Who was Hugog?

Please note:  All images below can be expanded by clicking them.

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Yes, this writer knows.

Mr. S. T. Joshi teases us with all the information then available in H. P. Lovecraft: A Life. In I Am Providence, we learn little more.

Casey B. Tyler, Lovecraft's maternal grandmother's cousin, in his Historical Reminiscences of Foster, Rhode Island (1884-93) refers the fact that Whipple "at last fell prey to that noted demon, 'Hugog, and lost much of his hard earnings".

Above is a scanned image of Mr. Joshi's latest material.  The footnotes indicate that much of this is derived from the work and research of Mr. Ken Faig, who in turn is indebted to many others.  Ultimately, all sources come from the Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner, a newspaper that I have become as acquainted with as my own hometown Courier-Journal.  A thousand hours of eyestrain has spent in methodically slogging through the decades of the Gleaner.  There is no extant index, and Google's search engines were never upgarded to include a detailed text search, unlike the weaker but more thorough newspapers.com (which does not include the Gleaner).

Let is be stated, now and forevermore, the name recorded in the Gleaner is not "Hogog".  It is "Hugag".  This is quite significant, as will be seen.

This writer spent months following the tracks of other genealogists, of other researchers, even to the point of chasing down an obscure Welsh language etymology, and delving into Biblical works in hopes that "Gog and Magog" might be a clue.

Mr. Joshi surely did not have available the original Pawtuxet Valley Gleaner articles, and it is possible that Mr. Faig did not either.  It is my understanding that only one set still exists, which Google scanned.  These paper documents would be impossible to read and search as this writer did in pursuit of old Hugag.

However, before we dig deeply into who Old Hugag is, let's look at those Gleaners.  It is "Hugag" every single time, both in the 1884 version, and the 1893-1894 version.  Believe me, folks, these were not easy to track down.  I have the red-eyes to prove it.

Now, about that Hugag. I enjoy reading and blogging about ghosts, UFOs, BigFoot, and all sorts of esoterica.  You can see that at Miskatonic Books, and in my horror writing.  I caught this book at a used book store and reading it, I nearly yelped with excitement.  There was old Hugag!

This book was dated 2009 - a 21st century book!  It was quite astonishing, although by then, I knew what old Hugag was.

And now, meet Mr. Hugag:

After decades of chasing through the proverbial woods, scholars did not notice the venerable Casey B. Tyler used quotation marks.  Being a 19th century man, he knew well what a Hugag was.  The mythical term was pretty obscure even then, but it clearly meant a no good.

This writer was able to chase down a number of references as late as the early 20th century, though by then the term had become more obscure.

Here is a recap of the Hugaga myth:


THE HUGAG (Rythmopes inarticulatus) 

The hugag is a huge animal of the Lake States.  Its range includes western Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, and a territory extending indefinitely northward in the Canadian wilds toward Hudson Bay. In size, the hugag may be compared to the moose, and in form, it somewhat resembles that anima.l Very noticeable however are its jointless legs which compel the animal to remain on its feet, and its long upper lip which prevents it from grazing.  If it tried that method of feeding it would simply tramp its upper lip into the dirt. Its head and neck are leathery, and hairless. Its strangely corrugated ears flop downward.  Its four toed feet, long bushy tail, shaggy coat, and general make-up, give the beast an unmistakably prehistoric appearance. The hugag has a perfect mania for traveling, and few hunters who have taken up its trail ever came up with the beast or back to camp. It is reported to keep going all day long, browsing on twigs, flopping its lip around trees, and stripping bark as occasion offers, and at night - since it cannot lie down - it leans against a tree, bracing its hind legs, and marking time with its front ones. The most successful hugag hunters have adopted the practice of notching trees so that they are almost ready to fall, and when the hugag leans up against one, both the tree and the animal come down. In its helpless condition, it is then easily dispatched. The last one killed, so far as known, was on Turtle River in northern Minnesota where a young one weighing 1,800 pounds was found stuck in the mud.   It was knocked in the head by Mike Flynn of Cass Lake.

From:  Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts, William Thomas Cox. Press of Judd & Detweiler, 1910.  Reference (click here)

Also, political commentators used this term.  I found two references after extensive searching.


In The Texas State Gazette, (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 43, Ed. 1 of Saturday, 13 July 1867, I found this aphorism:  "Why is the sound of a hugag mournful? Because its voice wears a melancholy tone."


In the Bourbon News (Paris, Ky.) of 28 November 1922 which presented an extract from 6 July 1881. "I found "Ben Deering's Republican has been sold to a stock company, but Ben will still be permitted to sound his hugag through its columns."

So, we can shed some light on Casey B. Tyler's usage.  His "Hugag" was a business charlatan, a soundrel, a rip off artist, and filled with humbuggery as well.

Below, you will find some notes on dead ends, so you won't chase after them/

The diligent scholar will still ask - yes, yes, but Casey is speaking of a a real person.  Yes, indeed.  After months, if not years, I have identified that person.  I believe there is a high probability that WVP's downfall was caused by a Warwick man, Caleb R. Hill.

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Original blog entry on 'hugog" as a Welsh word at H. P. Lovecraft and His Legacy:

Note 'hugwd" is a ghost or phantom.



From: Geiriadur cenhedlaethol, Cymraeg a Saesneg, ed. and enlarged by R.J. Pryse edited by Robert John Pryse

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More notes on "dead ends":

Hugog in Palestine which is also transliterated HUQOQ or HUKOK, is a name that has given translators and historians some issues. The most famous use of "Hukok" is probably in Joshua 19:34, and even there it refers to a village which today has the name (arabic transliterated) YAQUQ. At least one archaeologist believes it has something vaguely to do with the mustard plant that was a local cultivar in 'prehistory', and a few rabbinic proverbs are preserved that mention the town or term and the mustard plant in the same aphorism.  In general "gog" has the Hebrew or Aramaic meaning of mountain. Magog are "the people of Gog".