THE HOBYAHS

When I was very young my mother would read stories to us, some of which caused me and my younger brother to have nightmares. The story of the the Hobyahs was one such story. Whilst I have never forgotten the Hobyahs, I have never been sure how Hobyah was spelt. When mother read about them they sounded like "Hobby Yars". I tried searching the internet for that, but to no avail. I also tried other likely permutations like hobbiars, hobiars, hobbyars, hobyars, hobbieyars, but still with no successful outcome. After a quick phone call to my now ancient mum, I tried searching for hobyahs and hey presto, there were plenty of hits.

There appear to have been more recent adaptations of the hobyah story, which generally make it less scary. It seems that the original version of the Hobyahs is an old European folk tale.

The version I was told went something like this:-

Once there was an old man and his old wife, who lived in a house made of hempstalks. At the bottom of their garden was a reedy marsh. Hobyahs lived in a hidden house in the reeds.

Now the old man had a little dog named Turpie and one night the Hobyahs came creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off his tail." So in the morning the old man cut off little dog Turpie"s tail.

The next night the Hobyahs came again creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off one of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off one of little dog Turpie"s legs.

The next night the Hobyahs came again creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie"s legs.

The next night the Hobyahs came creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie"s legs.

The next night the Hobyahs came again creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie"s legs.

The next night the Hobyahs came again creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off little dog Turpie"s head." So in the morning the old man cut off little dog Turpie" s head.

The next night the Hobyahs came again creep, creep, creeping through the reeds and cried, "Hobyah Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman!" And when the Hobyahs found that little do Turpie"s head was off they tore down hempstalks, and carried the old woman away in a sack.

And when the Hobyahs came to their home they hung up the bag with the old woman in it on a hook, and then they went to sleep until the next night, for the Hobyahs slept in the daytime.

The old woman cried a great deal. The old man regretted what he had done to dog Turpie, so he sewed him back together again. He then got little dog Turpie to lead him to the Hobyah's home and rescued his wife from the sack.

The next night the Hobyahs took down the sack. They poked it many times and then opened it, expecting to eat the old woman. When they opened the sack, dog Turpie jumped out and ate them all up; so there are no Hobyahs now.

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