The Boo Hag

Georgia folktale about a man who suspects that his beautiful new bride might be a witch – the Boo Hag.  
written by Veronica Byrd with Craig Dominey.

Click over to The Moonlit Road to hear Veronica Byrd read this story aloud.

Brother Emmet Fisher was a fine looking young man who lived in a tiny community on the Georgia coast. He was well respected in town for being an honest, hardworking fellow. Although he wasn’t wealthy, he made a nice-enough living doing handiwork for the local townspeople.

Emmet was getting close to marrying age, and every woman in town was jumping at the chance to be his chosen. He’d have unexpected visits from different women every day bearing gifts of fried chicken, gumbo, cakes, cookies and other delicacies.

But Emmet had his eyes set on a beautifully mysterious young woman who lived alone in a small cabin deep in the marsh. She was incredibly beautiful, with long dark hair, smooth skin and piercing green eyes. But word around town was that she was a little strange, and it was best to stay away from her.

Emmet, however, couldn’t get this mysterious woman out of his head. What made her even more intriguing was the fact that she would walk through town, turning heads with every step, but never did she acknowledge the admiring glances or catcalls from numerous, hopeful, would-be suitors. In fact, no one in town could ever remember this woman speaking a word to anybody.

After several months of watching this gorgeous beauty walk through town, Emmet finally worked up enough nerve to call on her at her marsh cabin. His plan was to go fishing one day in a tidal creek that just so happened to be near her home. While out fishing, he conveniently broke his water jug into a hundred little pieces. Brother Emmet walked up to the woman’s house and knocked on the door.

As the door slowly creaked open and the woman peeked out, Emmet nervously cleared his parched throat. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he stammered, “my name is Emmet Fisher, and I seem to have broken my water jug. Could you please spare me just a cup of water? I’m mighty thirsty.”

The woman smiled and invited him in without hesitation. Her voice was even more beautiful and silky that Emmet had imagined. She not only gave Emmet a cup of water, but to his surprise, asked him to stay for supper. The food was delicious, and the woman waited on Emmet hand and foot. Before he knew it, she invited him to stay for breakfast the next day, then lunch, then another dinner.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Brother Emmet found himself married to the mysterious woman.

After their sudden marriage, Emmet and his bride got along reasonably well for a while. But after a few months, he began to notice that something peculiar was going on with his new wife. On certain nights, when the clock struck midnight, Emmet would sometimes wake up to find that his wife wasn’t in bed with him, nor could she be found anywhere in the house. Emmet began to get worried that she might be seeing someone else on the side, and confronted her about it. But she would just laugh and reassure him that she was, indeed, in the house, and that he must be having nightmares.

As his wife began to disappear more often, Emmet decided to confide in one of his best friends who had also just gotten married. After hearing Emmet’s story, his friend shook his head and said, “Emmet, I hate to say this, but it sounds to me like you might’ve married yo’self a boo-hag.”

“A boo-hag?” asked Emmet. “What’s a boo-hag?”

His friend went on to explain: “Well, a boo-hag is an evil spirit that wakes up at night, sheds her skin like a snake, and flies outside and sucks the blood out of victims from near and far. A boo-hag is an evil spirit that sits on your chest and steals your voice. A boo-hag is an evil spirit that sits on your back and rides you all night like a horse until you drop dead.”

Horrified, Emmet said, “Well, I sho’ don’t want to be married to no boo-hag, if that’s what she is. What am I gonna do about it?” …

 Click on over to The Moonlit Road to find out how Emmet gets rid of his witchy wife. 

This concludes our October ghost stories with The Moonlit Road. To find out more about the site, read our interview with Georgia founder Craig Dominey here.