11/07/2021 – Polynesian Cults (6)

Sunday 20 January 1935

Reviewing the Leads

Alex has a horrible dream in which he ends up back in Ju-Ju House and was taken down stairs. The lid of the well is lifted and he sees the creature again. This time he recalls that some of the faces of the creature weren’t African but white. He realises that he saw that at the time and the implications are that people have been thrown into the well and merged into the blasphemous creature by the cult.

In the morning, they lie in late in Astor Manor, but eventually Alex, Tiger and the Great Zalkador head home to attend to their own domestic needs and recover.

Cassandra wonders what the link is to Polynesian Cults. She begins to read the book, Dark African Sects, but it is hard work. It is rambling and difficult to follow, drifting from subject to subject and quite racist towards Africans.

She also wonders if they could contact the family of Jack Brady, as he has been known to be alive, but remembers that he grew up in the slums of New York. She arranges for Jeziah to telegram Erica to make enquiries when she gets back to New York.

Jeziah dresses in casual clothes to check out what is happening at Ju-Ju House shop. It looks like there has been a fire and the fire brigade have been and gone. The place is roped off and a constable is standing outside. He is pleased.

Monday 21 January 1935

Dark African Sects

Monday daytime is quiet as well until the evening. Cassandra reads more of Dark African Sects that day. It appears to be the account of the author, Nigel Blackwell, as he travels around infiltrating strange cults in Africa after the Great War. Just before she has to go to the lecture at the British Museum, she realises that the author of the book is going to account his experiences in Kenya next.

They assemble early at the British Museum, before the lecture and Cassandra tells them how hard work Dark African Cults is. She wonders why a Cult Leader would need a book on evil cults and she suspects there is something important in there that the cult wants to keep secret.

Cults of Polynesia

The lecture begins and Professor Anthony Clowes gives his lecture in four parts.

Part One of the lecture introduces himself and his various qualifications. Then he moves on to the strange cults he has encountered in Polynesian islands. One believes that an ancient god sleeps under the sea and one day, when the stars are right, he will rise from the depths and destroy the world.

He then moves onto detail a strange cult he discovered in Australia amongst aboriginals, the deity of which is known as the Father of All Bats. His followers would carry out rituals designed to incite their deity to appear and when he did, he would “conquer all men.”

The cult engaged in human sacrifice and forced their victims to walk a gauntlet, during which they were beaten by clubs with the teeth of bats on them, coated in poison derived from bat droppings.

The leaders of the Cult were alleged to be able to transform into bats. It was believed to have died out many centuries ago.

Part Two details an Aboriginal song cycle, which mentions a place where enormous beings gathered, somewhere in the west of Australia. These gods were not at all like men and built huge cities, but the living wind threw down the gods and destroyed their cities. When this happened, the way was opened for the Father of All Bats to come to the land.

Stones in the Desert

Part Three then focuses on four glass slides, on which is photographed sweaty white men standing next to enormous blocks of stone, covered in dim carvings. These blocks were discovered by Arthur McWhirr, of Port Hedland in 1919. McWhirr kept a diary, detailing how his expedition was regularly attacked by Aboriginals. Members were killed through poison and hundreds of small teeth-like punctures, suggesting they had been attacked by the cult of the Father of All Bats.

Part Four, the final part, tells a tail that he collected from Aboriginals near the Arafura Sea, in northern Australia. In it the Sand Bat, or the Father of All Bats, has a battle of wits with Rainbow Snake, the Aboriginal deification of water and the patron of all life. Rainbow Snake succeeded in tricking and trapping the Sand Bat in a watery place where he cannot escape and return to trouble the people. He also discovered that, while worshipped by some Aboriginals, the Father of All Bats is not considered to be a native Aboriginal God, but from somewhere beyond.

Professor Clowes then speculates that this cult has not really died out, it has simply gone to ground and is hidden. He thinks it is part of a pattern of ancient, hidden cults in that region of the world and possibly around the whole world.

Questioning Professor Clowes

Afterward, the Professor takes questions. At one point, Jeziah asks him what sort of practices would suggest that someone was a member of this cult. Professor Clowes says they would have be secretive, native-only exclusivity, it would have to date back quite far, involve murder and human sacrifice and would have to not based on a cult of personality. Also, the cult would worship a deity and their worship is designed not to save them from the end of the world, but to actually bring about the end of the world.

Cassandra then asks about the finds of Arthur McWhirr. Clowes tells her he found the remains of a vast stone buildings that appear to date back a long time. He wonders if he has found the city of the overthrown gods from the Aboriginal song cycle. Mr McWhirr has since passed away, so he pass on details of the person looking after his estate, a mining engineer called Robert McKenzie.

Cassandra then asks how he knows the Father of All Bats is not from Australia. The Professor says he can only tell them what the Aboriginals believe. He is said to have come from the stars, another recurring theme in Polynesian cults. Most Aboriginals talk very badly of the cult and those who follow it are not right in the head.

Link to Jackson Elias

Jeziah then asks about the Cult of the Bloody Tongue and Zalkador shows him some of the items found in Ju-Ju House. Initially Professor Clowes says has not heard of it, then he recalls someone asking him about it.

It emerges that the Professor has been in correspondence with Jackson Elias for a while, as they share an interest in cults. Apparently, Elias asked him a lot about a Dr Huston and if he had seen him in Australia. This doctor was apparently a member of some cult, but the Professor did not know anything about it.

Elias was also very interested in the place in the desert that McWhirr had found. Professor Clowes then excuses himself as it has been a long day. He gives them his address at a hotel in London, if they want to communicate with him further.

Suspicions about the Penhew Foundation

They then go to a late dinner and discuss what to do next. The conversation turns to the Penhew Foundation and whether there is more to that place than they first thought. They also recall how Edward Gavigan was quite dismissive of their suggestions that anyone from the Carlisle Expedition could possibly have survived.

Jeziah resolves to investigate through his contacts the employees at the Foundation. He initially considers meeting with Gavigan’s personal secretary at a pub somewhere and Tiger offers to stay nearby in case of trouble.

The Great Zalkador then does a Tarot reading for Cassandra about the future and foresees there are journeys ahead, but she should not be too premature in starting those journeys. Also beware of a hidden enemy.

They then head home. That night, Cassandra stays up all night, reading about Nigel Blackwell’s visit to Kenya in 1916. He finds out about the Cult of the Bloody Tongue there and visits the Mountain of the Black Wind at a special time when there was a huge gathering of the cult. He saw fires on the top of the mountain and snuck up there. He sees the cult was led by an African woman of great power. The cult calls down their God and a huge being, the size of the mountain, appears. It had no face, just a huge red tongue where its face should be.

The monster raises its tongue and howls at the moon, a terrible noise that will forever haunt the author. The monster then reaches down and kills random members of the cult with its huge claws, which the followers seem to revel at.

The author then goes into rambling nonsense and questions his own sanity. He wonders if the world can be saved, or if these dark gods will just destroy the world one day.

Cassandra finds herself feeling a little unsettled by what she read.

Tuesday 22 January 1935

Investigating the Penhew Foundation Staff

Jeziah gets up early that day, dresses in casual wear and goes to talk to his contacts about the Penhew Foundation. He makes some enquiries and waits to hear back from them.

In the meantime, he resolves to watch the Foundation from a bench, reading the paper. He sees an Egyptian overnight security guard patrolling the grounds. He also notices an odd ventilation grill on the side of the building.

He witnesses a lorry arrive and deliver some large crates, which they take pains to hide from view. One of the drivers notices Jeziah watching and becomes suspicious. The Egyptian guard then keeps an eye on him. Jeziah tries to make out he is waiting for someone, but does not do a very convincing job.

When the dayshift starts, lots of staff arrive, some British, many Egyptian.

He meets with his contacts later and discovers that the Edward Gavigan’s secretary, Thomas Kinnery, was responsible for sacking British born workers at the Foundation and replacing them with Egyptians.

Jeziah tries to get in touch with the sacked staff member, but has to settle with talking to his friend, who heard some stories about some weird behaviour at the Foundation. Mr Gavigan seem to prefer Egyptian staff over British staff and appear to have more access to the manager.

He is then given the name of another member of staff at the Foundation who may be worth approaching.

End of Episode Six