Some folks said Wiley's Mammy was a conjure woman, because she grew up by the Tombigbee River and she knew everything about the ways of the swamp.
One day Mammy called Wiley and said, "Wiley, you're gettin' more grown now. But I want you to remember to be careful about going into the swamp. There's gators, snakes, and places that would suck you down under the water. But more importantly, that's where the Hairy Scary Man lives. He might like to put you in his sack and then eat you up in two bites."
She also told Wiley, "Folks say the Hairy Scary Man got your Pappy. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't. All I know is your Pappy took his no count lazy behind off into the swamp one day and didn't come back. When they looked for him, they didn't find him. But they say they heard the Hairy Scary Man laughin' in the trees."
"Yas'm," answered Wiley, "I'll take the hound dogs with me if I have to go into the swamp, cause the Hairy Scary Man can't abide no hound dogs."
"Good boy, Wiley," said his Mammy. "And you always put water in this bucket by the back door before you go."
About a month later, Wiley had to cut some poles for fixing the hen-roost, so he took his axe and he took two of his hound dogs and left two hound dogs tied up at the house. Then, before he headed into the swamp, he filled the bucket by the door.
While Wiley was chopping wood for the poles, the two dogs lit out after a wild pig. Wiley continued chopping and then he heard something big coming through the swamp.
It was the Hairy Scary Man coming through the trees. He was big and mean-scary looking. He smelled bad. He had great, big claws, one holding a huge empty sack. His teeth were long and sharp and the Hairy Scary Man came toward Wiley, grinning like a fox grins at a chicken.
Wiley's eyes got big and round like plates. He said, "Don't look at me like that!" But the Hairy Scary Man just kept grinning.
Wiley dropped his axe and scrambled up a tall cyprus tree near to the top.
In a deep voice, the Hairy Scary Man said, "Why you climbed up that tree?"
"Go away! My Mammy told me to stay away from you!" yelled Wiley.
The Hairy Scary Man called, "Come on down, Wiley. I'll teach you conjure."
"I can learn all the conjure I want from my Mammy," answered Wiley.
The Harry Scary Man opened up his sack and said, "Come on down, Wiley."
Wiley called back, "What you got in that sack?"
"Ain't got nothin'--YET!" And the Hairy Scary Man laughed.
The Hairy Scary Man grinned wider, shook his head and just picked up Wiley's axe and he began to chop the cypress tree and chips of wood flew.
Wiley held on tight and shouted, "Fly, chips, fly, back to your tree."
Sure enough, the chopped wood chips flew right back into the tree.
The Hairy Scary Man growled and cussed.
Meanwhile, Wiley's Mammy noticed the water had turned red, which meant Wiley was in trouble. She quickly untied the other two hound dogs loose, saying, "Go get Wiley!"
Back in the swamp, the Hairy Scary Man chopped on the tree, and Wiley hollered for the chips to fly back.
Poor Wiley had hollered himself just about hoarse, and the Hairy Scary Man was getting tired.
The Hairy Scary Man said, "This would be a lot easier if you would just come down."
Then they both heard the two hound dogs from the house yelping in the woods. The Hairy Scary Man looked worried.
Then from the other direction, they both heard the two other hound dogs Wiley brought with him a-heading back. They were also barking and yelping, because they smelled the Hairy Scary Man.
The Hairy Scary Man cussed and growled some more. He threw down Wiley's axe and he set out through the swamp before those four hounds showed up.
Wiley climbed down the tree and all four hounds licked his face.
When Wiley got back home, he told his Mammy about the Hairy Scary Man and his sack. His Mammy was quiet and thoughtful, and then said, "That means the Hairy Scary Man is likely to come after you again. You already done tricked him once." She threw another log on the fire. "Next time the Hairy Scary Man come after you, don't climb no tree. Just say to him, 'Hello, Hairy Scary Man.'"
"He'll put me in his sack!" said Wiley.
"Now, Wiley. Do you trust your own Mammy?"
"Yas'm I do."
"Then listen good. You say, 'Hello Hairy Scary Man,' and when he say 'Hello' back, you say 'Hairy Scary Man, I hear you is the best conjure man around here.'
"When he says, 'I reckon I am,' you say, 'I bet you can't turn into a giraffe.' He'll say he can, but you keep saying he can't until he does it."
"Yas'm."
"Then you ask him if he can turn himself into a gator. He'll say he can and you'll say he can't--until he does.
"Then at last you say, 'I bet you can't turn into no possum.' AND when he does, you grab the possum and tie him in that sack and chuck it in the river."
The next day, Wiley went into the swamp without the hound dogs on purpose. Sure enough, there come the Hairy Scary Man through the trees.
Wiley wanted to run when he saw the Hairy Scary Man's big teeth, but he just said, "Hello, Hairy Scary Man."
In a deep voice, the Hairy Scary Man said, "Hello, Wiley."
Wiley saw the Hairy Scary Man had his sack, and so Wiley said, "Hairy Scary Man, I hear that you is the best conjure man around here."
"I reckon that I am, Wiley."
"Hah. I bet you couldn't turn yourself into no giraffe," said Wiley.
"Shucks. That ain't no problem for me," said the Hairy Scary Man.
"I bet you can't," taunted Wiley.
Well, the Hairy Scary Man turned round and round and stretched his neck up and up until he turned into a giraffe.
"Oh," said Wiley, I bet you can't turn yourself into no gator."
"I can."
"No. I bet you can't do that."
"I can!"
Then he turned around and stretched out his tail and stretched out and opened up a great big gator mouth of teeth and turned into a gator.
Wiley shook his head and said, "You can turn into something big, but I bet you can't turn into somethin' small like a possum."
"I can," said the Hairy Scary Man.
"No you can't. Nobody can!" said Wiley.
"I can."
The gator turned round and round. Sure enough, as he turned round and round, he curled up smaller and smaller into a little possum ball.
Then, quick, Wiley grabbed the Hairy Scary Man's sack and he grabbed that little possum and threw him in and tied it shut. Then, he chucked it in the river.
Wiley headed back home. Just as he got there, he heard the Hairy Scary Man laughing in the trees.
"I turned myself into wind and blew out of the sack," the Hairy Scary Man's voice called out. "I be comin' later, Wiley."
Wiley ran inside the house and told his Mammy what happened with the sack.
His Mammy answered, "Oh, he'll be mad, mad, now. You done tricked him twice. But, if you trick him again, he won't be able to bother you no more."
Wiley's Mammy pointed outside, "Tie two hound dogs at the front door and two at the back. I'll build up a fire in the fireplace. And bring me one of them baby pigs from the old sow."
When Wiley brought her the little pig, she wrapped the pig up and put it in Wiley's bed. She whispered, "Now Wiley, you trust your own Mammy, don't you?"
"Yas'm."
Then she whispered real low, "Go hide in the loft and don't make no sound, no matter what."
She set a broom across one door and the axe across the other. Under the window, she sprinkled some asafoetida powder. Then, she threw more wood on the fire.
Outside, the wind picked up and the dogs began to howl. A strange, grey cat come out of the trees. It had long rabbit ears, but a face like a cat and a stubby tail.
The dogs in front jumped and howled. They strained at their ropes, which snapped and the two dogs in front lit out after the strange cat.
Then, out back, a big rabbit with nose and ears like a dog hopped out of the woods and the hound dogs in back barked and howled like crazy. They jerked and strained at their ropes until the ropes broke. The two hound dogs in back lit out after the rabbit.
Then it got real quiet. By and by, the Hairy Scary Man come through the trees with his big clawed feet and his big sharp teeth. He jumped up on the roof, but Wiley's Mammy threw more wood on the fire and lots of hot smoke went up the chimney. Then, the Hairy Scary Man climbed down off the roof and walked all the way around the cabin and saw it was sealed tight. So, he knocked on the front door, proud and pleased as punch.
Mammy answered, "Go away!"
"Mammy," he said, "I done come after your baby."
"You ain't gettin' him!" she shouted through the door.
"Give him here," said the Hairy Scary Man, "or I'll set fire to your house with lightning."
"I got plenty sweet milk to put it out."
"Give him here or I'll cause your cows to go dry and you won't have no more milk."
Mammy yelled back, "Go away!"
The Hairy Scary Man answered, "Give him here or I'll make your hens stop laying, your spring dry up, and send the boll weavils to eat up your cotton."
"That's mighty mean, Hairy Scary Man. You wouldn't do that!"
"I would and I could." And then the Hairy Scary Man gave a mean laugh.
Wiley's Mammy said, with a scared voice, "If I give you my baby, will you go away from here and never come back and leave everything alone?"
"I will."
"I don't believe you!" she shouted.
"I swear, that's just what I'll do."
So Mammy moved the broom from the front door and opened it. She pointed, "He's over there in that bed."
The Hairy Scary Man pulled the covers off the bed with his big claws. Suddenly, the Hairy Scary Man exclaimed, "Hey! Ain't nothin' here but a little old pig!"
Wiley's Mammy put her hand on her hip. "I ain't said what kind of baby I was givin' you. That baby pig belonged to me long before I give it to you. Now take your pig and get out!"
Well, the Hairy Scary Man done roared and screamed. Then, he grabbed the pig and he stomped off through the swamp. Lawd, he was mad at being tricked, and he cussed and tore up the trees as he passed.
After awhile, it was quiet again. Wiley said from the loft, "Is he gone?"
"He's gone and ain't comin' back! He done been tricked three times. So you don't have to worry about the Hairy Scary Man no more."
And even though they say the Hairy Scary Man is still in that swamp, Wiley and his Mammy didn't see hide nor hair of him ever again.
copyright 2012 Myth Woodling
There are a number of African and European tales about a man who climbs up a tree to escape a dangerous, supernatural creature in the forest.
The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, of Alabama and Mississippi. Apparently there is a version of the "Hairy Man" folktale also attached to Sipsey River Swamp.
This story is usually known under the title, "Wiley and the Hairy Man," but the first time I heard it was in Maryland. The storyteller called this Alabama folktale "Wiley and the Hairy Scary Man." Alas, I cannot remember this woman's name. She was a wonderful storyteller. She had all the children barking and howling along with her as Wiley's pack of hound dogs, to help tell the story.
Each person who retells a story brings something to her or his retelling. This fact is critical.
I especially liked her name for the ogre, this supernatual man-eating swamp creature. Thus, I also called him the "Hairy Scary Man."
She had also had the motif of a substance changing color to warn Wiley's mother, but it wasn't a bucket of water. It was several jars of something else that changed color.
Wiley and the Hairy Man An African-American folktale, retold by Dianne de Las Casas, The Story Connection, P.O. Box 2656, Harvey, LA 70059
Wiley and the Hairy Man An African-American folktale, retold by Molly Garrett Bang, adapted for reader’s theatre from Wiley and the Hairy Man, Macmillan, 1976
Wiley and the Hairy Man, retold by Judy Sierra