The Children of Dagon
An Investigation of the Paranormal

by Justin Ratpick Moore
    
“I think their predominant colour was grayish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth

     The subtle influence of Dagon seems to have penetrated the once peaceful Ohio River valley where his deranged children, the Deep Ones, have reportedly been lurking. These vaguely humanoid denizens of the dark and muddy waters resurfaced out of a shadowy abyss during the 1950’s and 70’s into the limelight of public consciousness.
     Dagon, one of the Old Ones portrayed in the Lovecraft Mythos, is also mentioned several times in the Bible. He had a human face but the lower portion of his body was that of a fish and was the foremost deity of such ancient maritime cities as Azotus, Gaza, Ascalon, and Arvad. The name Dagon is a diminutive form derived from the Semitic root form dag, that means “little fish”.   Judges 16:23 recalls the violent nature of the worshippers of this ancient Palestinian deity: “Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and rejoice.”  Certainly a god who requires sacrifice is not for those with queasy stomachs or who care about the lives of animals. The Children of Dagon have inherited this voracious inclination for violence and bloodshed.
        The word Dagon is very similar to Dogon the name of the famous African tribe. The Dogon people possessed an intimate knowledge of the star system Sirius from which they claim that all of their inherited culture, handed down orally within the initiated priesthood, descended to them by entities known as the Nommo. Collectively the Nommos are called “masters of the water” and are said to be the guardians of spiritual principles here on Earth. These beings came to Earth in a flying saucer shaped “ark” around the general area of the Middle East thousands of years ago. Once here they dug pits in the ground and filled them with water so they would have the cool moisture and H2O necessary for their amphibious existence in the arid heat of the African savannahs. After spending some time among the natives and transmitting useful astronomical data to them, giving them lessons in etiquette and shamanic mysticism, the Nommo returned back to their more comfortable water planet orbiting in the Sirius system to await a time when humanity had learned a little more about the basics of intergalactic civilization. Could the Nommo then be the Children of Dagon who have been haunting the Ohio River basin since the middle of the twentieth century? Are they trying to make contact with humanity?              
1955 was a busy year for the Children of Dagon, amphibious bipedal creatures that are said to dwell in the Ohio River and it’s tributaries. In May of that year, a man driving home at 3:30 AM in Loveland OH, located northeast of Cincinnati, pulled over his car on the shoulder of the road when he sighted three frog like reptilian creatures, one of which was waving a wand device that shot sparks out of it. The driver notified local police authorities of what he had witnessed in those three minutes of terror before the mysterious beings disappeared. No substantial proof for the creatures was ever found and the witness was labeled an imaginative quack.
    Three months later the Children of Dagon struck again during the sweltering heat of a hot August 21st day in Evansville, Indiana.  Mrs. Darwin Johnson had decided to cool off by taking a refreshing swim in the polluted Ohio River.  From out of the murky depths her aquatic assailant gripped at her knee with its menacing claws, pulling her under.  Struggling with this unseen fiend, she managed to fight her way out of its horrible grip. Yet not soon after her first gasp of air was she dragged down below into what almost became her watery grave. With a stroke of heaven sent luck Mrs. Johnson was able to reach out her hand and grab onto the inner tube of a nearby friend. The thumping noise she made when pulling herself up and landing on it, amidst her wailing splashes and screams, seemed to have scared her attacker off, sending it back down to its underwater lair where it still may be hiding to this very day waiting for other would-be victims. The creature left a green stain on Mrs. Johnson’s knee, along with a few scratches where the beast had groped at her, for which she sought the advice of a medical doctor.
     Nearly seventeen years later in 1972 a Frogman reappeared to a Loveland police officer who prefers to remain anonymous. He was driving slowly along an icy Riverside Road about an hour after midnight when his headlights shined on what he thought was a dog laying in the middle of the road.  As he halted the cruiser the animal rose to its hind legs to a towering height of three or four feet revealing its moist and leathery skin and hideous frog like lizard head. The slimy web footed “thing” glanced at the officer long enough to strike fear in the poor police officers heart before bouncing over the guard rail and slipping back into the chilly mist covered waters of the Little Miami River.
Several hours later the witness returned with another cop to investigate the scene of the uncanny encounter.  All they found were scrap marks on the embankment.
Within two weeks another unnamed Loveland cop was privileged enough to stumble across a similar creature while driving down the same stretch of Riverside Road. The animal that he saw was alone and once again laying on the pavement.  Getting out of the car with the intention of putting what he thought to be road kill on the side of the street, the apparently injured reptilian being got up, gasped through its gills, and limped towards the guard rail, dragging one of its legs. In typical police fashion the officer shot at the frogish entity, but due to inadequate training was unable to hit his target.
These appearances were followed in March by a visitation from the Children of Dagon on a Loveland farmers land.
In October 1975, residents of Milton Kentucky -which borders the Ohio River- reported the sighting of an upright walking “Giant Lizard”. Clarence Cable said that this creature was roaming the forests near his junkyard. Described by author Peter Guttilla as “about fifteen feet long, had a foot long forked tongue, and big eyes that bulged something like a frog’s. It was dull white with black and white stripes across its body with quarter sized speckles over it.” Mark A. Hall, an on site investigator, pointed out that this “Giant Lizard” only ran in an upright fashion according to other Trimble County witnesses whom he had questioned, important evidence when deciphering this most fiendish of mysteries.
Paranormal investigators hot on the tail of these malevolent beings have begun to contemplate the possibility of a secret race of intelligent amphibious entities inhabiting the creeks and rivers of the surrounding tri-state area. These Children of Dagon are quite possibly the Nommo talked about by the African tribe of the Dogon. Some researchers have speculated on the possibility that these beings are perhaps responsible for the recent flourish of crop circle activity seen in southern Ohio. Special dyslexicon operatives have begun donning scuba gear in preparation for an intensive sweep search of all local rivers and creeks to locate and establish peaceful communication with the creatures.
In the meantime it would be wise for you to make sacrifices to Dagon in order to assure your safety from the Nommo when in the Ohio River Valley for it is only a matter of time before they surface again.

Note: This article originally appeared in “Thee Dylsexicon: Journal of Hypnagogic Revelations, Psychopompic Fluctuations, Flotsam, Jetsam, and Recalcitrant Debris” Issue #7, of which Justin is the editor and curator. A lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio issue #7 explored the theme of “A Brief HerStory of Queen City Occulture” and featured interviews with Nema, Louis Martinie, and Owen Knight along articles about the ancient earthworks and ley lines of Ohio, early initiates of Cincinnati, the hollow earth theories of John Cleves Symmes and many other odd and sundry items. The issue comes with an audio disc of esoteric musick from that river city. For information about acquiring a copy of Thee Dyslexicon please send inquiries to: satyroz@hotmail.com