The Hoothen Wanderer

The Hoothen Wanderer

by Charles E S Fairey

I walked and walked one snowy night cloven hooves and horn

Across the ground and across the frozen ice

I even tried the bell upon every living shore,

But no one that night luckily answered the door.

I walked up walls and over roofs

With my horns held high and my snow cold hooves,

Yet not a soul saw my form, not even glimpsed a shadow,

Not for want of trying, yet my path I trod, was left to wonder.

When all the living opened their doors at dawn,

What magnificence has come to pass with cloven hooves like faun,

Who travelled across the moors last snowlit night?

How come they walk up walls and over roofs?

And what manner of creature left these tracks of cloven hooves?

Surely it was a sheep or goat that left this lengthy track?

And surely this not the being of the magic black?

Surely superstition should not be honoured and by good folk found?

And a reasonable explanation surmised for these hooven tracks upon the ground???

This Poem is based upon the Devon Legend "The Devil's Footprints", when overnight a trail of mysterious footprints in the snow appeared, and had no apparent explanation.

For the full story of this Legend please see:

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/devon/other-mysteries/the-devils-footprints.html