nightmarcher

English

Etymology

night +‎ marcher. Calque of Hawaiian huakaʻi pō.

Noun

nightmarcher (plural nightmarchers)

1. In Hawaiian folklore, a ghost of an ancient Hawaiian warrior who marches together with other such ghosts on certain sacred nights from their burial sites or the ocean to the sites of ancient battles or sacred places.
   • 1988, John Donald Kingsley, The Antioch Review:

     ... happening in, will not become confused and angry in his efforts to get out. Beds should not be placed directly opposite doorways. One keeps indoors when the Nightmarchers are abroad. On certain nights these progressions of ghosts can  […]

   • 1997, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Crawling Chaos: Selected Pulp Fiction:

     The tail of that sinuous line of nightmarchers seemed very horrible, and as I saw them wriggling into a venerable tomb they seemed more horrible still. Then I noticed that the tomb's floor had an aperture down which the throng was sliding, and ...

   • 1999, Glen Grant, Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawai'I, Mutual Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 122:

     […] understood the vision of nightmarchers described by the Chinese man. Sometimes the phantom marchers will be seen stopping at the house of a dying person, to prepare to escort them into the afterlife. In this case, the nightmarchers were  […]

   • 2002, Rona Tamiko Halualani, In the Name of Hawaiians: Native Identities and Cultural Politics, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 166:

     "And he hide; da buggah wen hide; if you discovered by a nightmarcher, they take you, boy. So, folks, always watch da road. Go where it's safe." The haole couple next to me nervously chuckled. An understated fright.

   • 2018, J. Lincoln Fenn, The Nightmarchers, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     Something from Irene's journals, about what to do if you happen across a nightmarcher on a moon-filled night.