Barghest
Barghest, Bargtjest or Bargest is the name gien in the north o Ingland, speicially in Yorkshire, tae a meethical monstrous boodie-dug wi great muckle teeth an cleuks.
The ghaist-hoond unner sindry names is weel-kent in fowklair:
- The Wirricowe o Tedworth, the Black Dug o Winchester an the Padfuit o Wakefield aw shared the chairactereestics o the Barghest o York.
- In Wales its coonterpairt wis Gwyllgi, the Dug o Mirk, a frichtsome wraith o a mastiff wi balefu braith an bleizin reid een. A Welsh variant is the Cwn Annwn, or dugs o hell.
- In Lancashire the ghaist-hoond is cried Trash or Striker.
- In Cambridgeshire an on the Norfolk coast it's kent as Black Shuck or Shock.
- In the Inch o Man it is stylt Mauthe Dug. Fowk believes that onybody that sees the dug clearly will dee eenou efter the encoonter. It is mentiont bi Sir Walter Scott in The Lay o the Last Minstrel--
- "For he wis speechless, ghastly, wan
- Like him o whom the Storie ran
- Who spoke the spectre hoond in Man."
- In Jersey fowklair, the Black Dug o Dth is cried the Tchico, but a sib belief in the Tchian d'Bouôlé (Black Dug o Bouley) tells o a phanton dug that's kythin presages storms. The story is believed tae hae been fordert bi smugglers that socht tae discourage muinlicht flittins bi fowk that micht witness the flittin o contraband.
The barghest wis foremaist a nicht ghaist, an its kythin wis regairdit as a portent o daith. Its Welsh furm is nithert tae the sea-coast pairishes, an on the Norfolk coast the craitur is jaloused tae be ampheebious, comin oot the sea bi nicht an traivellin aboot the lanely loanins.
The derivation o the wird barghest is threapit ower. Ghaist in the north o Ingland is pronounced guest, an the name is thocht tae be burh-ghest, toun-ghaist. ihers expone it as German Berg-geisl, muntain wirricowe, or Bar-geist, beir-wirricowe, in allusion tae its leged appearance at times as a beir. The barghest haes a kinsman in the Rongeur d'Os o Norman fowklair.
References
eedit- Wirt Sikes, Breetish Goblins (1880); Notes and Queries, foremaist series, ii. 51;
- Joseph Ritson, Fairy Tales (Lond. 1831), p. 58;
- Lancashire Fowklair (1867);
- Joseph Lucas, Studies in Nidderdale (Pateley Bridge, 1882).