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- Говард Лавкрафт
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- Тень над Иннсмутом
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- Стр. 4/41
The
Essex
County
histories
on
the
library
shelves
had
very
little
to
say
,
except
that
the
town
was
founded
in
1643
,
noted
for
shipbuilding
before
the
Revolution
,
a
seat
of
great
marine
prosperity
in
the
early
19th
century
,
and
later
a
minor
factory
center
using
the
Manuxet
as
power
.
The
epidemic
and
riots
of
1846
were
very
sparsely
treated
,
as
if
they
formed
a
discredit
to
the
county
.
References
to
decline
were
few
,
though
the
significance
of
the
later
record
was
unmistakable
.
After
the
Civil
War
all
industrial
life
was
confined
to
the
Marsh
Refining
Company
,
and
the
marketing
of
gold
ingots
formed
the
only
remaining
bit
of
major
commerce
aside
from
the
eternal
fishing
.
That
fishing
paid
less
and
less
as
the
price
of
the
commodity
fell
and
large-scale
corporations
offered
competition
,
but
there
was
never
a
dearth
of
fish
around
Innsmouth
Harbour
.
Foreigners
seldom
settled
there
,
and
there
was
some
discreetly
veiled
evidence
that
a
number
of
Poles
and
Portuguese
who
had
tried
it
had
been
scattered
in
a
peculiarly
drastic
fashion
.
Most
interesting
of
all
was
a
glancing
reference
to
the
strange
jewelry
vaguely
associated
with
Innsmouth
.
It
had
evidently
impressed
the
whole
countryside
more
than
a
little
,
for
mention
was
made
of
specimens
in
the
museum
of
Miskatonic
University
at
Arkham
,
and
in
the
display
room
of
the
Newburyport
Historical
Society
.
The
fragmentary
descriptions
of
these
things
were
bald
and
prosaic
,
but
they
hinted
to
me
an
undercurrent
of
persistent
strangeness
.
Something
about
them
seemed
so
odd
and
provocative
that
I
could
not
put
them
out
of
my
mind
,
and
despite
the
relative
lateness
of
the
hour
I
resolved
to
see
the
local
sample
--
said
to
be
a
large
,
queerly-proportioned
thing
evidently
meant
for
a
tiara
--
if
it
could
possibly
be
arranged
.
The
librarian
gave
me
a
note
of
introduction
to
the
curator
of
the
Society
,
a
Miss
Anna
Tilton
,
who
lived
nearby
,
and
after
a
brief
explanation
that
ancient
gentlewoman
was
kind
enough
to
pilot
me
into
the
closed
building
,
since
the
hour
was
not
outrageously
late
.
The
collection
was
a
notable
one
indeed
,
but
in
my
present
mood
I
had
eyes
for
nothing
but
the
bizarre
object
which
glistened
in
a
corner
cupboard
under
the
electric
lights
.
It
took
no
excessive
sensitiveness
to
beauty
to
make
me
literally
gasp
at
the
strange
,
unearthly
splendour
of
the
alien
,
opulent
phantasy
that
rested
there
on
a
purple
velvet
cushion
.
Even
now
I
can
hardly
describe
what
I
saw
,
though
it
was
clearly
enough
a
sort
of
tiara
,
as
the
description
had
said
.
It
was
tall
in
front
,
and
with
a
very
large
and
curiously
irregular
periphery
,
as
if
designed
for
a
head
of
almost
freakishly
elliptical
outline
.
The
material
seemed
to
be
predominantly
gold
,
though
a
weird
lighter
lustrousness
hinted
at
some
strange
alloy
with
an
equally
beautiful
and
scarcely
identifiable
metal
.
Its
condition
was
almost
perfect
,
and
one
could
have
spent
hours
in
studying
the
striking
and
puzzlingly
untraditional
designs
--
some
simply
geometrical
,
and
some
plainly
marine
--
chased
or
moulded
in
high
relief
on
its
surface
with
a
craftsmanship
of
incredible
skill
and
grace
.
The
longer
I
looked
,
the
more
the
thing
fascinated
me
;
and
in
this
fascination
there
was
a
curiously
disturbing
element
hardly
to
be
classified
or
accounted
for
.
At
first
I
decided
that
it
was
the
queer
other-worldly
quality
of
the
art
which
made
me
uneasy
.
All
other
art
objects
I
had
ever
seen
either
belonged
to
some
known
racial
or
national
stream
,
or
else
were
consciously
modernistic
defiances
of
every
recognized
stream
.
This
tiara
was
neither
.
It
clearly
belonged
to
some
settled
technique
of
infinite
maturity
and
perfection
,
yet
that
technique
was
utterly
remote
from
any
--
Eastern
or
Western
,
ancient
or
modern
--
which
I
had
ever
heard
of
or
seen
exemplified
.
It
was
as
if
the
workmanship
were
that
of
another
planet
.
However
,
I
soon
saw
that
my
uneasiness
had
a
second
and
perhaps
equally
potent
source
residing
in
the
pictorial
and
mathematical
suggestion
of
the
strange
designs
.
The
patterns
all
hinted
of
remote
secrets
and
unimaginable
abysses
in
time
and
space
,
and
the
monotonously
aquatic
nature
of
the
reliefs
became
almost
sinister
.
Among
these
reliefs
were
fabulous
monsters
of
abhorrent
grotesqueness
and
malignity
--
half
ichthyic
and
half
batrachian
in
suggestion
--
which
one
could
not
dissociate
from
a
certain
haunting
and
uncomfortable
sense
of
pseudomemory
,
as
if
they
called
up
some
image
from
deep
cells
and
tissues
whose
retentive
functions
are
wholly
primal
and
awesomely
ancestral
.
At
times
I
fancied
that
every
contour
of
these
blasphemous
fish-frogs
was
over-flowing
with
the
ultimate
quintessence
of
unknown
and
inhuman
evil
.
In
odd
contrast
to
the
tiara
's
aspect
was
its
brief
and
prosy
history
as
related
by
Miss
Tilton
.
It
had
been
pawned
for
a
ridiculous
sum
at
a
shop
in
State
Street
in
1873
,
by
a
drunken
Innsmouth
man
shortly
afterward
killed
in
a
brawl
.
The
Society
had
acquired
it
directly
from
the
pawnbroker
,
at
once
giving
it
a
display
worthy
of
its
quality
.
It
was
labeled
as
of
probable
East
--
Indian
or
Indochinese
provenance
,
though
the
attribution
was
frankly
tentative
.
Miss
Tilton
,
comparing
all
possible
hypotheses
regarding
its
origin
and
its
presence
in
New
England
,
was
inclined
to
believe
that
it
formed
part
of
some
exotic
pirate
hoard
discovered
by
old
Captain
Obed
Marsh
.
This
view
was
surely
not
weakened
by
the
insistent
offers
of
purchase
at
a
high
price
which
the
Marshes
began
to
make
as
soon
as
they
knew
of
its
presence
,
and
which
they
repeated
to
this
day
despite
the
Society
's
unvarying
determination
not
to
sell
.
