1902 Folk- lore 257 



certain atmospheric conditions, and that he is merely a 

 reflected image — perhaps distorted and magnified — of some 

 existing object. But it seems a cold thing to try and rob 

 these old-time legends of their weirdly character. 



The old Thorney wheelwright's son, a man who reads a 

 good deal and takes an interest in his surroundings, and who 

 does not believe in the shagfoal as his forefathers believed 

 in him, told me that he had himself seen the shagfoal. "One 

 evening," he said, " as it was growing dusk I was walking 

 down the Green Drove, which is not far from the Spinney 

 on the Wisbech road, when a friend who was "with me 

 suddenly stopped and exclaimed, ' What is that on the 

 road ? ' I could see nothing. * Now it comes this way,' 

 he added, and I then saw a strange white object on the 

 left-hand side of the road. We both stood still, and when 

 it came nearly level with us, the spectre — for so I will call 

 it — turned to cross the road. It was very large, very white, 

 and came as close to me as I am to you now. It seemed as 

 if it would fall upon us as it passed. It possessed four 

 legs, like those of a horse, but for the rest I can say nothing. 

 It passed down to the water in the fen dike on the opposite 

 side of the road. Almost at the same instant my friend and 

 I were at the water-edge, but the spectre had vanished. It 

 appeared to pass into the water. Many years ago a man 

 and horse were drowned in the same fen dike and at the 

 same spot." 



I have frequently heard country people speak of spectres 

 being seen in the dusk of summer evenings, and I have ob- 

 served that there is water not far away. 



An amusing story is told about the Thorney shagfoal. 

 Several men were coming home from the fields one August 

 evening when the shagfoal became the subject of conver- 

 sation. One of the young men audaciously declared that he 

 did not believe in the existence of the shagfoal, and said he 

 would go into the thicket and challenge the monster to ap- 

 pear. His companions dared him to do it. He climbed the 

 fence, entered the enclosure, and shouted his defiance to 

 the spectre to come forth. To his horror, and the terror of 

 those on the road, a deep sepulchral voice responded from 

 the heart of the thicket, " I am coming." The challenger 



