Buso

The available ethnographic summaries do not record a single creation myth for buso; rather, the term functions as an umbrella category in Bagobo cosmology for numerous harmful lower beings and spirits. Colonial contact sometimes blurred local categories (Spanish usage of dios could be applied to both buso and diwata), but buso persist in local narratives as an array of agents responsible for sickness, death, and predation on flesh.

There is no single canonical form for buso; the category includes many named variants with distinct morphologies. Secondary summaries note motifs such as emaciated or long-necked bodies and long fingers, but distinctive named forms include: tigbanua (skinny, often one-eyed, sharp teeth and claws, flexible necks, hooked chin to catch blood), Abuy and Riiu (pig-like underground creatures), Blanga (insect-like with branching horns), Buntud (described as having nine faces and black skin in some accounts), Karokung (a beautiful river woman with white skin and flowing black hair, black or blue feet), Mantianak (female ghost with talons and a hole in the chest), and Kilat (giant storm-riding horses or carabao).

Buso commonly function as predators of flesh, consumers of the dead, and etiological agents of disease and fever; many types are said to send sickness or plague rather than always engaging in direct open attack. Specific behaviors vary by subtype: tigbanua are described as cannibalistic hunters who hunt in groups but may take single victims and can be physically attacked; Riwa-riwa listen to human talk and drop to inflict sickness if offended; Balinsugu stirs up enmity and feeds on blood after violent disputes; some buso (e.g., S'iring, Tagamaling) use deception by taking the form of loved ones or ordinary people to lure victims. At Mount Apo buso were said to depart as sulphureous vapor during eruptions and to be associated with invisible animals serving them.