BOULCOLACA, among the modern Greeks, denotes the spectre of some wicked person who died excommunicated by the patriarch, reanimated by the devil, and causing great disturbance among the people; of which many strange stories are told. The word is Greek, and is sometimes written βουλκολακας, breakolakas; and supposed to be derived from βουλκας, or βουλκας, "mud", and λακας, a "ditch", on account of the filthiness of the fight.