interview with the town drunkard

'' thar's whar it all begun--that cursed place of wickedness whar the deep water starts ... ol' cap'n obed done it--him that faound aout more'n was good fer him in the saouth sea islands ... told abaout an island east of otaheite whar they was a lot o' stone ruins oldr'n anybody knew anything abaout, kind o' like them on ponape, in the carolines, but with carvin's of faces that looked like the big statues on easter island. they was a little volcanic island near thar, too, whar they was other ruins with diff'rent carvin's--ruins all wore away like they'd ben under the sea onct, an' with picters of awful monsters all over 'em ...

'' the natives araound thar had all the fish they cud ketch, an' sported bracelets an' armlets an' headrigs made aout of a queer kind o' gold an' covered with picters o' monsters just like the ones carved over them ruins on the little island ... nobody cud git aout o' them whar they got all the stuff, an' all the other natives wondered haow they managed to find fish in plenty even when the very next islands had lean pickins. ...

'' it took obed to git the truth aout o' them heathen. i dunt know haow he done it ... finally wormed the story aout o' the chief walakea, they called him. nobody but obed ud ever a believed the old yeller devil, but the cap'n cud read folks like they was a books. ... wal, sir, obed he larnt that they's things on this arth as most folks never heard abaout--an wouldnt believe if they did hear. it seems the kanakys was sacrificin' heaps o' their young men and maidens to some kinds o' god-things that lived under the sea, an' gitten all kinds o' favour in return. ... mebbe they was the kind o' critters as got all the mermaid stories an sech started. ...

'' them things liked human sacrifices. ... what they done to the victems it ain't fer me to say, an' i guess obed wa'nt none to sharp abaout askin; but it was alrigtht with the heathens, ... what the things agreed to give in return was plenty o' fish--they druv'em in from all over the sea--an a few gold-like things naow an' then ...

'' walakea, he shewed obed a lot o' rites and incantations as had to do with the sea-things ... in the end he gave him a funny kind o' thingumajig made aout o' lead or something, that he said ud bring up the fish things from any place in the water whar they might be a nest of 'em. the idee was to drop it daown with the right kind o' prayers an' sech. ''

i: thingumajig at fishingcross-tm.

h.p.lovecraft, the shadow over innsmouth.