The Cats of Ulthar - H.P. Lovecraft

"The Cats of Ulthar" is a short story written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft in June 1920. In the tale, an unnamed narrator relates the story of how a law forbidding the killing of cats came to be in a town called Ulthar.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The Cats of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft. It is said that
in ull Thar, which lies beyondthe river sky, no man may kill
a cat. And this I canverily believe as I gaze upon him who
sitteth purring before the fire. Forthe cat is cryptic and close to strange

(00:22):
things which men cannot see. Heis the soul of Antique Aegyptus, and
bearer of tales from forgotten cities inMerroway and Ophear. He is the kin
of the Jungle's lords, and heirto the secrets of Hoary and Sinister Africa.
The Sphinx is his cousin, andhe speaks her language. But he

(00:45):
is more ancient than the Sphinx,and remembers that which she hath forgotten.
In ull Thar, before ever theBurgesses forbade the killing of cats, there
dwelt an old cotter and his wife, who delighted to trap and slay the
cats of their neighbors. Why theydid this I know not, save that
many hate the voice of the catin the night, and take it ill

(01:07):
that cats should run stealthily about yardsand gardens at twilight. But whatever the
reason, this old man and womantook pleasure in trapping and slaying every cat
which came near to their hovel,and from some of the sounds heard after
dark, many villagers fancied that themanner of slaying was exceedingly peculiar. But

(01:27):
the villagers did not discuss such thingswith the old man and his wife because
of the habitual expression on the witheredfaces of the two, and because their
cottage was so small and so darklyhidden under spreading oaks at the back of
a neglected yard. In truth,much as the owners of cats hated these
odd folk, they feared them more, and instead of berating them as brutal

(01:49):
assassins, merely took care that nocherished pet or mouser should stray toward the
remote hovel under the dark trees.When through some unavoidable oversight a cat was
missed and sounds heard after dark,the loser would lament impotently or console himself
by thanking fate that it was notone of his children who had thus vanished.

(02:10):
For the people of all Thar weresimple and knew not whence it is
all cats first came. One daya caravan of strange wanderers from the south
entered the narrow, cobbled streets ofall Thar, dark wanderers they were,
and unlike the other roving folk whopassed through the village twice every year.

(02:30):
In the marketplace, they told fortunesfor silver and bought gay beads from the
merchants. What was the land ofthese wanderers none could tell, but it
was seen that they were given tostrange prayers, and that they had painted
on the sides of their wagons strangefigures with human bodies and the heads of
cats, hawks, rams, andlions. And the leader of the caravan

(02:52):
wore a headdress with two horns,and a curious disc betwixt the horns.
There was in this singular van alittle boy with no father or mother,
but only a tiny black kitten tocherish. The plague had not been kind
to him, yet had left himthis small furry thing to mitigate his sorrow.
And when one is very young,one can find great relief in the

(03:15):
lively antics of a black kitten.So the boy, whom the dark people
called Menes, smiled more often thanhe wept as he sat playing with his
graceful kitten on the steps of anoddly painted wagon. On the third morning
of the wanderer's stay in Olphar,Menes could not find his kitten, and
as he sobbed aloud in the marketplace, certain villagers told him of the

(03:37):
old man and his wife, andof sounds heard in the night. And
when he heard these things, hissobbing gave place to meditation, and finally
to prayer. He stretched out hisarms toward the sun and prayed in a
tongue no villager could understand, thoughindeed the villagers did not try very hard
to understand, since their attention wasmostly taken up by the sky and the

(04:00):
odd shapes the clouds were assuming itwas very peculiar. But as the little
boy uttered his petition, there seemedto form overhead the shadowy, nebulous figures
of exotic things, of hybrid creaturescrowned with horn flanked disks. Nature is
full of such illusions to impress theimaginative. That night, the wanderers left

(04:20):
all thar and were never seen again, And the householders were troubled when they
noticed that in all the village therewas not a cat to be found.
From each hearth the familiar cat hadvanished. Cats large and small, black,
gray striped yellow and white. OldCrannon, the burgomaster, swore that

(04:43):
the dark folk had taken the catsaway in revenge for the killing of MENACE's
kitten, and cursed the caravan andthe little boy. But Nith, the
lean notary declared that the old cotterand his wife were more likely persons to
suspect, for their hatred of catswas notorious and increasingly bold. Still no
one durst complain to the sinister couple. Even little Atal, the innkeeper's son,

(05:10):
vowed that he had at twilight seenall the cats of Olthar in that
accursed yard under the trees, pacingvery slowly and solemnly in a circle around
the cottage, too abreast, asif in performance of some unheard of right
of beasts. The villagers did notknow how much to believe from so small
a boy, and though they fearedthat the evil pair had charmed the cats

(05:30):
to their death, they preferred notto chide the old cotter till they met
him outside his dark and repellent yard. So Olthar went to sleep in vain
anger, and when the people awakenedat dawn, behold every cat was back
at his accustomed hearth. Large andsmall, black, gray, striped,

(05:51):
yellow and white. None was missing. Very sleek and fact did the cats
appear, and sonorous with purring content. The citizens talked with one another of
the affair and marveled not a little. Old Crannon again insisted that it was
the dark folk who had taken them, since cats did not return alive from
the cottage of the ancient man andhis wife. But all agreed on one

(06:14):
thing that the refusal of all thecats to eat their portions of meat or
drink their saucers of milk was exceedinglycurious. And for two whole days the
sleek, lazy cats of Allthar wouldtouch no food, but only doze by
the fire or in the sun.It was fully a week before the villagers
noticed that no lights were appearing atdusk in the windows of the cottage under

(06:38):
the trees. Then the lean nithremarked that no one had seen the old
man or his wife since the nightthe cats were away. In another week,
the burgomaster decided to overcome his fearsand call at the strangely silent dwelling
as a matter of duty, thoughin so doing he was careful to take
with him Shang the blacksmith, andThull, the cutter of stone, as

(07:00):
witnesses, and when they had brokendown the frail door they found only this,
two cleanly picked human skeletons on theearthen floor, and a number of
singular beetles crawling in the shadowy corners. There was subsequently much talk among the
burgesses of Olthar. Zath the coronerdisputed at length with Nith, the lean

(07:23):
notary, and Crannon, and Shangand Thull were overwhelmed with questions. Even
little Atal, the innkeeper's son,was closely questioned and given a sweetmeat as
reward. They talked of the oldcotter and his wife, of the caravan
of dark wanderers, of small menaceand his black kitten, of the prayer

(07:44):
of menace, and of the skyduring that prayer, of the doings of
the cats on the night the caravanleft, and of what was later found
in the cottage under the dark treesin the repellent yard. And in the
end the burgesses passed that remarkable lawwhich is told of by traders in Hathech
and discussed by travelers in near namelythat in Ulthar no man may kill a

(08:09):
cat. This is the end ofthe cats of Ulthar.