This is the post dedicated to Dio after her win in the Easter Egg Hunt. Her chosen topic was: “I think you’ll know what I like (and no I don’t mean furry smut, kthxbye).” Yeah, that was a major cop out right there, everybody noticed it, right?

Of the subjects that I know Dio is fairly passionate about, there can be no mistaking her love of folklore, in particular ghost stories, and the cute Loli’s and Shota’s of the world. Now, I could ramble on about Casper the Friendly Ghost, but I think that would be rather lacking of interest - primarily because I’m not very fond of Casper. But something that has become quite clear is also her enjoyment of sweet things, like desserts. Desserts, and food in general, is a subject quite close to my heart; being that a lot of it’s side effects are probably chilling out on my arteries.

Where am I going with this? Well, what happens if you add desserts, children and folklore together? No, besides Hansel and Gretel.

That’s right, you get dead, fat children who just will not stay buried!

Of my favourite ‘dead fat juvenile creatures of the night’ comes the Japanese Konaki-jijii and the Scandinavian Myling or Utburd, both of which share a similar story and modus operandi.

Besides the name and basic background, I couldn’t find much background about the Konaki-jijii on the internet, it does appear to be one of the lesser documented parts of Japanese folklore, losing out to the more cinematically-successful creatures.

The Konaki-jijii, which means “crying old baby”, is the corporeal spirit of a baby who was abandoned and left to die in the woods. Konaki-jijii would lure people with the sound of its crying, while they were travelling the woods. If the person who finds the baby picks it up to stop it from crying, they would become unable to let go of it. Once held, the Konaki-jijii would suddenly become so heavy that it would crush the person lifting it.

As a side note, and in explaination to the “old” portion of the name, it is said that the baby has the face of an old man. Although, I contend that most babies have that wrinkled rubber face that befalls old men and Yoda. In fact, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman drew the best comparrison, with identifying babies as smaller versions of Sir Winston Churchill.

Searching for Mylings, however, bought up the expected wealth of information, and variants on the story. Among variants include that the creatures exist in bogs and moors to drown travellers, which I think is probably a more modern take on the sinking concept to aid more rational minds, and that they were often seeking vengence (often without a target) and so would be deliberate in killing.

Mylings are corporeal spirits of unbaptized or murdered children, with the Utburd alternative name meaning “that which is taken outside” in reference to unwanted children being abandoned and left to die in woods or other areas. Because the children were not given a Christian burial, they were believed to be unable to enter Heaven, and so these child ghosts would then haunt the place where they had died.

The Mylings’ hauntings would try to attract people to the area, so that they could try to persuade someone to bury them properly on sacred ground. Persuade is probably a generous term, as most of the stories I’ve come across tend to have the little darlings chase wanderers at night and jump on their backs, screeching a demand to be carried to the nearest graveyard.

The Mylings weren’t successful though, as mylings could often be enormous, and were said to grow increasingly heavier as they neared the graveyard, to the point where the person carrying them would begin to sink into the soil from the weight. When a person began to sink and unable to continue - and, indeed, if they were not crushed first - the Myling would ferociously tear apart them in rage.

Now, I know that this may seem a bit hard to think of in a world of science and visuals, so I’ve scoured YouTube to try and find the best way to show you what this would be like. Now, anyone who has had or given a piggyback or horsey ride will know that it can be a fun and enjoyable experience. If it’s with children, then it can be quite touching and a bonding experience, and if with a young adult then it can be cute and carefree - if you are still in college, go grab some friends and have a piggyback joust, purposefully crash too.

An encounter with a Myling or Konaki-jijii, however, will go from something sweet and inncocent, like this: