The Buckriders (Dutch: Bokkenrijders, French: Chevaliers du bouc) are a part of South-Eastern Dutch and North-Eastern Belgian folklore. They are witches, who rode through the sky on the back of flying bucks provided to them by the Devil to rob and murder common people and church possessions. The trials against the buckriders differed from ‘ordinary’ criminal proceedings because in many cases a so-called ‘ungodly oath’ was involved (“I renounce God and swear submission to the Devil”). Once a year, they would visit their master, the Devil, on the ‘Mook Heath. Throughout the 18th century, groups of thieves and other criminals adopted the belief to frighten the inhabitants of southern Limburg, a province in the southern part of the Netherlands and in parts of what has become since eastern Belgium. Using the name “Bokkenrijders” (buckriders), these criminal bands launched raids across a region that included Limburg, and parts of modern-day Germany. In response to the robberies towns in Limburg started to build defences like moats around them and farms started to develop a closed square building style. See Wikipedia entry
Height: 7 ½”
Width: 6 ¼”
Condition: Chip to bucks nose and mans arm repaired