In the beginning, everybody could see the Buso, because then the Buso
and the people were friendly together. Nobody died in those days,
for the Buso helped the men, and kept them from dying. 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. 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. Stand near the stump, and you will see passing before
you (1) a swarm of fireflies; (2) the intestines of the dead person;
(3) many heads of the dead person; (4) many arms of the dead person;
(5) many legs of the dead person; (6) the entire body passing before
you; (7) shadows flitting before you; and finally (8) the Buso. But
no one yet has been brave enough to try it.
"But one thing I did when my uncle died," said my boy informant. "I
chipped a piece of wood from the coffin, and tied it to a long string,
like a fly to a fish-hook. This I let down between the slats of the
floor, as I stood in the room where the dead body lay, and I held
the line dangling. As a fish catches at the bait, so Buso seized that
bit of wood, and for about two minutes I could feel him pulling at it
from under the house. Then I drew up the string with the wood. Buso
was there under the house, and smelt the chip from the coffin."
Buso and the Woman
In a little house there lived a man and his wife together. One night,
after they had been married for a long time, the man told his wife
that he would like to go fishing.
"Oh, yes! my husband," said the woman eagerly. "Go, and bring me some
nice fish to-morrow, so that we can have a good meal."
The man went out that same night to fish. And his wife was left alone
in the house.
In the night, while her husband was away, the Buso came, and tried
to pass himself off as her husband, saying, "You see I am back. I
got no fish, because I was afraid in the river." Then the Buso-man
made a great fire, and sat down by it.
But the woman did not believe that it was her husband. So she hid
her comb in a place on the floor, and she said to her comb, "If the
Buso calls me, do you answer. Tell him that I have run away because
I have great fear of the Buso."
Then, when the Buso called, the Comb answered just as the woman
had told it. By and by the Buso went away. In the morning, the man
came back from fishing, because daylight had come. And he had a fine
catch of fish. Then the woman told him all that had happened, and the
man never again let his wife sleep alone in the house. After that,
everything went well; for Buso was afraid of the man, and never again
attempted to come there.
The Buso's Basket