Mud Hole

There are certain places in Appalachia that no man should go. While locals talk of a vile demon that lives in the woods, the truth is much scarier.

The Scotts who migrated to the mountains were said to have mistakenly brought them from their homeland, where they were called Bodach.

The beastie is a hobgoblin in appearance. It is named after the Scottish Gaelic term for old man and is associated with being unlucky. Its true nature is far more terrifying.

The Appalachians call them Graftons. They dwell in sunken mud holes, waiting for a peccary, a form of wild pig, to fall in and become trapped.

Quicker than ants on honey, the demon strips the critter clean, leaving only a pile of meaty bones thrown up and out of the mud hole.

Wild mountain cats or stray dogs haul the bones off, leaving no trace of the beastie’s work. It makes finding and killing the demon nearly impossible. As Ted Barnwell says, “Kill’en T’aint the trouble; it’s a find’en them that’s the dickens.”

You might think the children would be in danger, but the beast doesn’t touch’em. The critter has been known to save lost young’ens, leaving them at the forest edge.

Johnny Cristian tells of the time his daughter went missing. She said the Happy Man played with her and took her out of the woods so her daddy could find her.

Not one has been killed in all the years that folks have been claiming to see the Grafton. That’s a different story for folks gone missing, found later in pieces, or not at all.

If you come to Appalachia for a holiday, it is best not to wander off the trails to get closer to nature. You might end up dinner for the Happy Man.