You Bet Your Aswang

Since it’s October, how about a bit of ghoulishness with your weekly mythology? Today, we take a look at the Aswang, which is more or less a sort of vampire from the Philippines. The term can be used for many different supernatural creatures, but the main kind of Aswang is a shape-shifter that is particularly fond of eating children. During the day, they often take the forms of mild-mannered townspeople, preferring to work as butchers and having bloodshot eyes. During the night, they turn into animals and hunt for victims. An Aswang in its natural form is frequently described as a woman with unkempt hair, sharp teeth, and a long, wire-like tongue. Sometimes they’re said to suck blood, and other times to prefer eating human livers. They’ve been known to kill fetuses that are still inside the mother’s body, and as such were used as a primitive explanation for miscarriages. They’ll eat the dead as well, and have been known to replace their victims with likenesses made of wood and grass. I’ve also seen it reported that some Aswangs have holes in their armpits containing oil, and for some reason this enables them to fly. Other times it’s a set of bat-like wings that gives them the power of flight. Regardless of exactly what an Aswang is, they’re considered very dangerous. Warding them off is done in basically the same way as with Western vampires, through garlic or holy water. Aswang stories are apparently still common in the Philippines, usually used to frighten children.

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