EXTRACTS: The Complete Conan of Cimmeria Volume 3 © The Book Palace (416 PAGES in Full edition)

endlessly by winding ramps, for some seven hundred feet. We entered at ten thirty o’clock, and emerged about four. The English language is too weak to describe the Cavern. The pictures do not give a good idea; for one thing they exaggerate the colors; the coloring is really subdued, somber rather than sparkling. But they do not give a proper idea of the size, of the intricate patterns carved in the limestone throughout the millenniums…. In the Cavern natural laws seem suspended; it is Nature gone mad in a riot of fantasy. Hundreds of feet above arched the great stone roof, smoky in the mist that eternally rises. Huge stalactites hung from the roof in every conceivable shape, in shafts, in domes, in translucent sheets, like tapestries of ice. Water dripped, building gigantic columns through the ages, pools of water gleamed green and weird here and there.... We moved through a wonderland of fantastic giants whose immemorial antiquity was appalling to contemplate. Shortly upon his return to Cross Plains, Howard set out to write yet another Conan story, The Servants of Bit-Yakin . The story is not a particularly memorable one, with a rather unconvincing plot and insipid heroine, but it has a setting markedly different from the other Conan tales, taking place entirely in a vast natural wonder, filled with caves and subterranean rivers, which was evidently greatly inspired by Howard’s visit to the Carlsbad Caverns. As he concluded to Lovecraft: “God, what a story you could write after such an exploration!... Anything seemed possible in that monstrous twilight underworld, seven hundred and fifty feet below the earth. If some animate monster had risen horrifically from among the dimness of the columns and spread his taloned anthropomorphic hands above the throng, I do not believe that anyone would have been particularly surprized.” Howard probably decided he could write the tale himself, after all. The result is not quite satisfying, but it was paving the way for greater things to come: for the first time in the series, Howard was weaving elements of his own country into his Conan tales. It was a timid first step to be sure, but an important one nonetheless. The story is not mentioned in any of the extant Howard letters and no record of submission survives. It was accepted by Farnsworth Wright for $155, payable on publication, and published in the March 1935 issue of Weird Tales. Some confusion exists as to Howard’s original title for the tale. The story first appeared in Weird Tales under the title Jewels of Gwahlur . Howard wrote three drafts: the first is untitled, while the second and third are titled The Servants of Bit- Yakin . The third draft has come to us as a carbon of the version sent to Weird Tales, hence the definitive one. A third title, Teeth of Gwahlur , appears in a listing found among Howard’s papers long after his death (from which the information on the price paid by the magazine comes). This listing was not prepared by Howard Conan of Cimmeria Volume 3 A2