"It would take days to go round or over the Rhodopi Planina; much better to go through the Hobbler Pass. Admittedly it's not for the squeamish. It's long, narrow and extremely dark and took even our experienced party a good seven hours to get through to the other side. Tradition has it that the Pass was created when a wishhobbler ran through the mountain range, going too fast to avoid or even notice the obstacle in her way."

Claire Irvine, from her article, "Trekking Through Bulgaria" which  originally appeared in the Sunday Times travel section

"Other families have a mother. We had a pet wishhobbler that liked to stretch out in front of the fire."

Spin Bentley-Thompson,
speaking about her childhood

"Wishhobbler activity peaked in the Middle Ages. There were a great number of accounts of crops being ruined; houses being knocked down, cows startled and orchestras upset. And many, many stories of people being dragged off and never seen again. None of these incidents appear to have been deliberate. The creatures' life cycle seemed to have revolved around running across the world at great speed. Something Darwin considered to be rather frivolous. It is only after the creatures went into decline that any confirmed sightings were made. Before that, they simply didn't stay still long enough for anyone to notice any of the physical details."

Professor Susan Farrington, from her book, "Forty Creatures Noah Missed"

"There's no such thing as a wishhobbler. The Greeks told stories about them, but they were a metaphor for the elemental forces of nature. Just a way of explaining why things like earthquakes and hurricanes happen."

Doctor Henry Osgood, in his address to the Royal Society, 1672

"(She was) vicious and bad tempered. She terrified the neighbours curdled the milk; shattered furniture and punched cavernous holes in walls … Standing on all fours, her solid square forehead was level with mine. Each of the four paws was as wide as my waist. She had to strain to get her huge body through the door.

     "There wasn't a leash in the world could hold her."