The Boogeyman

BUKA

BUKA — a fantastical monster used to frighten children; a mysterious creature in empty buildings and deep in the forest.

"If a child won't obey, you say: 'Sleep, sleep, the buka is coming.' And if you ask what kind of buka, why, it's wearing a fur coat, turned wool-side out" (Onega region); "They used to frighten children with the buka; it means a bear" (Vologda region);

"Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby,

Go, buka, under the shed,

Give the horses some hay,

Don't scare our Kolya.

And now they [sing] differently: 'Go, buka, under the shed, under the shed are bricks, the buka has nowhere to lie down.' They scare the young with the buka, and the old with torment" (Vologda region) ; "You walk around like a forest buka" (Onega region); "I once spent the night in a monastery, an empty one. Rats made a noise, and I thought the buka was rattling. I trembled all night" (Arkhangelsk region); "Father was sick and had a dream. He went into the forest. Suddenly a voice yelled through the forest: 'Do you need berries? Red ones, white ones!' It was the buka" (Vologda region).

Beliefs about the buka — a children's monster — are widespread everywhere. The buka is "an imaginary scarecrow with which sensible educators frighten children," wrote V. Dahl . Descriptions of the buka are vague. It is a monster with disheveled hair, a huge mouth, and a long tongue. It walks only at night around houses and yards, grabbing, carrying off, and devouring children.

In Arkhangelsk Province, "they frighten children simply with the buka; she is considered a black, ragged woman" .

A black, shaggy buka can resemble both a bear and a mummer wearing an inside-out coat. It is a personification of night illusion, danger, and fear.

Interestingly, when speaking to toddlers, a large black spot of soot was sometimes also called a buka: "In other cases, the mother rubs her nipples with soot, and when the child demands the breast, she uncovers it, points to the large black spot, and explains to him that this is a 'buka,' grimacing and spitting on the floor. The child... agrees that it must indeed be a 'buka,' and involuntarily turns away from the mother's breast" .

In Olonets Province, when a grown child refused to leave the cradle, a buka running into the hut would carry it away (that is, one of the household members dressed up in an inside-out sheepskin coat).

The word "buka" itself, especially when addressed to children, creates an image of something not quite definite, but dangerous, dark, and at the same time intriguing, enchanting, awakening creative imagination, akin to wordplay: "From knocking came grumbling, from grumbling came moaning," and so forth.

By certain characteristics, the buka (and especially its "varieties" such as *bukan*, *bukanay*, and *bukaritsa*) resembles the house spirit (*domovoy*) or yard spirit (*dvorovoy*).

Like them, the buka is shaggy. In a children's lullaby, the buka is chased under the shed to feed the horses — an activity traditional for the house or yard spirit. In the beliefs of several regions of Russia (especially the Russian North and Siberia), the image of the buka-monster merges with the appearances of house and yard spirits, which, according to widespread beliefs, not only protect the household, but also personify the fate of the home's inhabitants, foretelling and even bringing misfortune, illness, and death.

Another facet of the image, combining traits of the buka-phantom and the buka-house spirit (associated with the deceased, death, and fate), is the buka-devourer, a terrifying character that is destructive specifically to children. V. Dahl saw in it a similarity to the Roman lamia. However, creatures similar to the buka of Russian beliefs exist among many peoples (among the English, Germans, Norwegians, and Latvians). Some researchers believe that the name "buka" is of Indo-European origin (buka meaning something thick, vague, ugly in shape, "puffed up") . Let us also note that names of the "buka" type (traced back to an extensive Indo-European root cluster **b(e)u-*, **bh(e)u-* "to swell, puff up, bloat, fill up") are primarily borne in the beliefs of many peoples by house spirits and devils (Irish *phuka*, English *puck*, Low German *pook*, Old Swedish *puke*, Old Norse *puki* — "house spirit," "devil," etc.). The name "buka" is also considered a derivative of the Common Slavic *bukati* — "to roar, weep, and generally make various sounds — to low, roar, hum, rumble, growl"; it is assumed that "buka" is a baby-talk formation from the interjection "boo." For now, it is difficult to say with absolute certainty which of these etymologies is correct, especially since the image of the buka is multifaceted.

Bukas are also found in the beliefs of peoples neighboring the Russians: according to stories of Mordvin peasants in Saratov Province, the buka is a kind of werewolf, "in appearance resembling a haystack"; it appears mainly at night, chases passersby while making sounds "resembling the growling of an angry dog," loves to circle around the church square, and when caught by a gathered crowd, sinks "into the earth, into Tartarus" .

In the beliefs of the Altai and Tuvans, the buk is also a kind of werewolf; it can transform into animals, appears at twilight, and causes illnesses and nightmares .

In Russian beliefs of the 19th–20th centuries, the view of the buka as a children's monster predominates. In the Novgorod region and some other areas of Russia, the buka is a mysterious creature, a personification of illusion, fear, and a mysterious power that can manifest anywhere, most often in particularly dangerous places (deep in the forest, in an abandoned house) at a particularly dangerous time (night). Sometimes the buka takes on the appearance of the shaggy "master" of an empty house or forest thicket.

Marina Vlasova