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, boulkolakas; and supposed to be derived from βουλκος, or βυκα, "mud," and λακας, a "ditch," on account of the filthiness of the fight.