SOURCES:
"Come Into My Parlor" by Manly Wade Wellman

Description: “That nearest house ... was more or less a plumb ruin to see. It looked bent thisaway and that by time's heavy hand ... It didn't show logs in the building of it; it was smooth, like brown plaster. What had at first look seemed to be shingles on the roof weren't like the shingles I rightly knew. More like flattened-out lumps, to remind me of the lichens you see a-growing out on dead trees and rocks...And the whole roof, instead of squared off lines, had a sag to it, a roundness to the edges of it, more or less like the cap of a toadstool. And, as I've said, no chimney to it. The windows weren't like windows, either. More like eyes, drooped under cross-bars like eyelids... The house, I made out to see by now, didn't have a true door, just a sort of drape hung there, of what dark stuff I couldn't make out. If I walked to it, I could push it aside easy and go in...” (“Come Into My Parlor” by Manly Wade Wellman)

NOTES: The gardinel looks like a house in the darkness or heavy rain. Once inside the victim will feel the floor and walls are soft and cushiony. The digestive acids will flow from these surfaces.

HISTORY: This story is a great example of how Wellman could take ideas from folklore and play with them. The tale doesn't read like a folktale but it contains all the charm of the idea.

INTERESTING LINK

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