The Dunwich horror itself came between Lammas and the equinox in 1928, and Dr Armitage was among those who witnessed its monstrous1 prologue2. He had heard, meanwhile, of Whateley’s grotesque3 trip to Cambridge, and of his frantic4 efforts to borrow or copy from the Necronomicon at the Widener Library. Those efforts had been in vain, since Armitage had issued warnings of the keenest intensity5 to all librarians having charge of the dreaded6 volume. Wilbur had been shockingly nervous at Cambridge; anxious for the book, yet almost equally anxious to get home again, as if he feared the results of being away long.
Early in August the half-expected outcome developed, and in the small hours of the third Dr Armitage was awakened7 suddenly by the wild, fierce cries of the savage8 watchdog on the college campus. Deep and terrible, the snarling9, half-mad growls10 and barks continued; always in mounting volume, but with hideously11 significant pauses. Then there rang out a scream from a wholly different throat — such a scream as roused half the sleepers12 of Arkham and haunted their dreams ever afterwards — such a scream as could come from no being born of earth, or wholly of earth.
Armitage, hastening into some clothing and rushing across the street and lawn to the college buildings, saw that others were ahead of him; and heard the echoes of a burglar-alarm still shrilling13 from the library. An open window showed black and gaping14 in the moonlight. What had come had indeed completed its entrance; for the barking and the screaming, now fast fading into a mixed low growling15 and moaning, proceeded unmistakably from within. Some instinct warned Armitage that what was taking place was not a thing for unfortified eyes to see, so he brushed back the crowd with authority as he unlocked the vestibule door. Among the others he saw Professor Warren Rice and Dr Francis Morgan, men to whom he had told some of his conjectures16 and misgivings17; and these two he motioned to accompany him inside. The inward sounds, except for a watchful18, droning whine19 from the dog, had by this time quite subsided20; but Armitage now perceived with a sudden start that a loud chorus of whippoorwills among the shrubbery had commenced a damnably rhythmical21 piping, as if in unison22 with the last breaths of a dying man.
The building was full of a frightful23 stench which Dr Armitage knew too well, and the three men rushed across the hall to the small genealogical reading-room whence the low whining24 came. For a second nobody dared to turn on the light, then Armitage summoned up his courage and snapped the switch. One of the three — it is not certain which — shrieked25 aloud at what sprawled26 before them among disordered tables and overturned chairs. Professor Rice declares that he wholly lost consciousness for an instant, though he did not stumble or fall.
The thing that lay half-bent on its side in a foetid pool of greenish-yellow ichor and tarry stickiness was almost nine feet tall, and the dog had torn off all the clothing and some of the skin. It was not quite dead, but twitched27 silently and spasmodically while its chest heaved in monstrous unison with the mad piping of the expectant whippoorwills outside. Bits of shoe-leather and fragments of apparel were scattered28 about the room, and just inside the window an empty canvas sack lay where it had evidently been thrown. Near the central desk a revolver had fallen, a dented29 but undischarged cartridge30 later explaining why it had not been fired. The thing itself, however, crowded out all other images at the time. It would be trite31 and not wholly accurate to say that no human pen could describe it, but one may properly say that it could not be vividly32 visualized33 by anyone whose ideas of aspect and contour are too closely bound up with the common life-forms of this planet and of the three known dimensions. It was partly human, beyond a doubt, with very manlike hands and head, and the goatish, chinless face had the stamp of the Whateley’s upon it. But the torso and lower parts of the body were teratologically fabulous34, so that only generous clothing could ever have enabled it to walk on earth unchallenged or uneradicated.
Above the waist it was semi-anthropomorphic; though its chest, where the dog’s rending35 paws still rested watchfully36, had the leathery, reticulated hide of a crocodile or alligator37. The back was piebald with yellow and black, and dimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes. Below the waist, though, it was the worst; for here all human resemblance left off and sheer phantasy began. The skin was thickly covered with coarse black fur, and from the abdomen38 a score of long greenish-grey tentacles39 with red sucking mouths protruded40 limply.
Their arrangement was odd, and seemed to follow the symmetries of some cosmic geometry unknown to earth or the solar system. On each of the hips41, deep set in a kind of pinkish, ciliated orbit, was what seemed to be a rudimentary eye; whilst in lieu of a tail there depended a kind of trunk or feeler with purple annular42 markings, and with many evidences of being an undeveloped mouth or throat. The limbs, save for their black fur, roughly resembled the hind43 legs of prehistoric44 earth’s giant saurians, and terminated in ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves nor claws. When the thing breathed, its tail and tentacles rhythmically45 changed colour, as if from some circulatory cause normal to the non-human greenish tinge46, whilst in the tail it was manifest as a yellowish appearance which alternated with a sickly grayish-white in the spaces between the purple rings. Of genuine blood there was none; only the foetid greenish-yellow ichor which trickled47 along the painted floor beyond the radius48 of the stickiness, and left a curious discoloration behind it.
As the presence of the three men seemed to rouse the dying thing, it began to mumble49 without turning or raising its head. Dr Armitage made no written record of its mouthings, but asserts confidently that nothing in English was uttered. At first the syllables50 defied all correlation51 with any speech of earth, but towards the last there came some disjointed fragments evidently taken from the Necronomicon, that monstrous blasphemy52 in quest of which the thing had perished. These fragments, as Armitage recalls them, ran something like ‘N’gai, n’gha’ghaa, bugg-shoggog, y’hah: Yog–Sothoth, Yog–Sothoth . . . ’ They trailed off into nothingness as the whippoorwills shrieked in rhythmical crescendos of unholy anticipation53.
Then came a halt in the gasping54, and the dog raised its head in a long, lugubrious55 howl. A change came over the yellow, goatish face of the prostrate56 thing, and the great black eyes fell in appallingly57. Outside the window the shrilling of the whippoorwills had suddenly ceased, and above the murmurs58 of the gathering59 crowd there came the sound of a panic-struck whirring and fluttering. Against the moon vast clouds of feathery watchers rose and raced from sight, frantic at that which they had sought for prey60.
All at once the dog started up abruptly61, gave a frightened bark, and leaped nervously62 out of the window by which it had entered. A cry rose from the crowd, and Dr Armitage shouted to the men outside that no one must be admitted till the police or medical examiner came. He was thankful that the windows were just too high to permit of peering in, and drew the dark curtains carefully down over each one. By this time two policemen had arrived; and Dr Morgan, meeting them in the vestibule, was urging them for their own sakes to postpone63 entrance to the stench-filled reading-room till the examiner came and the prostrate thing could be covered up.
Meanwhile frightful changes were taking place on the floor. One need not describe the kind and rate of shrinkage and disintegration64 that occurred before the eyes of Dr Armitage and Professor Rice; but it is permissible65 to say that, aside from the external appearance of face and hands, the really human element in Wilbur Whateley must have been very small. When the medical examiner came, there was only a sticky whitish mass on the painted boards, and the monstrous odour had nearly disappeared. Apparently66 Whateley had had no skull67 or bony skeleton; at least, in any true or stable sense. He had taken somewhat after his unknown father.
1 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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2 prologue | |
n.开场白,序言;开端,序幕 | |
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3 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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4 frantic | |
adj.狂乱的,错乱的,激昂的 | |
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5 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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6 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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7 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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8 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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9 snarling | |
v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的现在分词 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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10 growls | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的第三人称单数 );低声咆哮着说 | |
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11 hideously | |
adv.可怕地,非常讨厌地 | |
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12 sleepers | |
n.卧铺(通常以复数形式出现);卧车( sleeper的名词复数 );轨枕;睡觉(呈某种状态)的人;小耳环 | |
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13 shrilling | |
(声音)尖锐的,刺耳的,高频率的( shrill的现在分词 ); 凄厉 | |
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14 gaping | |
adj.口的;张口的;敞口的;多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 );张开,张大 | |
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15 growling | |
n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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16 conjectures | |
推测,猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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17 misgivings | |
n.疑虑,担忧,害怕;疑虑,担心,恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 );疑惧 | |
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18 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
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19 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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20 subsided | |
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的过去式和过去分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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21 rhythmical | |
adj.有节奏的,有韵律的 | |
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22 unison | |
n.步调一致,行动一致 | |
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23 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
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24 whining | |
n. 抱怨,牢骚 v. 哭诉,发牢骚 | |
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25 shrieked | |
v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 sprawled | |
v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词);蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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27 twitched | |
vt.& vi.(使)抽动,(使)颤动(twitch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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28 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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29 dented | |
v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 );损害;伤害;挫伤(信心、名誉等) | |
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30 cartridge | |
n.弹壳,弹药筒;(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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31 trite | |
adj.陈腐的 | |
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32 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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33 visualized | |
直观的,直视的 | |
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34 fabulous | |
adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的 | |
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35 rending | |
v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 );分裂;(因愤怒、痛苦等而)揪扯(衣服或头发等);(声音等)刺破 | |
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36 watchfully | |
警惕地,留心地 | |
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37 alligator | |
n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼) | |
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38 abdomen | |
n.腹,下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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39 tentacles | |
n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 );触角;触须;触毛 | |
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40 protruded | |
v.(使某物)伸出,(使某物)突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 hips | |
abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯,耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 );[建筑学]屋脊;臀围(尺寸);臀部…的 | |
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42 annular | |
adj.环状的 | |
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43 hind | |
adj.后面的,后部的 | |
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44 prehistoric | |
adj.(有记载的)历史以前的,史前的,古老的 | |
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45 rhythmically | |
adv.有节奏地 | |
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46 tinge | |
vt.(较淡)着色于,染色;使带有…气息;n.淡淡色彩,些微的气息 | |
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47 trickled | |
v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 );淌;使)慢慢走;缓慢移动 | |
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48 radius | |
n.半径,半径范围;有效航程,范围,界限 | |
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49 mumble | |
n./v.喃喃而语,咕哝 | |
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50 syllables | |
n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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51 correlation | |
n.相互关系,相关,关连 | |
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52 blasphemy | |
n.亵渎,渎神 | |
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53 anticipation | |
n.预期,预料,期望 | |
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54 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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55 lugubrious | |
adj.悲哀的,忧郁的 | |
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56 prostrate | |
v.拜倒,平卧,衰竭;adj.拜倒的,平卧的,衰竭的 | |
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57 appallingly | |
毛骨悚然地 | |
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58 murmurs | |
n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 );低语声;怨言;嘀咕 | |
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59 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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60 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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61 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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62 nervously | |
adv.神情激动地,不安地 | |
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63 postpone | |
v.延期,推迟 | |
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64 disintegration | |
n.分散,解体 | |
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65 permissible | |
adj.可允许的,许可的 | |
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66 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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67 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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