(The following is a verse by verse translation from the recently discovered Book of Yng. Words in parentheses are interpolations for those words missing from the Arabic scrolls due to wear, or for those which have no literal English equivalent. The scrap of parchment which contained the first three verses of Chapter IX was missing when the scrolls were found. -- F.C.A.)

⁴ . . . in the midst of that Desert, almost an oasis, the (disciples) of Great Hastur built their city of worship, that they named Ikhyr. ⁵ It was truly a gem of beauty and solitude, being a city of many temples, (inhabited) only by Hastur's priests. ⁶ There, they dwelt and worshipped in peace until the thirty-fourth year before the destruction of Mara-Kha.

⁷ At this time, a horde of (marauding) nomads called Boryi, whose numbers were like the grains of the whirlwind, swept across the desert, plundering and destroying all in their path. ⁸ They swept into Ikhyr by hundred and by thousands, killing all of Hastur's disciples but a handful who escaped into the desert. ⁹ The city was leveled to the ground, and the invaders built their camp on its ruins. ¹⁰ The destroyers dug a huge (pit) beyond the rim of the oasis and in it, they placed the corpses of Hastur's people.

¹¹ That night in the desert, the (refugees) pulled out their hair and wailed in sorrow and (grief). ¹² Korba, the high priest, petitioned Great Hastur for vengeance, saying, ¹³ "Starmaster, we beseech you, avenge our brothers and the (profanation) of your holy city."

¹⁴ Hastur's reply was the sound of (myriad) wings, and above the desert, a mighty swarm blotted the face of the moon. ¹⁵ Hastur had called forth the Zorkai, that legion of bat-winged star spawn whose hunger for flesh and thirst for blood cannot be slaked.

¹⁶ From Xecorra, the dark star, they (flew) to the Earth and swooped into Ikhyr's ruins to devastate the devastators. ¹⁷ From Hastur's city came wails of terror and pain, drowned in (outlaw's) blood. ¹⁸ The horses broke and fled in a frenzy across the sands, leaving no escape for their masters.

¹⁹ As the sun rose, the sky was darkened (again) by the Zorkai as they deserted the site of their feast, ²⁰ But no birds of prey descended (upon) Ikhyr, for no drop of blood nor shard of flesh remained of the Boryi. ²¹ Only the tatters of silk and twisted scraps of metal from swords and armor lay beside the clean white bones of the conquerors.

²² Ikhyr was littered with the bones from the site of the gate to the (ruin) of Hastur's largest temple at the city's other extremity.

²³ The surviving priests returned to the city and gathered the remains of the Boryi's armor and weapons. ²⁴ These they cast (into the) pit with their brethren, trusting the desert winds to cover the grave. ²⁵ But they bones they kept, and with them, rebuilt Hastur's temple, cementing them together with mortar. ²⁶ The walls were made of skeletal arms and legs, the floor inlaid with finger joints, and the roof thatched with ribs. ²⁷ And the roof of the temple they ringed with a (cornice) of skulls, an empty-eyed testimony to the wrath of their god as well as his swift and terrible vengeance.

Created: October 5, 1998; Updated: August 9, 2004