Case file · Folklore / legend
The rolling calf
In Jamaican lore the rolling calf is a fiery-eyed duppy in the shape of a bull or calf, dragging a chain, that roams country roads at night. It is said to be the ghost of a butcher or wicked person.
1929 CE · 18.10, -77.30 · status: legend
The account
Folklorist Martha Warren Beckwith recorded rolling calf beliefs in Black Roadways (1929): you can escape it by dropping seeds it must stop to count, or by driving a knife into the ground. The year is that published attestation.