Very little is known about this volume, but what is known has been reconstructed from fragmentary notes left behind by Dr Anthony Walker (Curator of Sanskrit Manuscripts at the British Museum). Dr Walker vanished from his London home, with the book, a month after his return from India. He had bought the book from an illiterate untouchable for a handful of rupees and a Bible, on the outskirts of Bikaner at the edge of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan.
The book is of octavo size, thick, and bound in cloth. The book has been heavily handled, and the cover and pages are worn and stained. On the spine are the words ‘Holy Writ’ and, underneath, ‘Bombay’. The book is unusually heavy.
The pages are laid out in double columns, as in a Bible, with a tightly printed but typographically crude text ordered by verses. The pages are numbered in the upper corners and out of sequence. The language is unfamiliar.
The Book of Sand is so titled because its pages, like sand grains, are infinite. It is impossible to find the first or last page, for example. Similarly, it is impossible to try to find the same page twice (even with a bookmark) despite the, albeit arbitrary, page numbering.
Possibilities
1 The Book of Sand contains the cursed soul of a sorcerer; the more you read, the more of your personality is absorbed by the book. Worse, the more you read, the more addictive it becomes, until your soul and mind are trapped within the book. When this happens, the sorcerer takes control of your body - providing The Book of Sand remains nearby.
The sorcerer is depraved and immediately plunges into an orgy of sensual pleasure. Eventually, the host dies and the sorcerer is trapped once more in the book.
Several months after Dr Walker’s disappearance he is discovered dead, with the book lying nearby.
2 The book was taken from the Great Library of Celaeno by a philosopher-yogin from a Tibetan monastery at Chamdo, at the head of the Mekong River. From there it was taken to the Cave of Scorpions at the Potala in Lhasa, where it remained for 200 years until it was looted by a Sepoy in the 1903-1904 Younghusband expedition to Tibet. From him, it was stolen by an Indian fakir who, driven mad by the book, eventually sold it to Dr Walker.
The book contains references assembled by the Great Race of Yith concerning the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the information can only be accessed by Yithian mental command, otherwise only random pages are accessed. The pages are, of course, still valuable – once you can read Yithian.
The Great Race want the book back. In an attempt to retrieve it, one of the Great Race possessed Dr Walker and is now constructing a time machine to return the book to its owners.
3 The book is one of Nyarlathotep’s avatars. Most of the time it is inert, simply a book - albeit one with peculiar properties. The knowledge it contains is terrible indeed: Nyarlathotep’s perception of reality. Translating it is a perilous course. Descriptions of many of Nyarlathotep’s 1,000 avatars are included in the text.
Occasionally, Nyarlathotep occupies his avatar. The book lurches madly, savagely biting the fingers of anyone holding it, and erupting in a mass of wildly flailing tentacles. The thing then leaps into the air and vanishes, leaving behind only a few torn pages.
This was the fate of Dr Walker - he was unfortunate enough to be holding the book when Nyarlathotep appeared, and was dragged with the Outer God when it vanished. The book, meanwhile, turns up later . . .
Inspired by The Book of Sand, by Jorge Luis Borges.
© Charles Ross
The book is of octavo size, thick, and bound in cloth. The book has been heavily handled, and the cover and pages are worn and stained. On the spine are the words ‘Holy Writ’ and, underneath, ‘Bombay’. The book is unusually heavy.
The pages are laid out in double columns, as in a Bible, with a tightly printed but typographically crude text ordered by verses. The pages are numbered in the upper corners and out of sequence. The language is unfamiliar.
The Book of Sand is so titled because its pages, like sand grains, are infinite. It is impossible to find the first or last page, for example. Similarly, it is impossible to try to find the same page twice (even with a bookmark) despite the, albeit arbitrary, page numbering.
Possibilities
1 The Book of Sand contains the cursed soul of a sorcerer; the more you read, the more of your personality is absorbed by the book. Worse, the more you read, the more addictive it becomes, until your soul and mind are trapped within the book. When this happens, the sorcerer takes control of your body - providing The Book of Sand remains nearby.
The sorcerer is depraved and immediately plunges into an orgy of sensual pleasure. Eventually, the host dies and the sorcerer is trapped once more in the book.
Several months after Dr Walker’s disappearance he is discovered dead, with the book lying nearby.
2 The book was taken from the Great Library of Celaeno by a philosopher-yogin from a Tibetan monastery at Chamdo, at the head of the Mekong River. From there it was taken to the Cave of Scorpions at the Potala in Lhasa, where it remained for 200 years until it was looted by a Sepoy in the 1903-1904 Younghusband expedition to Tibet. From him, it was stolen by an Indian fakir who, driven mad by the book, eventually sold it to Dr Walker.
The book contains references assembled by the Great Race of Yith concerning the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the information can only be accessed by Yithian mental command, otherwise only random pages are accessed. The pages are, of course, still valuable – once you can read Yithian.
The Great Race want the book back. In an attempt to retrieve it, one of the Great Race possessed Dr Walker and is now constructing a time machine to return the book to its owners.
3 The book is one of Nyarlathotep’s avatars. Most of the time it is inert, simply a book - albeit one with peculiar properties. The knowledge it contains is terrible indeed: Nyarlathotep’s perception of reality. Translating it is a perilous course. Descriptions of many of Nyarlathotep’s 1,000 avatars are included in the text.
Occasionally, Nyarlathotep occupies his avatar. The book lurches madly, savagely biting the fingers of anyone holding it, and erupting in a mass of wildly flailing tentacles. The thing then leaps into the air and vanishes, leaving behind only a few torn pages.
This was the fate of Dr Walker - he was unfortunate enough to be holding the book when Nyarlathotep appeared, and was dragged with the Outer God when it vanished. The book, meanwhile, turns up later . . .
Inspired by The Book of Sand, by Jorge Luis Borges.
© Charles Ross
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