Snowwassit

Snowwassit, Snowwasset, Snowwassat, Snow Wasset, and other variations; Snow Serpent, Snow Snake, Woolybooger, Wooly-Worm, Packsaddle

Origin: American Folklore

Description

The "snowwassit" is a dangerous winter ambush predator of American folklore that lives under deep snow drifts, waiting for victims to pass by, whereupon it strikes and drags its pray under the snow. The snowwassit hibernates underground in summer, preferring cold weather. It is often described as a white, furry snake or worm with baleful pink eyes, and large sharp fangs or jaws like a locust, and a sting in its tail. Oldtimers who know what to look for can tell by the shape and size of darker-coloured bands inthe creature's fur how long or how short the winter will be; there are smaller, caterpiller-like creatures called "wooly-worms" or sometimes "packsaddles" which can similarly be read to forecast the weather, but these are distinct from (though similar to) their larger cousins.

There is an old joke among the hillfolk:

A hen-pecked old man was sent out once again to bring home food for his wife, who was large, lazy, loud, and hard to keep fed. "And don't you come home until you've brought home enough food this time!" So he takes what little money he had left from the sock hidden under his mattress in the shack he called home, and went out into the winter snow to find some food, despairing of ever finding enough.

Along the way, he met a stranger, huddled by a fire and sipping moonshine, who offered our old man a drink and a place by the fire, and soon enough, the old man was telling the stranger his woes. "I think I have just the thing for you," said the stranger, "it's called a woolybooger, and I have it trained to hunt."

"Really?", said the old man, "I don't see it." But that was because, the stranger explained, it hides under the snow. "Now, watch this," said the stranger:

"Woolybooger, woolybooger - tree!", cried the stranger, and suddenly the woolybooger leaped out of the snow, lunged at a nearby tree, and tore it to pieces.

"Woolybooger, woolybooger - 'possum!", cried the stranger, and woolybooger leaped out of the snow, and grabbed a passing 'possum, tore its head off, and dropped it by the fire.

"Woolybooger, woolybooger - squirrel!", cried the stranger, and the woolybooger leaped out of the snow, right up into a tree, where it grabbed a squirrel off a branch, shook it to death, and dropped it by the fire.

"That there woolybooger will solve all your problems, guaranteed! I'll sell him to you for whatever you've got left, because now I have all the food I could want, but I'm out of money to buy moonshine with, and I'm getting mighty thirsty!"

Impressed by the strange creature, the old man paid the stranger, bought the trained woolybooger, and went home, ordering the beast to hunt a couple varmints along the way to bring home to his wife. "Woolybooger, woolybooger - woodchuck!", and so on, till he had an armload of decapitated, shaken-up critters for the stewpot.

When he got home, his wife was astonished, and suspicious. "Why, you might have almost brought home enough to feed me, this time, and maybe there's some left over for your dinner! You ain't never brought home enough food before, where on earth you been hoarding all these vittles all this time?"

"Why, I got them from the woolybooger," said the old man, but before he could finish explaining, his wife made the fatal mistake of interrupting:

"Woolybooger? Woolybooger, my ass!"

And with that, the woolybooger leaped out of the snow, and solved all the old man's problems....

Associated Mythos Elements

• setting: Folk Mythos