Jack O'Lantern was a figure from Irish folklore who appeared as a character in the Smurfs comic book story, "Halloween". According to legend, he was a trickster ghost or spirit who once was a man, but was barred from Heaven after death because he had been so stingy in life, as well from as Hell because he had duped the Devil earlier into agreeing to promise not to take him. As a result, Jack was doomed by the Devil to wander the earth forever carrying a magic lantern that could light up places that were very dark and help him in finding things at night. In early versions of the legend, the lantern was carved from an enchanted turnip, but in the later American version, it was made from a pumpkin, from which the Halloween decoration of the "jack o'lantern" evolved.