Robert Wagman

CHAPTER X

If [Psellus] does not satisfy in those [writings of his] which deal with the Striges, he must be praised for what he has written on the Babutzicarius:

The Babutzicarius made his way into the beliefs of men from the foolishness of the pagans. In the Orphic Poems there is in fact a nocturnal deity [called] Babo, abnormally long in shape, her flesh the color of darkness. The philosopher Porphyry relates that a barbaric, northern tribe finds many similar night spirits, which they say burn by night, so that they appear shrivelled and blackened by day, looking just like spiderwebs. So from this Babo originated the Babutzicarius and became a figment of popular imagination. He is nowhere to be found in real life, but the most fearful of men imagine this demon. I used to know a little man, small of heart but not all bad at telling stories. To him, this sort of spectres appeared not only at night, but also by day. For he would see things which were not there, as Orestes saw the Furies, and made up things which did not exist. During the night he would go out a little, then he would come back scared and tell everybody that he saw the imaginary Babutzicarius. This was caused by a simultaneous affection of the body and the mind. For his mind was shaken by a hereditary disease, while his eyes, which at the time could neither see enough nor cast a clear beam of light, gave him the impression of seeing outside what they were perceiving within him. And people believe that this disease is a demon, and so they call it a demon. Now, it is not surprising that such a superstition is not a year-round phaenomenon, but arises during those days when we celebrate the birth of Christ and his baptism. For during these times people convene with each other at night, as is demanded by the festivities, and expose themselves to this disease. So the belief in the demon has more opportunity to arise.

Thus Psellus, and that is enough on the subject. For those who are born a week after Christmas really cannot change their aspect and take up a different one, nor are they ever going to be tormented by that demon. Suidas also mentions the Babutzicarius:

Ephialtes is an effect of gluttony and indigestion. Physicians call [this ailment] Ephialtes, common folk call him Babutzicarius.

Suidas’ Babutzicarius, however, is far different from that of Psellus, and coincides with what we now call Callicantzarus. As for the affliction which Suidas refers to as Babutzicarius, Psellus, as we will see below, calls it Barychnas, whereas Ephialtes does not attack people during Christmas week, but anytime. So I have no doubt that Psellus confused the names—something that would not be surprising for that author, always engaged in arcane subjects and always bringing forth new ones—a state of mind in which it is very easy to forget things. Nevertheless, the majority of people are so insane that they feel no embarassment in supporting such a superstition: that anyone born during Christmas week is so afflicted by the demon, that he appears to have no other purpose for living than the suffering of others and his own. For when that week comes again, he breaks out of the house and, once outside of himself as well, he goes on wandering in the night. He has no fixed place, but always keeps on going on the same path he started, devouring the distance at Pegasus’ speed, as if one were chasing him. Nor does he ever stop, unkempt and dreadful looking. And if he sees someone, he attacks him and cuts him to shreds with the sharp and curved nails which he never trims, aiming for the face and tearing it apart. Then, jumping on his victim’s shoulders, he sits on him pressing him and weighing him down. And right when he has almost killed him, he asks, ‘Rope or lead?’ If [the victim] answers ‘rope’, he does not harm him any longer, but jumps back down on the ground and runs off, with an even more frantic gait, to look for someone else to torment.  If [the victim] says, “lead,” then [the attacker] shifting his stance with preternatural strength crushes him under his weight and abandons [the victim] unconscious and horribly tortured by his claws, and he goes on further. In order to keep him off this hallucinatory state and give him some relief, during these days they give him a sieve and instruct him to count the holes. He begins to count them, gravely and with cat-like astuteness. When he has counted two, he starts again from the beginning, always repeating one, two, but without ever adding three, as if it carried a bad omen for him. And if somebody present corrects him, he still does not change his counting, but goes on repeating, one, two. There is a very similar pest, which they call Callicantzarus. Where the name comes from, though, I do not yet know.

NOTES

Forthcoming