[Namron] Google a Pook'

[Isobel de Kirkbryde]

Well, I have found some things that really seem to  suit our Pooky.  The following is my contribution to the  possibility of a name for thee.  The capitals are my  emphasis.  Happy Trials. :>)
  
      Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of  Ireland,  presumably named after the pookah, a mischievous  spirit.
       
      pookah
      "The pookah takes many forms, but is most famous when he  appears as a giant, six-foot white rabbit - which is the form most Americans  know from the play and film, Harvey.  Whatever form the pookah takes, he retains the special ability of his species,  which is like that of Thoth in Egyptian legend, Coyote in Native American myth  or Hanuman the Divine Monkey in Hindu lore - he can move us from one universe,  or Belief System, into another, and HE LIKES TO PLAY GAMES WITH OUR IDEAS ABOUT  'REALITY.'"
  From "Cosmic Trigger Volume 2" by Robert Anton Wilson
      Hobnobbing with Mister Bunny.
      Dear  Word Detective:  In the movie "Harvey,"  starring Jimmy Stewart, Harvey is a  pooka, which I believe is some kind of spirit.  Could you explain where  pooka came from and where I can find a tall good-looking pooka of my own? -- S.  Chapman, via the internet.
      "A  TALL, GOOD-LOOKING POOKA OF MY OWN"?   I hate to bring this up,  but Harvey in the movie is a SIX-FOOT  TALL INVISIBLE RABBIT.  The premise of the movie, of course, is that Jimmy  Stewart can see and converse with Harvey,  but no one else can and I would think that fact alone would rule out  introducing such a creature to one's parents.  I also have it on good  authority that unemployment is rife among rabbits at the moment, making such a  venture a bad bet unless you own a very large garden.  Incidentally,  speaking of large talking rabbits only certain people can see, I'd like to  recommend a recent excellent but scandalously overlooked film called  "Donnie Darko."  It's about as far from "Harvey"  as a film can get, but it's a truly fascinating movie.
      When  I first saw "Harvey" as a child, I assumed that "pooka"  must be an Indian word, probably because I had confused it with the  Anglo-Indian term "pukka," which I knew from reading adventure  stories meant "reliable" or "genuine."  
      As  it turns out, however, "pooka" (also spelled "pookah" and  even "puka") comes directly from the Irish word "puca,"  meaning "a sprite or "hobgoblin."  The Oxford English  Dictionary describes the "pooka" as a "malignant sprite," BUT  OTHER SOURCES PAINT A MORE BENEVOLENT, "HARVEY-ESQUE" PORTRAIT.   THE FUNK & WAGNALLS STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FOLKLORE, MYTHOLOGY AND LEGEND  DEFINES THE SPECIES AS "A HARMLESS BUT VERY MISCHIEVOUS SUPERNATURAL BEING  …often appearing in animal or half-animal form. … The puca is apt to punish and  annoy … ungrateful people, BUT HE IS QUICK TO HELP THOSE WHOM HE  FAVORS."   "POOKAS" CAN ALSO GRANT THEIR HUMAN FRIENDS  THE ABILITY TO CONVERSE WITH ANIMALS.
      Though  the "pooka" is but one of a multitude of animal spirits found in  folklore, some experts believe that he is essentially the same as the English  sprite "Puck" featured in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's  Dream."
       
    



Lady Isobel de Kirkbryde
Deputy Hospitaler, Barony of Namron
Guild of St. Camillus de Lellis
		
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