# Facts on: Bufes *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 26 Mar 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### m.driussi *26 Mar 1997, 20:32* Reply: Item #1625602 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET# (Q&D count: down to 25.) Technically (and in response to no one in particular), I think that "bufe" is the cant term, "god" is the chem term. OED reveals that bufe is old lost forgotten slang for dog, based upon an imitation of the bark, and of course dog is god backwards (making "Goddamn mad dog" a palindrome, fwiw). (Did paladins use palindromes? Hmm. A cross between a palaquin and a dromedary, looking a little like Dr. Doolittle's Pushme-Pullyou? No, no--the palindrome was the field where the paladin's jousted, running back again.) Before viscacha's post I've read some speculation (maybe a note from AE&an Robert Borski) that the bufes are hyenas, based on the laughing in the dark, rather than dogs. This is certainly possible--the text is slight, the tunnels are dark. (Tangent: THE LAUGHTER AT NIGHT was Wolfe's title for OPERATION ARES. And yes, it does feature wild dogs coursing the nightland.) Hyenas are pretty weird critters, though, no question about that. In Urth terms, the bufes are in nearly the same ecological niche as the white wolves that live within the walls of the House Absolute. Again, fwiw. Kieran Mullen, Still, you are right in the sense that the animosity between cat and bird are such that any time Tick refers to Oreb it might as well be a swear word. =mantis= Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com ---