Know, too, that I have spoken with all manner of spirit and daemon, whose names are no longer known in the societies of Man, or were never known. And the seals of these are writ herein ; yet others I must take with me when I leave you. ANU have mercy on my soul!

I have seen the Unknown Lands, that no map has ever charted. I have lived in the deserts and the wastelands, and spoken with demons and the souls of slaughtered men, and of women who have died in childbirth, victims of the she-fiend LAMMASHTA.

I have traveled beneath the Seas, in search of the Palace of Our Master, and found the stone monuments of vanquished civilizations, and de- ciphered the writings of some of these; while still others remain mysteries to any man who lives. And these civilizations were destroyed because of the knowledge contained in this book.

I have raised demons, and the dead.

I have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearance on the tops of temples built to reach the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of HADES. I have wrestled with the Black Magician, AZAG-THOTH, in vain, and fled to the Earth by calling upon INANNA and her brother MARDUK, Lord of the double-headed AXE.

I have raised armies against the Lands of the East, by summoning the hordes of fiends I have made subject unto me, and so doing found NGAA, (Ancient word for Naaga, the Human Serpent in Sumerian Culture), the god of the heathens, who breathes flame and roars like a thousand thunders.

I have found the Gate that leads to the Outside, by which the Ancient Ones, who ever seek the entrance to our world, keep eternal watch. I have smelled the vapors of that Ancient One, Queen of the Outside, whose name is writ in the MAGAN text, the testament of some dead civilization whose priests, seeking power, swing open the dread, evil Gate for an hour past the time and were consumed.

I came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a shepherd in what is called Mesopotamia by the Greeks.

Levitating Rocks

When I was only a youth, traveling alone in the mountains to the East, called MASSHU by the people who live there, I came upon a gray rock carved with three strange symbols. It stood as high as a man, and as wide around as a bull. It was firmly in the ground, and I could not move it. Thinking no more of the carvings, save that they might be the work of a king to mark some Ancient victory over an enemy, I built a fire at its foot to protect me from the from the wolves that wander in that region and went to sleep, for it was night and I was far from my village, being Bet Durrabia.

Presently, I heard a voice, softly, some distance away and a more practical fear, that the possibility of robbers took hold of me and I rolled behind weeds, trembling. Another voice joined the first, and soon several men in black robes of thieves came together over the place where I was, surrounding the floating rock, of which they did not exhibit in the least fright.

I could see clearly now that the three carvings on the stone monument were glowing, a flame red color, as through the rock were on fire. The figures were murmuring together in prayer or invocation, of which only a few words could be heard, and these in some unknown tongue; though, ANU have mercy on my soul!, these rituals are not unknown to me any longer.

The figures, whose faces I could not see or recognize, began to make wild passes in the air with knives that glinted cold and sharp in the mountain night.

From beneath the floating rock, out of the very ground where it had sat, came rising the tail of a serpent. This serpent was surely larger than any I had ever seen. The thinnest section thereof was fully that of the arms of two men, and as it rose from the earth it was followed by another, although the end of the first was not seen as it seemed to reach down into the very Pit itself.

These were followed by still more, and the ground began to tremble under the pressure of so many of these enormous arms. The chanting of the priests, for I knew them now to be some the servants of some hidden Power, became much louder and nearly hysterical.

The ground where I was hiding became wet with some substance, being slightly downhill from the scene I was witnessing. I touched the wetness and found it to be blood. In horror I screamed and gave my presence away to the priests. They turned toward me, and I saw with loathing that they had cut their chests with the daggers, they had used to raise the stone, for some mystical purpose I could not then divine; although I now know that blood is the very food of these spirits, which is why the field after the battles of war glows with an unnatural light, the manifestation of the spirits feeding thereon.

May ANU protect us all!

Rising, I turned to face whatever attacker had come nearest me, though I was unarmed. To my surprise, what I saw was no priest of ancient horror, no necromancer of that forbidden Art, but black robes fallen upon the grass and weeds, with no seeming presence of life or bodies beneath them.

I walked cautiously to the first and, picking up a long twig, lifted the robe from the tangle of weeds and thorns. All that remained of the priest was a pool of slime, like green oil, and the smell of a body lain long in the sun to rot. Such a stench nearly overpowered me, but I was resolute to find the others, to see if the same fortune had also befallen them.

Walking back up the slope that I had so fearfully run down only moments ago, I came across yet another of the black priests, in identical condition to the first. I kept walking, passing more of the robes as I went, not venturing to overturn them any longer. Then, I finally came upon the gray stone monument that had risen unnaturally into the air at the command of the priests. It was now upon the ground once more, but the carvings still glowed with supernatural light.

The serpents, or what I had then thought of as serpents, had disappeared. But in the dead embers of the fire, now cold and black, was a shining metal plate. I picked it up and saw that it was also carved, as the stone, but very intricately, after a fashion I could not understand. It did not bear the same markings as the stone, but I had the feeling I could almost read the characters, but could not, as though I once knew the tongue but had since long forgotten. My head began to ache as though a devil was pounding my skull, when a shaft of moonlight hit the metal amulet, for I know now what it was, and a voice entered my head and told me the secrets of the scene I had witnessed in one word:

KUTULU.

In that moment, as though whispered fiercely into my ear, I understood.

Of the three symbols carved, the first is the Sign of our Race from beyond the Stars, and is called ARRA in the tongue of the Scribe who taught it to me, an emissary of the Elder Ones. In the tongue of the eldest city of Babylon, it was UR. It is the Sigil of the Covenant of the Elder Gods, and when they see it, they who gave it to us, they will not forget us. They have sworn!

The second sign is the Elder Sign, and is the Key whereby the Powers of the Elder Gods may be summoned, when used with the proper words and shapes. It has a Name, and is called AGGA.

The third sign is the Sigil of the Watcher. It is called BANDAR. The Watcher is a Race sent by the Elder Ones. It keeps vigil while one sleeps provided the appropriate rituals and sacrifice has been performed; else, if called, it will turn upon you.

These seals, to be effective, must be graven on stone and set in the ground.

Or, set upon the altar of offerings.

Or, carried to the Rock of Invocations.

The BANDAR however, must never be used alone, but with one or both of the others, for the Watcher needs to be reminded of the Covenant he has sworn with the Elder Gods and our Race, else it will turn upon thee and slay thee and ravage thy town, until succor is to be had from the Elder Gods by the tears of thy people and the wailing of thy women.

KAKAMMU!

The fire amulet that I retrieved from the ashes of the fire, and which caught the light of the moon, is a potent seal against whatever may come in the Gate from the Outside for, seeing it, they will retreat from thee SAVE ONLY IF IT CATCH THE LIGHT OF THE MOON UPON ITS SURFACE for, in the dark days of the moon, or in clouds, there can be little protection against the fiends from the Ancient Land should they break the barrier, or be let in by their servants upon the face of the Earth.

In such a case, no recourse is to be had until the light of the moon shines upon the Earth, for the moon is the Eldest among the Zonei, and is the starry symbol of our pact. NANNA, Father of the Gods, Remember!