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- Говард Лавкрафт
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- Стр. 22/38
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The
arabesque
tracery
consisted
altogether
of
depressed
lines
,
whose
depth
on
unweathered
walls
varied
from
one
to
two
inches
.
When
cartouches
with
dot
groups
appeared
--
evidently
as
inscriptions
in
some
unknown
and
primordial
language
and
alphabet
--
the
depression
of
the
smooth
surface
was
perhaps
an
inch
and
a
half
,
and
of
the
dots
perhaps
a
half
inch
more
.
The
pictorial
bands
were
in
countersunk
low
relief
,
their
background
being
depressed
about
two
inches
from
the
original
wall
surface
.
In
some
specimens
marks
of
a
former
coloration
could
be
detected
,
though
for
the
most
part
the
untold
aeons
had
disintegrated
and
banished
any
pigments
which
may
have
been
applied
.
The
more
one
studied
the
marvelous
technique
,
the
more
one
admired
the
things
.
Beneath
their
strict
conventionalization
one
could
grasp
the
minute
and
accurate
observation
and
graphic
skill
of
the
artists
;
and
indeed
,
the
very
conventions
themselves
served
to
symbolize
and
accentuate
the
real
essence
or
vital
differentiation
of
every
object
delineated
.
We
felt
,
too
,
that
besides
these
recognizable
excellences
there
were
others
lurking
beyond
the
reach
of
our
perceptions
.
Certain
touches
here
and
there
gave
vague
hints
of
latent
symbols
and
stimuli
which
another
mental
and
emotional
background
,
and
a
fuller
or
different
sensory
equipment
,
might
have
made
of
profound
and
poignant
significance
to
us
.
The
subject
matter
of
the
sculptures
obviously
came
from
the
life
of
the
vanished
epoch
of
their
creation
,
and
contained
a
large
proportion
of
evident
history
.
It
is
this
abnormal
historic-mindedness
of
the
primal
race
--
a
chance
circumstance
operating
,
through
coincidence
,
miraculously
in
our
favor
--
which
made
the
carvings
so
awesomely
informative
to
us
,
and
which
caused
us
to
place
their
photography
and
transcription
above
all
other
considerations
.
In
certain
rooms
the
dominant
arrangement
was
varied
by
the
presence
of
maps
,
astronomical
charts
,
and
other
scientific
designs
of
an
enlarged
scale
--
these
things
giving
a
naive
and
terrible
corroboration
to
what
we
gathered
from
the
pictorial
friezes
and
dadoes
.
In
hinting
at
what
the
whole
revealed
,
I
can
only
hope
that
my
account
will
not
arouse
a
curiosity
greater
than
sane
caution
on
the
part
of
those
who
believe
me
at
all
.
It
would
be
tragic
if
any
were
to
be
allured
to
that
realm
of
death
and
horror
by
the
very
warning
meant
to
discourage
them
.
Interrupting
these
sculptured
walls
were
high
windows
and
massive
twelve-foot
doorways
;
both
now
and
then
retaining
the
petrified
wooden
planks
--
elaborately
carved
and
polished
--
of
the
actual
shutters
and
doors
.
All
metal
fixtures
had
long
ago
vanished
,
but
some
of
the
doors
remained
in
place
and
had
to
be
forced
aside
as
we
progressed
from
room
to
room
.
Window
frames
with
odd
transparent
panes
--
mostly
elliptical
--
survived
here
and
there
,
though
in
no
considerable
quantity
.
There
were
also
frequent
niches
of
great
magnitude
,
generally
empty
,
but
once
in
a
while
containing
some
bizarre
object
carved
from
green
soapstone
which
was
either
broken
or
perhaps
held
too
inferior
to
warrant
removal
.
Other
apertures
were
undoubtedly
connected
with
bygone
mechanical
facilities
--
heating
,
lighting
,
and
the
like
--
of
a
sort
suggested
in
many
of
the
carvings
.
Ceilings
tended
to
be
plain
,
but
had
sometimes
been
inlaid
with
green
soapstone
or
other
tiles
,
mostly
fallen
now
.
Floors
were
also
paved
with
such
tiles
,
though
plain
stonework
predominated
.
As
I
have
said
,
all
furniture
and
other
movables
were
absent
;
but
the
sculptures
gave
a
clear
idea
of
the
strange
devices
which
had
once
filled
these
tomblike
,
echoing
rooms
.
Above
the
glacial
sheet
the
floors
were
generally
thick
with
detritus
,
litter
,
and
debris
,
but
farther
down
this
condition
decreased
.
In
some
of
the
lower
chambers
and
corridors
there
was
little
more
than
gritty
dust
or
ancient
incrustations
,
while
occasional
areas
had
an
uncanny
air
of
newly
swept
immaculateness
.
Of
course
,
where
rifts
or
collapses
had
occurred
,
the
lower
levels
were
as
littered
as
the
upper
ones
.
A
central
court
--
as
in
other
structures
we
had
seen
from
the
air
--
saved
the
inner
regions
from
total
darkness
;
so
that
we
seldom
had
to
use
our
electric
torches
in
the
upper
rooms
except
when
studying
sculptured
details
.
Below
the
ice
cap
,
however
,
the
twilight
deepened
;
and
in
many
parts
of
the
tangled
ground
level
there
was
an
approach
to
absolute
blackness
.
To
form
even
a
rudimentary
idea
of
our
thoughts
and
feelings
as
we
penetrated
this
aeon-silent
maze
of
unhuman
masonry
,
one
must
correlate
a
hopelessly
bewildering
chaos
of
fugitive
moods
,
memories
,
and
impressions
.
The
sheer
appalling
antiquity
and
lethal
desolation
of
the
place
were
enough
to
overwhelm
almost
any
sensitive
person
,
but
added
to
these
elements
were
the
recent
unexplained
horror
at
the
camp
,
and
the
revelations
all
too
soon
effected
by
the
terrible
mural
sculptures
around
us
.
The
moment
we
came
upon
a
perfect
section
of
carving
,
where
no
ambiguity
of
interpretation
could
exist
,
it
took
only
a
brief
study
to
give
us
the
hideous
truth
--
a
truth
which
it
would
be
naive
to
claim
Danforth
and
I
had
not
independently
suspected
before
,
though
we
had
carefully
refrained
from
even
hinting
it
to
each
other
.
There
could
now
be
no
further
merciful
doubt
about
the
nature
of
the
beings
which
had
built
and
inhabited
this
monstrous
dead
city
millions
of
years
ago
,
when
man
's
ancestors
were
primitive
archaic
mammals
,
and
vast
dinosaurs
roamed
the
tropical
steppes
of
Europe
and
Asia
.
We
had
previously
clung
to
a
desperate
alternative
and
insisted
--
each
to
himself
--
that
the
omnipresence
of
the
five-pointed
motifs
meant
only
some
cultural
or
religious
exaltation
of
the
Archaean
natural
object
which
had
so
patently
embodied
the
quality
of
five-pointedness
;
as
the
decorative
motifs
of
Minoan
Crete
exalted
the
sacred
bull
,
those
of
Egypt
the
scarabaeus
,
those
of
Rome
the
wolf
and
the
eagle
,
and
those
of
various
savage
tribes
some
chosen
totem
animal
.
But
this
lone
refuge
was
now
stripped
from
us
,
and
we
were
forced
to
face
definitely
the
reason-shaking
realization
which
the
reader
of
these
pages
has
doubtless
long
ago
anticipated
.
I
can
scarcely
bear
to
write
it
down
in
black
and
white
even
now
,
but
perhaps
that
will
not
be
necessary
.
The
things
once
rearing
and
dwelling
in
this
frightful
masonry
in
the
age
of
dinosaurs
were
not
indeed
dinosaurs
,
but
far
worse
.
Mere
dinosaurs
were
new
and
almost
brainless
objects
--
but
the
builders
of
the
city
were
wise
and
old
,
and
had
left
certain
traces
in
rocks
even
then
laid
down
well
nigh
a
thousand
million
years
--
rocks
laid
down
before
the
true
life
of
earth
had
advanced
beyond
plastic
groups
of
cells
--
rocks
laid
down
before
the
true
life
of
earth
had
existed
at
all
.
They
were
the
makers
and
enslavers
of
that
life
,
and
above
all
doubt
the
originals
of
the
fiendish
elder
myths
which
things
like
the
Pnakotic
Manuscripts
and
the
Necronomicon
affrightedly
hint
about
.
They
were
the
great
"
Old
Ones
"
that
had
filtered
down
from
the
stars
when
earth
was
young
--
the
beings
whose
substance
an
alien
evolution
had
shaped
,
and
whose
powers
were
such
as
this
planet
had
never
bred
.
And
to
think
that
only
the
day
before
,
Danforth
and
I
had
actually
looked
upon
fragments
of
their
millennially
fossilized
substance
,
and
that
poor
Lake
and
his
party
had
seen
their
complete
outlines
.
It
is
of
course
impossible
for
me
to
relate
in
proper
order
the
stages
by
which
we
picked
up
what
we
know
of
that
monstrous
chapter
of
prehuman
life
.
After
the
first
shock
of
the
certain
revelation
,
we
had
to
pause
a
while
to
recuperate
,
and
it
was
fully
three
o'clock
before
we
got
started
on
our
actual
tour
of
systematic
research
.
