HP Lovecraft- The Cats of Ulthar
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
It is said that in all far which lies beyond the river sky, no man may kill a cat. And this Aiken, verily believe, as I gaze upon him, who sits purring before the fire. But the cat is cryptic and close to strange things, which men cannot see. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language. But he is more ancient than the Sphinx remembers that would she have for gotten in all far before ever. The burgesses forbade the killing of cats, the dwelt in Old Qatar and his wife, who delighted to trap and slay the cats of their neighbors. Why they did this, I do not know. Save that many hate the voice of the cat in the night and take it ill that cats should run stealthily about yards and gardens at twilight. But whatever the reason, this old man and woman took pleasure in trapping and slaying every cat which came near to their Hubble and from some of the sounds heard after dark. Many Villagers fancy that the manner of slang was exceedingly peculiar. But the Villagers did not discuss such things with the old man and his wife because of the habitual expression on the withered faces of the two because their cottage was so small and so darkly hidden under the spreading oaks at the back of a neglected yard. In truth, Muchas, the owners of cats hated these odd folk. They feared them more than instead of berating them is brutal. Assassins merely took care that no cherished Petr mouser should straight towards the remote hovel under the dark trees, when, through some unavoidable oversight, a cat was missed and sounds heard after dark, the loser would lament impotently or console himself by thinking faith that it was not one of his Children who had thus vanished. But the people of all far were simple, knew not whence it does. All cats first came One day, a caravan of strange wanderers from the south entered the narrow, cobbled streets of all far in the marketplace. They told fortunes for silver and bought beads from the merchants. What was the land of these wanderers? None could tell, but it was seen they were given to strange prayers and that they had painted on the sides of their wagon figures with human bodies in the heads of cats box rams and lions. The leader of the caravan wore a headdress with two horns and a curious disc betwixt the horns. There was in this singular caravan, a little boy with no father or mother, but only a tiny black kitten to cherish. The plague had not been kind to him. It had left him this small, furry thing to mitigate his sorrow. And when one is very young, one confined great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten. So the boy whom the strange people called menace smiled more often than he wept as he sat playing with his graceful kitten on the steps of an oddly painted wagon on the third morning of the Wanderers. Stay in all far Menace could not find his kitten, and as he sobbed aloud in the marketplace, certain Villagers told him of the old man and his wife and sounds heard in the night. And when he finally heard these things, his sobbing gave place to meditation and finally, to prayer. He stretched out his arms toward the sun and prayed in a tongue No Villager could understand, though indeed, the Villagers did not try very hard to understand, since their attention was mostly taken up by the sky. In the odd shapes, the clouds were assuming it was very peculiar. But as the little boy ordered, his petition there seemed to per head, that shadowy, nebulous figures of exotic things of hybrid creatures crowned with horn flanked discs. Nature is full of such illusions to impress the imaginative. That night the Wanderers left old Thor and would never seen again. And the householders were troubled when they noted that all the village there was not a cat to be found from each heart. The familiar cat had vanished. Cats large and small, black, grey, striped yellow and white. Old cran in the burgomaster swore that the strange folk had taken the cats away and revenge for the killing of medicines kitten and cursed the caravan in the little boy. But now, with the lean notary declared that the old Qatar and his wife for more likely person to suspect for their hatred of cats, was notorious and increasingly bold. Still, no one, Durst complained the sinister couple, even when Little Atoll, the innkeeper's son, vowed that he had a twilight seen all the cats of all Thorn, that accursed yard under the trees, pacing very slowly and solemnly in a circle around the cottage, two abreast, as if in performance of some unheard of right of beasts. The Villagers did not know how much to believe from so small a boy, though they fear that the evil pair had charmed the cats to their death. They prefer not to chide the old Qatar until they met him outside his dark and repellent yard. So all their went to sleep in vain anger when the people awakened at dawn. Behold, every cat was back at his accustomed hearth, large and small, black, grey, striped yellow and white. None was missing. Very sleek and fat did the cats appear and saw onerous with purring content. The citizens talked with one another of the affair and marveled not a little old cran and again insisted it was the strange folk would taken them since cats did not return alive from the college of the Ancient Man and his wife. But all agreed on one thing. That the refusal of all the cats to eat their portions of meat or drink their saucers of milk was exceedingly curious. And for two whole days, the sleek, lazy cats of all, Thor would touch no food but only does by the fire in the sun. It was fully a week before the Villagers noted that no lights were appearing at dusk in the windows of the cottage under the trees. Then the Leanness remarked that no one had seen the old man or his wife since the night the cats went away. In another week, the burgomaster decided to overcome his fears and called the strangely silent dwelling is a matter of duty, though in so doing he was careful to take with him Xiang the blacksmith and fool the cutter of stone. This witnesses. And when they had broken down the frail door, they found only this to cleanly picked human skeletons on the earth and floor and a number of singular beetles crawling in the shadowy corners. There was subsequently much talk among the burgesses of all. Thor Zapf, the coroner disputed at length with NIF, the lean notary, and cran and Xiang and Fool were overcome with questions, even little. A tall. The innkeeper's son was closely questioned and given a sweetmeat as a reward. They talked of the old Carter and his wife of the Caravan of Strange Wanderers, a small medicine, his black kitten of the prayer of medicine of the sky. During that prayer of the doings of the cats on the night the caravan left of what was later found in the cottage, under the dark trees in the repellent yard and in the young, the burgesses passed that remarkable law, which is told of by traders in Hey thick and discussed by travelers in near namely that in all far no man may kill a cat.