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BRITISH BOGEYMAN
A malevolent creature from British folklore. Some of them
are merely troublesome and rather harmless, but others are
truly evil. They are shape changers, who can move objects and
cause disruptions.
Although a bogeyman generally haunts a
family, in some cases they can become friends with the family and a
playmate for the children. The bogle is a more evil
type of bogeyman, although it usually harms only liars and
murderers.
He prefers forsaken places.
Indoors he likes to inhabit cellars, attics, and underneath beds
and stairs where he can hide in the dark. Outdoors he prefers
caves and tree hollows.
A bogeyman can be spotted by quickly looking through a
knothole in a wooden partition. If a bogeyman is on the other
side, one might catch the dull gleam of his eye before he has
time to move away.
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The bogeyman is an
amorphous, dark, dusty creature who is very difficult to see.
The bogeymen are vague in appearance and they resemble a large
puff of dust.
Bogeymen possibly come from the "bugis," who were pirates
from Indonesia and Malaysia. English and French sailors
brought the tales home and anglicized it, telling their
children "If you're bad, the bugisman will come and get
you!" Eventually, bugis got changed to bogey.
The bogeyman likes to create minor mischief, chiefly by
hovering behind your back and staring until you shiver.
Extremely clumsy by nature, he's responsible for much of what
goes bump in the night. He also thinks it's funny to pull off
humans bedclothes on cold nights. A good way to scare away the
bogeyman is by turning on all the lights in your house as he recoils from bright light.
Variants: boogey man,
boogies, bugisman, bugis.
In that sulphurous, sunless and sinister place
he'll crumple your bones in his bogey embrace.
Never never go near if you hold your life dear,
for oh! . . .
what he'll do . . . when he gets you!
Jack Prelutsky, The Bogeyman
(1976)
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