Did a search on Google. I am not into this sort of this but the internet if full of this stuff! Here you go! Jim Burgess http://www.whatwasthen.com/halloween.htm RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES This was the full name, but it is sometimes shortened to 'Bloody Bones' or 'Old Bloody Bones', and sometimes to 'Tommy Rawhead'. Samuel Johnson in his dictionary defines it as 'the name of a spectre, mentioned to fright children', and quotes instances from Dryden and Locke. In Lancashire and Yorkshire, 'Tommy Rawhead' or 'Rawhead and Bloody Bones' is a water demon haunting old marl-pits or deep ponds to drag children down into their depths, like the other Nursery Bogies, Peg Powler and Nelly Longarms. Mrs Wright, in RUSTIC SPEECH AND FOLK LORE, quotes a typical warning: 'Keep away from the marl-pit or rawhead and bloody bones will have you.' #100-752 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Bones http://mywebpages.comcast.net/scottandrewh/bb.html http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/09/rawhead-and-bloody-bones.html http://www.randomhouse.com/features/lkhamilton/essay.html -----Original Message----- From: D Browning [mailto:famsteel@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 1:51 PM To: WVLOGAN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [WVLOGAN] For Shelby & Other "Youngins" My grandmother, Synthia Ann (Workman) Smith (born 1874) used to tell us scarey stories that had been passed from generation to generatkion in her family. One of the stories was "Rawhead And Bloody Bones". I can't remember the plot, but seems like RHABB lived in an attic? (Maybe murdered in an attic? But I may have it confused with another story?) I tried to "Google" it but coudn't find the actual story. It appears that there were different versions- mostly a monster living in a swamp. Some say the story was Gaelic, some say Celtic, some say English (Lancashire and Yorkshire) and some say that slaves brought the story from Africa.The Oxford English Dictionary dates the name Rawhead And Bloody Bones back as far as circa1550. Does anyone remember your parents or grandparents telling you the story called "Rawhead And Bloody Bones"? Would love to read some of the old stories that our Logan County ancestors used to tell us when we were children (60 to 80 years ago). Dodie --------------------------------- Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min. ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx

Thanks, Jim. I googled it before I wrote to the list. I was never "into that sort of thing" either- most likely the reason I blocked it out of memory. Folklore and story telling (especially ghost stories) are an important part of our Logan County Heritage though. --------------------------------- Groups are talking. We´re listening. Check out the handy changes to Yahoo! Groups.