The Ghoul

"Songs of the Western Slavs" is a cycle of 16 poems by Alexander Pushkin. Eleven of them are reworkings of prose lyrics in Prosper Merime's book Guzla, or A Collection of Illyrian Songs Recorded in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovina.

Among the works included in the cycle is the poem "Ghoul", famous for the fact that in it the author introduced the word itself into the Russian language, creating it on the basis of the distorted word "volkolak" (a man turning into a wolf, a werewolf).

The famous poem about poor Vanya, who was returning home late at night through the cemetery.

A certain Vanya returns home through the cemetery. Suddenly, he hears a frightening sound and decides that a ghoul is lurking nearby (as a result, it turns out to be a dog):

Someone is gnawing on a bone, grumbling.

The ghoul's appearance is not described in the poem; the author only indicates that he is red-lipped:

It must be gnawing at the bones
A red-lipped ghoul.

The author also provides a way to protect yourself from a supernatural being:

The ghoul will eat me completely,
If the earth itself is sepulchral
I won't eat it with prayer.