Ossadagowah
[HPL Sorceries (online text)] According to Of Evill Sorceries done in New-England of
Daemons in no Humane Shape, Ossadagowah is an offspring of Sadogowah (Tsathoggua).
Appearance
In appearance, Ossadagowah is sometimes small and solid, like a great toad the size of a ground-hog, but sometimes big and cloudy, without any shape at all.
Worshippers
The ancient peoples of Lamah (that is, Lomar), in the far north, knew how to manage Ossadagowah "in all ways."
The Wampanaug, Nanset, and Narragansett Indians knew how to draw it out of the sky, but never did so because of the exceeding great evilness of it. They knew also how to catch and prison it, though they could not send it back where it came from.
It was said that Ossadagowah often went back to the sky voluntarily, but that he could not come back unless summoned.
Summoning by Richard Billington
Sometime around 1650, Richard Billington learned of Ossadagowah partly from "evill Books" and partly from "an antient Wonder-Worker amongst ye Indian Salvages" (Misquamacus). Billington set up a ring of stones near New Plymouth and raised Ossadagowah. Not long after he privately showed great fear about something he had called out of the sky at night. That year there were seven slayings in the woods near Billington’s stones; those slain were crushed and half-melted. Upon talk of a trial, Billington disappeared.
Two months later, a party of Wampanaugs led by Misquamacus took down the ring of stones. Since they could not send Ossadagowah back to the sky, they captured him in a hole under a flat stone carved with the Elder Sign, and covered it with a mound of earth and a tall stone with warnings written on it.
In Derleth Stories
[AWD Lurker]: Ossadagowah might be one of several beings who were summoned, over the course of several centuries, by various inhabitants of Billington House and nearby New Dunnich. The story of these summonings unfolds in bits and pieces, as the protagonists consult various old books, manuscripts, and newspapers. What follows is a plausible reconstruction of the original sequence of events.
Richard Billington
The first of the summoners is Richard Billington, in the mid-1600s. The chief information about Billington's doings is the fragment Of Evill Sorceries done in New-England of Daemons in no Humane Shape, which is quoted in AWD Lurker. However, the text quoted in the novel differs from Lovecraft's original text in various ways. Notably, the location is changed from New Plymouth to the New Dunnich (Dunwich) area. This version of Of Evill Sorceries also elaborates on Ossadagowah's appearance, providing him with eyes and facial tentacles: "On being ask’d what ye Daemon look’d like, Misquamacus covered his Face so that onlie ye Eyes look’d out, . . . saying it was sometimes small and solid, like a great Toad ye Bigness of many Ground-Hogs, but sometimes big and cloudy, with no Shape, though with a Face which had Serpents grown from it."
Richard Billington builds a house near the Aylesbury Pike, between Arkham and New Dunnich, with an exotic stained glass window. Near the house, on an island in a stream, is a stone tower surrounded by a ring of stones. The age of the towers and stone ring is not known, but someone later estimates that the tower is, at least in part, older than Billington's house. So it is possible that Billington discovered a preexisting tower and decided to build his house nearby.
The tower is adorned with carvings that match the stained glass window in the house. The design is "an intricate pattern of concentric circles and radiating lines, which, the more attentively it was gazed at, offered a perplexing maze to the eye in that it seemed at one moment to be of such an appearance, and in the next appeared to change inexplicably." This design is referred to by the degenerate locals as "the Sign" (not to be confused with the Elder Sign). The window sometimes provides a view of alien scenes, and sometimes it shows the face of an alien being: "an unutterably hideous caricature of an inhuman face of some great, grotesque being whose features were horribly distorted, eyes—if such there were—sunken into pits, without anything resembling a nose, though there seemed to be nostrils; a bald and gleaming head, the entire lower half of which terminated in a mass of writhing tentacles; . . . an overpowering malignance . . . and briefly . . . a noxious stench, a charnel odour." The face resembles Misquamacus' description of Ossadagowah: "a Face which had Serpents grown from it."
If the tower predates the house, then how do both happen to incorporate the same Sign? Possibly Billington built the window to mimic the design on the tower, or perhaps he previously found the window somewhere, and its malign influence led him to build his house near the tower.
In any case, Billington commences summoning Ossadagowah, who slays seven local people. Something goes wrong, and the creature gets out of control. Billington gets stuck in another dimension Outside, and is thereafter referred to as "the Master."
Misquamacus and his party take down the stone circle and do something to entrap Ossadagowah. In Lovecraft's version of Of Evill Sorceries, they entrap Ossadagowah as follows:
They had digg’d a Hole three Ells deep and two across, and had thither charmed ye Daemon with Spells that they knew; covering it over with Great Rocks and setting on Top a flat Stone carved with what they call’d ye Elder Sign. On this they made a Mound of the Earth digg’d from the Pit, sticking on it a tall Stone carv’d with a Warning.
In Derleth's version of Of Evill Sorceries, the manner of Ossadagowah's imprisonment is somewhat obscured by illegible passages:
"They had digg’d down three Ells deep and two across, and had Thither charmed ye Daemon with Spells that they knew; covering it over with” (here followed an illegible line) “carved with what they call’d ye Elder Sign. On this they” (again a few indistinct words) “digg’d from ye Pit."
However, a later portion of the Derleth's passage seems to confirm Lovecraft's original version, stating that the creature was buried under a great mound with a tall stone on top:
This much ye antient Wizard Misquamacus told to Mr. Bradford, and ever after, a great Mound in ye Woods near ye Pond southwest of New Dunnich hath been straitly lett alone. Ye Tall Stone is these Twenty yrs. gone, but ye Mound is mark’d by ye Circumstance, that nothing, neither grass nor brush, will grow upon it.
In Derleth stories, the Elder Sign invokes the power of the benign Elder Gods (1) to protect against or imprison the evil beings known as the Great Old Ones (3)/Ancient Ones (2) and their servants. (In Lovecraft, the Elder Sign is also protective, but there is no sign of benign Elder Gods.)
The Master returns to earth periodically by possessing various people: "but Master walked the earth an’ none knew him as saw him fer he was in many faces. Aye! He wore a Whateley face an’ he wore a Doten face an’ he wore a Giles face an’ he wore a Corey face, an he sat among the Whateleys an’ the Dotens an’ the Gileses an’ the Coreys, an’ ’twas none who knew him for aught but Whateley or Doten or Giles or Corey, an’ he ate among ’em an’ be bedded among ’em an’ he walked an’ talked among em." However, the Master is not able to remain in human form for long: "so great he was in his Outsideness thet those he took weakened an’ died, not being able to contain him."
Alijah Billington
By the early 1800s, Richard Billington's descendant Alijah Billington moves into the house. Ossadagowah and/or the Master use the leaded window to influence him so that he becomes a dabbler in sorcery.
At some point, Misquamacus turns up again, with the shortened name of Quamis. Perhaps Alijah has summoned him back from the dead, or perhaps the Master was able to send him. Quamis seems to be fearful of Alijah and acts as his servant.
Somehow, Alijah, perhaps with the help of Quamis or other assistants, is able to dig up the mound and remove the stone with the blessed Elder Sign. Ossadagowah gets loose, but he can only remain in this world for short periods of time. Alijah restores the fallen stones around the tower, and begins using the tower as a place to summon Ossadagowah to return periodically. Each time it requires a sacrifice. Many loud screams in the night ensue.
Alijah's acquaintance Jonathan Bishop in New Dunnich also begins summoning Ossadagowah and other beings. However, Bishop is inept, an opening is not closed properly, and creatures start coming through that are unasked for and cannot be controlled. At some point, Bishop disappears.
Shortly after that, Alijah panics. He blocks up the tower by placing the stone with the Elder Sign in the roof. The sign is "in the rough shape of a star, in the center of which there appeared to be a caricature of a single giant eye; but it was not an eye, rather a broken lozenge in shape with certain lines suggestive of flames or perhaps a solitary pillar of flame." At this point, Ossadagowah is trapped either underground or in some Outside dimension. On balance, it seems more likely that Ossadagowah is trapped Outside. If he were buried under the tower, it would have made more sense to put the Elder Sign in the floor rather than the roof.
Alijah also succeeds in preventing the Master from returning to this world. Misquamacus/Quamis either escapes or is banished by Alijah. Alijah packs up and moves to England, leaving instructions to prevent the tower or leaded window from being disturbed.
Local seer Mrs. Bishop later says of Alijah that he "knew more’n mortal man; he knew suthin’ nobody can tell. He could call It an’ talk to It an’ It never got Alijah. Alijah shut It up an’ got away. Alijah shut It up—an’ he shut up the Master, too, out there, Outside, when the Master was ready tew come back agin after thet long a time."
Ambrose Dewart
In the 1920s, Billington descendant Ambrose Dewart moves into the house. The Master or Ossadagowah begin using the leaded window to influence Dewart. Though Dewart is not consciously seeking to be a sorcerer, he is impelled to remove the stone with the Elder Sign from the roof of the tower. The stone falls from the roof to the floor of the tower. Later, in his sleep, Dewart goes to the tower and performs ceremonies to call Ossadagowah. Ossadagowah gets loose and one of the locals disappears.
Dewart's cousin Stephen Bates visits and observes signs of a split personality in Dewart, whose moods reflect varying degrees of control by the Master. While sleepwalking, Dewart summons Ossadagowah again and another local disappears. After a winter vacation in Boston, Dewart and Bates return to Billington House. Dewart comes completely possessed by the Master. Quamis returns from Carcosa and Mnar to act as his servant.
The possessed Dewart tricks Bates into removing the stone with the Elder Sign from the floor of the tower and burying it some distance outside. At this point both Dewart and Quamis are apparently too tainted by Outsideness to be able to move the stone themselves. It is less clear why they need the stone to be moved outside the tower, since removing it from the roof was enough to give Ossadagowah access. Possibly the stone causes Ossadagowah some discomfort when he slithers past it, or perhaps it prevents Dewart and Quamis from summoning some greater being.
Seneca Lapham's Oversights
Bates contacts Miskatonic University anthropologist Dr. Seneca Lapham and the latter's assistant, Winfield Phillips. Despite their warnings, he returns to the house, only to be taken by something awful:
He sent IT after me. Got away first time. Know It will find me. First the suns and stars. Then the smell—oh, God! the smell—like something burning long time. Ran when saw unnatural lights. Got to road. Heard It after me, like wind in trees. Then the smell. And the sun exploded and the Thing came out IN PIECES THAT JOINED TOGETHER!
Lapham expresses doubt about which creature was being summoned by the Billingtons and Dewart. Lapham says that "Misquamacus plainly made an error in his identification" of the creature summoned by Richard Billington, because Ossadagowah is said to be a child of Tsathoggua, but Ossadagowah does not resemble the traditional description of Tsathoggua as "non-anthropomorphic, black and somewhat plastic." Lapham neglects to mention that Tsathoggua and Ossadagowah are both often described as toad-like. Lapham also ignores the evidence that multiple different beings have manifested through the efforts of the Billingtons and Jonathan Bishop.
Ossadagowah's Manifestations
In Jonathan Bishop's his first letter, dated April 27 (probably 1807), he mentions summoning a being having "ye appearance of such as we sought, with wings of dark substance and likewise as it were serpents running forth from Its body but attach’d to It." It told Bishop that it came from Kadath in the Cold Waste. Judging from its treatment of Wilbur Corey, this creature apparently tears and mangles its victims before disposing of them, so it is at least partially a blood-eater. This is the first being that Bishop summons, without having modified the original instructions, so I take it to be the same being summoned by Richard and Alijah Billington, namely Ossadagowah.
The same being seems to recur in Ambrose Dewart's dream of himself sleepwalking: "He came within the circle of Druidic stones and stood in the shadow of the tower and gazed up through the opening he had made, and, standing there, he called to the heavens in a hideous distortion of the Latin tongue . . . suddenly, with a great rush, a being of horrible and repellent aspect appeared to flow through the opening from above into the tower and, filling it, flowed outward through the door, pushing Dewart aside and speaking to Dewart in a debased tongue demanding of him the sacrifice, whereupon Dewart ran fleetly to the circle of stones and directed the visitant to Dunwich, in which direction it then went, fluid as water, but of great and terrible aspect, squid-like or octopoid, passing among the trees as air, along the earth as water, of great and wonderful properties, which enabled it to seem partially or wholly invisible apparently at will. He dreamed that he stood listening there in the shadow of the tower, and soon there rose sweet to his ears the sound of screaming and crying in the night, after hearing which he waited yet a while until the thing came back bearing among its tentacles the sacrifice and departed whence it came, by way of the tower." The description of a "squid-like or octopoid" is in line with the previous description of Ossadagowah as having tentacles.
Later, two victims are discovered: "both bodies were found to have been dead but a short while, both appeared to have been dropped from a height, varying between them, both were badly mangled and torn, however recognizable, and in each case several months had intervened between the time of disappearance and the time of discovery."
Winged Creatures of Nyarlathotep
Jonathan Bishop's undated third letter (probably 1807 or 1808) discussed creatures who left webbed claw prints of more than a foot in width and two feet in length. Bishop thought the claw marks were from winged things, and was unsure if they were visible or invisible. They hunted human beings. Bishop thought that the creatures had come through on their own, using an opening that had been left open by accident. Bishop speculated that they might be servants of Nyarlathotep or Yog-Sothoth. In a subsequent letter, dated April 7 (probably 1808), Bishop appears to refer back to these creatures, calling them winged creatures of Nyarlathotep who "came through ye opening left b. ye misuse of ye words of ye Arab." Judging from their treatment of Jebediah Tyndal, these creatures apparently drop their victims without having torn or mangled them; thus, they apparently eat the spirit or life force rather than the blood.
In modern times, Stephen Bates may have seen marks of these beings in the snow: "There was first a large indentation in the snow, approximately twelve feet in length by some twenty-five feet across, which had the appearance as of some elephantine creature’s pausing there; the air being reasonably cold, and no thaw having set in, I examined the outer edges of this depression, and was able to ascertain that whatever it was had sat there had had a smooth skin. The second type of mark was claw-like, of the dimensions of approximately three feet across and the suggestion of being webbed; and the third was a sinister brushed patch on the snow, framing the claw-marks, as if great wings had flapped there—but what manner of wings was not apparent."
The Wind-Walker
Jonathan Bishop's fourth letter, dated April 7 (probably 1808), describes a creature that came to his window and called his name, promising to come for him. Bishop could not see the creature outside, so it may have been invisible. It had "such a charnel stench that it was almost o’erpower’g." It reached through the window and touched his face "as it were with ye substance of jellie, in part scal’d, and nauseous to ye touch." The earth shook when it walked nearby. Bishop thought that this being had also come unbidden through some opening that he had created and not closed properly. Bishop speculated that it might be "that Walker on ye Wind who is known by severall Names, namely Windeego, Ithaka, or Loegar."
The Excrescence
Jonathan Bishop's second letter, dated May 17 (probably 1807), discusses another creature that Bishop summoned by accident after having altered some words from the original summoning spell. It was "a great Thing with a Shape that seem’d ever changing in a manner terrible to see." This creature comes equipped with an entourage, "be’g accompani’d by lesser Be’gs which play’d upon instruments resembl’g flutes music most strange and unlike to any which I had ever before heard." Bishop speculated that the creature might be "some Daemon from Yr or beyond Nhhngr which lieth in far places on ye far side of Kadath in ye Cold Waste." This being is clearly different from the first being that Bishop summoned; while the first being said it was from Kadath, Bishop thinks that this being is from someplace far beyond Kadath.
In modern times, Stephen Bates seems to observe this same creature being summoned by the possessed/sleepwalking Ambrose Dewart: "There extended outward from him an excrescence . . . which seemed to have neither beginning nor end, but appeared to be in a state of flux, and yet conveyed the unmistakable impression of being alive; an excrescence, I say, that bore at one and the same time vague resemblances to a serpent, a bat, and a vast, amorphous monster in that stage of the world’s growth when creatures had not yet wholly emerged from primal slime." Once again it is accompanied by flute players: "On the roof, as it were one on each side of him, were two toad—like creatures which seemed constantly to be changing shape and appearance, and from whom emanated, by some means I could not distinguish, a ghastly ululation, a piping which was matched only by the shrill choir of the frogs, now risen to a truly cacophonous height."
This time the entourage is augmented by further creatures: "in the air about him were great viperine creatures, which had curiously distorted heads, and grotesquely great clawed appendages, supporting themselves with ease by the aid of black rubbery wings of singularly monstrous dimensions." Could these correspond to the "winged creatures of Nyarlathotep"? Or was one of them Ossadagowah?
The "excrescence" goes through rapid changes; it "became in succession a great amorphous mass of changing flesh, squamous as certain snakes, and putting forth and drawing back constantly and without cessation innumerable tentacular appendages of all lengths and shapes; a horrible, blackly furred thing with great red eyes that opened from all portions of its body; a hellish monstrosity which was octopoid in seeming to have become a small, shriveled mass of torso with tentacles hundreds of times its size and weight which whipped backward in a fanning motion into space, and the ends of which were literally sloughed or melted away into distance, while the empurpled body opened a great eye to look upon my cousin, and disclosed beneath it a great pit of mouth from which issued a terrible, if muted, screaming."
Dewart exclaims “N’gai, n’gha’ghaa, y’hah —Yog-Sothoth!” which seems to suggest that Yog-Sothoth is the central figure in this tableau. However, Lapham later says "Nyarlathotep is often accompanied in his faceless manifestations by creatures described as ‘idiot flute-players.’ . . . if Nyarlathotep is always accompanied by the idiot flute-players, presumably one of those manifestations was he." Lapham speculates that the being raised by the Billingtons "may be Nyarlathotep, he may be Yog-Sothoth, he may be another."
The Climactic Showdown
Lapham and Phillips interrupt a ceremony where Dewart seems to be summoning Yog-Sothoth with the cry "Iä! Iä! N’ghaa, n’n’ghai-ghai! Iä! Iä! N’ghai, n-yah, n-yah, shoggog, phthaghn! Iä! Iä! Y-hah, y-nyah, y-nyah! N’ghaa, n’n’ghai, waf’l pthaghn-Yog-Sothoth! Yog-Sothoth!" After Dewart is slain, Quamis attempts to continue, yelling "Iä! Iä! Yog-Sothoth! Ossadagowah!"
When Phillips enters the tower, he looks up and briefly sees a being that he interprets as Yog-Sothoth: "the suns seen by Stephen Bates in his last moments—great globes of light massing toward the opening, and not alone these, but the breaking apart of the nearest globes, and the protoplasmic flesh that flowed blackly outward to join together and form that eldritch, hideous horror from outer space, that spawn of the blankness of primal time, that tentacled amorphous monster which was the lurker at the threshold, whose mask was as a congeries of iridescent globes, the noxious Yog-Sothoth, who froths as primal slime in nuclear chaos forever beyond the nethermost outposts of space and time."
The conclusion leaves much unresolved. At the end, are Dewart and Quamis trying to summon the same "excrescence" that they summoned previously? If so, why does it look different this time, appearing as great globes of light? Why are both Ossadagowah and Yog-Sothoth mentioned, but Nyarlathotep is not?
Possibly Yog-Sothoth was being invoked in his role as a gatekeeper: "Yog-Sothoth knows the gate, for Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and the guardian of the gate . . . Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate whereby the spheres meet." Possibly you always have to invoke Yog-Sothoth first, to open the gateway, before you can summon a creature such as Ossadagowah.
However, Phillips seems to come to the opposite conclusion, referring to "the tower and the circle of stones, the place of Dagon, of Ossadagowah, and of that other, that frightful Thing from Outside that lurked at the threshold waiting to be summoned." This makes Ossadagowah sound like more of a bit player in an enterprise that was ultimately directed toward summoning Yog-Sothoth. But it also contradicts Lapham's theory that Ossadagowah was never summoned, but had only been mistakenly identified by Misquamacus.
Conclusion
The text can support multiple interpretations about who or what Ossadagowah was, and what role he played in the manifestations at Billington House and New Dunnich. It appears that Ossadagowah is one of a number of beings who were summoned or who were able to enter through an opening that was not properly closed. It is natural that these beings are difficult to distinguish, because the Al Azif states that they can change their appearance: "there are those amongst Them which can assume divers Shapes & Featurs & any Giv’n Shape & any giv’n Face." And Mis' Bishop avers that the Outside creatures are actually invisible: "An’ the wust uv it is, yew doan’t see Them a-tall-but yew can tell when They’re near by the smell, the wust smell ever—like suthin’ straight aout uv Hell!" The beings glimpsed in the story may fall into this category of creatures that are normally invisible, but can be glimpsed only because of some secondary magic that is at work (such as gazing through the center pane of the magic stained glass window). The rapid shifts in the appearance of these entities could reflect actual changes in their form, or they could be the result of mortal viewers being exposed to sensory experiences that they cannot properly process. Mostly likely the human witnesses owe their sanity to not being able to see these creatures correctly.
Return to Cthulhu Universalis Contents Page
Return to CthulhuFiles.com Home Page
Send comments to jfm.baharna@gmail.com.
© Copyright 1996-2024 by Joseph Morales