LL-L "Folklore" 2002.08.17 (06) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 17.AUG.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Folklore

Sandy,

Thanks for sharing the scary Scots lullabies!

> So now we have the "boo-man" with a "black pock" -
> and we see what the pock is for!
>
> Does anyone know any more about this kind of "bogle"?

I'm afraid I'm old enough to have been one of the children who were
still routinely "scared to sleep" in this manner.  The bogeyman with a
black bag/sack is an all too familiar figure, throughout Northern
Germany, apparently also in the south.

A female version is rare but not unknown, usually called something like
a "witch" that eats unruly children that don't go to sleep, perhaps a
cross-over from the East Frisian "Waalriedersch" tradition we discussed
a while back.

This bogeyman ~ bogle(man) ~ boogieman ~ bugbear ~ boo-man ... is called
_Bumann_ ['bu:ma.n] in Lowlands Saxon (Low German), in the eastern
dialects _Bulemann_ ['bu:lema.n], _Bullerlux_ ['bU.l3`lUks] or
_Bummeljan_ ['bU.ml=ja.n] ~ ['bU.ml=j@:n], in German _Butzemann_.

In many traditions, this fiendish guy will enter the house and take
unruly children away in his bag, usually a black bag, and the fiend
himself will sometimes be described as "black."  (Yeah, just lovely. I
know.)  Whatever happens to the children after they have been taken away
is usually up to their imagination, which is bad enough.

Now, this bag tends to be called _Sack_ [zak] (also in German), but in
some LS dialects it may also be referred to as ... yes, _Pock_ [pOk] ~
_Puck_ [pUk]!  Mostly, though, this latter word denotes a smaller bag, a
pouch.  I assume this corresponds to English _poke_ (as in "to buy a pig
in a poke" = "to get something without knowing what it is"), which
apparently comes from Old Northern French _pok(e)_ ~ _poque_, a cognate
of Old French _poche_ 'bag' > English _pouch_, and the diminutive
derivative _pocket_ (< Old French _poket(e)_).  It *is* interesting that
both Scots and Lowlands Saxon have this word as well as this tradition,
isn't it?

Before children came to be semi-permanently glued to TV sets, they would
play outside and would have various songs and games, including the
following German counting-out song, sung while children stand in a
circle and one of them plays the _Butzemann_, pretending to be throwing
and carrying a bag on his/her back:

   Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann
   in unserem Haus herum, didum.
   Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann
   in unserem Haus herum, didum.
   Er rüttelt sich. Er schüttelt sich.
   Er wirft sein Säckchen hinter sich.
   Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann
   in unserem Haus herum.

My (somewhat free) translation:

   A be-bah-bogeyman
   Is dancing in our house. Caboom!
   A be-bah-bogeyman
   Is dancing in our house. Caboom!
   He jolts and shakes. He bolts and quakes.
   He throws his bag onto his back.
   A be-bah-bogeyman
   Is dancing in our house.

In his _Vœr de Gœrn_ ("For the Kids"), a collection of traditional-based
and -sounding LS children's rhymes, Klaus Groth has humanized the
bogeyman as "Ol' Peter Kruse":

   Bußemann

   De ol Peter Kruse
   De hett en Karbuse,
   De hett en Karbüßel,
   Dar sitt he in Drüßel,
   Dar sitt he un slummert,
   De Abend de schummert;
   Denn huelt de Wind,
   Denn tuelt dat Kind,
   Denn ward Peter Kruse
   Asn Muse geswind!

   De ol Peter Kruse
   De hett en Karduse,*
   Dar hett he en Pack in
   Vun Petum Toback in.
   He stoppt sik en Brœsel,
   He pafft in sin Kœsel,
   He sitt to karmüßeln,
   He lœhnt sik to drüßeln:
   Doch hört he den Wind
   Un röhrt sik dat Kind,
   So kumt Peter Kruse
   In Suse geswind!

   De ol Peter Kruse
   De hett en Kapuze,
   Is rug as en Pudel
   Is spitz as en Buddel,
   Un weihet de Wind
   Un schreiet dat Kind,
   So kumt Peter Kruse
   Utn Huse geswind!

My (again somewhat free) translation:

   Bogeyman

   Old Peter Kruse
   Had a caboose,
   Had a little caboose,
   Sits taking a snooze
   As the sun goes down.
   That's when the wind howls.
   That's when the child yowls.
   That's when Peter Kruse
   Swiftly turns into a mouse.

   Old Peter Kruse
   Had a canister [?]*
   And inside a pack
   Of Petum [?] tobacco.
   He stuffs his pipe.
   He puffs in the cabin.
   He sits and ponders.
   He leans and he dozes.
   But he does hear the wind
   And the child that stirs.
   That's when Peter Kruse
   Gets all enraged.

   Old Peter Kruse
   Used to wear a hood
   As rough as a poodle,
   As pointed as a bottle.
   And when the wind blows,
   When the child cries,
   That's when Peter Kruse
   Rushes out of his house!
______
* < French _cartouche_?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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