Manananggal
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A manananggal is a creature in Filipino folklore. It resembles a Western vampire in being an evil, human devouring monster or witch. The myth of the Manananggal is popular in the Visayan region of the Philippines, especially in the western provinces of Capiz, Iloilo, Antique. There are varying accounts of the features of a manananngal. Like vampires, Visayan folklore creatures, and aswangs, manananggals are also said to abhor garlic.
A manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman (as opposed to an aswang), capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat wings to prey on unsuspecting pregnant women in their homes; using an elongated proboscis-like tongue, it sucks the hearts of fetuses or blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. The severed lower torso is left standing. At this point, it is said to be vulnerable. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic on top of the standing torso is fatal. The head then can not rejoin and will die at daybreak. The name of the creature originates from an expression used for a severed torso: Manananggal comes from the Tagalog word, tanggal which means separated or severed.
A manananggal is also said to create other manananggals by tricking ordinary persons to drink the cooked blood of another person, similar to the vampires' making an ordinary person to drink vampire blood.
The province of Capiz is the subject or focus of many manananggal stories, similarly with the stories of other types of mythical creatures, such as ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and aswangs. Manananggals are sometimes referred to as Aswangs. But this is because the term Aswang is also generic and can refer to all types of ghouls, mananangals, witiches(Mangkukulam), etc. Among the indigenous people, Capiz has a reputation of having many of these creatures. Aside from aswang, manananggals are sometimes referred to as tik-tik. The sound it is supposed to be making while feeding. Superstitious folk in the Vizayan provinces still hang cloves of garlic or onion around windows, doors, etc. with the purpose of repelling this creature as well as the aswang. They are a favorite theme for sensationalist tabloids. They may be a product of mass hysteria or intentionally propagated to keep children off the street, home at night, and wary or careful of strangers, or simply to entertain them. Similar folklore can be found in the neighbouring Malaysia.
Other Filipino Mythological Creatures
See also
External reference
- [1] (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/manananggal.html)
- [2] (http://www.geocities.com/gcalla1/manananggal.htm)
- Malaysian vampire (http://www.agonyagogo.com/f020.html)