In the
folklore of
Cambridgeshire, the Shug Monkey is a creature that shares features of a
dog and
monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
, which reportedly haunted Slough Hill Lane (a street that leads from the village of
West Wratting to nearby
Balsham
Balsham is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, England, which has much expanded since the 1960s and is now one of several dormitory settlements of Cambridge. The village is south east of the centre of Cambridge be ...
).
The creature, believed to have the body of a jet-black shaggy sheepdog and the face of a monkey with staring eyes,
was believed to be a supernatural ghost or demon.
Local writer and broadcaster
James Wentworth Day, who first related stories of the Shug Monkey in ''Here Are Ghosts and Witches'' (1954), described it as a curious variation of
Black Shuck,
while local folklorist Polly Howat suggests that both share common origins in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
.
According to folklorist Polly Howat, sightings of the Shug Monkey have not been reported since before
World War II.
Further reading
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References
{{Spectral Black Dogs
English legendary creatures
Cambridgeshire folklore
Mythological dogs
Mythological canines
Mythological monkeys
West Wratting