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by P. G. Swearngin (Author)
Written by P.G. Swearngin and Illustrated by Nathen Reynolds. "Rawhead Bloodybones" is a bogeyman feared by children, and is sometimes called "Rawhead and Bloody-Bones", "Tommy Rawhead", or "Rawhead". The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1550 as the earliest written appearance as "Hobgoblin, Rawhed, and Bloody-bone". The term was used "to awe children, and keep them in subjection", as recorded by John Locke in 1693. The stories originated in Great Britain and spread to North America, where the stories were common in the Midwest and Southern USA. Rawhead is usually said to live near ponds or rivers, but according to Ruth Tongue in Somerset Folklore, "lived in a dark cupboard, usually under the stairs. If you were heroic enough to peep through a crack you would get a glimpse of the dreadful, crouching creature, with blood running down his face, seated waiting on a pile of raw bones that had belonged to children who told lies or said bad words." In the Ozarks of Missouri, there is an account of a razorback hog named "Rawhead" that is butchered and the bones later reanimated by a conjuring witch. This is the story of Rawhead Bloodybones and the Battle of Lexington, a Missouri legend, as told to the author when he was very young.
