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person—although he himself cannot say how, unless his theories of teleportation, mind control, etc., are true. Next is "Zigor Mephisto's Collection Of Mentalia" which is, in Shaver's own words, "a tale of Nydia of the cavern people, myself, and one Zigor Mephisto, descendant of an ancient and renowned family, one of which you may have heard before." Nydia is real, not fiction, Zigor Mephisto is real, and the story is true (insofar as any thought record can be determined to be true). "Witch's Daughter" is next, and the story is completely fiction, but what happens is very similar to what really happens many times, says Shaver. There are openings to the caves, and such persons as he describes do come to the surface, and for similar reasons. They also do similar things, and this is the real explanation for the many mysterious crimes, accidents and disappearances that happen all the time on the surface. The last story is "The Red Legion" which is fiction, but based on the true existence of an organization of Indians in this country, who do know of such things as the caves, and who do believe that many missing tribes of redmen did go down to live there many years ago, and are still there, although in decimated numbers. Many Indians will know that much of the story is based on fact, but few of them will corroborate it, and for very good reason. Yet, if they care to, we will publish any statement they make, either in support or in refutation.
The articles in this issue speak for themselves. We had planned others. They will appear in future issues instead. The reason is the incredible mishaps that prevented their inclusion. Also missing is one story, "Mer-Witch Of Ether 18" which will appear in a future issue, and which is a tale that Shaver considers to be quite true of the weird races of beings who do inhabit places in what we call "empty space." His concept of what we should really mean, when we say the word "spirit."
And now, for the information of those of you who "came in late" we give a "history" of the Shaver Mystery:
In September, 1943, your editors received a letter from Richard S. Shaver, who lived in Barto, Pennsylvania, giving us the key to an ancient alphabet which he claimed was the alphabet of the mother tongue of all languages, and which he did not want to die with him. We published this key in January 1944.
Almost immediately we began to receive letters from readers who had dabbled around with the alphabet and discovered that it worked amazingly well in many languages, and especially so in languages more ancient.
Also, apparently encouraged by our publication of the alphabet, Mr. Shaver (then a welder in a war plant) wrote an account of an "adventure" in caves beneath the earth at incredible depths, where lived a race of people known as dero (detrimental robot) who were evil in intent, and tero (integrative robot) who were good in intent. These people, he explained, were descendants of the "abandondero," or those human beings who were abandoned here 12,000 (?) years ago when a race of people (giants) called the Titans and another race called the Atlans left the earth in space ships because they had discovered that the sun was throwing off radioactives which were causing them to age and die who had been immortal.
Since the Titan and Atlan cities were underground, and their vast civilization immovable, all their machines and cities were left intact; thus the abandondero, taking refuge in them, inherited many wonderful things, which, because of their sun-polared destructive thinking processes, they turned to destructive purposes.
With the aid of such machines as the telaug (telepathic augmentor) and disintegrating rays, plus various instruments such as the "stim" which enhanced physical and emotional pleasures, these dero took to tormenting surface people and thereby being the basis for all of our legends of cavern wights, little people, demons, ghosts and—during the war—gremlins.
They cause many unexplained accidents, such as those train wrecks, plane crashes, cerebral hemmorhages, etc. which are otherwise unexplainable.
Further, Mr. Shaver declared that the Titans, living far away in space, or other people like them, still visit earth in space ships, kidnap people, raid the caves for valuable equipment, and, in general, supply the basis for all the weird stories that are so numerous (see Charles Fort's books) of space ships, beings in the sky, etc.
Shaver's first story (titled "I Remember Lemuria!" by your editor because he refused to believe Shaver's claim to have gotten the story from the caves) told of the Titan migration from Earth, and the leaving of imperishable records of the event, and of Earth history, by a character named Mutan Mion. It also told of the battle between two factions, the evil faction led by a sun-polared Titan named Zeit, and a good faction from space headed by a Titan goddess named Vanue, in the caves, which ended in Zeit being defeated and captured.
At the same time, L. Taylor Hansen, not having seen the Shaver stories (they were as yet unpublished) had made an important discovery, working as a scientist, which detailed this underground
