A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

60 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY for manifestations. It’s the old idea.” “What about skipping all that bilge and coming to the case?’ Tott interrupted. “Those lights are against you, too.” Gees stopped the car gently and smoothly, dead on the traffic line. “As I was saying—but that’s all about the He- brew Jehovah, anyhow. He’s only one in- stance of how gods were made. Other in- stances—well, from Easter Island images to the distortion of belief that set the In- quisition torturing and burning. And one big crowd of gods of all sorts in Egypt.” The car moved on. “As I was saying,” Gees went on, “Egypt was stacked high with gods, some of them developed and adopted from the days before Menes—if Menes ever existed, which is denied today. Some of them won enough belief to come _ to great power, mostly of a fairly benevo- lent sort, and I don’t think any record of human sacrifice to any one of them has yet been discovered. But that’s not to say that some of them didn’t demand human sacrifices—and get them, too, especially the ones adopted from older races to fit Egyptian needs. One of them particularly I have in mind.” a= Sasteees out of my depth,” Tott said, “and though I’ve got a glimmering idea of what you may be getting at, I don’t see how you can fit it on to either of these two cases. Can you see counsel for the prosecution opening his case with a lecture of how the Hebrews got across the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his little lot struck a wet patch?” “Leaving all that for a bit,” Gees said, “J wonder whether you ever heard of secret societies among the tribes of central Africa, calling themselves leopard-men, and lion-men, and using skins of various specimens of the cat tribe to inspire ter- ror and work a sort of magic?” “IT have,’ Tott admitted. “Lots of ex- plorers and people have written about that leopard society.” _ “Have you also heard of Sekhmet, the lioness-headed guddess of Egypt?” “No. She’s a new one on me. There was a cat goddess, though.” _ “There was,” Gees assented. “Bubastes, a much later creation. I have an idea _ Sekhmet came north from central Africa to Egypt—I mean, belief in her came to Egypt with the coming of invaders from central Africa, and the race that made Egyptian civilization seized on her and developed her. Built up a_ priesthood around her, sacrificed to her, shaped her to fit the Egyptian character, and gave her real power.” “You mean—the images of her had power?” Tott asked. 7 “No. I mean there was a live creation, made up of thoughts and prayers and sacrifices, which within certain limits had powers. The old Egyptians were wonder- ful magicians, and they could create such a being to serve their own ends. And just like Jehovah and the other old gods, Sekhmet would not cease to exist as long as belief in her and sacrifices to her per- sisted—especially if she could get hu- man sacrifices.” “M’lud—” Tott sounded utterly deri- sive—‘I submit that my learned friend has utterly failed to sustain his case. Evi- dence for the defence, M’lud, not only shows but proves that this unfortunate child was chewed up by an Egyptian god- dess, and this Crown prosecution of my unfortunate client is more than an utter farce.” “Your gibe may be very near the truth,” Gees remarked coolly. Tott digested that in silence until they had curved on the western end of the Oxford by-pass. The car did not so much gather pace, on the straight again, as leap easily into a smooth and quiet swiftness. Presently Gees slowed again. “We ought to have hit ‘several things, but we haven’t,’ Tott said. A small car had shot out of a side turning, and the powerful brakes of the Rolls-Bentley had pulled it to a stop so suddenly that the driver of the small car was just able to miss the front bumper and get going Londonward. Gees drove on. Tott looked around, and saw no sign of the small car along the road. He drew a rueful, tragic breath. ‘That absolute balderdash you were talking a little while ago. I was thinking—here are two cases of murder, almost certainly, and by the look of things both of them are the work of the same homicidal maniac. Places and times give us a pretty good idea oi— * = ™ —i — ~ comicbooks.com —— wy * _ ~