Weird Tales/Volume 31/Issue 3

Pastel cover of Weird Tales, dated March. Featuring a naked woman with her back to the viewer recoiling slightly from a skull, while being entangled by a stream of smoke coming from the skull's jaws. The background is a flat red. The tag line reads "16th Year of Publication". The captions read: "Incense of Abomination - a daring story of Devil-worship—the Black Mass—strange suicides by Seabury Quinn; H. P. Lovecraft; Henry Kuttner; Thorp McClusky; Jack Williamson".

A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

Weird Tales

REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE

Volume 31

CONTENTS FOR MARCH, 1938

Number 3

Cover Design	M. Brundage
Illustrating "Incense of Abomination"
"Like one, that on a lonesome road"	Virgil Finlay	257
Pictorial interpretation from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Incense of Abomination	Seabury Quinn	259
A daring story of Devil-worship, strange suicides, and Jules de Grandin
The Poets	Robert E. Howard	279
Posthumous verse, by a late master of weird literature
The Thing on the Floor	Thorp McClusky	280
The story of an unscrupulous hypnotist, and the frightful thing called Stepan
Dreadful Sleep	Jack Williamson	298
A romantic and tragic tale of fearsome beings that lay in slumber under the antarctic ice
The Shadow on the Screen	Henry Kuttner	320
A weird story of Hollywood and the silver screen
Beyond the Wall of Sleep	H. P. Lovecraft	331
What splendid yet terrible experiences came to the poor mountaineer while he slept?
The Hairy Ones Shall Dance (end)	Gans T. Field	339
A novel of terror and sudden death, and the frightful thing that laired in the Devil's Croft
Guarded	Mearle Prout	354
A brief tale of murder—by the author of "The Home of the Worm"
The Teakwood Box	Johns Harrington	358
San Pedro Joe found the secret in that intricately carved Oriental box
To Howard Phillips Lovecraft	Francis Flagg	361
Sonnet to a late master of weird literature
The Head in the Window	Roy Temple House	362
A brief tale, adapted from the German of Wilhelm von Scholz
Weird Story Reprint: The Girl from Samarcand	E. Hoffmann Price	367
A favorite tale by a master of fantasy, reprinted by popular demand
The Eyrie		378
Wherein the readers of WEIRD TALES voice their opinions

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Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Entered as second-class matter March 20, 1923, at the post office at Indianapolis, Ind., under the act of March 3, 1879. Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription rates: One year in the United States and possessions, Cuba, Mexico, South America. Spain, $2.50; Canada, $2.75; elsewhere, $3.00. English office: Otis A. Kline, c/o John Paradise, 86 Strand, W. C. 2, London. The publishers are not responsible for the loss of unsolicited manuscripts, although every care will be taken of such material while in their possession. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced either wholly or in part without permission from the publishers.

NOTE—All manuscripts and communications should be addressed to the publishers' Chicago office at 840 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

FARNSWORTH WRIGHT, Editor.

Copyright, 1938, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company,

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Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

COMING NEXT MONTH

At the core of the strange garden, where a circular space was still vacant amid the crowding growths, Adompha came to a mound of loamy, fresh-dug earth. Beside it, wholly nude, and pale and supine as if in death, there lay the odalisque Thuloneah. Near her, various knives and other implements, together with vials of liquid balsams and viscid gums that Dwerulas used in his grafting, had been emptied upon the ground from a leathern bag. A plant known as the dedaim, with a bulbous, pulpy, whitish-green bole from whose center rose and radiated several leafless reptilian boughs, dripped upon Thuloneah's bosom an occasional drop of yellowish-red ichor from incisions made in its smooth bark.

Behind the loamy mound, Dwerulas rose to view with the suddenness of a demon emerging from his subterrene lair. In his hands he held the spade with which he had just finished digging a deep and grave-like hole. Beside the regal stature and girth of Adompha. he seemed no more than a wizened dwarf. His aspect bore all the marks of immense age, as if dusty centuries had sered his flesh and sucked the blood from his veins. His eyes glowed in the bottom of pit-like orbits; his features were black and sunken as those of a long-dead corpse; his body was gnarled as some millennial desert cedar. He stooped incessantly, so that his lank, knotty arms hung almost to the ground. Adompha marveled at the strength of those arms; marveled that Dwerulas could have wielded the heavy shovel so expeditiously, could have carried to the garden on his back the burden of those victims whose members he had utilized in his experiments. The king had never demeaned himself to assist at such labors; but, after indicating from time to time the people whose disappearance would in no wise displease him, had done nothing more than watch and supervise the baroque gardening.

"Is she dead?" Adompha questioned, eyeing the luxurious limbs and body of Thuloneah without emotion.

"Nay," said Dwerulas, in a voice harsh as a rusty coffin-hinge, "but I have administered to her the drowsy and overpowering juice-of the dedaim. Her heart beats impalpably, her blood flows with the sluggishness of that mingled ichor. She will not reawaken ... save as a part of the garden's life, sharing its obscure sentience. I wait now your further instructions. What portion ... or portions?"

"Her hands were very deft," said Adompha, as if musing aloud, in reply to the half-uttered question. "They knew the subtle ways of love and were learned in all amorous arcs. I would have you preserve her hands ... but nothing else." ...

A strange story indeed is this, written in the magic words of one of the greatest living masters of weird fiction. What happened to Thuloneah when her arms were grafted to the dedaim tree makes a fascinating and unusual weird story of immense interest and power. It will be printed complete in the April issue of Weird Tales:

The Garden of Adompha

By Clark Ashton Smith

———Also———

The Temple Dancer By Seabury Quinn An unusual story aboat a white girl in a Hindoo temple and the loving arms of the gracious lady that protected her on the night when she was to become the Bride of Siva.
The Eyes of the Mummy By Robert Bloch A fascinating story of flashing jewels and an old Egyptian tomb—a story with a strange and terrible climax.	Forest of Evil By John Murray Reynolds A story of many thrills—a tale of weird adventures and dire perils in the Dead Forest of Sanaala.
The Devil Deals By Carl Jacobi An odd and curious story is this, about a fatal game of cards, played with a most peculiar deck containing neither spades, hearts, diamonds nor clubs.

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November Issue Weird Tales .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

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Beautifully bound in rich blue cloth with attractive orange-colored cover jacket.

The Moon Terror, by A. G. Birch, is a stupendous weird-scientific novel of Chinese intrigue to gain control of the world.

ALSO—OTHER STORIES

In addition to the full length novel, this book also contains three shorter stories by well-known authors of thrilling weird-scientific fiction:

Ooze, by Anthony M. Rud, tells of a biologist who removed the growth limitations from an amoeba, and the amazing catastrophe that ensued.

Penelope, by Vincent Starrett, is a fascinating tale of the star Penelope, and fantastic thing that happened when the star was in perihelion.

An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension, by Farnsworth Wright, is an uproarious skit on the four-dimensional theories of the mathematicians and inter-planetary stories in general.

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Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .