RGL e-Book Cover 2019©
RGL e-Book Cover 2019©
Magazine Of Horror', November 1968, with "Memory"
IN the valley of Nis the accursed waning moon shines thinly,
tearing a path for its light with feeble horns through the lethal
foliage of a great uperas-tree. And within the depths of the
valley, where the light reaches not, move forms not meant to be
beheld. Rank is the herbage on each slope, where evil vines and
creeping plants crawl amidst the stones of ruined palaces,
twining tightly about broken columns and strange monoliths, and
heaving up marble pavements laid by forgotten hands. And in trees
that grow gigantic in crumbling courtyards leap little apes,
while in and out of deep treasure-vaults writhe poison serpents
and scaly things without a name. Vast are the stones which sleep
beneath coverlets of dank moss, and mighty were the walls from
which they fell. For all time did their builders erect them, and
in sooth they yet serve nobly, for beneath them the grey toad
makes his habitation.
At the very bottom of the valley lies the river Than, whose waters are slimy and filled with weeds. From hidden springs it rises, and to subterranean grottoes it flows, so that the Demon of the Valley knows not why its waters are red, nor whither they are bound.
The Genie that haunts the moonbeams spake to the Demon of the Valley, saying, "I am old, and forget much. Tell me the deeds and aspect and name of them who built these things of Stone." And the Demon replied, "I am Memory, and am wise in lore of the past, but I too am old. These beings were like the waters of the river Than, not to be understood. Their deeds I recall not, for they were but of the moment. Their aspect I recall dimly, it was like to that of the little apes in the trees. Their name I recall clearly, for it rhymed with that of the river. These beings of yesterday were called Man."
So the Genie flew back to the thin horned moon, and the Demon looked intently at a little ape in a tree that grew in a crumbling courtyard.