The Gullah-Geechee people are rich in culture, deep-rooted in tradition, and deeply spiritually connected. They honor many benevolent spirits and deities with their cultural and religious practices, and they live by a traditional Yoruba Proverb: “What happens in our physical world first happens in our spiritual world.” Just like the physical world around us, some of the characters in the spirit world can be quite evil. So, what happens when some of those less-than-favorable characters make their way into the physical realm?

For a long time, these spirits and specters crossing into the physical world were called “haints.” The more people encountered these haints, the more they realized they weren’t all the same. As more types of evil haints became known, they became classified as either plat-eyes or boo-hags.

A plat-eye is a shape-shifting spirit of a human that was wronged on earth. People who have seen these angsty, aggressive spirits claim they have one large glowing eye. They appear to wander around the area of their untimely demise, waiting around for the unfortunate soul that dares invade their space so they can harass them. In order to ward off these shape-shifting offenders, the Gullah-Geechee people carry around a small burlap sachet, filled with equal parts of gunpowder and sulfur. It is thought that the strong smell offends the plat-eye, driving them away from the sachet’s carrier.

Boo-hags are easily the most evil spirit one could come across. In the dead of night, it is said that boo-hags will enter their victim’s home through a window, crack, or keyhole. Once inside, they “ride” their victims, sucking out all of their energy and leaving them in a deep sleep. By the time the victim wakes up in the morning, exhausted and sluggish, the boo-hag has long since left for its second victim. The boo-hag uses the enemy drained from its first victim to skin his second. He will wear the skin of the second victim the next day, blending in with humanity and protecting himself from the burning sun above. A boo-hag's weakness is his lack of attention span and obsession with counting. Many Gullah-Geechee people keep a broom by their front door. They believe that should a boo-hag enter the home; he will get distracted by the broom and feel inclined to count every bristle. By the time he’s finished counting, he will have forgotten what he entered for in the first place.