The Aswang
The Aswang are another one of those vampire species that are way different than your traditional opera cape kind. This particular vampire is from the Philippines and is believed to be a sexy normal woman by day and an evil flying monster of terror at night.
During the day the Aswang appears to be a completely normal human. She can live in a house, work a job, carry and raise children and do all sorts of other human things like you and I. At night, however she takes the form of a demonic looking bird and takes flight, crying out “Kikik! (or Kakak!).
She feeds on blood and only blood. And the manner in which she feeds isn’t what you’d expect. She feeds using her very long, thin, hallow tongue that she inserts through cracks in the roof of prey’s houses. The Aswang favors children, but will not feed upon those who sleep on the edge of their mats. For some reason she only feeds on those that sleep in the middle and supposedly announces this before eating.
At dawn the Aswang returns to human form, possibly because of the sun or because it washes off the special ointment it uses to become a vampire. Because that is how an Aswang come to be, through a special ointment it rubs all over its body that gives it it’s dark powers.
Also, if the Aswang happens to lick your shadow you will die shortly after. Seriously. Curse those shadow lickers! Ahem. There is a way to keep them from licking your poor shadow though. Garlic rubbed under one’s armpits is an excellent Aswang repellent…although if you do that you will be repelling just about anyone and anything within 10 feet of you.
The Aswang is still used today by Filipinos as a kind of boogie-man to make their children behave.
So what have we learned today? Sleep on the edge of your bed and protect your shadow… oh and don’t rub any strange lotions all over your body.
Added note: I am aware of the fact that there is another type of aswang, but considering that the other one is a type of ghoul that feeds on corpses and not blood, I left it out of this vampire post.
– Moonlight
Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).
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VampyreFerrahJingle August 26, 2009 - 6:59 am
what a nasty tongue.
Luna November 18, 2009 - 7:24 am
Haha, I’ll try that garlic-thing =P
Interesting. It’s incredible what people manage to tell others. I wonder how that myth started =P
Luna November 18, 2009 - 7:32 am
But is there no way to get completely rid of it? Will this woman choose to become an aswang every night, or is she forced to become a demon bird?
Moonlight November 18, 2009 - 10:18 am
From what I have read they become an aswang through their special ointment, if they don’t use it they don’t turn into the demon bird thing. But that’s all I have read on that i’m afraid.
zmoney February 24, 2011 - 8:28 pm
are there still vampire snakes? i believe that thy are the ones from the garden of eden story
marsline October 15, 2011 - 11:01 am
will you bit me
marsline October 15, 2011 - 10:58 am
i want to be a vamiper so bad plzzzzzzz