Зов Ктулху / The Call of Chulhu

Scott-Elliot’s Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria – книга У. Скотт-Эллиота «Атлантида и исчезнувшая Лемурия»]), and the rest comments on long-surviving secret societies and hidden cults, with references to passages in such mythological and anthropological source-books as Frazer’s Golden Bough[22 - Frazer’s Golden Bough – книга Фрэзера «Золотая ветвь»] and Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe.[23 - Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe – книга мисс Мюррей «Культ ведьм в Западной Европе»] The articles were mainly about mental illness and outbreaks of group folly or mania in the spring of 1925.

The first half of the principal manuscript told a very interesting tale. On March 1st, 1925, a thin, dark young man of neurotic and excited aspect came to Professor Angell bearing the singular clay bas-relief, which was then exceedingly damp and fresh. His card bore the name of Henry Anthony Wilcox,[24 - Henry Anthony Wilcox – Генри Энтони Уилкокс] and my uncle had recognized him as the youngest son of an excellent family slightly known to him, who was studying sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design[25 - Rhode Island School of Design – художественная школа Род-Айленда] and living alone at the Fleur-de-Lys Building[26 - Fleur-de-Lys Building – особняк Флёр-да-Лис] near that institution.

Wilcox was a precocious young genius with great eccentricity, and had from childhood excited attention through the strange stories and odd dreams. He had the habit of relating them. He called himself “psychically hypersensitive[27 - psychically hypersensitive – психически сверхчувствительный]”, but the people of the ancient commercial city treated him as merely “queer.” He had dropped gradually from social visibility, and was now known only to a small group of esthetes from other towns. Even the Providence Art Club,[28 - Providence Art Club – Клуб любителей искусства в Провиденсе] which was trying to preserve its conservatism, had found him quite hopeless.

So, as the professor’s manuscript told, the sculptor abruptly asked to help him identify the hieroglyphics of the bas-relief. He spoke in a dreamy, stilted manner which suggested pose and alienated sympathy; and my uncle showed some sharpness in replying, for the conspicuous freshness of the tablet did not show any relation to archaeology. Young Wilcox’s rejoinder, which impressed my uncle, was of a fantastically poetic nature.