POO-kah
A shape-shifting trickster spirit, often appearing as a black horse, that can be helpful or harmful by turns.
The púca is one of the most widespread figures in Irish folklore, capable of taking human or animal form — most often a dark horse, but also a goat, rabbit, or dog. Encounters with it are unpredictable: it may give a wild, terrifying ride to an unwary traveler, or in gentler tellings, do useful work on a farm overnight. Like the banshee, the púca is documented mainly through oral tradition and 19th- and 20th-century folklore collection rather than medieval manuscript sources.