252:. A vast bronze basin stands in the middle of the temple, and a stone idol is on the far side. To their disappointment, the idol has no inset jewels. The basin contains a stinking, viscous, sooty liquid. The liquid rises out of the basin and shapes itself into a monster with an enormous head, tentacles, and a dozen legs. The monster hunts the thieves all night. At dawn the thieves realize they have circled back to the temple. They enter and bolt the door, but the monster pours in through the holes in the lintel. Zeiros hides behind the statue of the god, while Ompallios clambers into the basin. The monster engulfs Ompallios and silently digests him. Zeiros creeps to the door, but the noise of the bolt draws the creature's attention. A tentacle springs out of the basin and catches Zeiros's right wrist. As he stumbles out of the temple, the tentacle severs his hand and carries it to the basin.
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The story is narrated by the thief
Satampra Zeiros, who says he is writing with his left hand because he has lost his right. Zeiros and his companion Tirouv Ompallios are thieves living in the city of Uzuldaroum. They are short on money, so Zeiros suggests they plunder Commorium, the abandoned former
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a copy of the unpublished manuscript, he responded with "well-nigh delirious delight.... You have achieved in its fullest glamour the exact
Dunsanian touch which I find it almost impossible to duplicate.... Altogether, I think this comes close to being your high point in prose fiction to date...."
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points to
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capital city of
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H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Clark Ashton Smith, December 3, 1929; cited in Price, p. 56.
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Title page of "The Tale of
Satampra Zeiros" as it appeared in
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is a short story written in 1929 by
American author
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155:, and first published in the November
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369:Text of "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
364:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
16:Short story by Clark Ashton Smith
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112:Popular Fiction Publishing Co.
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145:"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
22:"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
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611:Tales of Science and Sorcery
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583:Genius Loci and Other Tales
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359:The Tale of Satampra Zeiros
276:When Smith sent his friend
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362:title listing at the
333:The Tsathoggua Cycle
218:The Spawn of Cthulhu
597:Spells and Philtres
488:A Night in Malnéant
481:The Last Hieroglyph
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28:Short story
766:Categories
751:Tsathoggua
720:Poseidonis
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639:Hyperborea
285:References
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171:Tsathoggua
117:Media type
741:Cykranosh
705:Averoigne
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109:Publisher
715:Zothique
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632:Zothique
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301:(1978).
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72:Genre(s)
64:Language
729:Related
551:Xeethra
422:Deities
225:), and
169:entity
76:Fantasy
67:English
56:Country
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250:lintel
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191:) by
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
