Free Historical Lovecraft: Tales of Horror Through Time by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Paula R. Stiles Page A

a mockery of this man, for he was a stranger and he wore a cloth over his face, that none might see him. Then the stranger unhooked the cloth from one of his ears, that they might see the corner of his face.
    When the guards saw the corner of his face, they could not speak, so great was their fear, and they fell down upon their faces.
    Word of this was brought before the King and he commanded that the stranger be brought before him. “Who are you, Judean?” said the King, “that you come into the city with a cloth before your face, that none might see you, and before whom the guards at the gate have bowed in fright?”
    “Hear me, O King of Ashdod,” said the stranger and he spoke in the old tongue of Ashdod. “Judah in the hills is like a stick that is rotten in its heart. They drove me forth, so I have given their king over to leprosy and their people to the slaughter. I have come before you, Aliyat son of Aliyat, to offer you a precious gift that will see your enemies driven before you and will see the walls of your city rise up, even to the heavens.”
    At this, the nobles who were in the court made mock, saying, “Who is this that comes to the court of Ashdod, who speaks in the old tongue of Ashdod? Let him go back to Judah in the hills, where he can follow sheep with unshod feet, and drink young wine.” And indeed, the stranger’s feet were unshod and the fringes of his coat were covered in the dust of the road.
    “Well that you mock, O children of Ashdod,” said the stranger. “And well that you laugh, O sons of Callioth. Judah has laid waste to your land and built cities in it, even to the plain of Gaza. In the North, Assyria grows strong and proud and her armories grow fat with arrows, which thirst for your blood. Well that you mock and well that you laugh.”
    But Aliyat son of Aliyat, of the line of Callioth, did not laugh and did not make mock. “Show us, then,” he said, “a proof of the gifts that you offer.”
    “Certainly, O King of Ashdod,” said the stranger. “Have them bring before me a male slave and a female slave.”
    The slaves were brought before him and he extended a finger toward them. The slaves were struck with leprosy, so that their faces became white with it, and they fell to the ground. “Thus I have done,” said the stranger, “to Uzziah son of Amaziah, when I was cast from Judah of the hills. He who was a mighty king now sits outside the city, in a separate hall, and even the slaves of his people will not enter there to be defiled by him. Thus shall I do to all the enemies of Ashdod and to those who conspire against it.”
    The men of the court were amazed as they looked upon the male slave and the female slave that had been struck with leprosy, so that their faces had become white with it, and that they fell upon the ground and the men of the court grew fearful of the stranger. “What would you have from us,” said Aliyat son of Aliyat, “that you will do these things on our behalf?”
    “Build for me a temple, fifty cubits in length by fifty cubits in width, with a roof of strong timbers, so that I may conduct the worship of my god, where none shall see and desecrate the rites of my god.”
    The workers of Aliyat son of Aliyat built a temple for the stranger, of fine cut stone, fifty cubits in length, and fifty cubits in width. It was decorated on the outside with gold and precious jewels, and none but the stranger would enter the precincts of the temple. There were brought bullocks and great-bellied sows for sacrifices, and male slaves and female slaves. Soon, the stranger did as he had promised and delivered gifts unto Aliyat the son of Aliyat.
    For a time, the stranger talked with the priests of Ashdod, sharing with them his lesser secrets. Many things he told them, which they had known and then forgotten, and which sorely troubled them. Gabridagon of no father, High Priest of Moloch, who conducted the awful rites of Moloch and who guarded the secrets of