The Prophet’s Lot (Necronomicon Book 4, V-VI)

The Prophet’s Lot

(Being Book Four, Chapters V and VI of the Necronomicon)

Transcription & Research by Luis G. Abbadie

To Lin Carter

Lin Carter, Master Scribe

Preliminary Note: After four attempts at submitting the following to various publishers, I have concluded that it is too difficult a piece to place in any kind of book, journal or magazine, so here it is made available to everyone (in one instance, an editor who has previously printed stories that outdo Lin Carter’s “which Old One is whose’s cousin in Cthulhu Mythos" at his worst; in another, an editor who is also an acknowledged Necronomicon practitioner said to be unable to finish reading it due to finding the dark miasma raised by the text unbearable; with that, I realized this was the best course of action). 

“Alhazred’s fourth book describes how the followers of the prophet Kish fled from Sarnath before its destruction, bearing the star-stones as a means of protection given them by the Elder Gods”

–Lin Carter, “The Horror in the Gallery”

Much has been speculated about the preceding quote, where Lin Carter hints at the contents of the Fourth Book of the Necronomicon, “The Book of Dismissals”. It is well known that Carter passed away leaving unfinished the daunting task he had set himself of rendering the text of Dr. John Dee’s Necronomicon in more understandable English for the sake of modern readers and researchers. He managed to transcribe the Third Book, or “Book of the Gates”, nearly in its entirety, and left us large portions of the First and Second Books, as well as the first three chapters of the aforementioned Fourth Book.

At last, the full account of the pilgrimage of the prophet Kish and his followers may be known, to the delight of pseudoepigraphers and necronomers everywhere. The full account contained in the preceding chapters is easily available with Lin Carter’s translation (1). As it may be known to some, my own interest is not only as research but also literary, so the more academically-oriented reader will indulge me as I suggest, for the reader who may have come upon these pages due to their interest in Lovecraftian literature, that for the greatest enjoyment of the following narrative it would be convenient to first read H.P. Lovecraft’s fictionalized version of the legend “TheDoom That Came To Sarnath”; then, Book IV, Chapters I-III of Lin Carter’s rendering of the Necronomicon, and then the following texts.

However, for those already familiar with said texts, or who may not have them at hand, I’ll briefly summarize how the people of Sarnath were led by the prophet Kish to besiege the pre-human neighboring city of Ib, whose strange inhabitants were suspect of having abducted human children for unguessable purposes, and when the primal city was burned, and its inhabitants slaughtered, Kish pointed out the blood-stained feet of the statue of their deity Bokrug as further proof of their crimes. The account continues thus… (2)   

V. Concerning the Elder Prophet (3)

Thereafter did Kish vanish from the knowledge of men and it was said that he was Taken by them he worshipped, but whether to Celaeno or to Betelgeuse no man knoweth; and for a thousand years thereafter did Sarnath wax in great glory among the cities of Mnar, and in their pride and valor did the Kings of Sarnath make mock of the abomination Bokrug, mayhap to the angering of That which hid behind the name thereof. But in the reign of Nargis-Hei there appeared among men of the land of Mnar one who claimed to be Kish come again, and who preached of an impending and disastrous conjunction of the Planets foreboding ill to Sarnath and the men thereof, and who sware the omens warned that the Vengeance of Ib was upon them; but of the men of Sarnath there were but few vwho hearkened to Kish in these latter days and many that made mock of him, to their undoing.

Of the Doom that Came to Sarnath the Cylinders of Kadatheron are silent; of the Vengeance of Ib the Papyrus of Ilarnek sayeth naught. But it is written in the Testament of Kish that in the last days of Nargis-Hei there befell that whereof the Elder Prophet had spake in warning, and that the priest Gnai-Kah was the first to see certain unseemly Shadows drifting down from the gibbous Moon above, and certain unwholesome Mists rising up from the dark Thune below; and then that night came down, the morning whereof the men of Sarnath saw never, for that none lived to see the dawn.

-Lin Carter; The Dee Necronomicon, Book IV, Chapter III: “Of Ib, and the Vengeance thereof”

And yet it is best if thou think carefully before making use of any method of Dismissal, (4) powerful though it mayest be, for the memory of Those that rise from inhuman Bloodlines that run between the Spheres is lasting, as is their lifespan, and thou shouldst do well not to mistake their patience with forgetfulness; while Those from Betelgeuse are indeed forgetful, and much given to rest and fancies in Their unguessable abodes even as Those that lie in wait are ever alert, and gnawing at Their bonds. Indeed, some Gods should Themselves do well to be mindful of That which They have left unattended.

Now of the fate of the Prophet Kish after his pilgrimage with his followers beyond the land of Mnar there is but little that the Cylinders of Kadatheron disclose on this matter; but it is in the very Testament of Kish that the journey of the Elder Prophet and his sect is narrated, in the last Book, which was written after the second Ascension of Kish.

Indeed, one Sabash-Moh who claimed to being a disciple of the Elder Prophet narrates the journey, starting with the time when Kish, foretelling terrible Vengeance which would be invited by the imminent celebrations of Sarnath’s thousand-year-old destruction of the ciy of Ib by the lake of Thune and of its inhabitants, gathered his followers and their families and in the night, they stole away from the city, like thieves fearful of discovery; much did I wonder at this, for why should they fear discovery from the inhabitants of Sarnath and of its ruler Nargis-Hei? Yet steal away they did, bringing their women and children, under Kish’s severe admonition that, whatsoever might transpire or be overheard by them, they should avoid staring fixedly at the Moon.

The spires and temples of Sarnath were still clearly cut against the farthest mountains beyond the lake on the horizon when the terrible sight of those unwholesome shapes and shadows descending upon Sarnath were seen by the fleeing pilgrims. Kish cast only the briefest of glances over his shoulder, and the Scribe doth swear that his own heart grew faint when he saw the Prophet pale and his eyes grow wide and moist with unconfessed fear at the sight of the Doom which claimed Sarnath.

The pilgrimage was long, and on the daytime, the followers of Kish advanced as far and fast as they could even under the blasting Sun, but before the dusk approached, they raised their tents and surrounded their encampment with the star-stones which they carried in abundance on carts dragged by tired horses; they were then all anointed by the Prophet with even the waters of Tikkoun, and Kish himself, aided by four acolytes among whom was the very Sabash-Moh, raised a Circle such as Eibon describeth, but wide and ample enough to encompass the encampment itself.

Then the besieging began.

Upon sunset, even as the sky lost all hues and brightness of dusk, the Moon rose like a great pending threat above the pilgrims, and the winds carried strange and aweful Shapes and Shadows that suddenly cried and whispered and sought to snatch Kish and his followers from the encampment. Men and women heard the voices of those of their family that they had left behind in Doomed Sarnath; and some of them didst resist the hands that held them back and ran away after the beckoning voices, seeking to be reunited with their love ones; but there was no reencounter, they were merely swallowed into the darkness without and never seen again. The Scribe telleth of how he watched a mature man, even a fellow priest of Zo-Kalar, turn his face up and stare fixedly at the Moon-lit night, or rather, at whatever shambled therein; until the priest shrieked in horror, covered his face with his hands, and staggered away, then he turned and ran straight into the flames of one of the bonfires, offering himself in mad holocaust.

And thusly did the pilgrimage continue, with the followers of the Elder Prophet pursued by a moon-lit Curse which claimed several of them even as they didst advance In their route South-West-bound from ancient Mnar. (5) And the besieging thereof was not unlike that suffered by the acolytes of Uldar at the hands of the Shubborath and the Lloigornos when they sought to preserve the holy Sphere from the wrath of the Old Ones, as it is written that occurred at the onset of the Cycle of Cthulhu. (6) Until at length they came unto the vale of Hadoth, in the land of Aegypt, wherein the pilgrims settled in the hills of Neb, around a cave in a hillside under instructions of the Prophet Kish, and yet didst the pursuit continue every night, and more and more voices rose in reproach and anger at the Elder Prophet, saying that ‘twould have been best if they had remained in Sarnath to share the Doom thereof, which at the very least lasteth not beyond one full night; others whispered that mayhap the ravenous Shapes that stalked them would be sated if they didst offer Kish himself as a gift of appeasement. There were skirmishes, and discussions, and blood spilt between former brothers over such matters.

And even as this transpired, the Elder Prophet had ordered his followers to dig deeper within the cave in the hillside, and deeper yet, and in the nights, the Kishites took refuge in the growing catacombs. And the star-stones didst bar the entrance to the cave every night, for the Things that prowled outside were impeded to cross beyond the star-shaped talismans of Mnarian stone. And Kish didst assure them again and again that soon they would find that which would release them from the Curse of the Ib-beings.

At length didst they spread a full many fanes that crossed underneath the hill, a veritable Labyrinth the which in later epochs, would be known indeed to Queen Nitocris and to the Black Pharaoh as the Labyrinth of Kish. (7) But the followers of the Elder Prophet were as yet unable to venture outside after twilight. The winding fanes followed a complex map which Kish had traced, and even as they had excavated, he had commanded that they didst collect certain crystalline rocks which abounded in the soil underneath the hills of Neb, and he ordered then that his accompanying priests brought said stones and traced a path throughout certain of the passageways of the Labyrinth, spreading the crystals in a certain pattern which the Scribe states that he didst recognize afterwards, in certain page of the writings of Eibon the which Kish had brought along with him from the library of the temple in Sarnath, as even the three-branched Sign of Eibon of Concealment, which renders the Sorcerer unseen to the creatures that pay obeisance to the Crawling Chaos, such as certain Things which are known to dwell on the Moon’s surface are known to be. 

A version of the Sign of Eibon of Concealment
by Count Manzeppi 

And the Elder Prophet led them in chanting the Elder Rune, and then instructed his people to await without setting foot outside the catacomb, even before sunset; and when the light of day didst disappear beyond the horizon, and darkness fell across the vale of Hadoth, only silence was noticed by fearful ears which expected the hprrible cries and the whispered, ensnaring lies; and no loathsome Shape approached down the entrance of the fanes; and the siege arrived not.

Kish explaineth that the Sign of Eibon had concealed the very cave, since the Labyrinth which they had created didst share the very shape of the concealing Sign, the which always remaineth unseen to certain beings, as well as those who hold it or remain upon its design even as they now did.

And the Kishites didst remain within the fanes for a fortnight, venturing outside only after the elder Prophet announced ‘twould be safe to do so, and settled in a small village among the very hills of Neb, beside the entrance to the Labyrinth of Kish. And they burneth great fires and burned offerings to Those From Glyu-Vho for many generations afterward, until the spreading hordes of the Scorpion King came to claim Hadoth as part of his young empire. 

"Priest of Bokrug", by Mr. Zarono

Of the fate of the Prophet Kish, after his pilgrimage from Sarnath the Doomed to the valley of Hadoth, where he abideth within his labyrinthine crypts, even as his followers, called by historians the Kishites, settled in a village surrounding the entrance to his fane, naught is known. ‘Tis rumored that he may have returned in time to whichever deathless sphere the Elder Gods had snatched him one millennia before, from which he had returned to warn of Sarnath’s impending Doom. Even his disciple Sabash-Moh remains silent upon the matter, although his words doth seem to conceal greater knowledge than he allows his quill to set down. Indeed, he sayeth only that the Elder Prophet summoned his priests to his sanctuary within the Labyrinth, imparted upon them various instructions, and then ceased to be seen, and Shabash-Moh and his brethren told the Kishites that he had returned to his abode among the Elder Gods for another thousand years.

VI. Of the Prophet, and His Lot

Would that the fate of the Elder Prophet were a mystery to me! However, even as I didst read the Testament of Kish, I dreaded to think of what I already knew concerning the ancient sage. For during my apprenticeship with the Saracen Yakthoob I didst learn much that disturbs still my peace of mind; and the story set down by the Scribe Shabash-Moh stirred within my memories those of one terrible night when my former Master bade me accompany him, as well as two other of his disciples, even Ibn Ghazoul of whom I have aforetime writ, and one Abu’l Ghizar. And the three of us followed our teacher down those catacombs within the vale of Hadoth, where the Saracen had gathered his brotherhood of disciples, the which were still known, among certain circles of initiates, as the very Labyrinth of Kish, and as we descended through the crypt-like fane, Yakthoob spake to us of how these were the very catacombs which had once served as refuge to the Elder Prophet who revealed the Sign of the star-stones to men, and that ages afterward, they had been found by the very Black Pharaoh, who had celebrated strange rites within them, in honour of the Black Messenger, the very Nyarlathotep. And thou that hast read my previous Chapter may perchance notice the peculiar contradiction between the statement of Shabash-Moh concerning how Kish rendered the catacombs impervious to the notice of those Beings which serve Nyarlathotep, and my late Master’s statement that Nephren-Ka had once honoured the Crawling Chaos within these very fanes; indeed, therein lies the key to the horror which was presently to be unveiled before us, tho we scarcely suspected this. 

Diagram of the Egyptian labyrinth of fire
within the Mundus Subterraneus (Athanasius Kircher,
1664). There is some debate as to whether Kircher
was inspired in the Egyptian Labyrinth of Kish
(the shape of which, judging from the present
account, might perhaps fit the eleventh design
portrayed herein) or, rather, the
interdimensional Labyrinth of Leng.

When we reached what we then wrongly believed to be the central chamber of the Labyrinth, since our Master later explained that it was but a secondary sanctuary, we found it guarded by engravings and renderings of the blind apes whose meaning and symbolism caused us apprentices much wonder. Yet didst Yakthoob pass them unheedingly, into the chamber. Then was revealed to us one circular temple, with looped crosses in the walls, a terrible statue in the likeness and garb of an Egyptian, all in an ebon hue, and the space which a face should occupy was only a smooth lack thereof, polished like unto a mirror. And we knew beyond any doubt that this was in deed the very sanctum of dread Nyarlathotep.

Thus did we, under the instructions of our Master, trace certain signs upon the floor where some vestige of older tracings there appeareth. He further forbade us from tracing the customary Circle of the Arts, lest the act of Necromancy which we would perform should be rendered ineffective. We then imbibed certain herbs, and stood alongside Yakthoob facing the faceless likeness of the Crawling Chaos. Then Yakthoob covered the oil lamp, effectively plunging us in darkness.

He had further explained to us that he had learned of this method of evoking the very Elder Prophet unto this chamber from an ancient Coptic scroll which had been stolen from the hidden troves of Alexandria as I shall narrate thereof when appropriate. And so, after enforcing the indication that we should, under no circumstance whatsoever, turn around or look behind our shoulder, he intoned a Call unto the Prophet Kish to appear in both flesh and spirit from whichever realm he might now inhabit; and all along the question didst disquiet me within my heart: How could it be that the very Prophet of the Elder Gods who was said to dwell bodily with Them for eternity could be called upon within a sanctuary dedicated to the Faceless Messenger of ultimate Chaos? Yet didst I keep my wondering to myself even as my Master thrice intoned the First Psalm of Nyarlathotep (8) and I joined my voice with those of my fellow disciples in the appropriate responses as Yakthoob had instructed us previously. Then our Master fell silent, and we awaited within the noiseless blackness of the fane underneath the hill, our eyes nervously exploring the lightless chamber. Then didst I seem to perceive the faintest glimmer of reflection somewhere directly in front of us; even as I struggled to discern whether it was a true glint in the midst of the illusory shadow-impressions that seem’d to dance in front of my eyes, a shuffling or dragging sound clearly sounded right behind us. I struggled powerfully not to turn around, minding well the warnings of the Saracen, as new noises didst resound very close at our backs: even what appeared to be a troubled breath, and the movements of a body stirring upon itself; and I was well aware that whatever caused these noises stood between us and the sole exit from the chamber, and that no protective Circle stood between us and whatever now manifested therein.

Again didst I seem to notice a faint glimmer in the darkness before us, and this time it remained longer, allowing me to see the shapes of our heads reflected as if in a smallish mirror, which I then knew to be the reflective surface of the faceless features of the statue before us. The breathing at our backs grew stronger and harsher, as if whomever or whatever stood there found it very difficult to breathe or as if a great effort was being done. And Yakthoob admonished the presence, demanding that it identified itself. And we heard the strong, definite yet uneven voice f a man say, “I am the Elder Prophet.” This was followed by a harsh sound somewhat like a raking blow, and again a faint clarity was reflected in the mirrory facelessness which we faced. The breathing of the presence became further distorted. My Master again commanded from it that it said its name, and the voice replied anew: “I am Kish of Mnar.” The harsh sound repeated itself, and it reminded me unsettlingly of noises I had became familiar with when witnessing tortures in the cities, committed under the whim of rulers.

Yakthoob demanded from it that it revealed the secret fate of the Elder Prophet after his disappearance from these very catacombs; the black mirror revealed yet another reflection, and indeed, before the glimmer disappeared, I was able to discern our heads cut against it; four –no, where those five heads? A prolonged rending sound then came, along with a faint gasping; this time, the noises reminded me uncharacteristically of my own childhood, when I watched with infantile curiosity as the butcher of the humble streets of Bet Durrabia, in the city of Sana’a, (9) performed his work with swift skill. However, the answer which the presence offered to my Master’s demand soon imposed itself over any idle remembrance:

“I didst attempt to return even unto remote Glyu-Vho, yet the way was closed to me because the stars were not in right alignment for me to traverse the Angles unto the worlds beyond this Earth, and as I awaited for the stars and constellations to follow the movement of the seasons and for the start Betelgeuse to rise high above the chaptel of the heavens, my body didst become afflicted with an ailment for which I found no cure; at length, acknowledging that my time approached its long-delayed end, I was at peace, for a thousand years is certainly enough for any man, and I had indeed traversed worlds beyond those dreamed by most. Thusly didst I instruct my most trusted disciples to enclose my body within a sarcophagus here in this very chamber, and lay me to rest, with no word to our people lest their faith should waver, since they saw in me far more than there ever was.

“But in the length of time there came the Black Pharaoh, even the one called Nephren-Ka, powerful in magicks which allowed him to traverse the worlds beyond Earth’s dreamlands even unto those of other worlds, and he conversed with the Moon-Beasts which dwell on the far side of the Moon’s dreamlands, and therein encountered none other than the elder Subboh, the last priest of the Thunn’ha, even those loathly beings who dwelt upon the hated city of Ib by the lake of Thune; for therein had he dwelt since his death among a handful of creatures who had fled the destruction of their city at the hands of my fellow men from Sarnath, for he was elderly and of ill-health, yet a skilled dreamer, and his soul, such as may be the soul of an inhuman creature like a Thunn’ha, found the way to abide within the Dreamlands, even as some human dreamers have been known to attain such destiny on occasion. And ancient Subboh told him of the last days of Ib, of how we from Sarnath shunned and despised his noisome ilk, of how I raised my voice against their blasphemous existence again and again. And Subboh further told the Black Pharaoh of how some children wandered to play not far from the primal city of Ib, and Subboh himself had seen them from his tower wherefrom he studied the paths of the stars, and saw with great alarm how they were approached by a caravan of human enslavers bound toward the yearly harvest festival of Thraa, and he didst send his young aides to help the youngsters and to stop them from being harvested themselves as merchandise for the slave-dealers, but the three Ib-creatures who came out from the city accompanied by four of their hatchet-armed guards were quickly overcome by the more numerous men of the caravan, who slew them in rightful horror and disgust at their bloated visage, then carried the children away, telling them that they had in effect saved their lives from those repulsive creatures and better by far would be a safe life of servitude than to be taken by such horrors.”

We hearken’d to the tale of the summoned presence with increasing marvel and horror, even as the disturbing, wet noises grew ever stronger, and its voice was cut short again and again by gasps and groans. In the glimpses of light reflected on the mirrored blankness shat should be the face of the Faceless God, I counted indeed the contours of five heads, not four, yet one of them appeared to waver, and shook terribly when the glimpse didst coincide with one of the noises.

“Furthermore didst the accurs’d creature that dwelleth on the Moon tell the twice-accurs’d Nephren-Ka of how even I, the prophet Kish, servant of the Elder Gods, had spied by chance the entire episode, for Subboh had witnessed it all with anxiety through one of his telescopes, watching indeed as the enslavers slew its fellow beasts and snatched the children away, and as I rose from my place of hiding behind a nearby cluster of trees where I had been harvesting worts when the caravan approached. But the traitorous creature was careful to reproach my actions; yet what could I have done, a single man, and not a warrior at that, against a band of brigands? And can I be held to blame for redeeming the tragedy somewhat by using it as motivation to rise the inhabitants of Sarnath against their unnatural, inhuman neighbors from the city of Ib, who certainly had no place living in a wholesome, human kingdom? If I said falsely that the beings from Ib had sacrificed our children to their blasphemous lizard-god, I am certain that they must have been already indebted with Sarnath for centuries of secretive offenses and crimes, and the sad fate of the children helped bring their reign of unchecked loathsomeness to an end. That they sacrificed birds at the feet of their idol Bokrug on every full Moon, as I had oft witnessed through my own telescope, served only as confirmation during the raid of their damnable city, as the dry blood on the stone reptile feet served to confirm the apparent fate of the children and to hearten the men from Sarnath that they left not a single Thunn’ha alive. Would that they had indeed slaughtered them all, not allowing the accursed Subboh to escape…”

  The noises grew ever more unsettling, and the voice of the presence became ever weaker, ever more choked, even as it continued its narrative. I barely noticed that the breath of my fellow apprentice, Abu’l Ghizar, also became harsher and faster, out of the anxiety provoked by our situation. And the voice didst continue to speak:

“And after Nephren-Ka had hearken’d to the story of cursed Subboh, he returned from the Moon-plains and at length from the Dreamlands unto the waking world, and soon didst he command the excavation of these half-buried fanes that he well knew, from reading my Testament, were the very Labyrinth which bears my name. And when my tomb was unearthed, the Black Pharaoh entered himself the catacombs, desecrating them and cursing their very walls with rites pertaining to the very Dark Messenger of the Daemon-Sultan, whose Spirit already stained the very soul of Nephren-Ka. And he bade his Scribes to render various Hymns of excecration upon the walls, and to destroy the Sign of Concealment that I had learned from the Hyperborean’s writings and set down in the very shape of my Labyrinth, and at length he came upon my sarcophagus and performed a foul Rite of Necromancy, raising me bodily from my own ashes. And due to the blasphemous nature of the manner in which my body had been reconstructed, combin’d with the very substance of a Being not of this world, he rendereth me unable to summon the bless’d Elder Gods to my aid, aye, for even pronouncing their sacred Names causeth agony beyond endurance upon my entire being, rending my tongue and throat with Their holy syllables. And then didst the Black Pharaoh chastise my offense of having caused the annihilation an entire race of beings faithful to his own darksome Gods, by entrapping me bodily within a secluded cavern underneath the Moon’s surface, with my unnatural, reconstructed body which cannot die and ever reconstitutes itself being eternally rent and eviscerated by equally-undying and tireless tormentors who feed upon my very body and sate their thirst with my blood; and this, unless my tormentors ever turned their attentions for a moment upon another, therefore allowing me the opportunity of escape, was I to suffer for an eternity, at their inhuman hands. As thou may’st well witness their full horror if thou dost but turn around...”

Upon hearing this, my friend Abu’l Ghizar screamed, unable to contain his fear, and turned around even as one of those faint flashes of luminescence traced our shapes in the mirror-like statue and our faint shadows upon the wall, this being a slightly brighter flashing than the preceding ones. Whatever he witnessed very close behind our backs disfigured his features with such horror that quickly rent his mind with madness, as was only too evident from the blind, confounded expression that bloated his eyes. Our Master Yakthoob cried too late an attempted warning, but even as full blackness resumed, my fellow disciple shrieked horribly and pushed past us –or, rather, was dragged in the direction of the voice which we had listened to. Our Master shouted firmly at us: “Do not turn around! Do not turn around!” and we obeyed, shuddering, even as the screams of our friend became wet and choked, and the horrible sound of rending flesh became far louder and fresher.

 Yakthoob swiftly banished what he had summoned, even as the screams of our companion dwindled and the sounds grew fainter, and when at length the Dismissal was complete, Ibn Ghazoul lighted the lamp anew with a flint, and we could at last witness what had befallen the unfortunate Abu’l Ghizar, due to his faintness of heart; for his body was horribly mangled, even as if worried lengthily in the maws of some enormous beast.

Thus is seen the wisdom of the admonition found in the Rituals of Yhe, which the Saracen Yakthoob was fond of quoting, that thou shouldst

be mindful that if thou canst see Them, they mayest then see thee; and if thou canst be seen, thou mayest also be felt, and touched, and if thou art not cautious, thou mayest also be scented.

Notes:

This book includes both Lin Carter's version
and the Sussex Manuscript.

1. Price, Robert M. (ed.) Necronomicon: Selected Stories and Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab.Chaosium, Oakland CA, USA, 1996 

2. Alhazred’s account of the Doom that came to Sarnath is succinct and the convenience of reading H.P. Lovecraft’s detailed version cannot be overemphasized.

3. The account continues from Chapter III, as quoted above. Chapter IV is a digression from the narrative where Alhazred discusses the properties of the star-stones and the Elder Sign, one of the various conflicting texts found within the Alhazredic corpus dealing with this polemical subject matter.

4. Of course, these Chapters are from the Necronomicon’s Book Four, the Book of Dismissals, and the account which occupies us is a literary recourse used by Alhazred to explain both the origins of the star-stones (which Alhazred discussed in Chapter IV), as well as the practical use of various procedures, as will be apparent later on.

5. According to Carter, the land of Mnar was probably situated in northeastern Mesopotamia, where many star-stones have been unearthed. Brian Lumley posits Saudi Arabia instead.   

6. In the Sussex Manuscript, published in the Robert M. Price anthology (op.cit.), a somewhat unclear account of the pilgrimage of the Elder priests of Uldar is reproduced from Wormius’ version of the Necronomicon.

7. The Labyrinth of Kish. This is obviously an etiological myth, attempting to explain the name by which these catacombs were known at some point. Whether Kish was an historical person, or even then, if he ever came to Hadoth in Egypt at all, remains debatable.

8. The Nine Psalms of Nyarlathotep, quoted in various places by Alhazred (most notably the Dho-Hna formula, in the LiberLogaeth fragments as published by Colin Wilson, David Langford and Robert Turner) and long thought lost, have been unearthed by this writer and may be found among the Alhazred translations found in El código secreto del Necronomicón (Rémora, Guadalajara, MX, 2010 / Keli, 2013; these seem to be part of a larger set of ritual texts completed by seven additional Psalms published in Krzysztof Azarewicz's Necronomicon czyli księga umarłego prawa, 2000, but of this I will speak further in a later entry). 

9. Bet Durrabia is mentioned by the translator of the Simon text of the Necronomicon as a “village”; my rendering of this passage seems to indicate that it is a neighborhood in the Yemenite city of Sana’a. Yet another of Dr. John Dee’s various attempts to translate Alhazred’s book working from various fragments has been partly translated by Kent David Kelly as Necronomicon: TheCthulhu Revelations (Wonderland Imprints, 2012, digital edition); there, it is said that Alhazred spent several years of his youth singing near the Eastern gate of the city; this neighborhood might have been called Bet Durrabia in Alhazred’s time. Warlock Asylum posits (“The Meaning of Bet Durrabia AndShabatu”, in the blog Papers in the Attic) a symbolic sense for the name Bet Durrabia: “House where Life Dwells” or “House of Spring”; Alhazred being both a poet, a philosopher and an occultist, and therefore sensitive to the full semiotic potential of words, it is likely that both a literal and a symbolic sense were intended for the place where he lived when he had his first encounters with the lore which would take up his life’s work.