"If you don't go to sleep, the black man will come." Generations of Italian children grew up with phrases like this. Italian folklore knows a whole population of bogeymen, creatures invoked by adults to keep little ones away from danger or to persuade them to obey. They are often vague figures, without a precise appearance, but their function is very clear, and studying them helps us understand how traditional communities protected their children.
The babau
The babau is perhaps the most widespread bogeyman in northern and central Italy. The name has a sound that imitates a menacing cry, similar to barking, and this is its main feature: the babau is more a sound than a shape. It has no defined appearance; it lives in the dark, under the bed, in wardrobes, in attics.
This very vagueness makes it effective. Every child imagines it in their own way, giving shape to their own fears.
The black man
The uomo nero, the black man, is a figure found all over Italy, with parallels in many European cultures. He is described as a man dressed in dark clothes, sometimes with a sack in which he puts disobedient children to carry them off. He appears in lullabies, nursery rhymes and the playful threats of adults.
A very well-known lullaby goes: "Ninna nanna, ninna oh, questo bimbo a chi lo do? Lo darò all'uomo nero, che lo tiene un anno intero", "Lullaby, lullaby, to whom shall I give this baby? I'll give him to the black man, who'll keep him a whole year." The menacing figure sits within an affectionate frame: fear and tenderness live together in the same song.
The Marabbecca
In Sicily tradition knows the Marabbecca, a creature that lives in wells and cisterns. Children were told that if they leaned too far over the edge of the well, the Marabbecca would grab them and drag them down.
The function is obvious. In a world where wells and cisterns were found in every courtyard and every stretch of countryside, the danger of falling in was real and deadly. The Marabbecca gave that danger a face and made it memorable: more effective for a small child than any rational explanation.
The Borda
In the Po valley, especially in some parts of Emilia and Lombardy, people told of the Borda, a female creature that hid in the fog and in water ditches. Anyone venturing alone into the fields on days of thick fog risked being seized and dragged into the water.
Here too the link with a concrete danger is clear: the Po valley fog could be extremely thick, and the irrigation channels, ditches and watercourses were a real risk for children who got lost.
Other bogeymen
The regional repertoire is vast. Here are a few examples:
| Name | Area | Associated danger |
|---|---|---|
| Babau | North and Centre | The dark, the night |
| Black man | All of Italy | Disobedience, sleep |
| Marabbecca | Sicily | Wells and cisterns |
| Borda | Emilia, Lombardy | Fog and ditches |
| Gatto mammone | Various regions | A menacing animal figure, often nocturnal |
| Befana | Various regions | Sometimes used as a threat for naughty children |
The educational function
Anthropologists and folklorists have highlighted some recurring functions of bogeymen.
Protection from danger
Many bogeymen are tied to dangerous places: wells, ditches, rivers, woods, attics, cellars. Instead of explaining the danger in abstract terms, adults personified it. The child did not need to understand why the well was dangerous: it was enough to fear the Marabbecca.
Regulating behaviour
Other bogeymen serve to impose everyday rules: go to bed, don't go out at night, don't wander from home, obey. In a peasant family with many children and adults busy with work in the fields, these figures were a practical aid in keeping watch over the youngest.
Managing fear
Finally, bogeymen give fear a name. Darkness, loneliness, the unknown are experiences every child faces. Giving them a form, even a frightening one, means making them thinkable, tellable and somehow manageable.
Bogeymen and modern culture
As Italian society changed, many traditional bogeymen disappeared or survived only as proverbial expressions. The black man and the babau hold on in everyday language, while more local figures such as the Marabbecca or the Borda are known mainly to the elderly and to scholars.
Yet the logic that produced them is still recognisable: every culture needs to tell children about the dangers of the world, and it often does so through stories and figures that speak to their imagination.
In short
- Bogeymen are figures invoked by adults to protect children and make them obey.
- The babau and the black man are the most widespread, appearing in lullabies and nursery rhymes too.
- The Sicilian Marabbecca lives in wells, the Po valley Borda in fog and ditches.
- Many bogeymen personify real dangers of the rural environment.
- Giving fear a name helped children make it thinkable and manageable.
