night-hagn.

a1626 W. Rowley Birth of Merlin (1662) sig. G3 Where no Night-hag shall walk, nor Ware-wolf tread.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 662 The Night-Hag, when call'd In secret, riding through the Air she comes Lur'd with the smell of infant blood. View more context for this quotation

1750 tr. C. Leonardus Mirror of Stones 86 A crisolete bound round with gold, and carried in the left hand, drives away night-hags.

1800 C. B. Brown Arthur Mervyn II. xxiv. 228 She is unsightly as a night-hag, tawney as a moor, the eye of a gypsey, low in stature, contemptibly diminutive.

1834 L. Ritchie Wanderings by Seine 59 The indefinite dread, which sits like the night-hag on their Souls.

1850 N. Hawthorne Scarlet Let. xii. 180 This venerable witch-lady had heard Mr. Dimmesdale's outcry, and interpreted it..as the clamor of the fiends and night-hags with whom she was well known to make excursions in the forest.

1906 Proc. Soc. Antiquaries London 21 82 In some parts of Bedfordshire it is still believed that a suspended holed stone will prevent illness in cows and prevent the entry of the ‘night-hag’.

1950 Jrnl. Hist. Ideas 11 221 The highest flight of imagination is at the close of this ballad, in the music of the stanzas describing the appearance of the night-hag.

1992 Skeptical Inquirer Fall 67/1 My friend and I were experiencing..‘night terror’. My friend's were more like the classic variety, complete with a night hag.