SOURCE: "The Witch of the Mists" by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter (Fantastic, August 1972)

DESCRIPTION: "They were lean men, gaunt as mummies and of superhuman stature...many topped seven feet. From throat to wrist and heel they were clad in black garments that fitted as tightly as gloves. Even their heads were hooded in tight black cowls. Their hands were bony, thin, and long-fingered, and they bore curious weapons. These rods or batons, over two feet long, of sleek, gleaming black wood. The ends of each rod were tipped with spherical knobs of dull, silvery metal...The Witchman had removed his ivory mask, so thar Conan could see his face. It was pale and bony and bore an expression of inhuman serenity." ("The Witch of the Mists" by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter)

NOTES: The Witchmen use their rods to paralyze their foes. They are fanatical worshippers led by a witch-queen. Hyperborea is a desolate land surrounded by swamps. These tall, white-skinned priests are not like other men in Hyborea but an ancient survival from another age, possibly Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea.

HISTORY: De Camp and Carter do a good job of making these men quite creepy at the beginning but Conan and his son Conn wade through them at the end of the story far too easily.

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