Barking at The Hobyahs

Hank the Dog has many good qualities.  In particular he takes his duties as Watch Dog very seriously.  Too seriously I've often thought, raising a loud Red Alert if he sees someone wearing a shirt slightly suggestive of a mail man two blocks away.

But maybe I've misjudged him.  I'm sure he regards me as a worthy Master but clueless as to the dire perils of the world.  Some people claim that dogs can perceive things beyond our senses, and I suppose they could be right.  Which brings me to The Hobyahs.

As I've had to pick through the Detritus of my parents' household, all manner of old artifacts and old memories are unearthed.  Here's one:

At Lowell Elementary School the reading material on hand was dated and, how can I say this, not always up to modern sensibilities.  So I definitely remember reading about Little Black Sambo.  There were tigers involved.  It became an unfortunate thing to mention with regards to Black America.  In a sense this was incorrect.  The story of Sambo was written and illustrated by a Scottish author who had lived in India for many years.   But that's not related to Hank.  He'd turn tail and run at the sight of a good sized cat, never you mind a tiger.

No, I recall another story.  That of Little Dog Turpy and the Hobyahs.  I thought it was a West African tale.  Basically an old man, an old woman, and a little girl live in a small house with their Little Dog Turpy.  Every night evil creatures called Hobyahs come and say they are going to devour the adults and make off with the little girl.  Sheesh, I guess it took more to "trigger" people back in the 1960's.

Turpy barks, well, barks his fool head off and the Hobyahs run away  His foolish master cuts off Turpy's tail as punishment.  On subsequent nights this happens again and again, each morning the really stupid master chops off a leg, etc, until eventually Little Dog Turpy loses his head.  Literally.  That night the Hobyahs break in and do all those horrid things.  (The little girl does eventually get rescued).

This was in story books for grade school kids!!!!!

As it happens, the story is not West African.  Yep, another one from Scotland.  Supposedly it was included in a collection of fairy tales compiled by a Mr. S.V. Proudfoot.  Who learned it from somebody in Perth Scotland.   Hmmmm, something seems a bit off here.

If you know your Tolkien, oh and I do, there is a family of Hobbits by the name of Proudfoot.  Somebody once asked JRR if he knew the Hobyah story, and if it had anything to do with his creation, the Hobbits.  He denied it, saying he'd never heard this particular fairy tale.

Well, there you have it.  I shall conclude with two observations.  As I am planning our spring trip to the UK there is some discussion of a side trip up into Scotland.  Out of curiosity I took a look at where Perth actually is.  The first thing that came up on Google was a Lost Dog notice!

And finally, as no actual description of the Hobyahs seems to exist, I guess I'll just have to keep trusting Little Dog Hank to keep them away.