Free The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales by Mark Samuels Page B

fireplace, becoming covered with a layer of dust, that they proved impossible to light. He thought of the Indio children who sold kindling in the plaza and cursed himself for not buying one of their bundles.
    He dozed for a while on the bed, wrapping the musty-smelling blankets around his naked body, and drifted in and out of consciousness. He was troubled by strange dreams, but could not grasp their meaning, nor recall the events that had transpired within them. His impression was that he had been dreaming not of scenes, but rather of atmospheres, and in particular, was haunted by a vague sensation of horrible wonder and of falling into an immeasurable gulf whose darkness pressed down upon him.
    When the worst of the fever had abated, and Barron felt that he was thinking coherently once more, it was already evening, and the light had been exhausted. He tried to consume one of the tortas that he had bought earlier in the day, but his appetite was not up to the task. He left the roll of bread and its contents half-eaten, and washed down what little he had eaten with some water from the pump. He moved around the room wrapped in the blankets, for they were warmer than any of the few clothes he had brought with him.
    He glanced over the books of folklore and anthropology that he had piled upon the table, remembering that he wished to track down the reference he had tried to recall during his curious experience outside the gateway of the cemetery. The indexes of the volumes yielded several entries for “Xapalpa”, and it was in the ninth book he examined that he found that for which he was searching.
    It was an article written in 1950, by the Chairman of the department of anthropology at Mexico City College, one Robert H. Barlow, and was entitled “Strange Worship: the Head Cult of Xapalpa”.
    The following passage from the article was what disturbed Barron most:
     
    With cremation being taboo, and since the head was considered the source of the demon-possession, it was considered necessary to bury this part separately. After death, therefore, such corpses were decapitated and the head placed in a box some distance from the coffin containing the torso and limbs. The torso was invariably placed chest down, and a long iron stake driven through its back, fixing it in place. This was to prevent the body from clawing its way up to the surface and then going about the cemetery in search of its head, which still had control over it.
    However, there grew up a strange cult of worship for these supposed demon-possessed heads, who were reputed to be able to tell of the future when paid certain blood tributes. The necromantic practice was stamped out in the 1920s, since the despoiling of skulls from Xapalpa cemetery had achieved widespread notoriety, and was a source of embarrassment to the local authorities.
     
    He had found what he was looking for, and wished he hadn’t. Barron decided that he had spent enough time in Xapalpa, and that he would leave as soon as it was possible. He had thought to bring along with him the bus timetable, and was frustrated to discover that the next service back to Guadalajara did not leave until the morning after next, since it was the middle of the Christmas period, and the frequency was reduced. He regretted the fact that he had wasted money on renting La Casa De Fuente for many more days than he would use it, but he felt that his fever was connected, in some nebulous way, with his occupancy.
    Barron slept more easily that night. His fever abated slightly, as if confirming that he had made the right decision.
    •
    The following day could not have been a greater contrast with the one before. The wind and rain had disappeared, and hot sunshine, brilliant in its intensity, took their place. Xapalpa was transformed into a magic town that had reached up into the pure blue sky.
    Barron wandered through the narrow dusty streets for hours in the sun, glad to have the opportunity to be outside and away from