214 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



I' lap is a form of black magic employed to send a man to sleep 

 in order to rob him. It is said that the ingredients of this charm 

 are very hard to find, and that only a courageous person can carry 

 the enterprise through successfully. He must go at night to the 

 grave of a little child that has been buried during the preceding 

 twenty-four hours. He must dig up the baby, open its mouth, cut 

 off the tip of its tongue, cut many of the hairs of the eye-lashes 

 from each of its eye-lids, and then get away in safety before the 

 Buso catches him. The charm is thus compounded: the tip of the 

 tongue and the eyelashes are mixed with a certain resin (doka), 

 and thrown in the flames of a fire kindled under the house of 

 the man whom the conjurer intends to rob. The subject gets 

 very sleepy as soon as the fire is lighted, and falls into a sort of 

 trance. Then the one who is working the magic comes up the 

 steps into the house, and asks the sleeping person, "Where is your 

 food? Where are your nice things?" The other answers in his 

 sleep every question, and his possessions may easily be taken from 

 him. This charm more nearly approaches a form of hypnotic sug- 

 gestion than any other magical device that has come to my notice. 

 The association set up is clearly with three elements — the tongue, 

 the eyes, and the helplessness of an infant — so as to induce a 

 certain condition in the subject of the charm. 



It is very difficult to see Buso, but the following charm may be 

 used by a brave person. Chips of wood cut from a coffin are taken, 

 on the night following the funeral, to the stump of the tree from 

 which the log for the coffin was cut, and laid upon the stump. 

 First there will be seen swarms of fireflies, shadows and parts of 

 the body of the dead; afterwards Huso will appear, for he will lie 

 drawn by the smell of the chips of wood, which he associates with 

 the dead body. ' 4 ' ; 



An efficacious charm to drive away the mythical bird called 

 wakwak 34; is the use of a suggestive formula. The wakwuk is a 



rapacious bird resembling a crow, hut having four legs, two of 

 which are covered with claws, ami it Hies over the country at night, 

 hunting for living men as its prey. The magic spell is as follows: 

 When you hear the sound of the bird's voice shrieking, "Wak-wak! 



"•"See Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, vol. 26, p. 42—1.3. 1918. 



"'The wakwak i> mentioned bj Mr. Cole as a bird of ill omen among the Mandaya. 

 The wild tribes of Davao district, Mindanao, p. 174. 1913. 



