BOO HAG

ORIGIN: South Carolina and Georgia.

The Boo Hag is an urban legend rooted in the folklore of the Gullah culture along the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia, more particularly in the Lowcountry. 

The Boo Hag is a supernatural entity very similar to a vampire, but instead of drinking blood, it feeds on a person's energy while they sleep.

According to the legend, the Boo Hag is a skinless creature with red, raw flesh, and it wears the stolen skin of its victims to be look the same as humans and go unnoticed.

When it cannot get a new skin, it travels invisibly as a spirit, slipping into homes at night to prey on those asleep and unsuspecting.

The Boo Hag sits on a sleeping victim's chest, drinking their life force while causing the victim to have vivid, disturbing dreams. 

Its vitims usually wake up feeling totally exhausted and breathless, something that is almost the same with sleep paralysis in modern explanations.

The Boo Hag is said to leave through cracks, keyholes, or open windows before dawn of the next day.

To protect against it, Gullah folklore advice placing a broom by the door, as the Boo Hag will be 'pulled' or compelled to count the bristles (each broom sticks) of the broom bunch, wasting time until sunrise. 

Blue paint, known as "haint blue," is also applied to doors and windows to repel spirits including the Boo Hag.

The tale of the Boo Hag serves as a warning about unseen dangers in the night.