Killmoulis

The name given in Roxburgh to a hobgoblin represented as having no mouth. His residence is the killogie and he took an interest in the prosperity of millers. He imitated by his wailing the approaching disaster of the kill going to be burned, or the death of his master, or any of his family. He also delighted in tormenting the miller with throwing the ashes out and drying the corn upon the baulks (kill-floor). It never quit the "logie," his favorite corner, except to thresh the corn in great emergency, or to ride for the howdie (midwife), when the miller's wife needed her services. Every kill was protected by a Killmoulis.

The Killmoulis had the shape of an old man, without a mouth, but with immense large nostrils from which issued grizzly hair and into which he put all his food provided by the miller and his family. He had a preference for swine's flesh, as testified by the following rhyme:

"Auld Killmoulis, wantin' the mou,

Come t' ma ye now, come t' ma ye now;

Where war ye yestreen, when I kill'd the sow?

If ye'd com'd ye'd gotten yer belly fou."

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