"Black Butterflies" by Elmer Brown Mason (first published in All-Story Weekly, June 24, 1916; reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1949; in Rainbow Fantasia: 35 Spectrumatic Tales of Wonder, edited by Forrest J Ackerman, 2001; in Brown's collection of stories, The Golden Anaconda, 2009; in= Apemen!: Classic Tales of Anthropoids, edited by T. M. Gray & Charles G. Waugh, 2013 [revised version edited by Gray, Jon A. Schlenker, & Waugh, 2021]; and in Zoologica Fantastica, edited by Chad Arment. 2013)
A nifty lost civilization story -- the type that was done so well in the early pulp magazines, and sometimes so poorly.
"The way was strewn with the dead who had dared seek out the secret of those jungle depths ... but the lure was gold at safari's end, and the priceless wings of the sable butterfly no man had ever caught..." -- introduction to the story in Famous Fantastic Mysteries.
In brief, practical Scotsman Andy Freeman and his good friend, the obstinate Englishmen Trebor Dillingame, head into the depths of the Borneo jungle in search of rare butterflies and other species to sell to wealthy clients back home. Specifically, they are search of a giant black butterfly -- a hitherto unknown species. They are joined in their expedition by the villainous, treacherous, and murderous Gomez, who is in search for the reputed gold that lies deep in the jungle. As they proceed, they encounter a beautiful white goddess who claims to be immortal, a race of humanoid apes, an ancient Chinese tong, flesh-eating insects, a giant underwater leech demanding sacrifices, and danger at every turn.
How could you ask for anything more?
Among the ingredients for this fantastic and enjoyable tale are:
- Kratas, the Preistess of the Land of Blood, who knows not death, who lives forever, and is the guardian of the souls of the dead. The superstitious call her a hantus, a witch and a spirit who lives on the top of Mount Kina Balu. Kratas is very strong and very agile, and can disappear into the jungle easily; she is highly jealous and has fallen in ,love with Dillingame, whom she is obligated to slay.
- A mysterious and unnamed Chinese tong, which ruled Borneo long before the English, or even the Dutch appeared. In this area, they live in a hidden city and are ruled by the cruel mandarin <Lo Chin, a giant 400-pound tyrant with a terribly disfigured face, a punshment for committing patricide.
- The primitive Ida'an, a tribe under the control of the Chinese.
- A race of ape men, perhaps orangutangs, clad in sarongs and with human-like hair piled on top of their heads to contain poison darts. They are experts with blowguns, but appear to be under the sway of Kratas.
- Giant, flesh-eating caterpillars, eventually to mature into giant black butterflies which thirst for blood. The black butterflies are sacred because they contain the souls of dead priests.
- A monstrous giant carnivorous leech living underneath a mysterious pool with red water. Various Chinese and apemen are fed to it as sacrifices.
- A treasure trove of gold dust and nuggets, which is regularly transported out of the jungle to fund the tong in a manner that no authorities are aware of. The dust is often carried inside large porcupine quills.
- And the Borneo jungle itself -- steaming hot, deadly, and mysterious. It is portrayed in a very realistic manner by the author, who had spent time in Borneo and knows of what he writes.
