A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

An apparent Brahman shelters the wandering lovers, but his locked cupboard contains polished human skulls. The narrator calls him a vampire; Temple specifies that the source word was Arabic ghûl, a man-devouring demon. The story does not describe blood drinking, and his Brahman appearance is a disguise rather than the origin of his monstrous identity.

When Sir Buzz is summoned, the ghûl changes into torrential rain, a dove, and a rose that falls into Indra’s lap. His pursuer counters each escape and wins the rose by performing as a musician. One scattered petal becomes a mouse, which Sir Buzz in cat form devours. The repeated forms belong to this particular encounter; the text does not make them a required anatomy or behavior of every ghoul.

Human-devouring forest impostor defeated in a transformation chaseSpecific Punjabi narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Punjabi storytelling collected and adapted in colonial British India

02

Records & interpretation

Complete Sir Buzz and Temple’s named notes read; full preface read;1894 university-hosted text compared with Gutenberg.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People

    Flora Annie Steel, collector/adapter; R. C. Temple, annotations · 1894

    Sir Buzz, opening tale; corresponding titled notes; illustrationsJ.LockwoodKipling

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Flora Annie Steel, Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People (Macmillan,1894); R.C.Temple notes

Sir Buzz. Complete opening tale and titled Sir Buzz notes; Gutenberg anchorsid00028/id01612; UPenn1-1

Complete tale and fullnotes read, plus fullpreface and ToTheLittleReader.1894 title/credits verified in UPenn transcription; token comparison of entire SirBuzz with Gutenberg showed98.8% overlap, remaining spelling/punctuation/OCR/illustration-caption differences inspected. Punjabi names and ghul/bhut distinctions from Temple’s notes, no invented original script.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected folktaleSteel, Sir Buzz, complete narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05
  2. Collector’s linguistic and comparative notesTemple, Notes to Sir BuzzResearch access: 2026-10-05
  3. University-hosted historical primary textUniversity of Pennsylvania,1894 edition transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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