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TheSack Man (also called theBag Man orMan with the Bag/Sack) is a figure similar to thebogeyman, portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away.
Variants of this figure appear all over the world, particularly in theAmericas, where it is referred to asel Hombre del costal,el hombre del saco, or in Portuguese,o homem do saco (all of which mean "the sack/bag man"), andEastern Europe. Similar legends are found inHaiti and some countries in Asia.
InSpain,el hombre del saco is usually depicted as a mean and impossibly ugly and skinny old man who eats the misbehaving children he collects. Thecrime of Gádor gave rise to this term[1] because the kidnappers used agunny sack to carry with the children.[2] InBrazil,o homem do saco is portrayed as a tall and imposing adult male, usually in the form of avagrant, who carries a sack on his back, and collects mean disobedient children to sell them.[3] InChile,Argentina, and particularly in theSouthern andAustral Zones, hee is mostly known asel Viejo del Saco orel Hombre de La Bolsa ("The old man with the bag") who walks around the neighbourhood every day around supper time. This character is not considered or perceived as a mythical or fantastic creature by children. Instead, he is recognised as an insane murderer that somehow has been accepted by society which allows him to take a child that has been given to him willingly by disappointed parents or any child that is not home by sundown or supper time. InHonduras andMexico, misbehaving children fearel Roba Chicos, or child-snatcher, which is very similar toHombre del Saco.[4]
InArmenia andGeorgia, children are threatened by the "Bag Man" who carries a bag and kidnaps those who do not behave.[citation needed] InHungary, the local bogeyman, themumus, is known aszsákos ember, literally "the person with a sack". InPoland, children are frightened by thebebok,babok, orbobok or who is also portrayed as a man with a sack. In theCzech Republic andSlovakia, a similar creature is known:bubák. It's a creature without a typical form, connected with darkness or scary places, making children fear but not taking them away usually. The character ofčert, the devil, is used for that instead ("Don't be naughty orčert will take you away!"). InRussia,Ukraine, andBelarus,buka (бука),babay (бабай), orBabayka (бабайка) is used to keep children in bed or stop them from misbehaving.Babay means "old man" inTatar.
InNorth India, children are sometimes threatened with theBori Baba or "Father Sack" who carries a sack in which he places children he captures.[5] A similar being, "Abu Kees" (ابو كيس), literally "The Man with a Bag", appears inLebanon.[3] InTurkey, Kharqyt (Turkish:Harkıt means "Sack Man"- also calledÖcü,Böcü orTorbalı) is portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away to eat or sell them.[6]
InKorea,mangtae yeonggam (망태 영감) an old man (yeonggam) who carries a mesh sack (mangtae) to put his kidnapped children in, thus, "Old Man with a Sack". In some regions,mangtae yeonggam is replaced bymangtae halmeom (망태 할멈), an old woman with a mesh sack.[citation needed] InVietnam, misbehaving children are told thatông ba bị (in the North; literally mister-three-bags) orông kẹ (in the South) will come in the night and take them away.[citation needed]
InSri Lanka, among theSinhalese people, elders frighten misbehaving children withGoni Billa, (translates roughly as "sack kidnapper") a scary man carrying a sack who arrives day or night to capture and keep children.[citation needed]
In theWestern Cape folklore ofSouth Africa,Antjie Somers is a Bogeyman who catches naughty children in a bag slung over his shoulder. Although the name is that of a female, Antjie Somers is traditionally a male figure (often an escaped slave who fled persecution by cross-dressing).[7]
Several countries contrast their version of the sack man with the benign sack carrierFather Christmas. In theNetherlands andFlanders,Zwarte Piet (Dutch for "Black Pete") is a servant ofSinterklaas, who delivers bags of presents on December 5 and takes naughty kids back to Spain in the now empty bags. In some stories, the Zwarte Piets themselves were kidnapped as kids, and the kidnapped kids make up the next generation of Zwarte Piets. InSwitzerland, the corresponding figure is known asSchmutzli (derived fromButzli) in German, orPère Fouettard in French.[8] A similar figure,Krampus, appears in the folklore ofAlpine countries, sometimes depicted with a sack or washtub to carry children away.[9] InBulgaria, children are sometimes told that a dark scary monster-like person calledTorbalan (Bulgarian:Торбалан, which comes from "торба", meaning a sack, so his name means "Man with a sack") will come and kidnap them with his large sack if they misbehave. He can be seen as the antipode of the Christmas figureSanta Claus (Bulgarian:Дядо Коледа; corresponding toFather Christmas). In Haiti, theTonton Macoute (Haitian Creole:Tonton Makout,lit. 'Uncle Gunnysack') is agiant, and a counterpart ofFather Christmas, renowned for abducting bad children by putting them in his knapsack. During the dictatorship ofPapa Doc Duvalier, certain Haitian secret policemen were given the nameTontons Macoutes because they were said also to make people disappear.[10][11][12]
