Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred (39 page)

Upon this road are to be encountered at intervals bright yellow wagons enclosed by wooden canopies that serve as the living places of a devious and arrogant people erroneously believed to originate in Egypt, although they have no appearance of the pure-blooded Egyptians presently to be found in Memphis or Alexandria, nor do they resemble the wandering bands of tinkers who derive their name among the common people from the land of the Nile. This degenerate sect call themselves Thugians, which in their tongue signifies the crafty race, and roam throughout the world with impunity. They may be known by the image of a red eye, tipped on its point and standing upright, which they paint upon the fronts of their wagons.

Wherever they go, they earn the reputation of thieves and vagabonds. Having no fixed homes, neither do they possess dedicated professions, but make their living, the men by cutting wood or shaping pots or grinding knives, and the woman by assisting at childbirths and divination with the lines of the palm. At any rate, these are their purported occupations, for it is well-known that the men gain most of their wealth through theft, and the woman through whoring and the inducing of abortions, along with the sale of love philters.

A few among our scholars have speculated that they are the descendants of Cain the accursed, who when marked by God after the murder of his brother was shunned by all creatures; others believe they are the lost tribe of Israel, condemned to wander the world yet never to find a home. It seems a more probable conjecture that they came from the distant east, harried from their place of dwelling by the Greek conqueror Alexander, who led his armies into India and despoiled many uncouth and pagan realms before succumbing to disease. As for their more primal origins, understanding may be found in the seventh book of Herodotus, in which the historian describes a Persian tribe called Sagartians, who fought in the ranks of the great army of Xerxes.

They are hated and shunned in every land, so that even the nameless bands of wanderers seek to slay them whenever they encounter their piss-colored wagons, for they say that the Thugians pretend to be them, and poison the minds of townsfolk against all wayfarers. To avoid the wrath of their foes, the Thugians never make camp for more than a few nights in one place. The road itself is their home, and they obey no laws other than those they have formed.

The men are resolute and bold, with handsome faces and strong bodies, while the women possess a dark beauty. In each traveling band one among them is known as their lord, and to him they give grudging obedience, though in truth they all carry themselves with the haughtiness of noble blood, and offer no more than a guarded acquaintance to those not of their own race. Their children are without playfulness. Even at the age of five years they mimic the distant and appraising looks of their parents, and go about walking rather than running, and silent rather than laughing.

It is an easy matter for a necromancer versed in the arcane arts to gain their sufferance as a travel companion, for the women are ever eager to learn new methods of magic, though they share little of their own knowledge in return. Their interests are of a petty sort, for they value only charms that can be turned to a profit or used to injure their enemies without fear of detection. Though both men and women are fearless in battle, they do not scruple to employ deceit where it suits their purposes.

In their souls is a harsh joy for life but no gentleness or kindness, either toward beasts or men.

When Christian monks or followers of the Prophet on the road in pilgrimage ask about their faith, they pretend that they worship the sun and moon, but if pressed for the details of their beliefs, they cease to speak and turn away with sullen expressions. This is merely a pretense, for no race in this world is so skillful at lies. A traveler who rides and camps with them along the road, and who observes their ways with keen attention, will be able to discern the matter they wish to conceal. In every family wagon they keep a portable shrine made of carved sandalwood, with closed doors that hide its contents. Each night the father makes worship before this shrine, and before the idol it holds, leading his family in chants and prayer. This is done within the wagon, after its entrance has been sealed against the night, by the light of an oil lamp; and his slaves, if he has sufficient wealth to own slaves, remain outside the wagon.

The traveler who has succeeded in gaining a portion of the trust of this strange race, for no outsider can ever gain their complete confidence, will be able to purchase for gold a brief glance within one of these shrines. He will discover that the goddess of these wanderers is an obscene form of Shub-Niggurath, the goat of a thousand young. The Thugians keep numerous goats, which serve them for meat, milk, and cloth, and they value fertility in their women above all other virtues or beauties. They believe that Shub-Niggurath blesses them with abundance both of their livestock and in the number of their children. They venerate the womb and the things that issue from it, and for this reason their female infants are valued as highly as their males. It is their faith that they hold a unique covenant with Shub-Niggurath established in the most ancient times, before the recording of histories, and that for so long as they uphold their part in this bargain, the goddess will favor them with fertility.

The image of Shub-Niggurath kept in their family shrines is not to be seen elsewhere in the known world, though perhaps it is common in the undiscovered land of their origin. It consists of a small stone idol in the shape of a dancing woman, her breasts and vulva exposed. Her hair is ragged, her eyes blaze with fury, and her tongue hangs from her open mouth, which is distorted by a leer of lust. About her neck hangs a long necklace made up of human skulls. Her swollen belly shows that she is pregnant. Men and women touch the belly of this image when they seek to conceive children, and before coupling chant the words
A’ai y’gatu I’il ro’kanah Shub-Niggurath,
which may be translated into our tongue from the language of the Old Ones,
Fulfill thou thy covenant with the crafty race, Shub-Niggurath.
They chant the words but have forgotten their meaning, since' no Thugian understands the tongue of the being they serve.

he young men of the Thugians carry neither sword nor lance, for it is a decree of the covenant established with their obscene dancing goddess that no man of the tribe may shed even one drop of the blood of a foe. Instead, they wear a yellow and white scarf about their heads, or sometimes their necks, knotted in cunning fashion to provide firm grips for the hands, and equipped with a loop that may be used to make an expandable noose. All of their killing of men is done by means of strangulation. They are trained in this method of murder from boyhood, and even the least of them is possessed of uncanny stealth and skill.

The way of the art is this: they approach from behind, cast the scarf around the neck of their prey, and hold it tight until he ceases to struggle; then they thread the end through the loop to make a sliding noose and draw it tight while standing over their fallen foe with their foot against his neck. This posture they maintain until death is certain. Women they do not kill, for it is forbidden by Shub-Niggurath. The women of the tribe suffer no similar constraint, and bear long knives in their girdles, which they employ at the slightest provocation against those who do them injury.

In explanation of this curious prohibition against the shedding of blood, the women of the wagons tell a legend from the beginning of the world. Human children borne in the ever-fertile womb of the goddess were being consumed as quickly as they issued forth by a monstrous demon, preventing the Black Mother from creating the race of man. So vast was the bulk of the demon that when it stood in the midst of the deepest sea, the waters did not rise above its waist. The Mother grew angry at the deaths of her children and used a great sword to battle the demon in the sea, but each time she cut its body, the drops of its blood formed demons similar to itself, though smaller of stature. They contested with her so fiercely that she despaired of ever defeating them.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, she made from it two men, the first of the crafty race. She tore strips from the hem of her garment and gave one to each man, commanding them to strangle each small demon as it issued from the blood of the parent. This task they accomplished with such swiftness and skill that she was able to prevail over the monster with her sword and send it beneath the waves. In gratitude for the help of the two stranglers, the goddess forged a covenant with their tribe, commanding that they slay all those not of their blood in her name, yet never by the sword, only by the noose. In return, she pledged to send them good fortune and perpetual fertility.

So diligently has the crafty race performed their part in the compact, they continue to be a source of terror even in our age of the Prophet. For they have the hellish skill to disguise themselves as the common people of the lands through which they pass, gaining the trust of strangers and allowing them to plot death with impunity. Nor do they kill in passion or those they hate or fear, but coldly and without feeling they slay any who fall under their knotted scarves, making of it a kind of sport and competing with each other to achieve the greatest number of deaths or the most artful murders, all for the honor of their religious faith.

The most important part of the covenant is known as the rite of the companion. On the third day after the birth of a child, a ritual is performed by the Thugians in which the child is pledged to the service of Shub-Niggurath for the remainder of its days of life. By the pattern of this rite a spiritual creature that is an unbodied offspring of the prolific goat is called down and induced to enter the flesh of the infant. Soul of the child and soul of the spiritual creature become united. It is this that most distinctly sets this race apart from other men, for in later years this servant of Shub-Niggurath is always with them and obeys their will in the capacity of a familiar demon; at their command it leaves their flesh and flies to fulfill their errands.

The traveler fortunate enough to have gained the partial trust of this most secretive race, and able to purchase a seat at the rite of the companion, will find himself in a ring with many others around a large fire blazing beneath the stars. All their communal rites and social customs, other than the private nightly worship of the family within the wagon, are performed beneath the open sky. Care is taken to choose a place that is far enough apart from local habitations to prevent discovery. If the terrain permits, a sheltered hollow between low hills is preferred, since this provides a mask for the fire glow.

The father of the child, whether it be a girl or a boy, carries the infant naked in his hands from his wagon. The elders of the race who are passing through the region where the rite is conducted, and who have gathered to assist in its fulfillment, draw close to the fire, and the four most senior among them approach the flames until they stand near enough to touch them, and though it appears that they must be scorched by the heat of the fire, they are not injured or in any way inconvenienced by the blaze.