The collection of Buru tales that follow were carefully transcribed from tape
recordings made over the last two decades, mainly on Buru Island.

The orthography is the same as for modern Indonesian, with the following
exceptions:
1.  Buru "q" replaces Indonesian "ng".
2. Buru "x" replaces the Indonesian glottal stop symbol.
3. Double vowels are written twice, for example "fuun."

Note also that no apostrophes are used to mark sounds that have been left out
of words.  The native speakers of Buru tend to leave out unnecessary sounds
wherever possible, and these ellisions are governed by a set of grammatical
rules.  Since so many of such ellisions occur, I felt that to replace them all
with apostrophes would be confusing, so I simply left them out.  My rule of
thumb has been, as nearly as possible, to write all sounds exactly as they
occurred.

Buru tales are known under at least six names: hakayaten, harkayaten,
karhayaten, kahayaten, kahaten, and aten.For obvious reasons, there is a
taboo against telling tales while the sun is shining.  To do this is "koin,"
or taboo.  The offence will cause the story-teller to lose his or her way in
the forest.

the narrators of these tales are all native speakers of the Buru tongue.  The
most prolific is probably Elias (Eli) Solisa.  He was born somewhere in South
Buru, probably around 1958.  he received an Indonesian education in Leksula
and Ambon.  He is one of the few Buru people I know who has left Buru for
further education, yet managed to keep in touch with the Buru world.

Mukarehet is from the high mountains of Central Buru, and now lives at
Selwadu, in the north.  She has a good feel for verse, and is steeped in Buru
lore.  She was probably born around 1935 or so.

Mukasoto is a woman of the Rana area, born probably around 1925.   She was one
of the first Christians of The Rana area, and received a good deal of abuse
because of her faith in the 1960s.

Keri is a lad of North Buru who has a gift for telling tales.  He was probably
born around 1972.

The others are from various parts of the island.

It is my hope that these tales will add to the growing interest in the
language and lore of Buru.

                                Joe Devin.