The Phooka, nature spirit, trickster and shape-shifter, manifests as a wild shaggy black horse and delights in playing pranks and practical jokes. They offer travelers a ride, taking them for a hell-ride through marshes and thorn-bushes, and suddenly thrown into a ditch or mudpool. Early Celts waited in clearings in the mountains during Samhain leaving gifts hoping the pooka would emerge. The pooka emerge from hiding and speak of events that will take place the next year to all who dare approach them, greatly aiding those who were wise enough to take their visions to heart.