cultus aeternus

''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 semetic languages in brown university, providence, rhode island. ... locally, interest was intensified by the obscurity of the cause of death. the professor had been stricken whilst returning from the new-port 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, ...

''as my grand-uncles 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 , ... but there was one box i found exceedingly puzzling, and which i felt averse from shewing to other eyes. for what could be the meaning of the queer clay bas-relief and the disjointed jottings, ramblings, and writings which i found? ... the bas-relief was a rough rectangle less than an inch thick and about five by six inches in area; obviously of modern origins. ... it seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form only a diseased fancy could conceive. ... the writing accompanying this oddity was, aside from a stack of press cuttings, in professor angell's most recent hand; and made no pretence 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. ...

''the matter of the cult still remained to facinate me, and at times i had visions of personal fame from researches into the origins and connexions ... 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. ... one thing i began to suspect, and which i now fear i know, is that my uncle's death was far from natural. ... 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. ...

''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 eyes on a certain stray piece of shelf-paper. ... i had largely given over my inquiries into what professor angell called the "cthulhu cult", and was visiting a learned friend in 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. ... the picture was a half-tone cut of a hideous stone image. ...

''eagerly clearing the sheet of its precious contents, i scanned the item in detail; 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 death at sea. rescued seaman refuses particulars of strange experiance. odd idol found in his possesion inquiry to follow.]

''here were new treasuries of data on the cthulhu cult, ... what was the unknown island on which six of the emma's crew had died, and about which the mate johansen was so secretive? ... i was now resolved to visit mate johansen in oslo ... 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 survived his return, said his wife, for the doings at sea in 1925 had broken him. ... during a walk through a narrow lane near the gothenburg docks, a bundle of papers falling from an attic window had knocked him down. ...

''i now felt gnawing at my vitals that dark terror which will never leave me till i too am at rest; "accidentally" or otherwise. ... 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.''

h.p.lovecraft, the call of cthulhu.