The Aswang

The aswang¹ is the most dreaded of supernatural beings and is a person who assumes other forms, like that of a dog, pig, horse, or carabao, when he or she roams about at night in search of prey, particularly sick persons or expectant mothers. The form an aswang takes is usually extraordinarily large and of completely black color. In addition, the aswang can fly at night but only their head and intestines do so leaving the rest of their body behind on their bed. People are often warned against sleeping with their bellies exposed because an aswang might steal their intestines as they sleep. When the intended victim is not asleep, the aswang would stand upside-down and then emit a strong odor which will make the victim incapable of moving. The aswang will then eat the victim's internal organs starting from the heart down to the intestines.

The aswang is said to prefer eating unborn babies and can smell an unborn baby. Their modus operandi is to extend their tounge and extract the baby from the mother's womb. People who see, at night, what looks like a strand of cobweb hanging down (from a tree, for example) are warned not to reach for it as it may be the tounge of an aswang waiting to catch an unsuspecting person.

During the day, the aswang lives like a normal person and may even have a job and it is believed that the aswang never victimizes his or her neighbors. It is claimed that if you see your neighbor standing upside-down, then he or she is an aswang. An aswang can also be spotted by looking into their eye. Your reflection in an aswang's eye would be upside-down. But when one happens to look at an aswang in the eye, one should never look away but, rather, should try to stare down the aswang. It usually doesn't take long for the aswang to surrender and look away. But if you look away first, you're lost. Another method of detecting an aswang is to use a special oil that's prepared in an arcane and complicated ritual that can be performed only on Good Fridays. The oil will boil if it is brought near an aswang.

The word "aswang" is often translated as "sorcerer" but this is misleading. First of all, sorcerers do what they do of their own free will while being an aswang is considered to be a state of sickness wherein the person who has become an aswang is unable to control himself. A person becomes an aswang if another aswang blows air down his or her neck. An aswang can be "cured" with the help of a native healer (called a "mananambal" among Visayans) who will force the aswang to drink certain potions. The infected one will then vomit all sorts of weird things from an entire egg to a bird.

Many present-day Filipinos believe in the existence of the aswang and, in fact, there are those who claim that they live next door to an aswang.