Comprachicos (also Comprapequeños and Cheylas) is a compound Spanish neologism meaning "child-buyers", which was coined by Victor Hugo in his novel The Man Who Laughs. It refers to various groups in folklore who were said to change the physical appearance of human beings by manipulating growing children, in a similar way to the horticultural method of bonsai – that is, deliberate mutilation. The most common methods said to be used in this practice included stunting children's growth by physical restraint, muzzling their faces to deform them, slitting their eyes, dislocating their joints, and malforming their bones. The resulting dwarfed and deformed adults made their living as mountebanks or were sold to lords and ladies to be used as pages or court fools.