Robert Wagman

CHAPTER XII

And these may appear to be tolerable [monsters?], with the only exception of the Burculacas (some call it Bulcolaccas, others Buthrolacas), since it is impossible to imagine anything that could be more monstruous or more dangerous to the human race. Its name derives from its foulness. Bourca is muck, and not any muck, but the kind that has been soaking in putrid water and exhales, so to speak, the worst of Mephite’s vapors. Lakkos is a ditch or a hole where this sort of muck foments. So [the Burcolacas] is the corpse of a man of evil and immoral life—often someone who has been excommunicated by his bishop—that does not dissolve or turn to dust, as all other dead bodies do, but, as if it were made of an abnormally tough hide, becomes all swollen and extended, so that it is nearly impossible to bend any of its limbs. Its skin is stretched out like a drum’s and, when struck, makes a sound just like a drum, for which reason [the Burcolacas] is also called Tympaniaios, ‘The Drum Creature’. Into this kind of misshaped body a demon enters and proceeds to bring sorrow to unfortunate mortals. Covered in this corpse, he often leaves the tomb, especially at night, and goes roaming around town and other inhabited places, until he reaches a house that he likes. There he starts knocking at the door, calling loudly for someone in the house. If this person responds, it is over; the next day he dies. If he does not respond, he is safe. Therefore the inhabitants of this island, if someone calls them in the night, never respond at first. For, if he calls a second time, the caller is certainly not a Bourcolacas, but someone else. They say that this monster is so damaging to humankind, that in daytime also, even at noon—and not only indoors, but in the fields as well, in the middle of a road, or inside a fenced vineyard—he comes up to people passing by and kills them, without either speaking to them or touching them, but just with his appearance and sight. If those who see him start speaking to him, the ghost disappears; the person who speaks, dies. For this reason, when the citizens [of Chios] see people die in great numbers without any plague spreading, they suspect the activity of a Bourcolacas and open those tombs in which recently deceased individuals are buried. Sooner or later they find a corpse which has not decomposed and is all swollen. This they take it out of the tomb and cast on a burning pyre, while the priests recite prayers. The praying is not over yet when the corpse’s joints start slowly to crumble, and the rest, falling off, turns to ash. Others believe that [the Bourcolacas] is a demon who has taken the aspect of a dead person and uses this guise to kill the people he wishes. Attempts to eradicate this superstition from the people’s mind were made not only by the ancients (for it is not a contemporary, or even recent superstition), but also by the pious men of later times, who were of Christian faith.  The unknown author of the Nomocanon claims to have copied the following statements from John Nesteutes,

On finding the body of a dead person which has not decomposed, or what they call a Bulcolacas: whether it is real (what they say about it) and what needs to be done. From Nesteutes, Chapter 52. This phaenomenon is not about a dead person turning into a Bulcolacas, but about the Devil wishing to fool some people into doing foul acts, so that God will grow angry at them. He creates visions and often, in the night, he makes people imagine that they are approached and spoken to by a dead person whom they once knew. They have this and other nightmares when they are asleep. Other times they see [the Bulcolacas] in their wake, walking or standing on an open road. And that is not all: [they believe that] he also strangles people. O, the nonsense of these poor folks! A dead man who walks and kills people? God forbid. Yet they panic, and rush to the tomb, and dig it up to look at the corpse. And since their faith is clouded, the Devil changes shape and takes up the dead man’s body the way he would wear a suit. And that corpse, which had been laying in the tomb for so long, appears to them with flesh, blood, nails and hair. Seeing this, the poor folks are immediately lead to the worst conclusions by their imagination, and assemble a woodfire where they burn the corpse until it is completely destroyed. Nor can they see, in their mindless state, that they are in fact setting themselves up to burn forever in the eternal and inextinguishable fire of our Lord Jesus Christ’s terrible second coming. They, who burnt and destroyed a body in the present time, in the future will have to account for such action on Judgement Day and listen to the fearful Judge as He condemns them to walk into the flames to their eternal punishment. Therefore, if they repent with all their heart for the abominable crime which they committed, [they should be disciplined as follows]: if they are laymen, they must remain without communion for six years; if they are clergy, they must be divested of priesthood. Indeed, let it be known that if a corpse of such kind is found (which, as we said, is a product of the devil), the priests must be called in, so that prayers to the Virgin can be made and water be blessed with a short benediction. A mass must be said and the Virgin should be invoked for her help. Memorials for the dead with collyba are also to be performed. When this is done, the exorcisms of Basil the Great and two baptisms must be read over the dead body. Finally, the holy water blessed with a short benediction must be sprinkled on all the people in attendance. Any leftover water should be poured on the corpse, and, by God’s grace the demonic force will leave that body.

NOTES

Forthcoming