black spirits of earth
raceUmbrae telluris—Of whom old Castro dared not speak
Fig. 16
Plate wanting.Withdrawn from the folio, or never engraved.
Moldy, shadowy spirits that came out of the earth, full of dim rumors picked up in caverns beneath forgotten sea-bottoms; of them old Castro dared not speak much.
They come at the close of Castro's account of the elder time, and the account closes with them.
He cut himself off hurriedly at their name, and no amount of persuasion or subtlety could elicit more in this direction — the single point on which the prisoner would not be drawn.
Sources
Every fact above traces back to the text.
“Then came out of the earth the black spirits of earth, moldy and shadowy, and full of dim rumors picked up in caverns beneath forgotten sea-bottoms. But of them old Castro dared not speak much. He cut himself off hurriedly, and no amount of persuasion or subtlety could elicit more in this direction.”
The Call of Cthulhu (1928) — Chapter 2, The Tale of Inspector Legrasse