Bijaz

Bijaz is a fictional character in the "Dune" universe created by Frank Herbert. He appears in the 1969 novel "Dune Messiah".

Bijaz is a dwarf given to Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides to provide the names of the conspirators in the plot against him.

Secretly, however, Bijaz is an agent of the Bene Tleilax with a hidden purpose: to control Hayt, the ghola duplicate of Duncan Idaho. As the ghola is of Tleilaxu design, Bijaz employs a specific humming intonation that renders Hayt open to implanted commands:

He began to hum, a keening, whining monotonous theme, repeated over and over ... Hayt stiffened, experiencing odd pains that played up and down his spine. He stared at the face of the dwarf, seeing youthful eyes in an old face. The eyes were the center of a network of knobby white lines which ran to the hollows below his temples. Such a large head! Every feature focused on the pursed-up mouth from which that monotonous noise issued. The sound made Hayt think of ancient rituals, folk memories, old words and customs, half-forgotten meanings in lost mutterings.

Bijaz programs Hayt to kill Paul when he says the words "She is gone," in the depths of grief over the death of his concubine Chani. But this is only part of the true plan; the emotional distress of the attempt allows Hayt to recover the buried memories of Duncan Idaho, up to and including his death at the hands of the Imperial Sardaukar. This is the culmination of the Tleilaxu plot: to demonstrate to Paul that the Tleilaxu can create for him an exact duplicate of his dead wife Chani — but only if he abdicates his throne and relinquishes his CHOAM holdings. Paul resists the temptation, and has Hayt/Duncan kill Bijaz before he can change his mind.

Bijaz is portrayed by Gee Williams in the 2003 Sci-Fi channel miniseries "Frank Herbert's Children of Dune" (which covers the events of "Dune Messiah" as well as "Children of Dune)"). In this adaptation, Bijaz habitually speaks in rhyming couplets.