SOURCE: "The Beast in the Cave" (The Vagrant, June 1918)
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" (The Vagrant, May 1920)
"The Picture in the House" (The National Amateur, July 1920)
"The Tomb" (The Vagrant, March 1922)
"The Lurking Fear" (Home Brew, April 1923)
"The Rats in the Walls" (Weird Tales, March 1924) by H. P. Lovecraft
"Pickman's Model" (Weird Tales, October 1927)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Weird Tales, May-July 1947)
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (Beyond the Wall of Sleep, 1943)

DESCRIPTION: "...These figures were seldom completely human, but often approached humanity in varying degree. Most of the bodies, while roughly bipedal, had a forward slumping, and a vaguely canine cast. The texture of the majority was a kind of unpleasant rubberiness...It was a colossal and nameless blasphemy with glaring red eyes, and it held in bony claws a thing that had been a man, gnawing at the head as a child nibbles at a stick of candy. Its position was a kind of crouch, and as one looked one felt that at any moment it might drop its present prey and seek a juicier morsel. But damn it all, it wasn't even the fiendish subject that made it such an immortal fountain-- head of all panic-- not that, nor the dog face with its pointed ears, bloodshot eyes, flat nose, and drooling lips. It wasn't the scaly claws nor the mould-caked body nor the half-hooved feet-- none of these, though any one of them might well have driven an excitable man to madness." ("Pickman's Model" by H. P. Lovecraft)

NOTES: The ghoul is a create that begins as a man (or stolen child) and slows devolves into a monster. This may happen because their is ghoul blood in the ancestry and the person is drawn to it unwillingly. These people who are drawn go and live in the tunnels and tombs where ghouls dwell, eating human flesh which prolongs life. Over the centuries they stop being human in appearance and become dog-headed and hooved. Their bodies have a rubbery texture. The tunnels in the ground may lead them to the dreamlands where ghouls are organized and fight wars with other creatures like ghasts.

HISTORY: Lovecraft developed his ideas about ghouls over several stories. The earliest is "The Beast in the Cave" that was written in 1905 though published 13 years later. In "The Picture in the House" (1920) he explains how eating human flesh preserves the creature. In "Pickman's Model" he gives the full story of their activities through descriptions of paintings. He tells how they will steal a child and leave a changeling in its place. The changeling will then infect the bloodline with ghoul traits. The stolen child is taught to eat from graves and devolves into one of them. In "The Rats in the Walls" (1924) and "The Tomb" (1922) we follow a man from normalcy into degeneration. In "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (written in 1927) we follow Randolph Carter into The Dreamlands and see the war between the ghouls and the ghasts and meet up with the artist Pickman once again. Lovecraft's dog-headed ghouls would inspire Robert E. Howard's Dog Demon, The Dogheads of Almuric, The Ghouls of Yanaidar, and The Dwellers Under the Tombs. A film version of "The Lurking Fear" showed the Martense family ghouls. The Descent (2006) borrowed heavily from Lovecraft's ghouls as well.

The Descent