The first page consisted of a list, in phonetic spelling, of the variant names of the aquatic deity whose representations in the plastic arts the Professor had collected so assiduously. As noted earlier, it was most surprising that cultures so widely scattered should share a divinity in common, or at least the very similar names the Professor had noted down—"Zatamaga", “Hommogah”, “Z'otomogo", “Sothamogha”, "Z’mog”, and so on—were so similar as to strongly suggest a common religious figure shared by obscure cults across the breadth of the Pacific.
The Professor had next tabulated the physical elements of this being as shown in the various artworks. In summation, they tallied in amazing detail with the appearance of the jade figurine I had set aside atop my filing cabinet.
Next he had carefully traced the two complicated hieroglyphs onto a sheet of notepaper, and underneath these followed a list of the phonemes contained in the composite name to which he had attached symbols from several languages I was not familiar with. These symbols were arranged in neat columns, and the columns were headed with odd. uncouth labels— which, from context, must be the names of languages. If so, they are of languages unlisted in Havering’s Alphabets of the World. Ancient and Modern—"Naacal"—"Hieratic Naacal"—"Tsath-yo"—"Rlyehian"—"Senzar"—"Conjectural Akio"—and others, several of them, not one of which was known to me. His purpose here was clear: He was attempting to find the phonetic meaning of the two Ponape figurine glyphs by comparison with similar phonemes in presumably culturally related tongues. The file folder bore no evidence of success in this endeavor.
Next followed a sequence of letters to and from officials at various institutions. The Professor was attempting to obtain certain obscure books, obviously of considerable rarity, either on library loan or in copy. I reproduce a specimen of this correspondence at random below:
MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Arkham, Massachusetts
Office of the Librarian
September 3rd, 1907
Dear Professor:
We are in receipt of your letter of August 29th, requesting information on the availability of the Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred on inter-library loan.
The Librarian begs me to inform you that the Kester Library is correct in its information. We have indeed a copy, in excellent state, of the Latin translation made by Olaus Wormius in the edition published in Spain in the Seventeenth Century, and to our knowledge this is the only copy of the "complete" Necronomicon (i.e., the Spanish edition of Wormius) at present in this country. Only five copies, in fact, are known to exist in the entire world.
The extreme rarity of this volume is such that the University Board of Regents has strictly forbidden us to circulate our Alhazred on inter-library loan, although it is available for personal examination to qualified scholars within the premises of the Library itself.
Since you are at present located in California, and a trip to Massachusetts might be difficult to one of your busy schedule, the Librarian suggests you contact Dr. Foster at the Huntington Library in your own state. I believe the Huntington possesses a Necronomicon in manuscript copy, but cannot be certain.
Yours most sincerely,
Thaddeus Pressley, Jun.
For the Librarian
After this came a series of notations in Professor Copeland's own hand, which appear to be a summary of correspondence missing from this file:
Sept. 17th. Contacted Huntington but they have not Nec.
Suggest Brit. Mus. Huntington has Unaussprechlichen Kulten, however, in 1840 Düsseldorf edition, so may be worth a trip after all, since von Junzt has much data on Mu, and I suspect Z-O may turn out to he Muvian.
Oct. 11. Obtained good copies of relevant passages from Nec. courtesy of Wallingford in London, but must be from incomplete 15rh Century black-letter edition done in Germany—same edition Kester Lib. in Salem has. Must have Nec. passages concerning Xothic data in complete form!
Oct. 20. Writing today to Lib. Univ. Buenos Aires, Lib. of Univ, of Lima. Peru, and Bib. Nat. in Paris. Spanish edition reputedly in Buenos Aires and Paris; while Lima supposed co have the Italian edition of Theodorus Philetas' Greek trans.
These entries were followed by long passages in several different handwritings, of odd, rhythmic, seemingly mythological narratives. They are far too lengthy and obscure for me to bother copying them into this record, but as Copeland obviously found something important missing from certain of them—something which other copyists had eventually supplied—I will jot down the shortest of these, as follows:
Necronomicon, Bk. II, Chap, vii (excerpt): "And it was done then as it had been promised aforetime, that He [i.e. Chtulthu] was taken by Those whom He had defied, and was plunged into the nethermost depths beneath the Sea, and They placed Him within the barnacled Tower that is said to rise amidst the great ruin that is the Sunken City [R'lyeh] and He was sealed within by the Elder Sign; and, raging at Those who had imprisoned Him, He further earned Their wrath, and They, descending upon Him for the second time, didst impose upon Him the semblance of Death, but left Him dreaming there beneath the Great Waters, and returned to that place from whence They had come, which is named Glyu-Vho, or Ibt al Janzah as we would say [i.e. name Arabic astronomers of Alhazred's day used for the star we call Betelgeuze], and which is amongst the stars, the which looketh upon Earth from that season when the leaves fall to that season when the sowers-of-the-soil are accustomed once again to their fields. And there shall He lie dreaming forever in His House At R'lyeh, unto which withouten pause they who served Him swam, and didst strive against every obstacle, but then disposed themselves to await His Awakening, for that they had no power against the Elder Sign and were fearful of its great potency; but they knew that the Cycle returneth, and that He shall be freed to seize upon the Earth again and make it His Kingdom, and thus to defy the Elder Gods once more. And to His Brethren it chanced likewise, that They were taken by Those whom They too had defied and were hurled into banishment; Him Who Is Not To Be Named [i.e., Hastur] was thrust into the Outermost Emptiness that is beyond the Stars, and with the Others it was the same, until at last was the Earth free of Them, and Those who had come hither in the form of Towers of Flame returned whence They had come, and were seen on this World no more, and on all of the Earth peace came and was unbroken, yet ever the Minions of the Old Ones gathered and planned and sought ways whereby to free their Masters, and lingered whilst Men came to search into the Secret and Forbidden Places and fumble at the Gates. [Note: German edition text ends here and goes on to passage beg. 'But it shall not always be that'; whereas Spanish text continues with following portion omitted in black-letter edition.] And thus He slept unbroken ages by, whilst in the Dark City [i.e. Carcosa], against whose dim shores the cloud-waves break, Him Who Is Not To Be Named roared and writhed in His fetters, and in black, lightless N’kai, deep within the secret places that gape and yawn beneath the Earth, the Black Thing [prob. Tsatboggua] lay enchained, and Abhoth too, the Unclean One, even as didst They all, nor was it within Their power to free Themselves from the strictures imposed upon Them by the Lords of Glyu-Vho [the ’Elder Cods'}, aye, and thus while aeons lapse Ythogtha howls ever from his Abyss, and Ghatanothoa from His Mount, and Zoth-Ommog from His Deep, which is under the Great Waters off the Isle of the Sacred Stone Cities [?Yhe], and all Their Brethren, helpless as are They to free Themselves, and hungry for that freedom to which in the passing of ages They shall attain. In the meanwhile They lurk ever just beyond the threshold which They cannot pass, and hideous beyond the comprehension of mortal minds is the Vengeance that fills Their troubled dreams. CHAP. VIII. But it shall not be always thus, for it is written that the Cycle shall in time return in its appointed Round. ..."