This might help:

From The Lost Beauties of the English Language by Charles Mackay (New York: J. W. Bouton, 1874), page 90:

Howk, to dig, or scrape up the earth like an animal, or without tools.

He's howket a grave by the light o' the moon.
—Cumberland Ballads, The Sun shines fair on Carlisle wa'.

She has howked a hole both deep and wide,
And put them in both, side by side.
—The Cruel Mother.

[It doesn't say which version of CRUEL MOTHER he was quoting from, however, and a Google search doesn't turn it up.]