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Subject: [PATCH] Add short story The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
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+---
+title: The Call of Cthulhu
+author: H.P. Lovecraft
+lang: en
+license: public domain
+date: February, 1928
+genre: horror
+publication:
+  title: Weird Tales
+  volume: 11
+  issue: 2
+  pages: 159-178, 287
+note: This text is produced by digitizing photo-scans published on archive=
.org (using Tesseract 4.1.1). The resulting text has been spell-checked, bu=
t may still contain errors (both original, and new ones).
+---
+(Found among the papers of the late Francis Wayland Thurston, of Boston.)
+
+> =E2=80=9COf such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survi=
val . . . a survival of a hugely remote period when . . . consciousness was=
 manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the t=
ide of advancing humanity ... forms of which poetry and legend alone have c=
aught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of al=
l sorts and kinds. . . .=E2=80=9D=E2=80=94Algernon Blackwood.
+
+# 1. The Horror in Clay.
+
+THE most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the hum=
an mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignora=
nce in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we sh=
ould voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hi=
therto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated k=
nowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightf=
ul position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or fle=
e 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 wher=
ein 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 fr=
om an accidental piecing together of separated things=E2=80=94in 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 granduncle, George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic langua=
ges in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Professor Angell was wid=
ely 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 a=
ge 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 wh=
ilst 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=E2=80=99s home in Williams Street. =
Physicians were unable to find any visible disorder, but concluded after pe=
rplexed 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=E2=80=94and more than wonder.
+
+As my granduncle's heir and executor, for he died a childless widower, I w=
as expected to go over his papers with some thoroughness; and for that purp=
ose 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 puzz=
ling, 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 pe=
rsonal 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 c=
uttings 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=E2=80=99s =
peace of mind.
+
+The bas-relief was a rough rectangle less than an inch thick and about fiv=
e by six inches in area; obviously of modern origin. Its designs, however, =
were far from modern in atmosphere and suggestion; for, although the vagari=
es of cubism and futurism are many and wild, they do not often reproduce th=
at cryptic regularity which lurks in prehistoric writing. And writing of so=
me kind the bulk of these designs seemed certainly to be; though my memory,=
 despite much familiarity with the papers and collections of my uncle, fail=
ed in any way to identify this particular species, or even hint at its remo=
test affiliations.
+
+Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial int=
ent, 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 so=
mewhat 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 cutt=
ings, in Professor Angell=E2=80=99s most recent hand; and made no pretense =
to literary style. What seemed to be the main document was headed =E2=80=98=
=E2=80=98CTHULHU CULT=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 in characters painstakingly printed=
 to avoid the erroneous reading of a word so unheard-of. This manuscript wa=
s divided into two sections, the first of which was headed =E2=80=98=E2=80=
=981925=E2=80=94Dream and Dream Work of H. A. Wilcox, 7 Thomas St., Provide=
nce, R. I.,=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 and the second, =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Narrative o=
f Inspector John R. Legrasse, 121 Bienville St., New Orleans, La., at 1908 =
A. A. S. Mtg=E2=80=94Notes on Same, & Prof. Webb=E2=80=99s Acct.=E2=80=99=
=E2=80=99 The other manuscript papers were all brief notes, some of them ac=
counts of the queer dreams of different persons, some of them citations fro=
m theosophical books and magazines (notably W. Scott-Eliott=E2=80=99s Atlan=
tis and the Lost Lemuria), and the rest comments on long-surviving secret s=
ocieties and hidden cults, with references to passages in such mythological=
 and anthropological source-books as Frazer=E2=80=99s Golden Bough and Miss=
 Murray=E2=80=99s Witch-Cult in Western Europe. The cuttings largely allude=
d to outr=C3=A9 mental illnesses and outbreaks of group folly or mania in t=
he spring of 1925.
+
+THE first half of the principal manuscript told a very peculiar tale. It a=
ppears that on March 1st, 1925, a thin, dark young man of neurotic and exci=
ted aspect had called upon Professor Angell bearing the singular clay bas-r=
elief, 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 studyin=
g sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design and living alone at the Fl=
eur-de-Lys Building near that institution. Wilcox was a precocious youth of=
 known genius but great eccentricity, and had from childhood excited attent=
ion through the strange stories and odd dreams he was in the habit of relat=
ing. He called himself =E2=80=98=E2=80=98psychically hypersensitive=E2=80=
=99=E2=80=99, but the staid folk of the ancient commercial city dismissed h=
im as merely =E2=80=98=E2=80=98queer=E2=80=99=E2=80=99. Never mingling much=
 with his kind, he had dropped gradually from social visibility, and was no=
w known only to a small group of esthetes from other towns. Even the Provid=
ence Art Club, anxious to preserve its conservatism, had found him quite ho=
peless.
+
+On the occasion of the visit, ran the professor=E2=80=99s manuscript, the =
sculptor abruptly asked for the benefit of his host=E2=80=99s archeological=
 knowledge in identifying the hieroglyphics on the bas-relief. He spoke in =
a dreamy, stilted manner which suggested pose and alienated sympathy; and m=
y uncle showed some sharpness in replying, for the conspicuous freshness of=
 the tablet implied kinship with anything but archeology. Young Wilcox=E2=
=80=99s  rejoinder, which impressed my uncle enough to make him recall and =
record it verbatim, was of a fantastically poetic cast which must have typi=
fied his whole conversation, and which I have since found highly characteri=
stic of him. He said, =E2=80=98=E2=80=98It is new, indeed, for I made it la=
st night in a dream of strange cities; and dreams are older than brooding T=
yre, or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon.=E2=80=9D=E2=80=
=99
+
+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 Ne=
w England for some years; and Wilcox=E2=80=99s imagination had been keenly =
affected. Upon retiring, he had had an unprecedented dream of great Cyclope=
an cities of Titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths, all dripping with green =
ooze and sinister with latent horror. Hieroglyphics had covered the walls a=
nd pillars, and from some undetermined point below had come a voice that wa=
s not a voice; a chaotic sensation which only fancy could transmute into so=
und, but which he attempted to render by the almost unpronounceable jumble =
of letters, =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Cthulhu fhtagn=E2=80=99=E2=80=99.
+
+This verbal jumble was the key to the recollection which excited and distu=
rbed Professor Angell. He questioned the sculptor with scientific minutenes=
s; and studied with almost frantic intensity the bas-relief on which the yo=
uth had found himself working, chilled and clad only in his nightclothes, w=
hen waking had stolen bewilderingly over him. My uncle blamed his old age, =
Wilcox afterward said, for his slowness in recognizing both hieroglyphics a=
nd pictorial design. Many of his questions seemed highly out of place to hi=
s visitor, especially those which tried to connect the latter with strange =
cults or societies; and Wilcox could not understand the repeated promises o=
f silence which he was offered in exchange for an admission of membership i=
n some widespread mystical or paganly religious body. When Professor Angell=
 became convinced that the sculptor was indeed ignorant of any cult or syst=
em of cryptic lore, he besieged his visitor with demands for future reports=
 of dreams. This bore regular fruit, for after the first interview the manu=
script records daily calls of the young man, during which he related startl=
ing fragments of nocturnal imagery whose burden was always some terrible Cy=
clopean vista of dark and dripping stone, with a subterrene voice or intell=
igence shouting monotonously in enigmatical sense-impacts uninscribable sav=
e as gibberish. The two sounds most frequently repeated are those rendered =
by the letters =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Cthulhu=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 and =E2=80=98=E2=
=80=98R=E2=80=99lyeh=E2=80=99=E2=80=99.
+
+On March 23rd, the manuscript continued, Wilcox failed to appear; and inqu=
iries at his quarters revealed that he had been stricken with an obscure so=
rt 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 deliriu=
m. 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. T=
obey, whom he learned to be in charge. The youth=E2=80=99s febrile mind, ap=
parently, 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 ha=
d formerly dreamed, but touched wildly on a gigantic thing =E2=80=98=E2=80=
=98miles high=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 which walked or lumbered about. He at no ti=
me fully described this object, but occasional frantic words, as repeated b=
y Dr. Tobey, convinced the professor that it must be identical with the nam=
eless monstrosity he had sought to depict in his dream-sculpture. Reference=
 to this object, the doctor added, was invariably a prelude to the young ma=
n's subsidence into lethargy. His temperature, oddly enough, was not greatl=
y above normal; but the whole condition was otherwise such as to suggest tr=
ue fever rather than mental disorder.
+
+On April 2nd at about 3 p. m. every trace of Wilcox=E2=80=99s malady sudde=
nly ceased. He sat upright in bed, astonished to find himself at home and c=
ompletely ignorant of what had happened in dream or reality since the night=
 of March 22nd.  Pronounced well by his physician, he returned to his quart=
ers 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 uncl=
e kept no record of his night-thoughts after a week of pointless and irrele=
vant 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=E2=80=94so much, in f=
act, that only the ingrained skepticism then forming my philosophy can acco=
unt for my continued distrust of the artist. The notes in question were tho=
se 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 s=
eems, had quickly instituted a prodigiously far-flung body of inquiries amo=
ngst nearly all the friends whom he could question without impertinence, as=
king for nightly reports of their dreams, and the dates of any notable visi=
ons for some time past. The reception of his request seems to have been var=
ied; but he must, at the very least, have received more responses than any =
ordinary man could have handled without a secretary. This original correspo=
ndence was not preserved, but his notes formed a thorough and really signif=
icant digest. Average people in society and business=E2=80=94New England=E2=
=80=99s traditional =E2=80=98=E2=80=98salt of the earth=E2=80=99=E2=80=99=
=E2=80=94gave 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=E2=80=94the period of young Wilcox's delir=
ium. Scientific men were little more affected, though four cases of vague d=
escription 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 k=
now 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 o=
f having asked leading questions, or of having edited the correspondence in=
 corroboration of what he had latently resolved to see. That is why I conti=
nued 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 lar=
ge 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 an=
d 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 oc=
cultism, went violently insane on the date of young Wilcox=E2=80=99s seizur=
e, 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 corroboratio=
n and personal investigation; but as it was, I succeeded in tracing down on=
ly a few. All of these, however, bore out the notes in full. I have often w=
ondered if all the objects of the professor=E2=80=99s questioning felt as p=
uzzled as did this fraction. It is well that no explanation shall ever reac=
h them.
+
+The press cuttings, as I have intimated, touched on cases of panic, mania,=
 and eccentricity during the given period. Professor Angell must have emplo=
yed a cutting bureau, for the number of extracts was tremendous, and the so=
urces scattered throughout the globe. Here was a nocturnal suicide in Londo=
n, 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, wher=
e 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 =E2=80=98=E2=80=98glorious fulfilment=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 which neve=
r arrives, whilst items from India speak guardedly of serious native unrest=
 toward the end of March. Voodoo orgies multiply in Haiti, and African outp=
osts report ominous mutterings. American officers in the Philippines find c=
ertain 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 Ard=
ois-Bonnot hangs a blasphemous Dream Landscape in the Paris spring salon of=
 1926. And so numerous are the recorded troubles in insane asylums that onl=
y a miracle can have stopped the medical fraternity from noting strange par=
allelisms and drawing mystified conclusions. A weird bunch of cuttings, all=
 told; and I can at this date scarcely envisage the callous rationalism wit=
h which I set them aside. But I was then convinced that young Wilcox had kn=
own of the older matters mentioned by the professor.
+
+# 2. The Tale of Inspector Legrasse.
+
+THE older matters which had made the sculptor=E2=80=99s dream and bas-reli=
ef 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 hel=
lish outlines of the nameless monstrosity, puzzled over the unknown hierogl=
yphics, and heard the ominous syllables which can be rendered only as =E2=
=80=98=E2=80=98Cthulhu=E2=80=99=E2=80=99; and all this in so stirring and h=
orrible a connection that it is small wonder he pursued young Wilcox with q=
ueries 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. Profe=
ssor Angell, as befitted one of his authority and attainments, had had a pr=
ominent part in all the deliberations; and was one of the first to be appro=
ached by the several outsiders who took advantage of the convocation to off=
er questions for correct answering and problems for expert solution.
+
+The chief of these outsiders, and in a short time the focus of interest fo=
r the entire meeting, was a commonplace-looking middle-aged man who had tra=
veled all the way from New Orleans for certain special information unobtain=
able 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 v=
isit, a grotesque, repulsive, and apparently very ancient stone statuette w=
hose origin he was at a loss to determine.
+
+It must not be fancied that Inspector Legrasse had the least interest in a=
rcheology. On the contrary, his wish for enlightenment was prompted by pure=
ly professional considerations. The statuette, idol, fetish, or whatever it=
 was, had been captured some months before in the wooded swamps south of Ne=
w Orleans during a raid on a supposed voodoo meeting; and so singular and h=
ideous were the rites connected with it, that the police could not but real=
ize that they had stumbled on a dark cult totally unknown to them, and infi=
nitely 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 an=
xiety 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 fountainhe=
ad.
+
+Inspector Legrasse was scarcely prepared for the sensation which his offer=
ing 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 c=
rowding 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 terribl=
e 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 exquisi=
tely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid o=
utline, but with an octopuslike head whose face was a mass of feelers, a sc=
aly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long=
, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome an=
d unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted =
evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable chara=
cters. The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat o=
ccupied the center, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouch=
ing 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, s=
o that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge forepaws wh=
ich clasped the croucher=E2=80=99s 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 unmistakab=
le; yet not one link did it show with any known type of art belonging to ci=
vilization=E2=80=99s youth=E2=80=94or 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 t=
he base were equally baffling; and no member present, despite a representat=
ion of half the world=E2=80=99s expert learning in this field, could form t=
he least notion of even their remotest linguistic kinship. They, like the s=
ubject and material, belonged to something horribly remote and distinct fro=
m mankind as we know it; something frightfully suggestive of old and unhall=
owed 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 a=
t the inspector=E2=80=99s 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. Th=
is 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 Gr=
eenland 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 rep=
ulsiveness. It was a faith of which other Eskimos knew little, and which th=
ey mentioned only with shudders, saying that it had come down from horribly=
 ancient eons before ever the world was made. Besides nameless rites and hu=
man sacrifices there were certain queer hereditary rituals addressed to a s=
upreme elder devil or tornasuk; and of this Professor Webb had taken a care=
ful phonetic copy from an aged angekok or wizard-priest, expressing the sou=
nds in Roman letters as best he knew how. But just now of prime significanc=
e was the fetish which this cult had cherished, and around which they dance=
d when the aurora leaped high over the ice cliffs. It was, the professor st=
ated, a very crude bas-relief of stone, comprising a hideous picture and so=
me 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 membe=
rs, proved doubly exciting to Inspector Legrasse; and he began at once to p=
ly his informant with questions. Having noted and copied an oral ritual amo=
ng the swamp cult-worshipers his men had arrested, he besought the professo=
r to remember as best he might the syllables taken down amongst the diaboli=
st Eskimos. There then followed an exhaustive comparison of details, and a =
moment of really awed silence when both detective and scientist agreed on t=
he virtual identity of the phrase common to two hellish rituals so many wor=
lds of distance apart. What, in substance, both the Eskimo wizards and the =
Louisiana swamp-priests had chanted to their kindred idols was something ve=
ry like this=E2=80=94the word-divisions being guessed at from traditional b=
reaks in the phrase as chanted aloud:
+
+=E2=80=9CPh'nglui mglw=E2=80=99nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah=E2=80=99nagl fhtag=
n.=E2=80=9D
+
+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:
+
+=E2=80=9CIn his house at R=E2=80=99lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.=E2=80=
=9D
+
+AND NOW, in response to a general urgent demand, Inspector Legrasse relate=
d as fully as possible his experience with the swamp worshipers; telling a =
story to which I could see my uncle attached profound significance. It savo=
red of the wildest dreams of myth-maker and theosophist, and disclosed an a=
stonishing 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 summ=
ons from the swamp and lagoon country to the south. The squatters there, mo=
stly primitive but good-natured descendants of Lafitte=E2=80=99s men, were =
in the grip of stark terror from an unknown thing which had stolen upon the=
m in the night. It was voodoo, apparently, but voodoo of a more terrible so=
rt than they had ever known; and some of their women and children had disap=
peared since the malevolent tom-tom had begun its incessant beating far wit=
hin the black haunted woods where no dweller ventured. There were insane sh=
outs 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 s=
et 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 silen=
ce 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 pil=
e 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 h=
uddle of huts, hove in sight; and hysterical dwellers ran out to cluster ar=
ound the group of bobbing lanterns. The muffled beat of tom-toms was now fa=
intly audible far, far ahead; and a curdling shriek came at infrequent inte=
rvals when the wind shifted. A reddish glare, too, seemed to filter through=
 the pale undergrowth beyond endless avenues of forest night. Reluctant eve=
n to be left alone again, each one of the cowed squatters refused point-bla=
nk to advance another inch toward the scene of unholy worship, so Inspector=
 Legrasse and his nineteen colleagues plunged on unguided into black arcade=
s 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 w=
hite polypous thing with luminous eyes; and squatters whispered that bat-wi=
nged 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 t=
he 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 mor=
e than the shocking sounds and incidents.
+
+Only poetry or madness could do justice to the noises heard by Legrasse=E2=
=80=99s 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 v=
ocal 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 w=
hipped themselves to demoniac heights by howls and squawking ecstasies that=
 tore and reverberated through those nighted woods like pestilential tempes=
ts 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 r=
ise in singsong chant that hideous phrase or ritual:
+
+=E2=80=9CPh'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.=E2=80=9D
+
+Then the men, having reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came sud=
denly in sight of the spectacle itself. Four of them reeled, one fainted, a=
nd two were shaken into a frantic cry which the mad cacophony of the orgy f=
ortunately deadened. Legrasse dashed swamp water on the face of the faintin=
g 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=
=E2=80=99s extent, clear of trees and tolerably dry. On this now leaped and=
 twisted a more indescribable horde of human abnormality than any but a Sim=
e or an Angarola could paint. Void of clothing, this hybrid spawn were bray=
ing, bellowing and writhing about a monstrous ring-shaped bonfire; in the c=
enter 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, incon=
gruous in its diminutiveness, rested the noxious carven statuette. From a w=
ide 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 h=
elpless squatters who had disappeared. It was inside this circle that the r=
ing of worshipers jumped and roared, the general direction of the mass moti=
on being from left to right in endless bacchanale between the ring of bodie=
s and the ring of fire.
+
+It may have been only imagination and it may have been only echoes which i=
nduced one of the men, an excitable Spaniard, to fancy he heard antiphonal =
responses to the ritual from some far and unillumined spot deeper within th=
e 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 heating of great wings, and of a glimpse of=
 shining eyes and a mountainous white hulk beyond the remotest trees=E2=80=
=94but I suppose he had been hearing too much native superstition.
+
+Actually, the horrified pause of the men was of comparatively brief durati=
on. Duty came first; and although there must have been nearly a hundred mon=
grel celebrants in the throng, the police relied on their firearms and plun=
ged determinedly into the nauseous rout. For five minutes the resultant din=
 and chaos were beyond description. Wild blows were struck, shots were fire=
d, and escapes were made; but in the end Legrasse was able to count some fo=
rty-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 tw=
o severely wounded ones were carried away on improvised stretchers by their=
 fellow-prisoners. The image on the monolith, of course, was carefully remo=
ved 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 questio=
ns were asked, it became manifest that something far deeper and older than =
negro fetishism was involved. Degraded and ignorant as they were, the creat=
ures held with surprizing consistency to the central idea of their loathsom=
e faith.
+
+They worshiped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before the=
re 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 bodi=
es had told their secrets in dreams to the first man, who formed a cult whi=
ch 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 a=
ll over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his da=
rk house in the mighty city of R=E2=80=99lyeh under the waters, should rise=
 and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when t=
he stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberat=
e him.
+
+Meanwhile no more must be told. There was a secret which even torture coul=
d 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 th=
ese were not the Great Old Ones. No man had ever seen the Old Ones. The car=
ven idol was great Cthulhu, but none might say whether or not the others we=
re precisely like him. No one could read the old writing now, but things we=
re told by word of mouth. The chanted ritual was not the secret=E2=80=94tha=
t was never spoken aloud, only whispered. The chant meant only this: =E2=80=
=98=E2=80=98In his house at R=E2=80=99lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.=E2=
=80=99=E2=80=99
+
+ONLY two of the prisoners were found sane enough to be hanged, and the res=
t were committed to various institutions. All denied a part in the ritual m=
urders, and averred that the killing had been done by Black-winged Ones whi=
ch 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 name=
d Castro, who claimed to have sailed to strange ports and talked with undyi=
ng leaders of the cult in the mountains of China.
+
+Old Castro remembered bits of hideous legend that paled the speculations o=
f 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. The=
y all died vast epochs of time before man came, but there were arts which c=
ould 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 fl=
esh and blood. They had shape=E2=80=94for did not this star-fashioned image=
 prove it?=E2=80=94but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars we=
re right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when t=
he 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=E2=80=99lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glo=
rious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready fo=
r Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate The=
ir bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented Them fr=
om making an initial move, and They could only lie awake in the dark and th=
ink whilst uncounted millions of years rolled by. They knew all that was oc=
curring in the universe, for Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. =
Even now They talked in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the f=
irst men came, the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by mold=
ing their dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly mind=
s 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 star=
s. That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secre=
t 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 a=
nd reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways t=
o shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would fl=
ame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. Meanwhile the cult, by appropr=
iate rites, must keep alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow for=
th the prophecy of their return.
+
+In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in drea=
ms, but then something had happened. The great stone city R=E2=80=99lyeh, w=
ith 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 p=
ass, 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 f=
ull of dim rumors picked up in caverns beneath forgotten sea-bottoms. But o=
f them old Castro dared not speak much. He cut himself off hurriedly, and n=
o 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 a=
llied to the European witch-cult, and was virtually unknown beyond its memb=
ers. No book had ever really hinted of it, though the deathless Chinamen sa=
id that there were double meanings in the Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdu=
l Alhazred which the initiated might read as they chose, especially the muc=
h-discussed couplet:
+
+=E2=80=9CThat is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange eons eve=
n death may die.=E2=80=9D
+
+Legrasse, deeply impressed and not a little bewildered, had inquired in va=
in concerning the historic affiliations of the cult. Castro, apparently, ha=
d 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 t=
he detective had come to the highest authorities in the country and met wit=
h no more than the Greenland tale of Professor Webb.
+
+THE feverish interest aroused at the meeting by Legrasse=E2=80=99s tale, c=
orroborated as it was by the statuette, is echoed in the subsequent corresp=
ondence of those who attended; although scant mention occurs in the formal =
publication of the society. Caution is the first care of those accustomed t=
o face occasional charlatanry and imposture. Legrasse for some time lent th=
e image to Professor Webb, but at the latter=E2=80=99s death it was returne=
d 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, fo=
r 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 Greenl=
and devil tablet, but had come in his dreams upon at least three of the pre=
cise words of the formula uttered alike by Eskimo diabolists and mongrel Lo=
uisianans? Professor Angell=E2=80=99s 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 havi=
ng invented a series of dreams to heighten and continue the mystery at my u=
ncle=E2=80=99s 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 thoug=
ht the most sensible conclusions. So, after thoroughly studying the manuscr=
ipt again and correlating the theosophical and anthropological notes with t=
he cult narrative of Legrasse, I made a trip to Providence to see the sculp=
tor 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 whic=
h flaunts its stuccoed front amidst the lovely Colonial houses on the ancie=
nt hill, and under the very shadow of the finest Georgian steeple in Americ=
a. I found him at work in his rooms, and at once conceded from the specimen=
s 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 h=
as crystallized in clay and will one day mirror in marble those nightmares =
and fantasies which Arthur Machen evokes in prose, and Clark Ashton Smith m=
akes visible in verse and in painting.
+
+Dark, frail, and somewhat unkempt in aspect, he turned languidly at my kno=
ck and asked me my business without rising. When I told him who I was, he d=
isplayed some interest; for my uncle had excited his curiosity in probing h=
is 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 statu=
e whose contours almost made me shake with the potency of its black suggest=
ion. He could not recall having seen the original of this thing except in h=
is 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 delir=
ium. That he really knew nothing of the hidden cult, save from what my uncl=
e=E2=80=99s relentless catechism had let fall, he soon made clear; and agai=
n I strove to think of some way in which he could possibly have received th=
e 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=E2=80=94who=
se geometry, he oddly said, was all wrong=E2=80=94and hear with frightened =
expectancy the ceaseless, half-mental calling from underground: =E2=80=98=
=E2=80=98Cthulhu fhtagn,=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Cthulhu fhtagn=
.=E2=80=99=E2=80=99
+
+These words had formed part of that dread ritual which told of dead Cthulh=
u=E2=80=99s dream-vigil in his stone vault at R=E2=80=99lyeh, and I felt de=
eply moved despite my rational beliefs. Wilcox, I was sure, had heard of th=
e 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 impress=
iveness, 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 unc=
le 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 wil=
ling enough now to admit both his genius and his honesty. I took leave of h=
im 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 raid=
ing-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 re=
ally no more than a detailed confirmation of what my uncle had written, exc=
ited me afresh; for I felt sure that I was on the track of a very real, ver=
y secret, and very ancient religion whose discovery would make me an anthro=
pologist of note. My attitude was still one of absolute materialism, as I w=
ish it still were, and I discounted with almost inexplicable perversity the=
 coincidence of the dream notes and odd cuttings collected by Professor Ang=
ell.
+
+One thing which I began to suspect, and which I now fear I know, is that m=
y uncle=E2=80=99s death was far from natural. He fell on a narrow hill stre=
et leading up from an ancient waterfront swarming with foreign mongrels, af=
ter a careless push from a negro sailor. I did not forget the mixed blood a=
nd marine pursuits of the cult-members in Louisiana, and would not be surpr=
ized to learn of secret methods and poison needles as ruthless and as ancie=
ntly known as the cryptic rites and beliefs. Legrasse and his men, it is tr=
ue, have been let alone; but in Norway a certain seaman who saw things is d=
ead. Might not the deeper inquiries of my uncle after encountering the scul=
ptor's data have come to sinister ears? I think Professor Angell died becau=
se 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 t=
he 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 journa=
l, Sydney Bulletin for April 18, 1925. It had escaped even the cutting bure=
au which had at the time of its issuance been avidly collecting material fo=
r my uncle=E2=80=99s research.
+
+I had largely given over my inquiries into what Professor Angell called th=
e =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Cthulhu Cult,=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 and was visiting a lear=
ned friend of Paterson, New Jersey; the curator of a local museum and a min=
eralogist of note. Examining one day the reserve specimens roughly set on t=
he storage shelves in a rear room of the museum, my eye was caught by an od=
d picture in one of the old papers spread beneath the stones. It was the Sy=
dney 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 swa=
mp.
+
+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 s=
uggested, however, was of portentous significance to my flagging quest; and=
 I carefully tore it out for immediate action. It read as follows:
+
+=3D=3D=3D
+
+MYSTERY DERELICT FOUND AT SEA
+
+Vigilant Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. One Survivo=
r and Dead Man Found Aboard. Tale of Desperate Battle and Deaths at Sea. Re=
scued Seaman Refuses Particulars of Strange Experience. Odd Idol Found in H=
is Possession. Inquiry to Follow.
+
+The Morrison Co.=E2=80=99s freighter Vigilant, bound from Valparaiso, arri=
ved 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=C2=B0 21=E2=80=99, W. Longitude 15=
2=C2=B0 17=E2=80=99, with one living and one dead man aboard.
+
+The Vigilant left Valparaiso March 25th, and on April 2d was driven consid=
erably south of her course by exceptionally heavy storms and monster waves.=
 On April 12th the derelict was sighted; and though apparently deserted, wa=
s 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, abou=
t 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 o=
f piracy and slaughter. He is Gustaf Johansen, a Norwegian of some intellig=
ence, 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 th=
e great storm of March 1st, and on March 22nd, in S. Latitude 49=C2=B0 51=
=E2=80=99, W. Longitude 128=C2=B0 34=E2=80=99, encountered the Alert, manne=
d by a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes. Being ordere=
d peremptorily to turn back, Capt. Collins refused; whereupon the strange c=
rew began to fire savagely and without warning upon the schooner with a pec=
uliarly heavy battery of brass cannon forming part of the yacht=E2=80=99s e=
quipment.
+
+The Emma=E2=80=99s men showed fight, says the survivor, and though the sch=
ooner 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=E2=80=99s deck, and being forced to kill them all, the number being s=
lightly superior, because of their particularly abhorrent and desperate tho=
ugh rather clumsy mode of fighting.
+
+Three of the Emma's men, including Capt. Collins and First Mate Green, wer=
e killed; and the remaining eight under Second Mate Johansen proceeded to n=
avigate 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, althou=
gh none is known to exist in that part of the oceans and six of the men som=
ehow died ashore, though Johansen is queerly reticent about this part of hi=
s story and speaks only of their falling into a rock chasm.
+
+Later, it seems, he and one companion boarded the yacht and tried to manag=
e 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=E2=
=80=99s 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 a=
n island trader, and bore an evil reputation along the waterfront. It was o=
wned by a curious group of half-castes whose frequent meetings and night tr=
ips to the woods attracted no little curiosity; and it had set sail in grea=
t haste just after the storm and earth tremors of March 1st.
+
+Our Auckland correspondent gives the Emma and her crew an excellent reputa=
tion, and Johansen is described as a sober and worthy man.
+
+The admiralty will institute an inquiry on the whole matter beginning tomo=
rrow, at which every effort will be made to induce Johansen to speak more f=
reely than he has done hitherto.
+
+=3D=3D=3D
+
+This was all, together with the picture of the hellish image; but what a t=
rain of ideas it started in my mind! Here were new treasuries of data on th=
e Cthulhu Cult, and evidence that it had strange interests at sea as well a=
s on land. What motive prompted the hybrid crew to order back the Emma as t=
hey sailed about with their hideous idol? What was the unknown island on wh=
ich six of the Emma=E2=80=99s crew had died, and about which the mate Johan=
sen was so secretive? What had the vice-admiralty=E2=80=99s investigation b=
rought out, and what was known of the noxious cult in Dunedin? And most mar=
velous of all, what deep and more than natural linkage of dates was this wh=
ich gave a malign and now undeniable significance to the various turns of e=
vents so carefully noted by my uncle?
+
+March 1st=E2=80=94our February 28th according to the International Date Li=
ne=E2=80=94the earthquake and storm had come. From Dunedin the Alert and he=
r 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 stran=
ge, 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 sensit=
ive men assumed a heightened vividness and darkened with dread of a giant m=
onster=E2=80=99s malign pursuit, whilst an architect had gone mad and a scu=
lptor had lapsed suddenly into delirium! And what of this storm of April 2n=
d=E2=80=94the date on which all dreams of the dank city ceased, and Wilcox =
emerged unharmed from the bondage of strange fever? What of all this=E2=80=
=94and of those hints of old Castro about the sunken, star-born Old Ones an=
d their coming reign; their faithful cult and their mastery of dreams? Was =
I tottering on the brink of cosmic horrors beyond man=E2=80=99s power to he=
ar? If so, they must he horrors of the mind alone, for in some way the seco=
nd of April had put a stop to whatever monstrous menace had begun its siege=
 of mankind=E2=80=99s soul.
+
+THAT evening, after a day of hurried calling and arranging, I bade my host=
 adieu and took a train for San Francisco. In less than a month I was in Du=
nedin; where, however, I found that little was known of the strange cult-me=
mbers 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 tr=
ip 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 w=
hite after a perfunctory and inconclusive questioning at Sydney, and had th=
ereafter sold his cottage in West Street and sailed with his wife to his ol=
d home in Oslo. Of his stirring experience he would tell his friends no mor=
e than he had told the admiralty officials, and all they could do was to gi=
ve me his Oslo address.
+
+After that I went to Sydney and talked profitlessly with seamen and member=
s 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-commi=
ttal 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 unea=
rthly strangeness of material which I had noted in Legrasse=E2=80=99s small=
er specimen. Geologists, the curator told me, had found it a monstrous puzz=
le; 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=
: =E2=80=98=E2=80=98They had come from the stars, and had brought Their ima=
ges with Them.=E2=80=9D=E2=80=99
+
+Shaken with such a mental revolution as I had never before known, I now re=
solved 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 whar=
ves in the shadow of the Egeberg.
+
+Johansen=E2=80=99s address, I discovered, lay in the Old Town of King Haro=
ld Haardrada, which kept alive the name of Oslo during all the centuries th=
at the greater city masqueraded as =E2=80=98=E2=80=98Christiania.=E2=80=99=
=E2=80=99 I made the brief trip by taxicab, and knocked with palpitant hear=
t at the door of a neat and ancient building with plastered front. A sad-fa=
ced 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=E2=80=94of =E2=80=98=E2=80=98technical mat=
ters=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 as he said=E2=80=94written in English, evidently in =
order to safeguard her from the peril of casual perusal. During a walk thro=
ugh 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 hi=
m to his feet, but before the ambulance could reach him he was dead. Physic=
ians 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; =E2=80=98=E2=80=98accidentally=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 =
or otherwise. Persuading the widow that my connection with her husband=E2=
=80=99s =E2=80=98=E2=80=98technical matters=E2=80=99=E2=80=99 was sufficien=
t to entitle me to his manuscript, I bore the document away and began to re=
ad it on the London boat.
+
+It was a simple, rambling thing=E2=80=94a naive sailor=E2=80=99s effort at=
 a post-facto diary=E2=80=94and 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 th=
e water against the vessel=E2=80=99s 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 a=
nd the Thing, but I shall never sleep calmly again when I think of the horr=
ors that lurk ceaselessly behind life in time and in space, and of those un=
hallowed blasphemies from elder stars which dream beneath the sea, known an=
d favored by a nightmare cult ready and eager to loose them on the world wh=
enever another earthquake shall heave their monstrous stone city again to t=
he sun and air.
+
+JOHANSEN=E2=80=99s voyage had begun just as he told it to the vice-admiral=
ty. The Emma, in ballast, had cleared Auckland on February 20th, and had fe=
lt the full force of that earthquake-born tempest which must have heaved up=
 from the sea-bottom the horrors that filled men=E2=80=99s dreams. Once mor=
e under control, the ship was making good progress when held up by the Aler=
t on March 22nd, and I could feel the mate=E2=80=99s regret as he wrote of =
her bombardment and sinking. Of the swarthy cult-fiends on the Alert he spe=
aks with significant horror. There was some peculiarly abominable quality a=
bout them which made their destruction seem almost a duty, and Johansen sho=
ws ingenuous wonder at the charge of ruthlessness brought against his party=
 during the proceedings of the court of inquiry. Then, driven ahead by curi=
osity in their captured yacht under Johansen=E2=80=99s command, the men sig=
ht a great stone pillar sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47=C2=
=B0 9=E2=80=99, W. Longitude 126=C2=B0 43=E2=80=99 come upon a coastline of=
 mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less t=
han the tangible substance of earth=E2=80=99s supreme terror=E2=80=94the ni=
ghtmare corpse-city of R=E2=80=99lyeh, that was built in measureless eons b=
ehind 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 spre=
ad fear to the dreams of the sensitive and called imperiously to the faithf=
ul 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 ci=
tadel whereon great Cthulhu was buried, actually emerged from the waters. W=
hen I think of the extent of all that may be brooding down there I almost w=
ish 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 wit=
hout 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 s=
tatues and bas-reliefs with the queer image found in the shrine on the Aler=
t, is poignantly visible in every line of the mate=E2=80=99s frightened des=
cription.
+
+Without knowing what futurism is like, Johansen achieved something very cl=
ose 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 ang=
les and stone surfaces=E2=80=94surfaces too great to belong to anything rig=
ht or proper for this earth, and impious with horrible images and hieroglyp=
hs. I mention his talk about angles because it suggests something Wilcox ha=
d told me of his awful dreams. He had said that the geometry of the dream-p=
lace he saw was abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of sphere=
s and dimensions apart from ours. Now an unlettered seaman felt the same th=
ing whilst gazing at the terrible reality.
+
+Johansen and his men landed at a sloping mud-bank on this monstrous Acropo=
lis, and clambered slipperily up over titan oozy blocks which could have be=
en 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 firs=
t 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 h=
ad he not feared the scorn of the others, and it was only half-heartedly th=
at they searched=E2=80=94vainly, as it proved=E2=80=94for some portable sou=
venir to bear away.
+
+It was Rodriguez the Portuguese who climbed up the foot of the monolith an=
d 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 wa=
s a door because of the ornate lintel, threshold, and jambs around it, thou=
gh they could not decide whether it lay flat like a trapdoor or slantwise l=
ike 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 fantasma=
lly 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=E2=80=94=
that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not after all horizont=
al=E2=80=94and the men wondered how any door in the universe could be so va=
st. 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 rejoi=
ned his fellows, and everyone watched the queer recession of the monstrousl=
y carven portal. In this fantasy of prismatic distortion it moved anomalous=
ly in a diagonal way, so that all the rules of matter and perspective seeme=
d 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 wal=
ls 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 arisin=
g from the newly opened depths was intolerable, and at length the quick-ear=
ed Hawkins thought he heard a nasty, slopping sound down there. Everyone li=
stened, and everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into=
 sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the bl=
ack doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness.
+
+Poor Johansen=E2=80=99s 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=E2=80=94the=
re 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 architec=
t went mad, and poor Wilcox raved with fever in that telepathic instant? Th=
e Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to c=
laim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had fail=
ed 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 deli=
ght.
+
+Three men were swept up by the flabby claws before anybody turned. God res=
t them, if there be any rest in the universe. They were Donovan, Guerrera a=
nd Angstrom. Parker slipped as the other three were plunging frenziedly ove=
r endless vistas of green-crusted rock to the boat, and Johansen swears he =
was swallowed up by an angle of masonry which shouldn=E2=80=99t have been t=
here; an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse. So only B=
riden and Johansen reached the boat, and pulled desperately for the Alert a=
s the mountainous monstrosity flopped down the slimy stones and hesitated f=
loundering 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 fever=
ish rushing up and down between wheels and engines to get the Alert under w=
ay. Slowly, amidst the distorted horrors of that indescribable scene, she b=
egan to churn the lethal waters; whilst on the masonry of that charnel shor=
e that was not of earth the titan Thing from the stars slavered and gibbere=
d like Polypheme cursing the fleeing ship of Odysseus. Then, bolder than th=
e 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 de=
ath found him one night in the cabin whilst Johansen was wandering deliriou=
sly.
+
+But Johansen had not given out yet. Knowing that the Thing could surely ov=
ertake the Alert until steam was fully up, he resolved on a desperate chanc=
e; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran lightning-like on deck and r=
eversed the wheel. There was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome br=
ine, and as the steam mounted higher and higher the brave Norwegian drove h=
is vessel head on against the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean f=
roth 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 dr=
ove 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 befoule=
d by an acrid and blinding green cloud, and then there was only a venomous =
seething astern; where=E2=80=94God in heaven!=E2=80=94the scattered plastic=
ity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously recombining in its hateful or=
iginal form, whilst its distance widened every second as the Alert gained i=
mpetus 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 b=
y 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 sen=
se of spectral whirling through liquid gulfs of infinity, of dizzying rides=
 through reeling universes on a comet=E2=80=99s tail, and of hysterical plu=
nges 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=E2=80=94the Vigilant, the vice-admiralty cou=
rt, the streets of Dunedin, and the long voyage back home to the old house =
by the Egeberg. He could not tell=E2=80=94they would think him mad. He woul=
d write of what he knew before death came, but his wife must not guess. Dea=
th 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 besi=
de the bas-relief and the papers of Professor Angell. With it shall go this=
 record of mine=E2=80=94this test of my own sanity, wherein is pieced toget=
her that which I hope may never be pieced together again. I have looked upo=
n 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 no=
t 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 ha=
s shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once mo=
re, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his mi=
nisters on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoli=
ths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst withi=
n 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 m=
ay rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over=
 the tottering cities of men. A time will come=E2=80=94but I must not and c=
an not think! Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my exe=
cutors may put caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye.
--=20
2.32.0