page_title: Bogeyman
section_title: Other examples
hierarchical_section_title: Bogeyman / Analogues in other cultures / Other examples
caption_attribution_description: Plaque showing the demon Gurumapa at Itum Baha, Kathmandu, Nepal.
context_page_description: The Bogeyman is a type of mythical creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. The Bogeyman has no specific appearance, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but is most commonly depicted as a masculine or androgynous monster that punishes children for misbehavior. The Bogeyman or a somewhat related creature can be found in every culture. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehaviour, depending on what purpose needs serving, often based on a warning from the child's authority figure. The term "Bogeyman" is sometimes used as a non-specific personification or metonym for terror, and in some cases, the Devil.
context_section_description: Afghanistan – The Madar-i-Al is a nocturnal hag that slaughters infants in their cribs and invoked to frighten children into obedience. Burning the seeds of the wild rue and fumigating the area around the baby will offer protection against her.
  Albania:
  The Buba is a serpentine monster. Mothers would tell their children to be quiet or the Buba would get them.
  The Gogol is a terrible giant that frightens children into being good.
  The Lubia is a female demon with an insatiable appetite for the flesh of children, especially girls. She has many heads, from seven to a hundred, and like the Greek hydra if one head is severed then others will grow in its place.
  Azerbaijan – The Div is a hairy giant that eats children. It was outsmarted and defeated by a clever young boy named Jirtdan, a popular hero in Azerbaijani fairy tales.
  Belize – Tata Duende is a mythical goblin described as being of small stature, with a beard, wrinkles, backwards feet, a large brimmed hat, and lacking thumbs. It is a protector of the forests and animals and was used to scare children from going out to play at night or going into the jungle.
  In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and North Macedonia, the Bogeyman is called Babaroga, baba meaning old woman and rogovi meaning horns, literally meaning old woman with horns. The details vary from one household to another. In one version, babaroga takes children, puts them in a sack, and then, when it comes to its cave, eats them. In another version, it takes children and pulls them up through tiny holes in the ceiling.
  Brazil and Portugal – A monster more akin to the Bogeyman is called Bicho Papão ("Eating Beast") or Sarronco ("Deep-Voiced Man"). A notable difference between it and the homem do saco is that the latter is a daytime menace and "Bicho Papão" is a nighttime menace. Another important difference is that "Homem do Saco" ("Sack Man") usually kidnaps children who go to places without parents authorization, while "Bicho Papão" scares naughty children and hides under their beds, closets or roofs.
  In Inuit mythology, there is a shapeshifting creature called the Ijiraq, that kidnaps children, to hide them away and abandon them. If the children can convince the Ijiraq to let them go, they can use inukshuk of stone to find their way home. Also from Inuit Mythology there is the Qalupalik, which are human-like creatures with long fingernails, green skin, and long hair that live in the sea. They carry babies and children away in their Amauti, if they disobey their parents and wander off alone. The Qalupalik adopt the children and bring them to live with them underwater.
  Cyprus – In the Cypriot dialect, the Bogeyman is called Kkullas (Κκουλλάς);  a man (vaguely described as hooded and/or deformed) who will put misbehaving children in a bag and take them away from their homes.
  Czech Republic – The equivalent of the Bogeyman in the Czech Republic is bubák or strašidlo.
  Egypt – The "Abu Rigl Maslukha" (ابو رجل مسلوخة), which translates to the "Man With Burnt/Skinned Leg". It is a very scary story that parents tell their children when they misbehave. The "Abu Rigl Maslukha" is a monster that got burnt when he was a child because he did not listen to his parents. He grabs naughty children to cook and eat them.
  England:
  In East Yorkshire, children were warned that if they stole from orchards they might be eaten by a goblin or demon called Awd Goggie.
  Yorkshire children were also warned that if they were naughty the Great Black Bird would come and carry them away.
  In Devon, local variations of Spring-Heeled Jack included a "bogeyman" that "danced in the road and leapt over hedges with the greatest of ease", with reported sightings in North Devon and locals describing "haunted" stretches of road in the South Devon towns of St Marychurch and Torquay, beginning in the 1840s.
  The Gooseberry Wife was said to guard gooseberry bushes on the Isle of Wight and took the form of a large hairy caterpillar.
  Churnmilk Peg in West Yorkshire was a female goblin who guarded nut thickets until they could be harvested and would alw
caption: Plaque at Itum Bahal, Kathmandu showing Gurumapa
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