A Sinister Use for a Human Spine

      Blood coursed down his face as he stumbled in the darkness.  The bright harvest moon that was rising behind a black mountain of clouds could not aid his vision, for he was hopelessly blind.  The pain continued to sear through his skull, and adding to the pain was the knowledge that it was his own fault.  His ears strained to hear anything that would guide him along, which led him to the young woman.  She halted in her progress down the road, releasing a high shriek at the sight of him.  "Please," he begged.  "Won't you help me?"  It was a mercy that she could not fully see the state of what had once been his eyes.

     He recognized from the voice that it was a woman, a young woman that drew near.  "Please miss.  Would you guide me to an inn or a doctor?"

     "What happened to you?" she asked in a trembling voice.

     "You need not worry, miss.  You are quite safe," he gasped.  "Only sinners, such as myself, should worry.

     The sound of the returning rider echoed closer.  As it raged towards her, the eyes of both the demon horse and the rider's own severed head were nothing in terror compared to that hideous whip, arcing through the darkness.  There was that double instant of pain, and then she saw no more.

     While many cultures tell of an array of headless creatures, the Dullahan of Ireland is certainly among the oldest and most frightening.  Unlike the horseman of Sleepy Hollow, this rider does not carry pumpkins and swords.  Instead, it carries its own grinning head, complete with glowing eyes, tucked under its arm or held aloft.  But the crowning terror is the spinal-column whip, torn from an ancient human body.  This rider does not cut off heads.  If the victim is lucky, all that he will suffer for the moment is the splash of a bucket of blood as the rider passes.  Yet, it is said that to look on the rider means instant blindness.  But that would make little difference, because the Dullahan uses its whip to snap out the eyes of its prey.  The innocent need not fear the Dullahan, but why would the innocent be out so late at night?  It is the sinner that feels the judgment of this rider.

     In some stories, this creature uses the glow of its own head as a lantern, held high over the spot that it had once resided.  In other stories, the rider is a woman.  And is many stories, the demon horse is also missing its own head.  None of these stores suggest where that head might be.

     In a few variations of the folklore, the Dullahan drives the carriage of death.  Anyone who spots it going through the night can expect either imminent, terrible death or that of a loved one.  In virtually all cases, the victim is deserving of his own fate.