BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 3* 



are led to infer that not all buso are ghosts. It will not do to 

 press this inference too far, however, for the Malay may not feel 

 a contradiction that, to us, is at once apparent. Yet the most 

 malignant buso, called tigbanvd, seem to be distinguished from 

 burkan, or ghosts, for I have heard an old man, while explaining 

 a ceremony, make this remark: "We offer betel to all the tigbanua 

 and to all the dead buso." Again, the statement is made that 

 "there are many buso and many burkan." Moreover, there are a 

 great number of zoomorphic forms called tigbanua or buso that are 

 not identified with ghosts. The fact is, that so great is the mul- 

 titude of mental images associated with evil spirits in their diverse 

 shapes and functions, that some little confusion in dealing with the 

 subject is almost inevitable. There are different lines of approach^ 

 according to whether a native is talking of sickness, or of death, 

 or of a ceremonial, or of a haunted tree, or of an episode in a 

 story; and he makes no attempt to correlate these various lines of 

 approach, or to define exactly the groups of evil personalities that 

 he happens to be dealing with. 



The volcano Apo, whose intermittent eruptions of sulphurous 

 vapor and whose matchless height suggest mysterious dwelling- 

 places for spirits, has long been regarded as the home of the worst 

 buso or tigbanua, of many less malevolent buso or tagamaling, and 

 of a vast throng of bad ghosts (burkan), all of whom live in an 

 enormous house within the mountain into which the crater leads 

 as a vast passageway, or as an open door. Great numbers of wild 

 animals, reptiles and flying creatures live on the summit of the 

 volcano — deer, pigs, cats, dogs, civets, mice, flying lemurs, mon- 

 keys, birds, jungle fowl, snakes and monitor lizards — all of which 

 belong to Buso. Around the edge of the crater, the prints of these 

 animals mav be seen by those persons who have the temerity to 

 make the ascent (so say the old men); but the fabulous animals 

 are invisible, except to all the buso. There are also living on 

 Mount Apo great numbers of the so-called "bad animals," that is 

 to say, buso under the form of beasts. Here is one of the little 

 folk tales of Apo. 



All the old Bagobo men say that in the crater of Apo lives a rich man. 

 He is a Chinaman, and he keeps a store there. Long ago a Bagobo man 

 climbed up to see the volcano. He saw a big hole in the top of it. He went 

 down into the hole and found a big house with a store in it. He went in 

 and rested there a while. A Chinaman was keeping the store. By and by 



