Before time began, an old woman (Tuglibung) and an old man (Tuglay) lived in a town at the centre of the world. There came a season of drought, when their bananas spoiled, and all their plants died from the hot sun. Tuglibung and Tuglay were very hungry, and looked skinny, because they had nothing to eat.
One night as the old man slept, he dreamed that a little boy with white hair came close to him, and said, "Much better it would be, if you would stay here no longer; much better, that you go to the T'oluk Waig ('water-sources'), where there is a good place to live."
So the old folks started on their journey to the source of the rivers. On their way, they stopped at one place that seemed good, and stayed for about a month; but there was little to eat, and they were always hungry. At last, one day, the man climbed up into a tall tree, whence he could see the whole earth, even to the border of the sky. Far away he could see a little smoke, just like a cigarette. Then he climbed "down the tree in a hurry, and told his wife what he had seen.
"I will go and find out where that smoke comes from," he said, "and see if I can get some bananas and things,--all we can eat."
So the man started out and travelled a long way, leaving his wife at home. As he approached the place where he had seen the smoke, he found himself in a vast field full of fruit-trees and sugarcane-plants. The sugarcane grew as big as trees; the bananas were as huge as the trunks of cocoanut-palms; and the papaya-fruit was the size of a great clay jar. He walked on until he reached a very large meadow, full of long wavy grass, where there were many horses and carabao and other animals. Soon after he left the meadow-grass, he could make out, some distance ahead of him, a big house with many smaller houses grouped around it. He was so scared that he could not see the houses very well. He kept his eyes on the ground at his feet.
When he came up to the big house, he saw lying under it piles of human bones. He then knew that the Datu of the Buso lived there. In all the other houses there were buso living too. But he went bravely up the steps of the big house, and sat down on the floor. Right away, while he sat there, the children of Buso wanted to eat him. But Tuglay said, "No, no! don't eat me, because I just came to get bananas of many different kinds."
Then the man made a bargain with the Datu of the Buso, and said, "Give me some bananas, and I will pay you two children for them. Come to my house in nine days, and you shall have one boy and one girl for the bananas." But Tuglay had no children.
Then the Buso gave Tuglay a basket of bananas, and let him go away.
Now, while her husband was away, the woman gave birth to twins,--a boy and a girl. And when the man got home he was pleased, and said, "Oh! that's fine! You got some babies while I was away."
But the man felt very sorry to think of giving his children to the Buso, and he went from place to place, hoping to find some friend who would help him. All the time, the days of the falla ("time of contract") were slipping by. He could get nobody to help him. Now it lacked only two of the nine days' falla. And while the children
were asleep, Tuglay said to his wife, "Let us run away, and leave our babies here asleep, because tomorrow the Buso will come."
Then Tuglay and Tuglibung ran away, and left their children. They ran and ran until they reached the T'oluk Waig; but they could not get away from the falla. The nine days of falla had caught up with them.
At home, the children woke up and found no mother and father there, and they began to cry. They thought they would run after their parents. So they left the house, and forded the river, and began to run.
When the nine days were up, the Buso came to Tuglay's house for his pay. When he found nobody at home, he ran after the children, carrying with him many iron axes and big bolos, and accompanied by a crowd of other buso. In all there were three thousand buso,--two thousand walking, and one thousand flying. The children had the start; but the three thousand buso kept gaining on them, until they were close behind.
As they ran, the little boy said to his sister, "When we get to that field over there, where there are ripe bananas, you must not speak a word."
But when they reached the banana-tree, the girl-child cried out, "Brother, I want to eat a banana."
Then she ate a banana; but she felt so weak she could run no longer. She just lay down and died. Then the boy-child looked about for a place to put his sister's body. He looked at the fine branched trees, full of fruit, and saw that each single fruit was an agong, and the leaves, mother-of-pearl.
To one of the trees, the boy said, "May I put my sister here?" And the tree said that he might do it.
Then the boy laid his sister on a branch of the tree, because the child was dead.
After this, the boy ran back toward the Buso who led the rest, and called out to him, "I'm going to run very fast. Chase me now, and catch me if you can!"
So the boy ran, and the Buso chased him. Hard pressed, the boy sprang toward a big rock, and shouted to it, "O rock, help me! The Buso will catch me."
"Come up!" said the rock, "I'll help you, if I can."
But when the boy climbed up, he found that it was not a rock, but a fine house, that was giving him shelter. In that house lived the Black Lady (Bia t' metum), and she received the boy kindly.
As soon as the Buso came up to the rock, he smiled, and said, "The boy is here all right! I'll break the rock with my axe."
But when he tried to break the rock with axe and poko, the hard stone resisted; and the Buso's tools were blunted and spoiled.
Meantime, in the Black Lady's house the boy was getting ready for a fight, because the Black Lady said, "Go down now; they want you down there."
Then with sharp sword and long spear, bearing a fine war-shield, and wearing ear-plugs of shining ivory, the boy went down to meet the Buso. When he went down the steps, all the other buso had come, and were waiting for him in front of the house. Then they all went to fighting the one boy, and he met them all alone. He fought until every one of the three thousand buso fell down dead. At last, one only of the buso stood up, and he was the great Datu of Buso. But even he fell down before that mighty boy, for none could conquer the boy. He was matulus. After all was done, the boy married the Black Lady, and lived well in her house.
