TEXT:  
    
    
    
    
   The Cats ofUlthar
    
   byH. P.Lovecraft
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   Written15 Jun 1920
    
   Published November 1920 in The Tryout, Vol. 6, No. 11, p. 3-9.
   It is said that inUlthar , which lies beyond the riverSkai , no man may kill a
   cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him whositteth purring before
   thefire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot
   see. He is the soul of antiqueAegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten
   citiesinMeroeandOphir . He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the
   secretsof hoary and sinisterAfrica. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks
  
   herlanguage; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which
   shehath forgotten.
   InUlthar , before ever the burgesses forbade the killing of cats, there dwelt an
   oldcotter and his wife who delighted to trap and slay the cats of their
   neighbors. Why they did this I know not; save that many hate the voice of the
   catin the night, and take it ill that cats should run stealthily about yards
   andgardens at twilight. But whatever the reason, this old man and woman took
   pleasurein trapping and slaying every cat which came near to their hovel; and
   fromsome of the sounds heard after dark, many villagers fancied that the manner
   ofslaying was exceedingly peculiar. But the villagers did not discuss such
   thingswith the old man and his wife; because of the habitual expression on the
   witheredfaces of the two, and because their cottage was so small and so darkly
   hiddenunder spreading oaks at the back of a neglected yard. In truth, much as
   theowners of cats hated these odd folk, they feared them more; and instead of
   beratingthem as brutal assassins, merely took care that no cherished pet or
   mousershould stray toward the remote hovel under the dark trees. When through
   someunavoidable oversight a cat was missed, and sounds heard after dark, the
   loserwould lament impotently; or console himself by thanking Fate that it was
   notone of his children who had thus vanished. For the people ofUlthar were
   simple, and knew not whence it is all cats first came.
   One day a caravan of strange wanderers from the South entered the narrow cobbled
   streetsofUlthar . Dark wanderers they were, and unlike the other roving folk
   whopassed through the village twice every year. In the market-place they told
   fortunesfor silver, and bought gay beads from the merchants. What was theland
   ofthese wanderers none could tell; but it was seen that they were given to
   strangeprayers, and that they had painted on the sides of their wagons strange
  
   figureswith human bodies and the heads of cats, hawks, rams and lions. And the
   leaderof the caravan wore a headdress with two horns and a curious disk betwixt
   thehorns.
   There was in this singular caravan a little boy with no father or mother, but
   onlya tiny black kitten to cherish. The plague had not been kind to him, yet
   hadleft him this small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow; and when one is very
   young, one can find great relief in the lively antics of a black kitten. So the
   boywhom the dark people calledMenes smiled more often than he wept as he sat
   playingwith his graceful kitten on the steps of an oddly painted wagon.
   On the third morning of the wanderers’ stay inUlthar ,Menes could not find his
   kitten; and as he sobbed aloud in the market-place certain villagers told him of
   theold man and his wife, and of sounds heard in the night. And when he heard
   thesethings his sobbing gave place to meditation, and finally to prayer. He
   stretchedout 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,
   sincetheir attention was mostly taken up by the sky and the odd shapes the
   cloudswere assuming. It was very peculiar, but as the little boy uttered his
   petitionthere seemed to form overhead the shadowy, nebulous figures of exotic
   things; of hybrid creatures crowned with horn-flanked disks. Nature is full of
   suchillusions to impress the imaginative.
   That night the wanderers leftUlthar , and were never seen again. And the
   householderswere troubled when they noticed that in all the village there was
   nota cat to be found. From each hearth the familiar cat had vanished; cats
   largeand small, black, grey, striped, yellow and white. OldKranon , the
   burgomaster, swore that the dark folk had taken the cats away in revenge for the
  
   killingofMenes ’ kitten; and cursed the caravan and the little boy. ButNith ,
   thelean notary, declared that the old cotter and his wife were more likely
   personsto suspect; for their hatred of cats was notorious and increasingly
   bold. Still, no one durst complain to the sinister couple; even when little
   Atal, the innkeeper’s son, vowed that he had at twilight seen all the cats of
   Ultharin that accursed yard under the trees, pacing very slowly and solemnly in
   acircle around the cottage, two abreast, as if in performance of some
   unheard-ofrite of beasts. The villagers did not know how much to believe from
   sosmall a boy; and though they feared that the evil pair had charmed the cats
   totheir death, they preferred not to chide the old cotter till they met him
   outsidehis dark and repellent yard.
   SoUlthar went to sleep in vain anger; and 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
   thecats appear, and sonorous with purring content. The citizens talked with one
   anotherof the affair, and marveled not a little. OldKranon again insisted that
   itwas the dark folk who had taken them, since cats did not return alive from
   thecottage of the ancient man .and his wife. But all agreed on one thing: that
   therefusal of all the cats to eat their portions of meat or drink their saucers
   ofmilk was exceedingly curious. And for two whole days the sleek, lazy cats of
   Ultharwould touch no food, but only doze by the fire or in the sun.
   It was fully a week before the villagers noticed that no lights were appearing
   atdusk in the windows of the cottage under the trees. Then the leanNith
   remarkedthat no one had seen the old man or his wife since the night the cats
   wereaway. In another week the burgomaster decided to overcome his fears and
   callat the strangely silent dwelling as a matter of duty, though in so doing he
  
   wascareful to take with himShang the blacksmith andThul the cutter of stone
   aswitnesses. And when they had broken down the frail door they found only this:
   twocleanly picked human skeletons on the earthen floor, and a number of
   singularbeetles crawling in the shadowy corners.
   There was subsequently much talk among the burgesses ofUlthar .Zath , the
   coroner, disputed at length withNith , the lean notary; andKranon andShang and
   Thulwere overwhelmed with questions. Even littleAtal , the innkeeper’s son, was
   closelyquestioned and given a sweetmeat as reward. They talked of the old
   cotterand his wife, of the caravan of dark wanderers, of smallMenes and his
   blackkitten, of the prayer ofMenes and of the sky during that prayer, of the
   doingsof the cats on the night the caravan left, and of what was later found in
   thecottage under the dark trees in the repellent yard.
   And in the end the burgesses passed that remarkable law which is told of by
   tradersinHatheg and discussed by travelers inNir ; namely, that inUlthar no
   manmay kill a cat.
    
    
    
    
   © 1998-1999 William Johns
   Last modified:12/18/199918:46:08
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu/EXTRAS/Novel/The Cats Of Ulthar - H. P. Lovecraft.pdf