Konaki-jiji (子泣き爺, Konaki-Jijī, translated into Old man crying) is a kind of Japanese youkai, similar to the Scandinavian Myling.
Description
The Konaki-jiji is said to be able to take the appearance of an old man or a baby. In either case, the spirit lures an unwary bypasser towards it and allows him or her to pick it up. After the spirit is picked up, it suddenly becomes a heavy stone that crushes the victim to death. In some versions of Konaki-jiji stories, the spirit is that of a baby left to die in the wilderness.
The Konaki-jiji can be traced back to family records in Shikoku where the term was used to describe an old man who sounded like a child when he cried. The term was eventually used in a national encyclopedia of yokai and became a nationally known phenomenon.