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 βουκολακος, boukolakos; and supposed to be derived from βουκος, or βυκα, "mud," and λακος, a "ditch," on account of the filthiness of the sight.