Agropelter

Agropelter; AKA Hayoo, Heyyou, etc.; AKA Axehandle Hound

Origin: American Folklore

Description

The "Agropelter" is said to be a Sasquatch- or Ape-like beast said to inhabit hollow trees of the conifer woods from Maine to Oregon, from which vantage point the creature would await an unwary person and hurl wooden splinters, branches, pebbles, mud, or feces at passers-by and wanderers through its mountain territory. The creature, sometimes said to subsist on woodpeckers, hoot owls, and rotten wood, is sometimes described as being so quick that it is rarely seen, though other references describe the creatures as resembling a dwarfish, dark-skinned, green-haired men with a slender, wiry body like that of a stretched-out, starving bear, the villainous face of an ape, and arms like muscular whiplashes, with which it can snap off dead branches and hurl them through the air with murderous force. The Agropelter is often blamed for the disappearance of people in northern forests, and when loggers and woodsmen die from branches falling on their heads, the Agropelter is blamed for throwing the heavy branches. In one account, an Agropelter kidnapped a pioneer surveyor and fed him raw fish until he escaped. The beast is sometimes also called a "Hayoo" or "Heyyou", after its habit of imitating human voices (such as taking turns calling "Hey, you!" when its lone victim's back is turned to look for the source of the previous call), or playing other pranks such as hiding neglected tools (such as lumberjacks' axe-handles), moving campsites while travelers are away, etc.

Keeper Notes

• My father used to tell stories about the Hey-yous, "little green men" who lived in tree tops and shouted "hey, you!", and as a prank he would call out in a gruff voice "Hey, you!" from hiding sometimes, on those rare times when he could come home early from working extra shifts at work in time to catch me playing with my brother and sister, and blame it on the Hey-yous. "Look, there's one now, up in the tree tops - don't you see him? He definitely sees you! Oh, now he's hiding again - they're fast little guys...." The "Hey-yous" were also given as the explanation for the strange behavior of the local schizophrenic, who would wander down the streets yelling to the voices in his head, searching in storm drains and trash bins to find the source of the delusional voices that tormented him: when I asked my father who the poor guy was talking to, my father gently explained "the Hey-yous won't give him any peace; he's harmless, but just leave him alone, and don't talk to strangers, or the Hey-yous might start talking to you, too." I kind of picture shattered victims of terrible Mythos revelations wandering the backwoods of Dunwich or other haunted hill countries, haunted by the taunting voices of the Hey-yous, who call his name, draw him deep into the haunted forests, and whisper their terrible secrets to him from the tree-tops. (fan story)

Associated Mythos Elements

• setting: Folk Mythos
• story: Manly Wade Wellman's "The Desrick on Yandro (fiction)"

References

• Fiction: Manly Wade Wellman's "The Desrick on Yandro (fiction)"