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Dagon

A Dollop of HP专辑

  • I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain
    Since by tonight I shall be no more
    Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug
    Which alone makes life endurable
    I can bear the torture no longer

    And shall cast myself from this garret window
    Into the squalid street below.
    Do not think from my slavery to morphine
    That I am a weakling or a degenerate.
    When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess
    Though never fully realise
    Why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death

    It was in one of the most open
    And least frequented parts of the broad Pacific
    That the packet of which
    I was supercargo fell a victim to the German sea-raider.
    The great war was then at its very beginning
    And the ocean forces of the Hun
    Had not completely sunk to their later degradation
    So that our vessel was made a legitimate prize
    Whilst we of her crew were treated with all the fairness
    And consideration due us as naval prisoners

    So liberal, indeed, was the discipline of our captors
    That five days after we were taken
    I managed to escape alone in a small boat
    With water and provisions for a good length of time
    When I finally found myself adrift and free
    I had but little idea of my surroundings
    Never a competent navigator
    I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars
    That I was somewhat south of the equator

    Of the longitude I knew nothing
    And no island or coast-line was in sight
    The weather kept fair, and for uncounted days
    I drifted aimlessly beneath the scorching sun
    Waiting either for some passing ship
    Or to be cast on the shores of some habitable land
    But neither ship nor land appeared
    And I began to despair in my solitude
    Upon the heaving vastnesses of unbroken blue

    The change happened whilst I slept
    Its details I shall never know; for my slumber
    Though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous.
    When at last I awaked
    It was to discover myself half sucked
    Into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire
    Which extended about me
    In monotonous undulations as far as I could see
    And in which my boat lay grounded some distance away

    Though one might well imagine that my first sensation would be of wonder
    I was in reality more horrified than astonished
    For there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality
    Which chilled me to the very core
    The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish
    And of other less describable things
    Which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain

    Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words
    The unutterable hideousness
    That can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity
    There was nothing within hearing
    And nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime
    The sun was blazing down from a sky
    Which seemed to me almost black in its cloudless cruelty
    As though reflecting the inky marsh beneath my feet

    As I crawled into the stranded boat I realised
    That only one theory could explain my position
    Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval
    A portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface
    Exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years
    Had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths

    So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me
    That I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean
    Strain my ears as I might
    Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things
    For several hours I sat thinking or brooding in the boat
    Which lay upon its side
    And afforded a slight shade as the sun moved across the heavens
    As the day progressed, the ground lost some of its stickiness
    And seemed likely to dry sufficiently
    For travelling purposes in a short time.
    That night I slept but little
    And the next day I made for myself a pack containing food and water

    On the third morning I found the soil dry enough to walk upon with ease
    The odour of the fish was maddening
    But I was too much concerned with graver things to mind so slight an evil
    And set out boldly for an unknown goal
    All day I forged steadily westward
    Guided by a far-away hummock
    Which rose higher than any other elevation on the rolling desert

    That night I encamped
    And on the following day still travelled toward the hummock
    Though that object seemed scarcely nearer than when I had first espied it
    By the fourth evening I attained the base of the mound
    Which turned out to be much higher than it had appeared from a distance
    An intervening valley setting it out in sharper relief from the general surface
    Too weary to ascend, I slept in the shadow of the hill
    I know not why my dreams were so wild that night
    But ere the waning and fantastically gibbous moon
    Had risen far above the eastern plain
    I was awake in a cold perspiration, determined to sleep no more.

    Such visions as I had experienced were too much for me to endure again.
    And in the glow of the moon I saw how unwise I had been to travel by day.
    Without the glare of the parching sun
    My journey would have cost me less energy; indeed
    I now felt quite able to perform the ascent which had deterred me at sunset
    Picking up my pack, I started for the crest of the eminence
    I have said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plain
    Was a source of vague horror to me
    But I think my horror was greater when I gained the summit of the mound
    And looked down the other side into an immeasurable pit
    Whose black recesses the moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine
    I felt myself on the edge of the world
    Peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night

    As the moon climbed higher in the sky
    I began to see that the slopes of the valley
    Were not quite so perpendicular as I had imagined
    Ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded
    Fairly easy foot-holds for a descent
    Whilst after a drop of a few hundred feet
    The declivity became very gradual

    Urged on by an impulse which I cannot definitely analyse
    I scrambled with difficulty down the rocks
    And stood on the gentler slope beneath
    All at once my attention was captured by a vast
    And singular object on the opposite slope
    Which rose steeply about an hundred yards ahead of me
    An object that gleamed whitely
    In the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon

    That it was merely a gigantic piece of stone
    I soon assured myself
    But I was conscious of a distinct impression
    That its contour and position were not altogether the work of Nature
    A closer scrutiny filled me with sensations I cannot express
    For despite its enormous magnitude
    And its position in an abyss which had yawned at the bottom of the sea
    Since the world was young
    I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange object
    Was a well-shaped monolith
    Whose massive bulk had known the workmanship
    And perhaps the worship of living and thinking creatures

    Dazed and frightened
    Yet not without a certain thrill of the scientist’s delight
    I examined my surroundings more closely
    The moon, now near the zenith
    Shone weirdly and vividly above the towering steeps that hemmed in the chasm
    And revealed the fact that a far-flung body of water flowed at the bottom
    Winding out of sight in both directions
    And almost lapping my feet as I stood on the slope
    Across the chasm, the wavelets washed the base of the Cyclopean monolith
    On whose surface I could now trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures
    The writing was in a system of hieroglyphics unknown to me
    And unlike anything I had ever seen in books

    Consisting for the most part of conventionalised aquatic symbols
    Several characters obviously represented marine things
    Which are unknown to the modern world
    But whose decomposing forms I had observed on the ocean-risen plain
    It was the pictorial carving, however
    That did most to hold me spellbound
    Plainly visible across the intervening water
    On account of their enormous size

    I think that these things were supposed to depict men—
    At least a certain sort of men
    Though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes
    In the waters of some marine grotto
    Or paying homage at some monolithic shrine
    Which appeared to be under the waves as well
    Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail
    For the mere remembrance makes me grow faint

    They were damnably human in general outline
    Despite webbed hands and feet
    Shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy
    Bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall
    Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiselled badly
    Out of proportion with their scenic background
    For one of the creatures
    Was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as
    But little larger than himself
    I remarked, as I say, their grotesqueness and strange size
    But in a moment decided that they were merely
    The imaginary gods of some primitive fishing or seafaring tribe
    Awestruck at this unexpected glimpse into a past
    Beyond the conception of the most daring anthropologist
    I stood musing whilst the moon cast queer reflections
    On the silent channel before me

    Then suddenly I saw it
    With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface
    The thing slid into view above the dark waters
    Vast, and loathsome
    It darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith
    About which it flung its gigantic scaly arms
    The while it bowed its hideous head
    And gave vent to certain measured sounds

    I think I went mad then
    Of my frantic ascent of the slope and cliff
    And of my delirious journey back to the stranded boat
    I remember little
    I believe I sang a great deal
    And laughed oddly when I was unable to sing
    I have indistinct recollections of a great storm
    Some time after I reached the boat
    At any rate I know that
    I heard peals of thunder and other tones
    Which Nature utters only in her wildest moods

    When I came out of the shadows I was in a San Francisco hospital
    Brought thither by the captain of the American ship
    Which had picked up my boat in mid-ocean
    In my delirium I had said much
    But found that my words had been given scant attention
    Of any land upheaval in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing
    Nor did I deem it necessary to insist upon a thing
    Which I knew they could not believe
    Once I sought out a celebrated ethnologist
    And amused him with peculiar questions
    Regarding the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon the Fish-God
    But soon perceiving that he was hopelessly conventional
    I did not press my inquiries

    It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning
    That I see the thing. I tried morphine
    But the drug has given only transient surcease
    And has drawn me into its clutches as a hopeless slave
    So now I am to end it all
    Having written a full account for the information
    Or the contemptuous amusement of my fellow-men
    I Often ask myself if it could not all have been a pure phantasm—
    A mere freak of fever as I lay sun-stricken
    And raving in the open boat
    After my escape from the German man-of-war
    This I ask myself
    But ever does there come before me a hideously vivid vision in reply
    I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things
    That may at this very moment
    Be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed

    Worshipping their ancient stone idols
    And carving their own detestable likenesses
    On submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite
    I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows
    To drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny
    War-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink
    And the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium
    The end is near. I hear a noise against the door
    As of some immense slippery body lumbering against it
    It shall not find me.
    God, that hand!
    The window! The window!
  • [00:16.20]I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain
    [00:20.68]Since by tonight I shall be no more
    [00:24.47]Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug
    [00:28.00]Which alone makes life endurable
    [00:30.65]I can bear the torture no longer
    [00:32.44]
    [00:35.88]And shall cast myself from this garret window
    [00:38.50]Into the squalid street below.
    [00:41.79]Do not think from my slavery to morphine
    [00:44.28]That I am a weakling or a degenerate.
    [00:47.57]When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess
    [00:51.16]Though never fully realise
    [00:53.21]Why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death
    [00:59.92]
    [01:01.32]It was in one of the most open
    [01:03.47]And least frequented parts of the broad Pacific
    [01:06.87]That the packet of which
    [01:07.66]I was supercargo fell a victim to the German sea-raider.
    [01:11.95]The great war was then at its very beginning
    [01:15.55]And the ocean forces of the Hun
    [01:17.00]Had not completely sunk to their later degradation
    [01:20.20]So that our vessel was made a legitimate prize
    [01:23.24]Whilst we of her crew were treated with all the fairness
    [01:25.73]And consideration due us as naval prisoners
    [01:28.48]
    [01:29.84]So liberal, indeed, was the discipline of our captors
    [01:33.08]That five days after we were taken
    [01:34.89]I managed to escape alone in a small boat
    [01:38.52]With water and provisions for a good length of time
    [01:42.11]When I finally found myself adrift and free
    [01:46.04]I had but little idea of my surroundings
    [01:51.24]Never a competent navigator
    [01:52.89]I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars
    [01:55.68]That I was somewhat south of the equator
    [01:58.56]
    [01:59.46]Of the longitude I knew nothing
    [02:02.46]And no island or coast-line was in sight
    [02:07.01]The weather kept fair, and for uncounted days
    [02:10.66]I drifted aimlessly beneath the scorching sun
    [02:13.50]Waiting either for some passing ship
    [02:16.24]Or to be cast on the shores of some habitable land
    [02:20.68]But neither ship nor land appeared
    [02:25.82]And I began to despair in my solitude
    [02:28.13]Upon the heaving vastnesses of unbroken blue
    [02:32.89]
    [02:34.28]The change happened whilst I slept
    [02:38.16]Its details I shall never know; for my slumber
    [02:40.60]Though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous.
    [02:44.70]When at last I awaked
    [02:47.03]It was to discover myself half sucked
    [02:49.89]Into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire
    [02:53.77]Which extended about me
    [02:56.02]In monotonous undulations as far as I could see
    [02:59.47]And in which my boat lay grounded some distance away
    [03:03.36]
    [03:07.07]Though one might well imagine that my first sensation would be of wonder
    [03:10.66]I was in reality more horrified than astonished
    [03:16.84]For there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality
    [03:21.83]Which chilled me to the very core
    [03:25.25]The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish
    [03:29.09]And of other less describable things
    [03:32.07]Which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain
    [03:37.36]
    [03:43.83]Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words
    [03:47.01]The unutterable hideousness
    [03:49.00]That can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity
    [03:54.98]There was nothing within hearing
    [03:57.38]And nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime
    [04:06.35]The sun was blazing down from a sky
    [04:09.40]Which seemed to me almost black in its cloudless cruelty
    [04:13.09]As though reflecting the inky marsh beneath my feet
    [04:15.87]
    [04:17.57]As I crawled into the stranded boat I realised
    [04:21.53]That only one theory could explain my position
    [04:24.91]Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval
    [04:27.85]A portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface
    [04:32.63]Exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years
    [04:37.16]Had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths
    [04:40.94]
    [04:42.31]So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me
    [04:46.40]That I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean
    [04:51.68]Strain my ears as I might
    [04:54.57]Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things
    [04:58.40]For several hours I sat thinking or brooding in the boat
    [05:02.04]Which lay upon its side
    [05:03.73]And afforded a slight shade as the sun moved across the heavens
    [05:07.62]As the day progressed, the ground lost some of its stickiness
    [05:13.45]And seemed likely to dry sufficiently
    [05:15.61]For travelling purposes in a short time.
    [05:19.02]That night I slept but little
    [05:22.65]And the next day I made for myself a pack containing food and water
    [05:27.95]
    [05:27.90]On the third morning I found the soil dry enough to walk upon with ease
    [05:32.19]The odour of the fish was maddening
    [05:35.53]But I was too much concerned with graver things to mind so slight an evil
    [05:40.66]And set out boldly for an unknown goal
    [05:46.54]All day I forged steadily westward
    [05:49.58]Guided by a far-away hummock
    [05:51.53]Which rose higher than any other elevation on the rolling desert
    [05:54.63]
    [05:56.47]That night I encamped
    [05:58.56]And on the following day still travelled toward the hummock
    [06:02.66]Though that object seemed scarcely nearer than when I had first espied it
    [06:08.10]By the fourth evening I attained the base of the mound
    [06:12.18]Which turned out to be much higher than it had appeared from a distance
    [06:16.57]An intervening valley setting it out in sharper relief from the general surface
    [06:21.71]Too weary to ascend, I slept in the shadow of the hill
    [06:27.49]I know not why my dreams were so wild that night
    [06:32.33]But ere the waning and fantastically gibbous moon
    [06:36.16]Had risen far above the eastern plain
    [06:39.26]I was awake in a cold perspiration, determined to sleep no more.
    [06:43.10]
    [06:44.90]Such visions as I had experienced were too much for me to endure again.
    [06:49.48]And in the glow of the moon I saw how unwise I had been to travel by day.
    [06:55.28]Without the glare of the parching sun
    [06:57.48]My journey would have cost me less energy; indeed
    [07:02.41]I now felt quite able to perform the ascent which had deterred me at sunset
    [07:07.74]Picking up my pack, I started for the crest of the eminence
    [07:13.23]I have said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plain
    [07:17.02]Was a source of vague horror to me
    [07:19.71]But I think my horror was greater when I gained the summit of the mound
    [07:24.01]And looked down the other side into an immeasurable pit
    [07:30.72]Whose black recesses the moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine
    [07:36.50]I felt myself on the edge of the world
    [07:41.09]Peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night
    [07:45.73]
    [07:47.77]As the moon climbed higher in the sky
    [07:50.88]I began to see that the slopes of the valley
    [07:52.97]Were not quite so perpendicular as I had imagined
    [07:56.06]Ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded
    [08:00.14]Fairly easy foot-holds for a descent
    [08:02.64]Whilst after a drop of a few hundred feet
    [08:06.13]The declivity became very gradual
    [08:08.78]
    [08:09.97]Urged on by an impulse which I cannot definitely analyse
    [08:13.85]I scrambled with difficulty down the rocks
    [08:16.95]And stood on the gentler slope beneath
    [08:22.33]All at once my attention was captured by a vast
    [08:27.16]And singular object on the opposite slope
    [08:30.10]Which rose steeply about an hundred yards ahead of me
    [08:34.08]An object that gleamed whitely
    [08:37.93]In the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon
    [08:41.08]
    [08:42.82]That it was merely a gigantic piece of stone
    [08:47.46]I soon assured myself
    [08:49.81]But I was conscious of a distinct impression
    [08:52.79]That its contour and position were not altogether the work of Nature
    [09:00.27]A closer scrutiny filled me with sensations I cannot express
    [09:05.34]For despite its enormous magnitude
    [09:08.89]And its position in an abyss which had yawned at the bottom of the sea
    [09:13.23]Since the world was young
    [09:15.57]I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange object
    [09:18.72]Was a well-shaped monolith
    [09:20.71]Whose massive bulk had known the workmanship
    [09:23.79]And perhaps the worship of living and thinking creatures
    [09:30.12]
    [09:35.82]Dazed and frightened
    [09:37.96]Yet not without a certain thrill of the scientist’s delight
    [09:41.77]I examined my surroundings more closely
    [09:45.51]The moon, now near the zenith
    [09:48.98]Shone weirdly and vividly above the towering steeps that hemmed in the chasm
    [09:56.04]And revealed the fact that a far-flung body of water flowed at the bottom
    [10:00.53]Winding out of sight in both directions
    [10:03.33]And almost lapping my feet as I stood on the slope
    [10:07.56]Across the chasm, the wavelets washed the base of the Cyclopean monolith
    [10:14.30]On whose surface I could now trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures
    [10:21.70]The writing was in a system of hieroglyphics unknown to me
    [10:25.29]And unlike anything I had ever seen in books
    [10:29.19]
    [10:29.55]Consisting for the most part of conventionalised aquatic symbols
    [10:36.10]Several characters obviously represented marine things
    [10:39.28]Which are unknown to the modern world
    [10:41.73]But whose decomposing forms I had observed on the ocean-risen plain
    [10:50.36]It was the pictorial carving, however
    [10:53.41]That did most to hold me spellbound
    [10:56.10]Plainly visible across the intervening water
    [10:59.31]On account of their enormous size
    [11:01.17]
    [11:03.06]I think that these things were supposed to depict men—
    [11:06.72]At least a certain sort of men
    [11:11.08]Though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes
    [11:14.71]In the waters of some marine grotto
    [11:16.87]Or paying homage at some monolithic shrine
    [11:20.47]Which appeared to be under the waves as well
    [11:24.37]Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail
    [11:29.41]For the mere remembrance makes me grow faint
    [11:34.45]
    [11:35.14]They were damnably human in general outline
    [11:37.79]Despite webbed hands and feet
    [11:39.93]Shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy
    [11:43.78]Bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall
    [11:48.57]Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiselled badly
    [11:52.22]Out of proportion with their scenic background
    [11:55.47]For one of the creatures
    [11:56.41]Was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as
    [12:00.17]But little larger than himself
    [12:02.97]I remarked, as I say, their grotesqueness and strange size
    [12:06.59]But in a moment decided that they were merely
    [12:09.80]The imaginary gods of some primitive fishing or seafaring tribe
    [12:15.20]Awestruck at this unexpected glimpse into a past
    [12:18.50]Beyond the conception of the most daring anthropologist
    [12:23.03]I stood musing whilst the moon cast queer reflections
    [12:28.93]On the silent channel before me
    [12:39.56]
    [12:54.57]Then suddenly I saw it
    [12:58.10]With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface
    [13:02.31]The thing slid into view above the dark waters
    [13:07.11]Vast, and loathsome
    [13:10.36]It darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith
    [13:15.35]About which it flung its gigantic scaly arms
    [13:19.55]The while it bowed its hideous head
    [13:22.69]And gave vent to certain measured sounds
    [13:27.53]
    [13:31.62]I think I went mad then
    [13:40.25]Of my frantic ascent of the slope and cliff
    [13:42.99]And of my delirious journey back to the stranded boat
    [13:47.26]I remember little
    [13:49.37]I believe I sang a great deal
    [13:51.03]And laughed oddly when I was unable to sing
    [13:54.81]I have indistinct recollections of a great storm
    [13:57.79]Some time after I reached the boat
    [14:00.89]At any rate I know that
    [14:02.89]I heard peals of thunder and other tones
    [14:04.89]Which Nature utters only in her wildest moods
    [14:11.63]
    [14:17.87]When I came out of the shadows I was in a San Francisco hospital
    [14:21.70]Brought thither by the captain of the American ship
    [14:25.00]Which had picked up my boat in mid-ocean
    [14:29.33]In my delirium I had said much
    [14:32.37]But found that my words had been given scant attention
    [14:37.01]Of any land upheaval in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing
    [14:41.96]Nor did I deem it necessary to insist upon a thing
    [14:45.70]Which I knew they could not believe
    [14:49.68]Once I sought out a celebrated ethnologist
    [14:53.52]And amused him with peculiar questions
    [14:56.26]Regarding the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon the Fish-God
    [15:03.09]But soon perceiving that he was hopelessly conventional
    [15:07.29]I did not press my inquiries
    [15:09.68]
    [15:12.17]It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning
    [15:17.81]That I see the thing. I tried morphine
    [15:23.00]But the drug has given only transient surcease
    [15:27.94]And has drawn me into its clutches as a hopeless slave
    [15:33.56]So now I am to end it all
    [15:38.75]Having written a full account for the information
    [15:42.35]Or the contemptuous amusement of my fellow-men
    [15:46.64]I Often ask myself if it could not all have been a pure phantasm—
    [15:54.32]A mere freak of fever as I lay sun-stricken
    [15:58.81]And raving in the open boat
    [16:00.57]After my escape from the German man-of-war
    [16:04.80]This I ask myself
    [16:10.43]But ever does there come before me a hideously vivid vision in reply
    [16:16.47]I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things
    [16:22.84]That may at this very moment
    [16:24.99]Be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed
    [16:29.62]
    [16:31.07]Worshipping their ancient stone idols
    [16:34.81]And carving their own detestable likenesses
    [16:39.15]On submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite
    [16:43.67]I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows
    [16:48.97]To drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny
    [16:53.25]War-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink
    [17:01.09]And the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium
    [17:08.21]The end is near. I hear a noise against the door
    [17:15.34]As of some immense slippery body lumbering against it
    [17:18.53]It shall not find me.
    [17:21.27]God, that hand!
    [17:23.42]The window! The window!