The Ooser was a carved wooden head, of unknown origin and purpose. It was notable for the staring eyes and bulls horns, and the fact that the jaw was hinged so the mouth could be opened and closed. It's believed it may have been worn as a mask, although The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore points out that there were no eye holes and so it was more likely to be the head of a processional figure.
The Ooser seems to have been a figure to frighten. The definition given in an 1886 glossary by W. Barnes describes it a "A mask with grim jaws, put on with a cow's skin to frighten folk". In The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy has a character ask "What have made you so down? Have you seen a [sic] ooser?"
The Ooser was owned by a family from Dorset (so it's sometimes called the Dorset Ooser). They left it behind when they moved to Somerset, in the care of a coachman. It disappeared in the 1930s, apparently after the coachman sold it. A replica is held in the Dorset County Museum.
The Ooser seems to have been a figure to frighten. The definition given in an 1886 glossary by W. Barnes describes it a "A mask with grim jaws, put on with a cow's skin to frighten folk". In The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy has a character ask "What have made you so down? Have you seen a [sic] ooser?"
The Ooser was owned by a family from Dorset (so it's sometimes called the Dorset Ooser). They left it behind when they moved to Somerset, in the care of a coachman. It disappeared in the 1930s, apparently after the coachman sold it. A replica is held in the Dorset County Museum.
One of the only surviving photographs of the original Ooser, taken sometime in the 1880s or early 1890s.
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