irrelevant accounts of thoroughly usual visions. - - * * * * * - -Here the first part of the manuscript ended, but references to certain -of the scattered notes gave me much material for thought--so much, in -fact, that only the ingrained skepticism then forming my philosophy -can account for my continued distrust of the artist. The notes in -question were those descriptive of the dreams of various persons -covering the same period as that in which young Wilcox had had his -strange visitations. My uncle, it seems, had quickly instituted a -prodigiously far-flung body of inquiries amongst nearly all the friends -whom he could question without impertinence, asking for nightly reports -of their dreams, and the dates of any notable visions for some time -past. The reception of his request seems to have been varied; but -he must, at the very least, have received more responses than any -ordinary man could have handled without a secretary. This original -correspondence was not preserved, but his notes formed a thorough and -really significant digest. Average people in society and business--New -England's traditional "salt of the earth"--gave an almost completely -negative result, though scattered cases of uneasy but formless -nocturnal impressions appear here and there, always between March -23rd and April 2nd--the period of young Wilcox's delirium. Scientific -men were little more affected, though four cases of vague description -suggest fugitive glimpses of strange landscapes, and in one case there -is mentioned a dread of something abnormal. - -It was from the artists and poets that the pertinent answers came, -and I know that panic would have broken loose had they been able to -compare notes. As it was, lacking their original letters, I half -suspected the compiler of having asked leading questions, or of having -edited the correspondence in corroboration of what he had latently -resolved to see. That is why I continued to feel that Wilcox, somehow -cognizant of the old data which my uncle had possessed, had been -imposing on the veteran scientist. These responses from esthetes told -a disturbing tale. From February 28th to April 2nd a large proportion -of them had dreamed very bizarre things, the intensity of the dreams -being immeasurably the stronger during the period of the sculptor's -delirium. Over a fourth of those who reported anything, reported -scenes and half-sounds not unlike those which Wilcox had described; -and some of the dreamers confessed acute fear of the gigantic nameless -thing visible toward the last. One case, which the note describes with -emphasis, was very sad. The subject, a widely known architect with -leanings toward theosophy and occultism, went violently insane on -the date of young Wilcox's seizure, and expired several months later -after incessant screamings to be saved from some escaped denizen of -hell. Had my uncle referred to these cases by name instead of merely -by number, I should have attempted some corroboration and personal -investigation; but as it was, I succeeded in tracing down only a -few. All of these, however, bore out the notes in full. I have often -wondered if all the objects of the professor's questioning felt as -puzzled as did this fraction. It is well that no explanation shall ever -reach them. - -The press cuttings, as I have intimated, touched on cases of panic, -mania, and eccentricity during the given period. Professor Angell -must have employed a cutting bureau, for the number of extracts was -tremendous, and the sources scattered throughout the globe. Here -was a nocturnal suicide in London, where a lone sleeper had leaped -from a window after a shocking cry. Here likewise a rambling letter -to the editor of a paper in South America, where a fanatic deduces -a dire future from visions he has seen. A dispatch from California -describes a theosophist colony as donning white robes en masse for some -"glorious fulfilment" which never arrives, whilst items from India -speak guardedly of serious native unrest toward the end of March. -Voodoo orgies multiply in Haiti, and African outposts report ominous -mutterings. American officers in the Philippines find certain tribes -bothersome about this time, and New York policemen are mobbed by -hysterical Levantines on the night of March 22-23. The west of Ireland, -too, is full of wild rumor and legendry, and a fantastic painter named -Ardois-Bonnot hangs a blasphemous _Dream Landscape_ in the Paris spring -salon of 1926. And so numerous are the recorded troubles in insane -asylums that only a miracle can have stopped the medical fraternity -from noting strange parallelisms and drawing mystified conclusions. -A weird bunch of cuttings, all told; and I can at this date scarcely -envisage the callous rationalism with which I set them aside. But I -was then convinced that young Wilcox had known of the older matters -mentioned by the professor. - - - - - _2. The Tale of Inspector Legrasse._ - - -The older matters which had made the sculptor's dream and bas-relief so -significant to my uncle formed the subject of the second half of his -long manuscript. Once before, it appears, Professor Angell had seen the -hellish outlines of the nameless monstrosity, puzzled over the unknown -hieroglyphics, and heard the ominous syllables which can be rendered -only as "_Cthulhu_"; and all this in so stirring and horrible a -connection that it is small wonder he pursued young Wilcox with queries -and demands for data. - -This earlier experience had come in 1908, seventeen years before, -when the American Archeological Society held its annual meeting in -St. Louis. Professor Angell, as befitted one of his authority and -attainments, had had a prominent part in all the deliberations; and was -one of the first to be approached by the several outsiders who took -advantage of the convocation to offer questions for correct answering -and problems for expert solution. - -The chief of these outsiders, and in a short time the focus of interest -for the entire meeting, was a commonplace-looking middle-aged man -who had traveled all the way from New Orleans for certain special -information unobtainable from any local source. His name was John -Raymond Legrasse, and he was by profession an inspector of police. With -him he bore the subject of his visit, a grotesque, repulsive, and -apparently very ancient stone statuette whose origin he was at a loss -to determine. - -It must not be fancied that Inspector Legrasse had the least interest -in archeology. On the contrary, his wish for enlightenment was prompted -by purely professional considerations. The statuette, idol, fetish, -or whatever it was, had been captured some months before in the -wooded swamps south of New Orleans during a raid on a supposed voodoo -meeting; and so singular and hideous were the rites connected with -it, that the police could not but realize that they had stumbled on a -dark cult totally unknown to them, and infinitely more diabolic than -even the blackest of the African voodoo circles. Of its origin, apart -from the erratic and unbelievable tales extorted from the captured -members, absolutely nothing was to be discovered; hence the anxiety -of the police for any antiquarian lore which might help them to place -the frightful symbol, and through it track down the cult to its -fountain-head. - -Inspector Legrasse was scarcely prepared for the sensation which his -offering created. One sight of the thing had been enough to throw the -assembled men of science into a state of tense excitement, and they -lost no time in crowding around him to gaze at the diminutive figure -whose utter strangeness and air of genuinely abysmal antiquity hinted -so potently at unopened and archaic vistas. No recognized school of -sculpture had animated this terrible object, yet centuries and even -thousands of years seemed recorded in its dim and greenish surface of -unplaceable stone. - -The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close -and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of -exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely -anthropoid outline, but with an octopuslike head whose face was a mass -of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind -and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed -instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat -bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or -pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings -touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the center, -whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs -gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down toward -the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so -that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge forepaws -which clasped the croucher's elevated knees. The aspect of the whole -was abnormally lifelike, and the more subtly fearful because its source -was so totally unknown. Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was -unmistakable; yet not one link did it show with any known type of art -belonging to civilization's youth--or indeed to any other time. - -Totally separate and apart, its very material was a mystery; for the -soapy, greenish-black stone with its golden or iridescent flecks and -striations resembled nothing familiar to geology or mineralogy. The -characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present, -despite a representation of half the world's expert learning in this -field, could form the least notion of even their remotest linguistic -kinship. They, like the subject and material, belonged to something -horribly remote and distinct from mankind as we know it; something -frightfully suggestive of old and unhallowed cycles of life in which -our world and our conceptions have no part. - -And yet, as the members severally shook their heads and confessed -defeat at the inspector's problem, there was one man in that gathering -who suspected a touch of bizarre familiarity in the monstrous shape and -writing, and who presently told with some diffidence of the odd trifle -he knew. This person was the late William Channing Webb, professor of -anthropology in Princeton University, and an explorer of no slight note. - -Professor Webb had been engaged, forty-eight years before, in a tour -of Greenland and Iceland in search of some Runic inscriptions which -he failed to unearth; and whilst high up on the West Greenland coast -had encountered a singular tribe or cult of degenerate Eskimos whose -religion, a curious form of devil-worship, chilled him with its -deliberate bloodthirstiness and repulsiveness. It was a faith of which -other Eskimos knew little, and which they mentioned only with shudders, -saying that it had come down from horribly ancient eons before ever the -world was made. Besides nameless rites and human sacrifices there were -certain queer hereditary rituals addressed to a supreme elder devil or -_tornasuk_; and of this Professor Webb had taken a careful phonetic -copy from an aged _angekok_ or wizard-priest, expressing the sounds in -Roman letters as best he knew how. But just now of prime significance -was the fetish which this cult had cherished, and around which they -danced when the aurora leaped high over the ice cliffs. It was, the -professor stated, a very crude bas-relief of stone, comprising a -hideous picture and some cryptic writing. And as far as he could tell, -it was a rough parallel in all essential features of the bestial thing -now lying before the meeting. - -These data, received with suspense and astonishment by the assembled -members, proved doubly exciting to Inspector Legrasse; and he began at -once to ply his informant with questions. Having noted and copied an -oral ritual among the swamp cult-worshipers his men had arrested, he -besought the professor to remember as best he might the syllables taken -down amongst the diabolist Eskimos. There then followed an exhaustive -comparison of details, and a moment of really awed silence when both -detective and scientist agreed on the virtual identity of the phrase -common to two hellish rituals so many worlds of distance apart. What, -in substance, both the Eskimo wizards and the Louisiana swamp-priests -had chanted to their kindred idols was something very like this--the -word-divisions being guessed at from traditional breaks in the phrase -as chanted aloud: - - "_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn._" - -Legrasse had one point in advance of Professor Webb, for several among -his mongrel prisoners had repeated to him what older celebrants had -told them the words meant. This text, as given, ran something like this: - - "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." - - * * * * * - -And now, in response to a general urgent demand, Inspector Legrasse -related as fully as possible his experience with the swamp worshipers; -telling a story to which I could see my uncle attached profound -significance. It savored of the wildest dreams of myth-maker and -theosophist, and disclosed an astonishing degree of cosmic imagination -among such half-castes and pariahs as might be least expected to -possess it. - -On November 1st, 1907, there had come to New Orleans police a frantic -summons from the swamp and lagoon country to the south. The squatters -there, mostly primitive but good-natured descendants of Lafitte's men, -were in the grip of stark terror from an unknown thing which had stolen -upon them in the night. It was voodoo, apparently, but voodoo of a more -terrible sort than they had ever known; and some of their women and -children had disappeared since the malevolent tom-tom had begun its -incessant beating far within the black haunted woods where no dweller -ventured. There were insane shouts and harrowing screams, soul-chilling -chants and dancing devil-flames; and, the frightened messenger added, -the people could stand it no more. - -So a body of twenty police, filling two carriages and an automobile, -had set out in the late afternoon with the shivering squatter as a -guide. At the end of the passable road they alighted, and for miles -splashed on in silence through the terrible cypress woods where day -never came. Ugly roots and malignant hanging nooses of Spanish moss -beset them, and now and then a pile of dank stones or fragments of a -rotting wall intensified by its hint of morbid habitation a depression -which every malformed tree and every fungous islet combined to create. -At length the squatter settlement, a miserable huddle of huts, hove in -sight; and hysterical dwellers ran out to cluster around the group of -bobbing lanterns. The muffled beat of tom-toms was now faintly audible -far, far ahead; and a curdling shriek came at infrequent intervals -when the wind shifted. A reddish glare, too, seemed to filter through -the pale undergrowth beyond endless avenues of forest night. Reluctant -even to be left alone again, each one of the cowed squatters refused -point-blank to advance another inch toward the scene of unholy -worship, so Inspector Legrasse and his nineteen colleagues plunged on -unguided into black arcades of horror that none of them had ever trod -before. - -The region now entered by the police was one of traditionally evil -repute, substantially unknown and untraversed by white men. There were -legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight, in which dwelt a -huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous eyes; and squatters -whispered that bat-winged devils flew up out of caverns in inner -earth to worship it at midnight. They said it had been there before -D'Iberville, before La Salle, before the Indians, and before even the -wholesome beasts and birds of the woods. It was nightmare itself, and -to see it was to die. But it made men dream, and so they knew enough to -keep away. The present voodoo orgy was, indeed, on the merest fringe -of this abhorred area, but that location was bad enough; hence perhaps -the very place of the worship had terrified the squatters more than the -shocking sounds and incidents. - -Only poetry or madness could do justice to the noises heard by -Legrasse's men as they plowed on through the black morass toward the -red glare and the muffled tom-toms. There are vocal qualities peculiar -to men, and vocal qualities peculiar to beasts; and it is terrible -to hear the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury -and orgiastic license here whipped themselves to demoniac heights by -howls and squawking ecstasies that tore and reverberated through those -nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs of hell. Now -and then the less organized ululations would cease, and from what -seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would rise in singsong -chant that hideous phrase or ritual: - - "_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn._" - -Then the men, having reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came -suddenly in sight of the spectacle itself. Four of them reeled, one -fainted, and two were shaken into a frantic cry which the mad cacophony -of the orgy fortunately deadened. Legrasse dashed swamp water on the -face of the fainting man, and all stood trembling and nearly hypnotized -with horror. - -In a natural glade of the swamp stood a grassy island of perhaps an -acre's extent, clear of trees and tolerably dry. On this now leaped and -twisted a more indescribable horde of human abnormality than any but a -Sime or an Angarola could paint. Void of clothing, this hybrid spawn -were braying, bellowing and writhing about a monstrous ring-shaped -bonfire; in the center of which, revealed by occasional rifts in the -curtain of flame, stood a great granite monolith some eight feet in -height; on top of which, incongruous in its diminutiveness, rested the -noxious carven statuette. From a wide circle of ten scaffolds set up -at regular intervals with the flame-girt monolith as a center hung, -head downward, the oddly marred bodies of the helpless squatters who -had disappeared. It was inside this circle that the ring of worshipers -jumped and roared, the general direction of the mass motion being from -left to right in endless bacchanale between the ring of bodies and the -ring of fire. - -It may have been only imagination and it may have been only echoes -which induced one of the men, an excitable Spaniard, to fancy he heard -antiphonal responses to the ritual from some far and unillumined spot -deeper within the wood of ancient legendry and horror. This man, Joseph -D. Galvez, I later met and questioned; and he proved distractingly -imaginative. He indeed went so far as to hint of the faint beating of -great wings, and of a glimpse of shining eyes and a mountainous white -bulk beyond the remotest trees--but I suppose he had been hearing too -much native superstition. - -Actually, the horrified pause of the men was of comparatively brief -duration. Duty came first; and although there must have been nearly a -hundred mongrel celebrants in the throng, the police relied on their -firearms and plunged determinedly into the nauseous rout. For five -minutes the resultant din and chaos were beyond description. Wild -blows were struck, shots were fired, and escapes were made; but in -the end Legrasse was able to count some forty-seven sullen prisoners, -whom he forced to dress in haste and fall into line between two rows -of policemen. Five of the worshipers lay dead, and two severely -wounded ones were carried away on improvised stretchers by their -fellow-prisoners. The image on the monolith, of course, was carefully -removed and carried back by Legrasse. - -Examined at headquarters after a trip of intense strain and weariness, -the prisoners all proved to be men of a very low, mixed-blooded, and -mentally aberrant type. Most were seamen, and a sprinkling of negroes -and mulattoes, largely West Indians or Brava Portuguese from the Cape -Verde Islands, gave a coloring of voodooism to the heterogeneous cult. -But before many questions were asked, it became manifest that something -far deeper and older than negro fetishism was involved. Degraded and -ignorant as they were, the creatures held with surprizing consistency -to the central idea of their loathsome faith. - -They worshiped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before -there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. -Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but -their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first man, -who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the -prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in -distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when -the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of -R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath -his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the -secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him. - -Meanwhile no more must be told. There was a secret which even torture -could not extract. Mankind was not absolutely alone among the conscious -things of earth, for shapes came out of the dark to visit the faithful -few. But these were not the Great Old Ones. No man had ever seen the -Old Ones. The carven idol was great Cthulhu, but none might say whether -or not the others were precisely like him. No one could read the old -writing now, but things were told by word of mouth. The chanted ritual -was not the secret--that was never spoken aloud, only whispered. The -chant meant only this: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits -dreaming." - - * * * * * - -Only two of the prisoners were found sane enough to be hanged, and -the rest were committed to various institutions. All denied a part -in the ritual murders, and averred that the killing had been done -by Black-winged Ones which had come to them from their immemorial -meeting-place in the haunted wood. But of those mysterious allies no -coherent account could ever be gained. What the police did extract -came mainly from an immensely aged mestizo named Castro, who claimed -to have sailed to strange ports and talked with undying leaders of the -cult in the mountains of China. - -Old Castro remembered bits of hideous legend that paled the -speculations of theosophists and made man and the world seem recent -and transient indeed. There had been eons when other Things ruled on -the earth, and They had had great cities. Remains of Them, he said the -deathless Chinamen had told him, were still to be found as Cyclopean -stones on islands in the Pacific. They all died vast epochs of time -before man came, but there were arts which could revive Them when the -stars had come round again to the right positions in the cycle of -eternity. They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought -Their images with Them. - -These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether -of flesh and blood. They had shape--for did not this star-fashioned -image prove it?--but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars -were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; -but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They -no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone -houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty -Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might -once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside -must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved Them -intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move, and They -could only lie awake in the dark and think whilst uncounted millions -of years rolled by. They knew all that was occurring in the universe, -for Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. Even now They talked -in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the first men came, -the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by molding their -dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly minds of -mammals. - -Then, whispered Castro, those first men formed the cult around small -idols which the Great Ones showed them; idols brought in dim eras -from dark stars. That cult would never die till the stars came right -again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb -to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would -be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old -Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals -thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then -the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill -and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a -holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate -rites, must keep alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow -forth the prophecy of their return. - -In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in -dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city R'lyeh, -with its monoliths and sepulchers, had sunk beneath the waves; and the -deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even -thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse. But memory -never died, and high priests said that the city would rise again when -the stars were right. Then came out of the earth the black spirits of -earth, moldy and shadowy, and full of dim rumors picked up in caverns -beneath forgotten sea-bottoms. But of them old Castro dared not speak -much. He cut himself off hurriedly, and no amount of persuasion or -subtlety could elicit more in this direction. The _size_ of the Old -Ones, too, he curiously declined to mention. Of the cult, he said that -he thought the center lay amid the pathless deserts of Arabia, where -Irem, the City of Pillars, dreams hidden and untouched. It was not -allied to the European witch-cult, and was virtually unknown beyond its -members. No book had ever really hinted of it, though the deathless -Chinamen said that there were double meanings in the _Necronomicon_ -of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred which the initiated might read as they -chose, especially the much-discussed couplet: - - "That is not dead which can eternal lie, - And with strange eons even death may die." - -Legrasse, deeply impressed and not a little bewildered, had inquired -in vain concerning the historic affiliations of the cult. Castro, -apparently, had told the truth when he said that it was wholly -secret. The authorities at Tulane University could shed no light upon -either cult or image, and now the detective had come to the highest -authorities in the country and met with no more than the Greenland tale -of Professor Webb. - - * * * * * - -The feverish interest aroused at the meeting by Legrasse's tale, -corroborated as it was by the statuette, is echoed in the subsequent -correspondence of those who attended, although scant mention occurs in -the formal publication of the society. Caution is the first care of -those accustomed to face occasional charlatanry and imposture. Legrasse -for some time lent the image to Professor Webb, but at the latter's -death it was returned to him and remains in his possession, where I -viewed it not long ago. It is truly a terrible thing, and unmistakably -akin to the dream-sculpture of young Wilcox. - -That my uncle was excited by the tale of the sculptor I did not -wonder, for what thoughts must arise upon hearing, after a knowledge -of what Legrasse had learned of the cult, of a sensitive young man -who had _dreamed_ not only the figure and exact hieroglyphics of the -swamp-found image and the Greenland devil tablet, but had come _in his -dreams_ upon at least three of the precise words of the formula uttered -alike by Eskimo diabolists and mongrel Louisianans? Professor Angell's -instant start on an investigation of the utmost thoroughness was -eminently natural; though privately I suspected young Wilcox of having -heard of the cult in some indirect way, and of having invented a series -of dreams to heighten and continue the mystery at my uncle's expense. -The dream-narratives and cuttings collected by the professor were, of -course, strong corroboration; but the rationalism of my mind and the -extravagance of the whole subject led me to adopt what I thought the -most sensible conclusions. So, after thoroughly studying the manuscript -again and correlating the theosophical and anthropological notes with -the cult narrative of Legrasse, I made a trip to Providence to see -the sculptor and give him the rebuke I thought proper for so boldly -imposing upon a learned and aged man. - -Wilcox still lived alone in the Fleur-de-Lys Building in Thomas -Street, a hideous Victorian imitation of Seventeenth Century Breton -architecture which flaunts its stuccoed front amidst the lovely -Colonial houses on the ancient hill, and under the very shadow of the -finest Georgian steeple in America. I found him at work in his rooms, -and at once conceded from the specimens scattered about that his genius -is indeed profound and authentic. He will, I believe, be heard from -sometime as one of the great decadents; for he has crystallized in clay -and will one day mirror in marble those nightmares and fantasies which -Arthur Machen evokes in prose, and Clark Ashton Smith makes visible in -verse and in painting. - -Dark, frail, and somewhat unkempt in aspect, he turned languidly at my -knock and asked me my business without rising. When I told him who I -was, he displayed some interest; for my uncle had excited his curiosity -in probing his strange dreams, yet had never explained the reason for -the study. I did not enlarge his knowledge in this regard, but sought -with some subtlety to draw him out. - -In a short time I became convinced of his absolute sincerity, for he -spoke of the dreams in a manner none could mistake. They and their -subconscious residuum had influenced his art profoundly, and he showed -me a morbid statue whose contours almost made me shake with the potency -of its black suggestion. He could not recall having seen the original -of this thing except in his own dream bas-relief, but the outlines had -formed themselves insensibly under his hands. It was, no doubt, the -giant shape he had raved of in delirium. That he really knew nothing of -the hidden cult, save from what my uncle's relentless catechism had let -fall, he soon made clear; and again I strove to think of some way in -which he could possibly have received the weird impressions. - -He talked of his dreams in a strangely poetic fashion; making me -see with terrible vividness the damp Cyclopean city of slimy green -stone--whose _geometry_, he oddly said, was _all wrong_--and hear -with frightened expectancy the ceaseless, half-mental calling from -underground: "_Cthulhu fhtagn_," "_Cthulhu fhtagn_." - -These words had formed part of that dread ritual which told of dead -Cthulhu's dream-vigil in his stone vault at R'lyeh, and I felt deeply -moved despite my rational beliefs. Wilcox, I was sure, had heard of -the cult in some casual way, and had soon forgotten it amidst the mass -of his equally weird reading and imagining. Later, by virtue of its -sheer impressiveness, it had found subconscious expression in dreams, -in the bas-relief, and in the terrible statue I now beheld; so that his -imposture upon my uncle had been a very innocent one. The youth was of -a type, at once slightly affected and slightly ill-mannered, which I -could never like; but I was willing enough now to admit both his genius -and his honesty. I took leave of him amicably, and wish him all the -success his talent promises. - -The matter of the cult still remained to fascinate me, and at times -I had visions of personal fame from researches into its origin and -connections. I visited New Orleans, talked with Legrasse and others -of that old-time raiding-party, saw the frightful image, and even -questioned such of the mongrel prisoners as still survived. Old Castro, -unfortunately, had been dead for some years. What I now heard so -graphically at first hand, though it was really no more than a detailed -confirmation of what my uncle had written, excited me afresh; for I -felt sure that I was on the track of a very real, very secret, and -very ancient religion whose discovery would make me an anthropologist -of note. My attitude was still one of absolute materialism, _as I wish -it still were_, and I discounted with almost inexplicable perversity -the coincidence of the dream notes and odd cuttings collected by -Professor Angell. - -One thing which I began to suspect, and which I now fear I _know_, is -that my uncle's death was far from natural. He fell on a narrow hill -street leading up from an ancient waterfront swarming with foreign -mongrels, after a careless push from a negro sailor. I did not forget -the mixed blood and marine pursuits of the cult-members in Louisiana, -and would not be surprized to learn of secret methods and poison -needles as ruthless and as anciently known as the cryptic rites and -beliefs. Legrasse and his men, it is true, have been let alone; but in -Norway a certain seaman who saw things is dead. Might not the deeper -inquiries of my uncle after encountering the sculptor's data have come -to sinister ears? I think Professor Angell died because he knew too -much, or because he was likely to learn too much. Whether I shall go as -he did remains to be seen, for I have learned much now. - - - - - _3. The Madness from the Sea._ - - -If heaven ever wishes to grant me a boon, it will be a total effacing -of the results of a mere chance which fixed my eye on a certain stray -piece of shelf-paper. It was nothing on which I would naturally have -stumbled in the course of my daily round, for it was an old number of -an Australian journal, _Sydney Bulletin_ for April 18, 1925. It had -escaped even the cutting bureau which had at the time of its issuance -been avidly collecting material for my uncle's research. - -I had largely given over my inquiries into what Professor Angell called -the "Cthulhu Cult," and was visiting a learned friend of Paterson, -New Jersey, the curator of a local museum and a mineralogist of note. -Examining one day the reserve specimens roughly set on the storage -shelves in a rear room of the museum, my eye was caught by an odd -picture in one of the old papers spread beneath the stones. It was the -_Sydney Bulletin_ I have mentioned, for my friend has wide affiliations -in all conceivable foreign parts; and the picture was a half-tone cut -of a hideous stone image almost identical with that which Legrasse had -found in the swamp. - -Eagerly clearing the sheet of its precious contents, I scanned the item -in detail; and was disappointed to find it of only moderate length. -What it suggested, however, was of portentous significance to my -flagging quest; and I carefully tore it out for immediate action. It -read as follows: - - MYSTERY DERELICT FOUND AT SEA - - _Vigilant_ Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. - One Survivor and Dead Man Found Aboard. Tale of Desperate Battle - and Deaths at Sea. Rescued Seaman Refuses Particulars of Strange - Experience. Odd Idol Found in His Possession. Inquiry to Follow. - - * * * * * - - The Morrison Co.'s freighter _Vigilant_, bound from Valparaiso, - arrived this morning at its wharf in Darling Harbour, having in tow - the battled and disabled but heavily armed steam yacht _Alert_ of - Dunedin, N. Z., which was sighted April 12th in S. Latitude 34° 21', - W. Longitude 152° 17', with one living and one dead man aboard. - - The _Vigilant_ left Valparaiso March 25th, and on April 2d was - driven considerably south of her course by exceptionally heavy - storms and monster waves. On April 12th the derelict was sighted; - and though apparently deserted, was found upon boarding to contain - one survivor in a half-delirious condition and one man who had - evidently been dead for more than a week. - - The living man was clutching a horrible stone idol of unknown - origin, about a foot in height, regarding whose nature authorities - at Sydney University, the Royal Society, and the Museum in College - Street all profess complete bafflement, and which the survivor says - he found in the cabin of the yacht, in a small carved shrine of - common pattern. - - This man, after recovering his senses, told an exceedingly strange - story of piracy and slaughter. He is Gustaf Johansen, a Norwegian - of some intelligence, and had been second mate of the two-masted - schooner _Emma_ of Auckland, which sailed for Callao February 20th, - with a complement of eleven men. - - The _Emma_, he says, was delayed and thrown widely south of her - course by the great storm of March 1st, and on March 22d, in S. - Latitude 49° 51´, W. Longitude 128° 34´, encountered the _Alert_, - manned by a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes. - Being ordered peremptorily to turn back, Capt. Collins refused; - whereupon the strange crew began to fire savagely and without - warning upon the schooner with a peculiarly heavy battery of brass - cannon forming part of the yacht's equipment. - - The _Emma's_ men showed fight, says the survivor, and though the - schooner began to sink from shots beneath the waterline they managed - to heave alongside their enemy and board her, grappling with the - savage crew on the yacht's deck, and being forced to kill them all, - the number being slightly superior, because of their particularly - abhorrent and desperate though rather clumsy mode of fighting. - - Three of the _Emma's_ men, including Capt. Collins and First Mate - Green, were killed; and the remaining eight under Second Mate - Johansen proceeded to navigate the captured yacht, going ahead in - their original direction to see if any reason for their ordering - back had existed. - - The next day, it appears, they raised and landed on a small island, - although none is known to exist in that part of the ocean; and six - of the men somehow died ashore, though Johansen is queerly reticent - about this part of his story and speaks only of their falling into - a rock chasm. - - Later, it seems, he and one companion boarded the yacht and tried - to manage her, but were beaten about by the storm of April 2nd. - - From that time till his rescue on the 12th, the man remembers - little, and he does not even recall when William Briden, his - companion, died. Briden's death reveals no apparent cause, and was - probably due to excitement or exposure. - - Cable advices from Dunedin report that the _Alert_ was well known - there as an island trader, and bore an evil reputation along the - waterfront. It was owned by a curious group of half-castes whose - frequent meetings and night trips to the woods attracted no little - curiosity; and it had set sail in great haste just after the storm - and earth tremors of March 1st. - - Our Auckland correspondent gives the _Emma_ and her crew an - excellent reputation, and Johansen is described as a sober and - worthy man. - - The admiralty will institute an inquiry on the whole matter - beginning tomorrow, at which every effort will be made to induce - Johansen to speak more freely than he has done hitherto. - - * * * * * - -This was all, together with the picture of the hellish image; but what -a train of ideas it started in my mind! Here were new treasuries of -data on the Cthulhu Cult, and evidence that it had strange interests -at sea as well as on land. What motive prompted the hybrid crew to -order back the _Emma_ as they sailed about with their hideous idol? -What was the unknown island on which six of the _Emma's_ crew had -died, and about which the mate Johansen was so secretive? What had the -vice-admiralty's investigation brought out, and what was known of the -noxious cult in Dunedin? And most marvelous of all, what deep and more -than natural linkage of dates was this which gave a malign and now -undeniable significance to the various turns of events so carefully -noted by my uncle? - -March 1st--our February 28th according to the International Date -Line--the earthquake and storm had come. From Dunedin the _Alert_ and -her noisome crew had darted eagerly forth as if imperiously summoned, -and on the other side of the earth poets and artists had begun to -dream of a strange, dank Cyclopean city whilst a young sculptor had -molded in his sleep the form of the dreaded Cthulhu. March 23rd the -crew of the _Emma_ landed on an unknown island and left six men dead; -and on that date the dreams of sensitive men assumed a heightened -vividness and darkened with dread of a giant monster's malign pursuit, -whilst an architect had gone mad and a sculptor had lapsed suddenly -into delirium! And what of this storm of April 2nd--the date on which -all dreams of the dank city ceased, and Wilcox emerged unharmed from -the bondage of strange fever? What of all this--and of those hints of -old Castro about the sunken, star-born Old Ones and their coming reign; -their faithful cult _and their mastery of dreams_? Was I tottering on -the brink of cosmic horrors beyond man's power to bear? If so, they -must be horrors of the mind alone, for in some way the second of April -had put a stop to whatever monstrous menace had begun its siege of -mankind's soul. - - * * * * * - -That evening, after a day of hurried cabling and arranging, I bade my -host adieu and took a train for San Francisco. In less than a month -I was in Dunedin; where, however, I found that little was known of -the strange cult-members who had lingered in the old sea taverns. -Waterfront scum was far too common for special mention; though there -was vague talk about one inland trip these mongrels had made, during -which faint drumming and red flame were noted on the distant hills. - -In Auckland I learned that Johansen had returned _with yellow hair -turned white_ after a perfunctory and inconclusive questioning at -Sydney, and had thereafter sold his cottage in West Street and sailed -with his wife to his old home in Oslo. Of his stirring experience -he would tell his friends no more than he had told the admiralty -officials, and all they could do was to give me his Oslo address. - -After that I went to Sydney and talked profitlessly with seamen and -members of the vice-admiralty court. I saw the _Alert_, now sold and -in commercial use, at Circular Quay in Sydney Cove, but gained nothing -from its non-committal bulk. The crouching image with its cuttlefish -head, dragon body, scaly wings, and hieroglyphed pedestal, was -preserved in the Museum at Hyde Park; and I studied it long and well, -finding it a thing of balefully exquisite workmanship, and with the -same utter mystery, terrible antiquity, and unearthly strangeness of -material which I had noted in Legrasse's smaller specimen. Geologists, -the curator told me, had found it a monstrous puzzle; for they vowed -that the world held no rock like it. Then I thought with a shudder of -what old Castro had told Legrasse about the primal Great Ones: "They -had come from the stars, and had brought Their images with Them." - -Shaken with such a mental revolution as I had never before known, I -now resolved to visit Mate Johansen in Oslo. Sailing for London, I -re-embarked at once for the Norwegian capital; and one autumn day -landed at the trim wharves in the shadow of the Egeberg. - -Johansen's address, I discovered, lay in the Old Town of King Harold -Haardrada, which kept alive the name of Oslo during all the centuries -that the greater city masqueraded as "Christiania." I made the brief -trip by taxicab, and knocked with palpitant heart at the door of a neat -and ancient building with plastered front. A sad-faced woman in black -answered my summons, and I was stung with disappointment when she told -me in halting English that Gustaf Johansen was no more. - -He had not long survived his return, said his wife, for the doings at -sea in 1925 had broken him. He had told her no more than he had told -the public, but had left a long manuscript--of "technical matters" as -he said--written in English, evidently in order to safeguard her from -the peril of casual perusal. During a walk through a narrow lane near -the Gothenburg dock, a bundle of papers falling from an attic window -had knocked him down. Two Lascar sailors at once helped him to his -feet, but before the ambulance could reach him he was dead. Physicians -found no adequate cause for the end, and laid it to heart trouble and a -weakened constitution. - -I now felt gnawing at my vitals that dark terror which will never leave -me till I, too, am at rest; "accidentally" or otherwise. Persuading the -widow that my connection with her husband's "technical matters" was -sufficient to entitle me to his manuscript, I bore the document away -and began to read it on the London boat. - -It was a simple, rambling thing--a naive sailor's effort at a -post-facto diary--and strove to recall day by day that last awful -voyage. I can not attempt to transcribe it verbatim in all its -cloudiness and redundance, but I will tell its gist enough to show why -the sound of the water against the vessel's sides became so unendurable -to me that I stopped my ears with cotton. - -Johansen, thank God, did not know quite all, even though he saw the -city and the Thing, but I shall never sleep calmly again when I think -of the horrors that lurk ceaselessly behind life in time and in space, -and of those unhallowed blasphemies from elder stars which dream -beneath the sea, known and favored by a nightmare cult ready and eager -to loose them on the world whenever another earthquake shall heave -their monstrous stone city again to the sun and air. - - * * * * * - -Johansen's voyage had begun just as he told it to the vice-admiralty. -The _Emma_, in ballast, had cleared Auckland on February 20th, and had -felt the full force of that earthquake-born tempest which must have -heaved up from the sea-bottom the horrors that filled men's dreams. -Once more under control, the ship was making good progress when held -up by the _Alert_ on March 22nd, and I could feel the mate's regret as -he wrote of her bombardment and sinking. Of the swarthy cult-fiends -on the _Alert_ he speaks with significant horror. There was some -peculiarly abominable quality about them which made their destruction -seem almost a duty, and Johansen shows ingenuous wonder at the charge -of ruthlessness brought against his party during the proceedings of the -court of inquiry. Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured -yacht under Johansen's command, the men sight a great stone pillar -sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47° 9', W. Longitude 126° -43' come upon a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean -masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of -earth's supreme terror--the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, that -was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome -shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu -and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults and sending out at last, -after cycles incalculable, the thoughts that spread fear to the dreams -of the sensitive and called imperiously to the faithful to come on a -pilgrimage of liberation and restoration. All this Johansen did not -suspect, but God knows he soon saw enough! - -I suppose that only a single mountain-top, the hideous monolith-crowned -citadel whereon great Cthulhu was buried, actually emerged from the -waters. When I think of the _extent_ of all that may be brooding down -there I almost wish to kill myself forthwith. Johansen and his men were -awed by the cosmic majesty of this dripping Babylon of elder demons, -and must have guessed without guidance that it was nothing of this or -of any sane planet. Awe at the unbelievable size of the greenish stone -blocks, at the dizzying height of the great carven monolith, and at the -stupefying identity of the colossal statues and bas-reliefs with the -queer image found in the shrine on the _Alert_, is poignantly visible -in every line of the mate's frightened description. - -Without knowing what futurism is like, Johansen achieved something -very close to it when he spoke of the city; for instead of describing -any definite structure or building, he dwells only on the broad -impressions of vast angles and stone surfaces--surfaces too great to -belong to anything right or proper for this earth, and impious with -horrible images and hieroglyphs. I mention his talk about _angles_ -because it suggests something Wilcox had told me of his awful dreams. -He had said that the _geometry_ of the dream-place he saw was abnormal, -non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart -from ours. Now an unlettered seaman felt the same thing whilst gazing -at the terrible reality. - -Johansen and his men landed at a sloping mud-bank on this monstrous -Acropolis, and clambered slipperily up over titan oozy blocks which -could have been no mortal staircase. The very sun of heaven seemed -distorted when viewed through the polarizing miasma welling out from -this sea-soaked perversion, and twisted menace and suspense lurked -leeringly in those crazily elusive angles of carven rock where a second -glance showed concavity after the first showed convexity. - -Something very like fright had come over all the explorers before -anything more definite than rock and ooze and weed was seen. Each -would have fled had he not feared the scorn of the others, and it was -only half-heartedly that they searched--vainly, as it proved--for some -portable souvenir to bear away. - -It was Rodriguez the Portuguese who climbed up the foot of the monolith -and shouted of what he had found. The rest followed him, and looked -curiously at the immense carved door with the now familiar squid-dragon -bas-relief. It was, Johansen said, like a great barn-door; and they all -felt that it was a door because of the ornate lintel, threshold, and -jambs around it, though they could not decide whether it lay flat like -a trap-door or slantwise like an outside cellar-door. As Wilcox would -have said, the geometry of the place was all wrong. One could not be -sure that the sea and the ground were horizontal, hence the relative -position of everything else seemed fantasmally variable. - -Briden pushed at the stone in several places without result. Then -Donovan felt over it delicately around the edge, pressing each point -separately as he went. He climbed interminably along the grotesque -stone molding--that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not -after all horizontal--and the men wondered how any door in the universe -could be so vast. Then, very softly and slowly, the acre-great panel -began to give inward at the top; and they saw that it was balanced. - -Donovan slid or somehow propelled himself down or along the jamb and -rejoined his fellows, and everyone watched the queer recession of the -monstrously carven portal. In this fantasy of prismatic distortion it -moved anomalously in a diagonal way, so that all the rules of matter -and perspective seemed upset. - -The aperture was black with a darkness almost material. That -tenebrousness was indeed a _positive quality_; for it obscured such -parts of the inner walls as ought to have been revealed, and actually -burst forth like smoke from its eon-long imprisonment, visibly -darkening the sun as it slunk away into the shrunken and gibbous sky -on flapping membranous wings. The odor arising from the newly opened -depths was intolerable, and at length the quick-eared Hawkins thought -he heard a nasty, slopping sound down there. Everyone listened, and -everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into sight -and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black -doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness. - -Poor Johansen's handwriting almost gave out when he wrote of this. Of -the six men who never reached the ship, he thinks two perished of pure -fright in that accursed instant. The Thing can not be described--there -is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, -such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. -A mountain walked or stumbled. God! What wonder that across the earth -a great architect went mad, and poor Wilcox raved with fever in that -telepathic instant? The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of -the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and -what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent -sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years great -Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight. - -Three men were swept up by the flabby claws before anybody turned. God -rest them, if there be any rest in the universe. They were Donovan, -Guerrera and Angstrom. Parker slipped as the other three were plunging -frenziedly over endless vistas of green-crusted rock to the boat, -and Johansen swears he was swallowed up by an angle of masonry which -shouldn't have been there; an angle which was acute, but behaved as -if it were obtuse. So only Briden and Johansen reached the boat, and -pulled desperately for the _Alert_ as the mountainous monstrosity -flopped down the slimy stones and hesitated floundering at the edge of -the water. - -Steam had not been suffered to go down entirely, despite the departure -of all hands for the shore; and it was the work of only a few moments -of feverish rushing up and down between wheels and engines to get -the _Alert_ under way. Slowly, amidst the distorted horrors of that -indescribable scene, she began to churn the lethal waters; whilst on -the masonry of that charnel shore that was not of earth the titan Thing -from the stars slavered and gibbered like Polypheme cursing the fleeing -ship of Odysseus. Then, bolder than the storied Cyclops, great Cthulhu -slid greasily into the water and began to pursue with vast wave-raising -strokes of cosmic potency. Briden looked back and went mad, laughing -shrilly as he kept on laughing at intervals till death found him one -night in the cabin whilst Johansen was wandering deliriously. - -But Johansen had not given out yet. Knowing that the Thing could -surely overtake the _Alert_ until steam was fully up, he resolved -on a desperate chance; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran -lightning-like on deck and reversed the wheel. There was a mighty -eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted -higher and higher the brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against -the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean froth like the stern -of a demon galleon. The awful squid-head with writhing feelers came -nearly up to the bowsprit of the sturdy yacht, but Johansen drove on -relentlessly. - -There was a bursting as of an exploding bladder, a slushy nastiness -as of a cloven sunfish, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and -a sound that the chronicler would not put on paper. For an instant -the ship was befouled by an acrid and blinding green cloud, and then -there was only a venomous seething astern; where--God in heaven!--the -scattered plasticity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously -_recombining_ in its hateful original form, whilst its distance widened -every second as the _Alert_ gained impetus from its mounting steam. - - * * * * * - -That was all. After that Johansen only brooded over the idol in the -cabin and attended to a few matters of food for himself and the -laughing maniac by his side. He did not try to navigate after the first -bold flight, for the reaction had taken something out of his soul. Then -came the storm of April 2nd, and a gathering of the clouds about his -consciousness. There is a sense of spectral whirling through liquid -gulfs of infinity, of dizzying rides through reeling universes on a -comet's tail, and of hysterical plunges from the pit to the moon and -from the moon back again to the pit, all livened by a cachinnating -chorus of the distorted, hilarious elder gods and the green, bat-winged -mocking imps of Tartarus. - -Out of that dream came rescue--the _Vigilant_, the vice-admiralty -court, the streets of Dunedin, and the long voyage back home to the -old house by the Egeberg. He could not tell--they would think him mad. -He would write of what he knew before death came, but his wife must not -guess. Death would be a boon if only it could blot out the memories. - -That was the document I read, and now I have placed it in the tin box -beside the bas-relief and the papers of Professor Angell. With it shall -go this record of mine--this test of my own sanity, wherein is pieced -together that which I hope may never be pieced together again. I have -looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the -skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison -to me. But I do not think my life will be long. As my uncle went, as -poor Johansen went, so I shall go. I know too much, and the cult still -lives. - -Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone -which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is -sunken once more, for the _Vigilant_ sailed over the spot after the -April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and -slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been -trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world -would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end? -What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness -waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering -cities of men. A time will come--but I must not and can not think! Let -me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors may put -caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye. - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68283 *** |