“The Curse of the Totem” appeared in Supernatural Stories #65, October 1962. The author is R. L. Fanthorpe. Robert Lionel Fanthorpe is the author of 250 books. When not cranking out fiction for Badger Books, he spent his time chasing UFOs, Templars and other mysteries. He transitioned from magazine and book writing to radio and television about these subjects.
Supernatural Tales was a paperback magazine that started in May 1954. Published by John Spencer & Co., the magazine was edited by Sam Assael and Maurice Nahum as John S. Manning. These gents left just before “The Curse of the Totem” appeared. After issue 40, every other issue was a novel. The entire contents of Issue #65 was written by Fanthorpe under a series of pseudonyms. “Curse of the Totem” was first and appeared under Fanthorpe’s real name. (Some of his more famous SF pen names includes Pel Toro.)
“The Curse of the Totem” is set in an unspecified North American location. Alalu is a member of a Native tribe. He is banished from his home when he lets a wolf escape from a trap. He spends five years living among the animals. When he returns to the tribe he is hoping to use this new knowledge to buy his forgiveness. Unfortunately the chief, Black Wolf, wants him dead. He is tied up but the chief’s daughter, Dancing Moonbeam cuts him loose. He flees.
Alalu runs but falls foul of a white gunslinger, Ace Boulder. The adventurer ties Alalu up to force him to tell where the tribe has a cave filled with totems. The white man wants the gold from that cave. Black Wolf, along with his shaman, Curling Feather, and two braves find the white man and his captive. Dancing Moonbeam also shows up to beg for Alalu’s life. Boulder is struck by her beauty and wants her as well as the gold. Black Wolf says he can have the gold and the girl. Ace is smart enough to know this deal doesn’t include living long enough to enjoy either.
Boulder shoots and kills all the braves including Black Wolf. He knows Alalu and Dancing Moonbeam are sweet on each other. He ties the girl up to a tree and whips her, threatening worse if the young man doesn’t tell him where the cave is. Alalu relents. With boy, girl and old shaman in tow, Ace forces them all up the mountain to the secret location. Curling Feather complains as they make the long way up. To make the journey worse, Fanthorpe subjects us to writing like this:
…The mountain seemed to have no beginning and no end. Just an endless amorphous uphill grind. On and on; on and on; weary step after weary step; dragging tired limbs after tired limbs; three men and a girl up a mountain. A boy on the mountain, a girl on the mountain, a giant on the mountain, a weary old man on the mountain…up and up, past jagged rocks, past trees, past scrubby bushes, every now and again came the howl of a mountain lion, the grunt of a bear, the long drawn-out call of the wolf.
The sure sign of a Pulpster paid by the word or trying to fill an entire magazine…
Finally they arrive at the cave entrance. Inside the totem poles of the tribe sit, looking creepy. Ace isn’t afraid. He shoots the face off one of the poles and laughs. He turns his attention to the treasure. In a chest he finds gold coined by lost Spanish explorers and large gold nuggets. He is rich. He now admits he is going to kill the man and the boy. The girl he will play with for a few weeks first. Curling Feather says he will summon the totems. Ace laughs, tells him to do his worst. The old man prays and Boulder shoots him dead at the foot of faceless totem. His blood is a kind of sacrificial offering.
The light in the cave darkens. A weird reddish glow comes from the faceless pole. The dead body of the shaman rises, now transformed by an evil power. The totemic monster hugs Ace and crushes his life from him. Then it turns to the boy and girl. It demands Alalu stay and die for his crimes against the tribe. Dancing Moonbeam refuses to leave. She talks to the demon, quickly realizing it is not a power of good but evil. The totem demon admits it does not follow the Creator. Dancing Moonbeam says it has no right to kill Alalu. It doesn’t care and attacks.
From the cave door a wolf leaps into their circle. It is the animal Alalu freed by the scar on its paw. The wolf grows to a gigantic size. It is actually the Wolf Spirit, father of all wolves. It bites the demon and begins to kill it. Alalu and Dancing Sunbeam escape from the cave, free to return to their people.
I mentioned some of the Pulpy writing in this story. There are other examples. One that made me laugh is when Fanthorpe calls the demon indescribable in the best Lovecraftian manner. Since it is is indescribable he doesn’t even try. Instead he uses plenty of psychical research terminology in a way that doesn’t suit a tale of the Old West.”…Its deadly psychic power would have meant death or worse at the first touch. It was actually wrapped right around the gunman. It was exerting fantastic psychic pressure…” (This was a fault Algernon Blackwood suffered from at times too.)
Perhaps worse than his purple prose (only at times, not throughout, Fanthorpe is actually pretty readable) is his lack of research. He has people who live in teepees building totem poles (and then placing them in a cave!) The Plain Indians were teepee builders, while the Coastal Indians of Alaska to Oregon had totem poles. Not both. As for cave totem poles, that’s a new one. Fanthorpe references Hiawatha, and Longfellow is probably the extent of his research. He avoids all references to actual tribes or locations so this story could take place just about anywhere there are forests and mountains. Is it a Western or a Northern? It is hard to say. Some comic books of the 1950-1970s are cut from the same cloth.
