Large Fierce Mammal

The Nightmare ~ 1781 by Henry Fuseli
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare)

So on his Nightmare through the evening fog
Flits the squab Fiend o’er fen, and lake, and bog;
Seeks some love-wilder’d maid with sleep oppress’d,
Alights, and grinning sits upon her breast.

~ Night-Mare ~ Erasmus Darwin

O’er her fair limbs convulsive tremors fleet,
Start in her hands, and struggle in her feet;
In vain to scream with quivering lips she tries,
And strains in palsy’d lids her tremulous eyes;
In vain she wills to run, fly, swim, walk, creep;
The Will presides not in the bower of Sleep.
—On her fair bosom sits the Demon-Ape
Erect, and balances his bloated shape;
Rolls in their marble orbs his Gorgon-eyes,
And drinks with leathern ears her tender cries.

~ The Loves of the Plants (excerpt) ~ Erasmus Darwin

It was during the middle years of my childhood that there was an influx of Newfoundlanders to my home town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Most of those I got to know were fishermen who had come from the remote and disadvantaged “outports” to make their fortune working on the deep sea trawler fleet that sailed out of what was then among the most famous fishing capitals in the world.

I recall several conversations that took place in my youthful presence, between adult members of my family and some of these men who had come into our family circle, usually by way of romancing certain female members of it. It was in one of these nocturnal gatherings assembled around a well worn kitchen table, over rum and shrouded in a combination of pipe and cigarette smoke, that a wide eyed boy with ears attuned to adult conversations first heard anyone speak the name of “The Hag”. There would be reference to a troubled family member “back home” who had “The Old Hag”, and everyone at the table would nod their heads in somber sympathy. All except for me, whose curious queries were inevitably met with a look of concern, a tousling of the hair, and a change of subject.

Known and documented throughout history, in all countries and by a plethora of names, the phenomenon we’ll be talking about today is currently said to afflict 1 in 5 people.  In Canada, the hotbed of most common reference to it is Newfoundland, where the description of a visit from The Old Hag is generally a variation of this:

Some people see a woman’s face in the distance but they cannot pick out her features. However the dreamer senses something is very wrong and becomes anxious. As the figure draws near they realize it is an ugly old crone. When the Old Hag finally reaches the terrified dreamer she slowly crawls up over the person’s body and straddles their chest; slowly crushing the chest cavity in, cutting off their breath. All the while the dreamer is hyper aware of what is going on: the fact that they are sleeping, that this is not really happening, and yet they can smell the Old Hag, they feel her leathery touch as she stretches over them and breathing becomes a struggle. ~ Missing the Rock, The Old Hag

While the preponderance of reports refer to the interloper as being grotesquely aged and female in form, not all get to actually see their attacker, and some have reported a non-consensual sexual component to their experience with something sporting decidedly male characteristics. Modern medicine explains The Old Hag as being symptomatic of a sleep disorder called Sleep Paralysis, and today we’ll expose ourselves to a documentary on the subject produced in 2009 by the Gray Brothers.

Enjoy The Nightmare.