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By Halloween, the Pooka “will have done his business” all over the wild fruits, soiling the blackberries, the sloes, the haws and the hips, so that nobody should pick or eat them from this point onwards.
Halloween is the end point of the fertile year; the time of stasis in nature coloured by the long dark nights and the biting cold. In our sensing of death in nature, we are reminded of the dead, our loved ones and ancestors and it is at this threshold that we feel they are more present.
In addition, it is the time when the frightening personages and creatures of the Otherworld are seen to appear and central to this foreboding dark time is the figure of the Pooka.
There are innumerable accounts of the terrifying Pooka in our folklore as he appears in his many forms, as a headless pig, a big red bull, a gigantic ram, half a wolf and half a horse, a big donkey, even an eagle. He is most usually manifest as a pure black horse with a full black tail and flowing mane, with red eyes like fire and its breath of blue flames smelling of sulphur. It should be noted that you are most likely to meet the dreaded Pooka not only at Halloween but when having consumed a surfeit of alcohol. Fully inebriated and anxious to get home, you might take a shortcut across the bog and on the path the Pooka will come for you from behind and with one drive of his head, toss you on to his back.
Gallop
The Pooka then sets off on a terrifying gallop at breakneck speed, vaulting hedges and ditches, clearing rivers, streams and lakes, charging up mountains and cutting through briary gaps, scraping the rider off sceach bushes and briar, sometimes covering all of Ireland, before throwing its rider off into a bog hole or thorny furze bush. The unsuspecting rider is severely traumatised after the ordeal and often their hair turns white from the shock, while some die soon after. However, it is generally believed that the Pooka does not set out to cause anyone any permanent harm but to teach them a lesson and most live to tell the tale.
Every farmer knows the animal pathways and well-worn tracks made by the fox and other wildlife over the years and some of these are the same circuits used by the Pooka. There are tales of the farmer who, having set a field of oats, decided to block up a gap with some furze only to find themselves the direct recipient of the Pooka’s ire. He was subject to an involuntary midnight gallop and was landed on the offending furze that he quickly cleared away.
In search of gold
Equally, there are many accounts of the Pooka associated with ancient ringforts where he guards a throve of gold concealed under a large stone. Such a belief may spring from the souterrains or underground chambers in the ringforts. In any case, you had to be extremely brave to go in search of the gold and one man who tried by day uncovered a large casket but there was nothing inside but empty snail shells, or as they are called, “pooka shells”. If he had gone at night the shells would have been gold!
There are many folktales that tell of how some very hardy, brave characters subdued the Pooka and went out to confront him. Their bravery came from their possession of spurs and when the Pooka takes them on his back, the sharp cold iron of the spurs digging into the Pooka’s ribs allows the rider to assume control over the chaos of the otherworld wild horse. In another account, a man confronts the Pooka at night by stabbing him with a sharp, black-handled iron knife. The Pooka asks him to withdraw it, but he refuses and in the morning, there is nothing of the Pooka but a mass of blood and jelly.
Saucer of colcannon
Finally, it is at Halloween that the Pooka is most conspicuous. You should leave a saucer of colcannon on the dresser to appease him and make sure you throw out the foot water after washing the family’s feet. There is an account of the family who left the basin of water by the door and who was passing but the Pooka. He put his head inside the door to drink it and the last drop of it he spat in the faces of those asleep and they all died! So this Halloween, if you hear the sound of horse’s hooves coming up behind you, my advice is to stay well clear!
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