Editing Journal Archives

==Spring, 1913==

===The Rain of Toads===

'''Abstract'''

Toads of varying size and states of maturity rain down from a clear sky over a small city in the American Midwest.  Some survive their impact with the ground; many do not.  The team explores first the strange nature of the toads themselves – none are native to the North American continent, several are of poisonous or hallucinogenic biology – and then theories as to their possible origins and the mythio-religious implications of their fall.  Several experiments are made, using balloons, to explore the upper atmosphere, but none are successful.  The team then compares this rain with several similar ones throughout the world, some composed exclusively of toads, some of toads mixed with other vermin and some of other vermin alone.  Particular comparison is made with an earlier journal article (cf. Autumn, 1890) which described the rain of jellied eggs of unknown origin from the skies over Rhode Island that summer.  Though the few eggs that survived soon hatched into batrachian forms, none seem to have survived predation by local fauna.

'''About the Explorers'''

Lewis Jenyns is a biblical scholar from Cambridge specializing in plague stories.  R.P. Greg is an atmospherist from Baltimore who successfully predicted their 1904 blizzard.  Both have been with the Lazarus Trust for years.  Though retired from field work, they returned for this expedition due to earlier interest in the case (again, cf. Autumn, 1890).
 

===The Flora of the Orinoco River Basin===

'''Abstract'''

A detailed account of an expedition by boat down the full length of the Orinoco River and the flora found there.  The article includes numerous photographic plates and detailed, cut-away illustrations of many plants, including several rare species of orchid only found on the lower legs of the river.  (An earlier expedition included a detailed description of Pitch Lake, Venezuela, but only reached as far as Ciudad Bolívar.  Sampson Low, Marsten & Company released a book detailing the story of that journey in 1897.  This article represents an excerpted chapter to the follow-up work, to be published next year by same.)

'''About the Explorers'''

James H. Stark is an explorer with a history of extensive travel through the South American rainforests, particularly in the Brazilian basins of the Amazon River.  Though not a regular employee, the Lazarus Trust took on to fund this expedition.
 

===A Tomb Cast in Amber===

'''Abstract'''

A wild desert storm in the Ottoman province of Mesopotamia unearths an ancient ziggurat of Babylonian design, remarkably well-preserved given its mud-brick construction.  Unlike the Egyptians, the Babylonians regarded their ziggurats as dwelling places of the gods, holy temples where none but priests could walk unharmed.  The field team on hand to investigate delves into the somnolent tunnels.  They find a series of puzzles barring their way, but no true traps.  In the center of the temple, they find a huge sarcophagus made all of amber and covered in a script that superficially resembles cuneiform but does not yield sense when put through the Hincks/ Rawlinson/Oppert/Talbot transliteration system.  The sarcophagus is removed to Cairo, pending further study.  Though the Trust’s experts believe there is a mummy inside, none have yet been able the sarcophagus to say for certain.

'''About the Explorers'''

Daniel Garrett is an English Egyptologist of private training.  Mason Blackwell is a former soldier-for-hire.  Both have traveled extensively through the Middle East and Northern Africa on private research before joining the Lazarus Trust as field agents.  This is their first published work.  
 

===The Breathing Jungle===

'''Abstract'''

In the wake of several ferocious attacks on a village in the French colony of Cochinchina, a local Lazarus Trust agent joined a ritual tiger-hunting expedition with the twin goals of stopping the attacks and appeasing the local forest gods who, it is assumed, the people had angered to deserve such punishment.  The hunt takes place only in special native costume, designed to mimic the appearance of the tiger while simultaneously providing increased protection from its claws and teeth.  The hunters are also without the benefit of firearms and must rely only on hand-held spears.  The story covers the ritual before the hunt and the strange visions it engendered, as well as the hunt itself and its celebratory aftermath.

'''About the Explorer'''

Jean Paul Renaud is a new employee of the Trust, having only just joined, fresh out of his forensic studies at the University of Paris.  He is stationed in Saigon as a researcher.  This is his first article for the Journals.
 

===The Mystery of the Simian City===

'''Abstract'''

Following the wild stories told by local natives, a lone explorer delves into the dense jungles in east French Guinea.  For weeks he treks through a jungle where a single misstep means death and loses his guides to both the dangerous flora and fauna of the region and their own native superstitions about their destination.  Finally, in the living heart of the jungle, he finds a mysterious, advanced yet crumbling city, the structure of which indicates that it was designed for people of an ape-like physiology and social structure.  All the same, no evidence of the people themselves remains.  

'''About the Explorer'''

Michael Oliver trained in ecology at the University of Chicago and wrote his dissertation on gorilla migration and pod security techniques through central Africa.  Later, he moved to the jungles of India where he studied Tiger predation, and also archery with a yogic sect.  He has been a field explorer for the Lazarus Trust for the past five years; this is his second published article (cf. Winter, 1909).
 

===The Three Nagas Valley===

'''Abstract'''

The Trust’s agents stop a cult uprising in Karnataka and their attempts to summon a mystical thunderstorm to destroy Bangalore.  The city, the first in India to gain electricity, is supplied with hydro-electric power from a dam in the Three Nagas Valley.  A flood would have driven the turbines into overdrive and the resultant power surge, combined with flooding in the garden city itself, would have electrocuted everyone inside.  Investigators first worried when the pearl divers who operate in the Vrishabhavathi River began to go missing, along with their catches – pearls are, mythically, a source of power over water and sky spirits.  Quick exploration lead to the discovery of the cult’s dark temple, and the rapid strike by the forces of the Raj that followed ended their murderous plans.

In the Hindoo religion, Nagas are servants of the god Varuna, who rules “the dark half of the sky,” and are said to be shape-changing bringers of rain.  Their three chiefs are Manasa, Shesha and Vasuki.

'''About the Explorer'''

S. Wilson Rosepere is former Colonel for the British Marine Corps.  He fought in almost every war the British have been involved in since 1878 and joined the Lazarus Trust this year after a decade of military inaction.  This is his first article for the Journals.


==Summer, 1924==

===The Center of All Things===

'''Abstract'''

The tale of the temporary appearance, in the basement of a private residence in Argentina, of an “Aleph,” a point in space which contains universal space within it, where “all the places of the world, seen from every angle, coexist.”  By gazing up into this point, an observer will see all things, places and people on the earth at once.  The author takes great care to describe the surrealistic nature of the visions so gained and the mental exercises necessary to be able to cope with the cacophony of images and even, with a supreme effort of will, filter the universal vision down to see only particular locales or people of interest, no matter the distance and even if their whereabouts are unknown.  

The article also devotes space to rumors of similar points at the Amr Mosque in Cairo and in a tower in the lost city of Irem, and objects that can accomplish similar feats (such as a mirror given to Alexander the Great).  The piece ends with a mathematical attempt to predict where such transient points (called “Alephs” in the article) will appear next; “3X2(9YZ)4A” is the only portion of the formula to reach publication.

'''About the Explorer'''

Carlos Daneri was a patrician librarian from Rio de Janeiro.  He had been a researcher in that field office for the past three years.  This was his first published article for the Journals, and likely his last – the article was discovered on his desk after he suffered a nervous breakdown, believed to be caused by his inability to contain within his mind all at once the complex mathematical calculations he was attempting to formulate.
 

===The Flower of the Desert===

'''Abstract'''

Photographic essay of a rare flower that blooms in the Rub al Khali Desert on the Arabian Peninsula and the adaptations it has gone through to survive.  It subsists on minimal water, like a cactus, and has an extremely wide-spread and shallow root structure, sometimes stretching miles and joining several of the flowers into a symbiotic network.  The flower also bears spines tipped with a strange, highly toxic, poison.

'''About the Explorer'''

Olsen Ridge is a botanist from Holland who received his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam.  He spent several years cataloging the flora of the Australian Outback and the New Zealand plateaus before settling into a more sedentary life as a researcher for the Cairo office.


===The Faerys Resting Place===

'''Abstract'''

Excavation of two Faery Mounds in Ireland, complete with sketches of the site layout.  A large number of artifacts of both miniature and gigantic proportions were found, both crafted with exacting detail, in what appears to be ritual burial sites (biers were set aside, but no bodies were present).  Artifacts included were mostly drinking vessels in clay and gold, gold torcs, and arms and armor made of a highly reflective, chromed metal as light as aluminum but stronger than steel that the Trust has, as yet, been unable to identify.  

'''About the Explorer'''

Scott Palmer is a folklorist and musician from County Cork, Ireland.  An itinerant busker, reformed street thief, occasional pavement artist, guide-for-hire, driver, diver and actor in several two-penny operas, he has spent the past year as a member of the Trust’s second European field team, much of that time spent on this dig.  This is his first article for the Journals.
 

===The Lights that Sport With Gods===

'''Abstract'''

Photographs, in rough Autochrome color, of the Aurora Borealis in the skies over the Alaskan Territory and a series of folktales from the Inuit peoples who inhabit the region, depicting what the northern lights mean to their people.  Included are stories of the ancestors, seen dancing or playing in the lights, and the ability of some angakuq (holy men) to communicate with the honored dead and beseech them for blessings.  Of darker import are stories of the gods that live in the lights and their cannibalistic tendencies – to gaze at the lights was to risk attracting their attention and getting carried off and eaten.  The Inuit believe that their diet consists entirely of souls – animals are souls with physical form – and that to offend a spirit is potentially fatal for an entire tribe.  Says one shaman quoted in the article, "We don't believe.  We fear!"

'''About the Explorer'''

Knud Rasmussen is a Greenlandic polar explorer and anthropologist.  This article represents a portion of his findings from his fifth trip to the Alaska Territory, from which he has just returned (the first was from 1902 – 1904).  He does not work for the Trust, but the Trust funded this expedition in exchange for this article and the collection of Inuit artifacts (see New York archives).  Rasmussen has recently obtained a post as lecturer at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark
 

===Hand of the Black Dragon===

'''Abstract'''

Trust explorers investigate the disappearance of the daughters of several British businessmen and government officials in Hong Kong on behalf of the local authorities, only to discover that they’re being sold into laborious slavery by the Black Dragon Triad.  A desperate search through the city follows and, hot on the heels of that, a mad chase across China before the agents of the Black Dragon can reach the Kun L’un Mountains with their prize.  The chase ends with a pitched kong foo battle in a small town in a mountain pass and the Trust’s agents find themselves wearied, but successful.

'''About the Explorers'''

Sandra Wu-San was raised in a secret monastery in the northernmost reaches of China to be the ultimate soldier for a dark Daoist mystic sect.  Miyoshi Benjamin is the daughter of a British merchant and a Japanese noblewoman, raised in both the west and the east to seize control of both with her parents’ vast fortune.  Richard Lung was an outcast on the streets of Shanghai, making hits and running drugs for the Five Thunders Triad.  Each has turned away from their dark path to join the Trust and all have published several articles in the Journals before (cf. Winter 1919, Autumn 1920, Winter 1921, Summer 1921, Spring 1923).


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[[Terra Occulta]]