Search the Desk The Pitch
Recovered materials  ·  1922 – 1923

SHIKARI

The Lost Generation vs. Cosmic Gods

An international prestige drama series

OPEN THE FILE ▾
AS ABOVE
“It would take eighteen seconds for her to fall —
each a continent in which her rage raced and grew.”
30 . VI . 1908 — Detonation above the Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia. Forests flattened for sixty miles. No crater is ever found. In the years following, a red grass grows where nothing else will.
Photograph from the Kulik expedition: thousands of flattened trees lying in parallel in the Siberian snow.
Photograph · L. Kulik expedition · Tunguska · 1927
The trees lie pointing away from a centre that holds nothing. — S.6
☉ ☽ ☿
Only known photograph of the Nine Unknown. Nine veiled and uniformed figures before a carved temple wall.
Only known photograph of The Nine Unknown · Abu Simbel, circa 1920
Recovered from the effects of Capt. J. Ashcroft, Coldstream Guards. Photographer unknown.
Elihu Vedder, The Questioner of the Sphinx: a ragged man kneels to press his ear to the lips of a half-buried colossal sphinx in the desert, a skull lying in the sand nearby.
Elihu Vedder · The Questioner of the Sphinx · 1863
He puts his ear to the stone and asks. Note the one who asked before him, in the sand. — S.6

ANNEX A — THE DOCTRINEassembled by the survivors, 1923 · the fall cannot be read without it — S.6

Annex A · Doctrine The Smaragdine Tablet
اغذوا الأرض من اللطيف

“Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt! That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one thing.”

Hermes Trismegistus · Lawḥ al-Zumurrudh

Last verified location: a monastery in Tibet. Current form: disputed.
The tablet is no longer believed to be made of stone.

The Magician, Rider–Waite tarot: one hand raised to heaven, one pointed to earth.
Arcanum I · P. Colman Smith · 1909
One hand above. One below. This is the whole of the law of the case.
🜂 🜄 🜁
Splendor Solis: the black sun setting over a city.
Splendor Solis · Sol Niger · 1582
The blackening. The work begins in the dark.
Splendor Solis: the peacock in the alchemical vessel.
Splendor Solis · Cauda Pavonis · 1582
The peacock’s tail. The colours before the gold.
Engraved busts and medals of Mercury, from Montfaucon's L'Antiquité expliquée, 1719.
Mercurius · Montfaucon, 1719
The Thrice-Greatest, under other names.
A loose leaf from a Tibetan pothi manuscript.
Leaf from a pothi · Tibet
The bearer carried the Word out of the mountains. The leaf is all that was recovered. — S.6
Jean Delville, Prometheus: a luminous titan bearing stolen fire, lifted against the dark.
Jean Delville · Prometheus · 1907
The fire was taken, not given. So too the words of making. — S.6
The Theban alphabet, from Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia, 1533.
The alphabet of Honorius · Agrippa · 1533
Cipher Branch reference. Some entries in this file were first kept in it.
Table of CorrespondencesCipher Branch · incomplete
ABOVEBELOW
A rite is read beneath the 60th parallel⇅The sky splits over Tunguska, 1908
A goddess falls, shattered⇅Red grass blooms on three continents in one week
Nine thrones, vacant⇅Nine Unknown, watching
A soul seeks its vessel⇅A tigress turns man-eater in Kumaon
The words of making⇅Scars, like script, on a grasscutter’s back
A wound dealt to the one⇅█████████████████████
🜃SO BELOW

The evidence, in the order it happened.

1922 · THE TERAIfourteen years after the fall, something in the hills begins to eat

Artifact I The Letter from Kumaon
From the peoples of Sohon Patti, Ringu & Tatiali Bazar · Almora Dist. · 15 October 1922

Honoured Sir,

We are in gravest need of your services. For the last few months, a large tiger has turned maneater. It is difficult knowing precisely because this maneater is a true shaitan — a devil wearing tiger (some say leopard) face. It attack at day like tiger. It attack at night like leopard. It does not sleep or rest like ordinary animals. Some say that bullets cannot touch it and never will. And that the spirits of the dead guide it.

The tally of the dead stands at thirty men, forty-two women, and three children.

Our grazing cows have become thin. You can count their bones under their skin. Our people also become like the cows. In our huts, only fear lives.

Mohan Sahib. It is high time that you return to the land of your mother.

Your most humble and sincere well-wisher,
Kali Prasad Rao
Headman, Village of Tatiali Bazaar

Lockwood Kipling drawing of a seated cheetah beside its seated keeper.
J. Lockwood Kipling · Beast and Man in India · 1891
The proximity, it is noted, is voluntary. Filed under: weretiger, rumours of. — S.6
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? W. Blake · The Tyger · 1794 Pinned to the Kumaon pages. The word “furnace” underlined twice, another hand.
Marcel Roux, The Nightbeast: a monstrous shape looming out of deep shadow.
Marcel Roux · The Nightbeast
The villagers do not call it a tiger. Filed under: shaitan. — S.6
Enclosure 7 Press Cuttings
Period newspaper column: the man-eater is the jungle nightmare of India.
“The jungle nightmare of India”
Period newspaper column: C. E. Gouldsbury, Tiger Slayer by Order.
C. E. Gouldsbury · “Tiger Slayer by Order”
Period newspaper cutting: Englishman jumps up tree in nick of time.
“Englishman jumps up tree in nick of time”

Click any cutting to read it in full.

🜂 🜄 🜁

X.1922 — I.1923 · THE HUNTER FLIES WESTpursued by an inquest behind him and something worse ahead

NAINI TALX.1922 MOMBASAXI.1922 LONDONXII.1922 CO. MEATHI.1923

JANUARY 1923 · IRELANDa castle burns; a hunter vanishes on the third night of the sit-up

Artifact II Intercepted, January 1923
No. 47TELEGRAMURGENT
WAM GONE
PRCD TO CM
PRCD TO CD
FIND WBY AND EP
— MOE
Transcribed in triplicate · Bournemouth foundry · battery-driven field set
☉ ☽ ☿
Artifact IV Index of Persons
File: Co. Meath / Kumaon, 1922–23Section 6
MOHAN, Maj. W. A.shikari; author; does not ageFILE OPEN
MOHAN, Marysister; last seen LondonFILE OPEN
YEATS, W. B.poet; Golden Dawn (lapsed)WITNESS
PLUNKETT, E., Lord Dunsanyacting on instruction ofSEE ANNEX
TOLKIEN, Prof. J. R. R.philologist, Leeds; combatantWITNESS
HEMINGWAY, E. M.correspondent, Toronto Star; combatantWITNESS
WOOLF, V.Hogarth Press; received the manuscriptWITNESS
RUSSELL, Hon. B. A. W.philosopher; Brixton, 1918; convened the othersWITNESS
MORRELL, Lady Ottolinehostess, Garsington; salonnièreNO FILE
LEWIS, P. Wyndhampainter; condition altered, Co. MeathDECEASED ?
FORTUNE, DionTemple of Alpha et OmegaDECEASED
RAO, Kiranscholar, Cambridge; see AMRITSARFILE OPEN
ALI, Himmatheadman; armourer; keeps the cellarFILE OPEN
PARVATIghasyari, Kumaon; turning toTHE TABLET
SIRITcombat agent; the counterweightFILE OPEN
ASHCROFT, Capt. J.Section 6; served two powersDECEASED
ORMAN, R. LintornBritish FascistiDECEASED
MOSLEY, O. E., M.P.financier of the above; see “MOE”AT LARGE
DREXLER, K. A.Thule Gesellschaft; see WOLFAT LARGE ?
COVEY, Jacobhunter; see JIKANDECEASED
██████████the man in the mask; voice of brassUNKNOWN
21 entries · 3 sealed · further annexes withheld
Holland and Holland catalogue advertisement for the .465 Express Cordite Rifle, 'The India'.
Holland & Holland · the .465 “India”
Exhibit R. The instrument proposed. It was not sufficient. — S.6

II.1923 · THE FELLOWSHIP RETURNS EASTwhat fled west must be followed home

SOUTHAMPTONII.1923 GIBRALTAR BOMBAYIII.1923 NAINI TALIII.1923
Artifact III Passage to Bombay
P&O Steam Navigation Company baggage label, London to Bombay.
P. & O. S. N. Co. · London — Bombay
Outbound: nine souls. Return manifest: not located. — S.6
British India Steam Navigation Company cabin baggage label.
B. I. S. N. Co. · cabin
One trunk travelled sealed. Contents undeclared.
Hand-tinted postcard of Naini Tal lake.
Picture post-card · Naini Tal
Unsent.
☉ ☽ ☿

III — IV . 1923 · KUMAON · THE CONVERGENCEevery thread of the file arrives in the same hills

The All-Pervading by G.F. Watts: a veiled winged figure cradling a globe.
G. F. Watts · The All-Pervading · 1887
Found folded into the Kumaon pages. Appended without comment. — S.6
☉ ☽ ☿
Annex D The Two Theatres
Survey of India sketch map of Kumaon.
Kumaon · Survey of India
Theatre the first. The hills keep their own counsel.
Map of the baronies of County Meath, Ireland.
Co. Meath · the baronies
Theatre the second. Three fairy forts marked in another hand.

One thread runs between them. The file draws it as far as the reader has come. ⇅

Artifact V Autochrome Plate No. 7
PLATE REMOVED FROM FILE Subject: Maj. W. A. Mohan with tiger, Kumaon, 1918.
A green object is visible among the contents of the subject’s haversack.
Removed by order. — S.6
🜂 🜄 🜁
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
W. B. Yeats — composed in the presence of persons named above
“The Second Coming” · W. B. Yeats · 1920 · public domain
🜍 🜔 🜍
Artifact VI Record of Incidents
30 . VI . 1908 Detonation above the Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia. Forests flattened for sixty miles. No crater is ever found. In the years following, a red grass grows where nothing else will.
IV . 1919 Amritsar. █████████████████████████ One survivor of note. He has asked to forget.
VIII . 1922 In the same week: grass within the ring forts of Co. Meath turns blood-red overnight; likewise a caldera in Tanganyika no white man has entered; likewise a hill shrine in Kumaon. The week of the death of Lt. A. Pershing, eaten in the Terai.
X . 1922 Kumaon. Seventy-five dead. The villagers do not call it a tiger. They call it a shaitan.
I . 1923 Mornington, Co. Meath: livestock taken from a barred pen; the flock raises no alarm; the tracks walk on two legs and end inside a stone circle. — Castle Dunsany burns. Maj. Mohan missing, third night of the sit-up. The wolf is not seen again in Ireland.
IV . 1923 ████████████████████████████████████ the stars ████████
Cover of the Evidence volume of the Disorders Inquiry Committee, 1920.
Disorders Inquiry Committee · Evidence · 1920
Entered under seal. Cf. entry IV.1919. The official count lies. — S.6
The Cup of Death by Elihu Vedder: a winged figure offering a cup to a fading woman, under a low moon.
Elihu Vedder · The Cup of Death · 1885
“…she knew peace, which was enough.” Marginal note, hand unknown.
Arnold Böcklin, Isle of the Dead: a white-robed figure ferried across still black water toward a walled island of cypresses.
Arnold Böcklin · Isle of the Dead · 1883
Filed with the Cup of Death. The crossing is always westward. — S.6
☉ ☽ ☿
Concerning this file

SHIKARI is a completed novel — 173,000 words — told in four movements, each titled from Yeats’s “The Second Coming”: The Widening Gyre · The Falcon and the Falconer · Things Fall Apart · The Blood-Dimmed Tide. Colonial hunting memoir, Gnostic cosmology, and the occult history of the Lost Generation, braided into one hunt.

Its author’s first novel, THE STORM, sold at auction and appeared on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. It has been translated worldwide.

Offered for series adaptation. The full manuscript and supporting materials are available on request.

RIGHTS & INQUIRIES: ARIF ANWAR  ·  THE PITCH IN 90 SECONDS  ·  READ THE PROLOGUE
Robert Fludd: a solid black square inscribed on every edge with the words Et sic in infinitum — and so on to infinity.
Robert Fludd · “Et sic in infinitum” · 1617
The dark before the first light. The file ends where it began.
IV . 1923  —  ██████████████ the stars ████████
SHIKARI