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Updated: June 26, 2025
Next morning, Buso started for the graveyard; but on the way he met the Sun, and stopped to speak to him. "How about the men on earth?" he questioned. "They're all right," said the Sun. "All the people are working and playing and cooking rice." The Buso was furious to find himself tricked.
While the coffin for a dead man is being made, if you cut some chips from it and carry them to the place where the tree was felled for the box, and lay the chips on the stump from which the wood was cut, and then go again on the night of the funeral to the same place, you will see Buso.
The children had the start; but the three thousand buso kept gaining on them, until they were close behind. As they ran, the little boy said to his sister, "When we get to that field over there, where there are ripe bananas, you must not speak a word." But when they reached the banana-tree, the girl-child cried out, "Brother, I want to eat a banana."
Tagamaling is actually Buso only a part of the time; that is, the month when he eats people. One month he eats human flesh, and then he is Buso; the next month he eats no human flesh, and then he is a god. So he alternates, month by month. The month he is Buso, he wants to eat man during the dark of the moon; that is, between the phases that the moon is full in the east and new in the west.
Then the children called to their father and mother; but only from the pananag-tree the answer came, "Just wait till I finish this basket to hold you in." The frightened children did not dare to run away; and Buso sat down near by in the little hut where the rice was kept. Soon he said to the children, "Please comb out my nice hair."
But many years ago the Buso and man had a quarrel, and after that nobody could see the Buso any more. Now, there is one way to see Buso; but a man must be very brave to do it.
These are known as buis and are erected for the buso, in order to avert their displeasure and to keep them at a distance from the dwellings. When the family has been subjected to petty annoyances, or when for any other reason, the mabalian thinks an offering should be made, she orders the family to provide her with betel nut, a piece of iron, and bits of broken dishes, or castoff clothing.
So the Buso sat down on the ground, and let the girl climb out of the basket. He sat waiting for her to find her comb; but all the time she was picking up big stones, and putting them into the basket. Her brother got out of the basket too, and then both girl and boy climbed up into a tall betel-nut tree, leaving Buso with a basket full of stones on his back.
The night after a person has been buried, the Buso dig up the body with their claws, and drink all the blood, and eat the flesh. The bones they leave, after eating all the flesh off from them. If you should go to the graveyard at night, you would hear a great noise. It is the sound of all the Buso talking together as they sit around on the ground, with their children playing around them.
A name applied to a great body of spirits, some of whom are said formerly to have been people. They know all medicines and cures for illness, and it is from them that the mabalian secures her knowledge and her power. They also assist the tigyama in caring for the families. XIV. Buso. Mean, evil spirits who eat dead people and have some power to injure the living.
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