The Licked Hand

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The Licked Hand , also known as The Doggy Lick , is a gloomy legend from the USA that is very popular there and comes in numerous variations. The legend is said to have its origin in the US state of Illinois .

background

action

According to the most common and popular version, a young girl is home alone with her dog for the first time in the evening. On the local radio station there is a report about a psychopath who has escaped from prison (or psychiatry ) . The girl is concerned and walks around the house to make sure all the doors and windows are tightly locked. When the girl goes to bed, she instructs the dog to sleep under the bed and be careful. That same night, the teenager is woken up by the sound of a dripping tap in the bathroom. Since the night lamp does not work and the girl is afraid to go to the bathroom in the dark, she stays in bed and keeps feeling for the dog. Feeling his hand licked, the girl assumes that the dog is still with her. Finally she falls asleep. The next morning the girl goes into the bathroom and sees on the opposite wall (according to other versions on the glass of the bathroom mirror) a message written in blood : “Humans can lick, too.” (Eng. “People can lick too”). The beloved dog hangs slashed in the shower stall (or above the bathtub).

Known variations

Another popular and widespread variation has the girl wake up and go into the kitchen to treat herself to a midnight snack. As she enters the kitchen, she hears a dripping noise that the girl initially assumes is coming from the sink. Nothing is dripping there, but there is a bloody kitchen knife there. When the girl opens the refrigerator, the slashed body of her dog falls at his feet. A note with the aforementioned message is stuck to the inside of the refrigerator door.

Finally, another variant tells of a half-blind pensioner who experiences something similar to the girl's. In still other versions, it is not the girl's hands but the girl's feet that are licked.

origin

The exact origins of this legend can no longer be determined with certainty, in the USA it is often said that the story is about a girl from Illinois. The legend has apparently been known for some time in the USA, Canada and England and is told especially among teenagers at slumber parties . Scary stories in which lonely girls (or women) fall victim to intruders at home have been passed down since the 1960s. At this time, self-confident teenagers and women in the United States began to move out of their homes and look for their own apartments, where they often lived alone for a while. The legend experienced a new upswing when six women were murdered at home in Montreal, Canada in 1996 . The moral behind the story is therefore to encourage children and young people to be more careful and alert when they are alone in their apartment at night. Otherwise such horror stories are only intended to entertain and stir up fears. There is no evidence that The Licked Hand is based on true events.

literature

  • Jan Harold Brunvand: Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends . WW Norton & Company, 2011, ISBN 0393104168 , p. 58.
  • Jan Harold Brunvand: The Choking Doberman: And Other Urban Legends . WW Norton & Company, 2003, ISBN 0393346544 , pp. 74-76.
  • Mark Barber: Urban legends uncovered: an investigation into the truth behind the myths . Summersdale Publishers, Chichester 2007, ISBN 1840245549 , pp. 125-127.