34 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Of course, like the ghosts and demons of all other peoples, it is 

 in darkness 77 that the buso are particularly busy in their evil 

 deeds, although, here and there, they have been known to make 

 their presence felt by day. 



These vast throngs of evil personalities, known under the col- 

 lective term of buso, are subdivided into several groups, and in 

 these, again, we find a great number of individual names, each of 

 which suggests some peculiar external buso-character, or some par- 

 ticular buso-trait, or some set mode of preying upon the human- 

 kind. Of such sub-groups and individuals, the following are typical. 



The tigbanua 78 are representative fiends of the most dangerous 

 sort. To them, more than to any other buso, shrines are erected, 

 magic formulae are recited, and propitiatory offerings are made; 

 while numerous spells are constantly worked to frustrate their evil 

 designs. A tigbanua is reported to live in a state of perpetual 

 cannibalism and to be most repulsive in aspect, having one eye in 

 the middle of the forehead, a hooked chin two spans long and 

 upturned to catch the drops of blood that may chance to drip from 

 the mouth, and a body covered with coarse black hair. From 

 Mount Apo and from the deep forest the tigbanua come flying or 

 running to every fresh-dug grave, whether it be on mountain or 



sein, d. h. man spricht meist einfach von Berg-, Wald-, und Baum-Hantu im Hinblick 

 auf einen einzelnen Fall. ...„Uie Inlandstiimme der malayischen Halbinsel, pp. 946 — 

 947. 1905. 



7 7 Those evil spirits that figure in Indian saga under the names of Ritkshasa, Yaksha 

 and Pisacha are said to "have no power in the day, being dazed with the brightness of 

 the sun; they delight in the night." Somadeva: Katha, Sarit Siigara; ed. cit., vol. 1, 

 p. 47. 1880. See also the prayer in the Atharva-Veda. "Shelter us . . . from greedy 

 liends who rise in troops at night-time when the moon is dark." R. T. H. Griffith 

 (U\): Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, vol. 1, p. 19. 1895. 



78 Tigbanua is practically identical with Banuanhon, of Visayan myth, and with Tig- 

 balang, a Tagal demon, a9 indicated in the following passage from the writings of Fray 

 Casemiro Diaz, 1638 — 1640, trans, by Blair and Robertson. "Moreover, in those moun- 

 tains of Panay, are many demons, who appear to the natives in horrible forms — as 

 hideous savages, covered with bristles, having very long claws, with terrifying eyes and 

 features, who attack and maltreat those whom they encounter. These beings are called 

 by the Indians Banuanhon, who are equivalent to the satyrs aud fauns of ancient times .. . 

 Thej arc called in the Tagal language Tigbalang, and many persons who have seen them 

 have described to me, in the same terms, the aspect of the monster. They say that he 

 has a face like a cat's, with a head that is flattened above, not round, with thick beard, 

 and covered with long hair; his legs are so long that, when he squats on his buttocks, 

 his knee9 staud a vara above his head; and he is so swift in running that there is no 

 quadruped that can be compared with him." The Philippine Islands, vol. 29, pp. 269 — 

 270. 1905. 



