A mulo will never look you in the eye

Lenka BudilovaSviniaJune 2000
The other day we met Emil Cina in the cemetery and he started telling us about mulos. You could see that he really believed in those ghosts, and he had plenty of stories to tell about them.
Then he took us to the Romany section of the cemetery. It was terribly run down and much smaller than the white section. Emil showed us a cross he had told us about before. It was made from metal water pipes welded together. "We, I mean Roma – really believe in mulos. They are souls of the dead who haven’t found peace after their death, and have to come back to haunt the living. They can look human but sometimes they can appear in the form of a dog, a cat or any other animal. You can always tell a mulo by the fact that he will never show you his face. A mulo can walk like a man and talk like a man, but he will never look you in the eye. Sometimes you may see his face in profile, but he’ll never look you in the eye.
You’re probably wondering whether I also believe in mulos. Well, I do. I haven’t seen one yet myself, but I know quite a few people whom they’ve frightened. Nearly everyone gets to see a mulo at least once in his life, and I can assure you that it isn’t a pleasant experience.
One day a mulo appeared to my sister. She was at home cooking. At one point she looked out of the window and saw an old woman approaching the house. Nothing strange so far, you might say. But the next moment my sister noticed that the woman had no face: none at all. She realized that she was looking at a mulo, had a terrible fright, screamed and fainted. It took us some time to revive her. We even called an ambulance for her.
A friend of mine has also met a mulo. One day we were daring each other to steal a cross from the cemetery. This friend of mine said he wasn’t in the least afraid and would do it without any problem. That night he went to the cemetery, broke off one of the wooden crosses, and started to carry it home. When he was walking back towards the village a mulo caught up with him, started shouting at him and – for all I know – may have wanted to kill him. My friend started running and the mulo chased him through the fields all night long. He didn’t get home until dawn, in rags, all dirty and smeared with his own blood.
He told us about the mulo and wanted to take that wooden cross back to the cemetery. But it was broken and couldn’t be put up again. So my uncle made him this new cross from welded metal pipes, and my friend put it in place of the old wooden one so that the mulo would leave him in peace.”

One Response to “A mulo will never look you in the eye”

  1. Muy. I haven’t heard stories about Mulos since I was a young child. Brings back memories….not all of them pleasant. If I can remember any clearly I’ll post them as a story. Thanks for putting me in touch with my childhood.

  2. i had a frightening expreience recently where i saw someone out of the corner of my eye race up to my front door and bash on it they passed within centimeteres of me (i was behind a curtained window in my study) i saw a peson with a face hidden by a hat (in profile) i never heard them walk down the path from my front door and leave after that i had terifying expreeiences of a physical presence in my room in the early hours of the morionig for a few weeks after i had worked out that there was a(n unwanted spirit) presence i did a long cleansing ritual and have not been bothered since however, i read phil rickman’s most recent novel (the cire of souls) which was about mulis and mulos and was terrified in the light of this experince

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