The fetus-eaters are aswangs or creatures in Philippine folklore that specialize not only in extracting and devouring a person’s internal organs but also in drawing out or feeding on a yet to be born child from inside a mother’s womb. They are the principal suspects for strange noises or sightings of strange creatures outside an expectant woman’s home. These sounds vary from alleged footsteps on the roof of the house, scratches on the wall and on the roof, grunts of a pig, flapping of large wings, the classic terrifying howl of a dog outside, and other unnatural or animal-like sounds like the famous “tik-tik-tik-tik” said to be made by a bird-like creature.
In most accounts, sightings of an unfamiliar dog, cat, or even livestock especially swine and the presence of abnormally large birds or bats fleeting about outside the house of a *******t woman prelude the attacks. Other incidents before an attack include visits from unfamiliar faces such as an elderly person asking for water while s†éáling glances at the *******t or encountering a stranger who seems to be delighted with the *******t woman.
Miscarriages and still births were blamed on the fetus-eating aswangs. In the olden days, some victims were said to have been found lifeless in their bedrooms, their bellies either cut open or caved in with the fetus no longer inside the womb. Other cases tell of expectant women giving birth to nothing but masses of blood instead of wailing, cuddly babies.
Foiled attacks are also common and mothers who claim to have experienced an aswang attack describe feeling very warm despite a cold weather or the presence of air conditioning system after being awoken by human-like footsteps or scratches on the roof in the middle of the night or during the wee hours. According to them they felt uncomfortable, their bloated bellies hardening or tightening and the baby inside seemed uneasy and moved frequently. One or two mothers claimed to have woken up only to be terrified by a very long tongue suspended from the roof. Husbands, relatives, and neighbors would sometimes discover a person with skin as black as coal crouched on the roof, under the house, or clinging outside the window while staring hungrily at the intended victim.
Aside from their shared appetite for unborn children, most fetus-eaters have one common physical trait. They could extend their tongues to very long, even thread thin, tubular proboscis. These they use to pierce into the womb through the navel and inject enzymes that dissolve the fetus or organs which are then sucked out. Others use their tongues to penetrate into the womb to drain the baby’s blood. Some use non-physical means to acquire the desired fetus.
The lupad (flying ones)
As the name of their group suggests, these are flying fetus-eating aswangs. Most are known to grow wings or turn into bird-like creatures to fly while others defy the laws of flight and physics by taking to the air without wings. The flyers are notorious for landing on the roof of their intended victim’s house and soften their terrifying shriek into a faint cooing upon nearing the target.
There are two sub-groups of the fetus-eating lupad: the self-segmenters which discard (mostly) their lower halves of the body and those that fly without leaving any part of their body behind.
1. The self-segmenters
Self-segmenters (called tanggal by the ancient Tagalogs) are aswangs that could detach and leave a part of their bodies behind to hunt at night. They could also fly and most grow a pair of wings. All of them could extend their tongues to long, thread-like proboscis which they use to suck a fetus or the innards of a person. In the Province of Aklan in Western Visayas they are known as aswang hubot. Persons who turn into self-segmenters are generally believed to use a special oil or potion which they rub on their entire body or drop in the holes in their deep armpits while reciting a certain incantation. One such incantation goes like this:
“Siri-siri daing Dios kang banggi.
Haplos the daghan, layog sa kaharungan.
Dagos sa talampakan, layog sa kakahuyan.”
After that the person will grow leathery wings, sharp claws, fangs, and his torso starts to separate from the lower body. Some folks from Leyte and Capiz claim that some bend from the waist for about five minutes until the lower body detaches itself. In Catanduanes it is alleged that a self-segmenter stares at the full moon until gooey tears fall from its eyes then its body flies off.
Most self-segmenters separate their torsos from the lower halves but one variant, the Ikki or Iqui (also ike) separates not from the waist but from the knees. The creature was mentioned in a footnote of page four of the book The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore. It stated:
“Informants from Atimonan, Quezon reported that the viscera-sucker discards its lower extremities from the knees down before flying out to forage.”
A normal human becomes a self-segmenter if he swallows the black chick-like creature that pops out of the mouth of a dying self-segmenter.
There are varying accounts on how to turn a self-segmenter into a normal human. One involves tying and hanging a person upside-down and letting him/her breathe thick smoke from a bonfire which results to nausea and vomiting of the black chick. Another method is making the afflicted person take medicine prepared by a witch doctor or herbolario.
Most self-segmenters have a common weakness. Disposing of their discarded halves (e.g.: putting salt, spices, ash on the stump or burning) will kill them. That is why most of them hide their lower halves in banana groves, secluded areas overgrown with reeds, or deep in the woods. Those that hide their discarded parts in their houses usually end up being discovered as proven in various stories.
It remains debatable as to why self-segmenters have to leave their lower halves behind but when I was in high school an old man told me that self-segmenters leave their lower parts behind so they can find their way back, especially that they travel over great distances. How this works was never explained but I assume the discarded half acts like a beacon for their return. However, these creatures’ orientation are impaired when their discarded halves are moved or switched places. They become confused and are unable to reconnect, which usually results to death at sunrise. In one story, a man discovers that his mistress and her two sisters were self-segmenters. One night when the three have gone out, he switched the places of their lower halves. Upon returning home, the three couldn’t reconcile which was which until they cried for the man to help them because sunrise was approaching.
But it seems losing a lower half did not always spell doom to all self-segmenters. In one tale the creature, after failing to find its discarded half (the cause never mentioned), took to the forest, choosing to lurk there, and swung from tree to tree with its arms like monkeys do and preyed on sleeping folks at night. It lost its wings but continued to look for its lower half.
Of all the self-segmenters in the Philippines, the most popular is the Manananggal of the Tagalog region. Its notoriety extends even to the most remote village anywhere in the archipelago. A foreigner interested with the manananggal can ask any local in the country about this creature and he would get a unanimous description: a creature that flies on bat-like wings, separates from the waist and leaves its lower half behind, sucks babies from *******t women with its long, hollow, straw-like tongue, sharp talons, and attacks lone travelers at night. This image of the manananggal is imbedded into the minds of Filipinos through oral accounts and its portrayals in films and television shows, books, magazines, and comics. From time to time an alleged sighting of the creature made it to the news. Even in the anime movie Blade the manananggal was featured as the titular character’s nemesis.
To some a manananggal’s appearance is so incredible that a professor of mine in college said that the creature is a caricature of the country’s local female shamans or priestesses known as babaylan, cooked up by Spanish missionaries in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century to destroy the image of the local healers among the natives and in order to sway the population to convert to Catholic faith. He said the friars gave the babaylan bat-like wings so they would be associated with the devil who had bat wings. And the act of discarding the lower half of the body, where the female reproductive organ was located is symbolic of the old Catholic belief that the female *******ia is a source of temptation and desire for flesh. They accused the babaylan of s†éáling and eating infants like the harpies and the Lamia of ancient heathen Greece. He added, it is the reason why they say all manananggals are female.
There are various notions on the origins of the manananggal, the internet is saturated with them. The name manananggal which means “one who detaches” or “one who removes” is derived from the root word “tanggal” meaning “to detach”. The Indonesian viscera-sucker and vampire Penanggal also shares the same root word. The penanggal is somewhat similar in habit with the manananggal, the only difference is that the former detaches its head with its entrails dangling in the air and has no wings but floats. Speaking of penanggal, it seems this creature or its variants actually reached the Philippine archipelago a long time ago, for tales of similar creatures exist in the country. There was the Magtatanggal, mentioned by the Spanish missionary Juan de Plasencia in 1581 when he identified the supposed priests of the Devil in Luzon. In some parts of Eastern Visayas was the tale of the Wuwug or Wowog. As the story goes, a young man and his father went fishing at night. While they were fishing the son talked to his father. When the latter did not reply the son turned to check on him and saw his head floating above him with the entrails dangling and sparkling. The other one, called the Ungga-Ungga or Unga was allegedly sighted in Negros Island before the Second World War. A certain strange sound is associated with this flying head as it hovers in the night sky with its dangling innards allegedly sparkling like a thousand fireflies.
The Abat is much like the manananggal except that it doesn’t grow wings on its back. Instead, its arms are the ones that transform into bat-like wings. Its eyes are bloodshot and almost bulge out of their sockets.
References:
Andres, T.D. Dictionary of Filipino Culture and Values.
Ramos, Maximo D. Creatures of Midnight.
Ramos, Maximo D. The Aswang Syncrasy in Philipine Folklore.
Wilson, Collin. Occult.
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In most accounts, sightings of an unfamiliar dog, cat, or even livestock especially swine and the presence of abnormally large birds or bats fleeting about outside the house of a *******t woman prelude the attacks. Other incidents before an attack include visits from unfamiliar faces such as an elderly person asking for water while s†éáling glances at the *******t or encountering a stranger who seems to be delighted with the *******t woman.
Miscarriages and still births were blamed on the fetus-eating aswangs. In the olden days, some victims were said to have been found lifeless in their bedrooms, their bellies either cut open or caved in with the fetus no longer inside the womb. Other cases tell of expectant women giving birth to nothing but masses of blood instead of wailing, cuddly babies.
Foiled attacks are also common and mothers who claim to have experienced an aswang attack describe feeling very warm despite a cold weather or the presence of air conditioning system after being awoken by human-like footsteps or scratches on the roof in the middle of the night or during the wee hours. According to them they felt uncomfortable, their bloated bellies hardening or tightening and the baby inside seemed uneasy and moved frequently. One or two mothers claimed to have woken up only to be terrified by a very long tongue suspended from the roof. Husbands, relatives, and neighbors would sometimes discover a person with skin as black as coal crouched on the roof, under the house, or clinging outside the window while staring hungrily at the intended victim.
Aside from their shared appetite for unborn children, most fetus-eaters have one common physical trait. They could extend their tongues to very long, even thread thin, tubular proboscis. These they use to pierce into the womb through the navel and inject enzymes that dissolve the fetus or organs which are then sucked out. Others use their tongues to penetrate into the womb to drain the baby’s blood. Some use non-physical means to acquire the desired fetus.
The lupad (flying ones)
As the name of their group suggests, these are flying fetus-eating aswangs. Most are known to grow wings or turn into bird-like creatures to fly while others defy the laws of flight and physics by taking to the air without wings. The flyers are notorious for landing on the roof of their intended victim’s house and soften their terrifying shriek into a faint cooing upon nearing the target.
There are two sub-groups of the fetus-eating lupad: the self-segmenters which discard (mostly) their lower halves of the body and those that fly without leaving any part of their body behind.
1. The self-segmenters
Self-segmenters (called tanggal by the ancient Tagalogs) are aswangs that could detach and leave a part of their bodies behind to hunt at night. They could also fly and most grow a pair of wings. All of them could extend their tongues to long, thread-like proboscis which they use to suck a fetus or the innards of a person. In the Province of Aklan in Western Visayas they are known as aswang hubot. Persons who turn into self-segmenters are generally believed to use a special oil or potion which they rub on their entire body or drop in the holes in their deep armpits while reciting a certain incantation. One such incantation goes like this:
“Siri-siri daing Dios kang banggi.
Haplos the daghan, layog sa kaharungan.
Dagos sa talampakan, layog sa kakahuyan.”
After that the person will grow leathery wings, sharp claws, fangs, and his torso starts to separate from the lower body. Some folks from Leyte and Capiz claim that some bend from the waist for about five minutes until the lower body detaches itself. In Catanduanes it is alleged that a self-segmenter stares at the full moon until gooey tears fall from its eyes then its body flies off.
Most self-segmenters separate their torsos from the lower halves but one variant, the Ikki or Iqui (also ike) separates not from the waist but from the knees. The creature was mentioned in a footnote of page four of the book The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore. It stated:
“Informants from Atimonan, Quezon reported that the viscera-sucker discards its lower extremities from the knees down before flying out to forage.”
A normal human becomes a self-segmenter if he swallows the black chick-like creature that pops out of the mouth of a dying self-segmenter.
There are varying accounts on how to turn a self-segmenter into a normal human. One involves tying and hanging a person upside-down and letting him/her breathe thick smoke from a bonfire which results to nausea and vomiting of the black chick. Another method is making the afflicted person take medicine prepared by a witch doctor or herbolario.
Most self-segmenters have a common weakness. Disposing of their discarded halves (e.g.: putting salt, spices, ash on the stump or burning) will kill them. That is why most of them hide their lower halves in banana groves, secluded areas overgrown with reeds, or deep in the woods. Those that hide their discarded parts in their houses usually end up being discovered as proven in various stories.
It remains debatable as to why self-segmenters have to leave their lower halves behind but when I was in high school an old man told me that self-segmenters leave their lower parts behind so they can find their way back, especially that they travel over great distances. How this works was never explained but I assume the discarded half acts like a beacon for their return. However, these creatures’ orientation are impaired when their discarded halves are moved or switched places. They become confused and are unable to reconnect, which usually results to death at sunrise. In one story, a man discovers that his mistress and her two sisters were self-segmenters. One night when the three have gone out, he switched the places of their lower halves. Upon returning home, the three couldn’t reconcile which was which until they cried for the man to help them because sunrise was approaching.
But it seems losing a lower half did not always spell doom to all self-segmenters. In one tale the creature, after failing to find its discarded half (the cause never mentioned), took to the forest, choosing to lurk there, and swung from tree to tree with its arms like monkeys do and preyed on sleeping folks at night. It lost its wings but continued to look for its lower half.
Of all the self-segmenters in the Philippines, the most popular is the Manananggal of the Tagalog region. Its notoriety extends even to the most remote village anywhere in the archipelago. A foreigner interested with the manananggal can ask any local in the country about this creature and he would get a unanimous description: a creature that flies on bat-like wings, separates from the waist and leaves its lower half behind, sucks babies from *******t women with its long, hollow, straw-like tongue, sharp talons, and attacks lone travelers at night. This image of the manananggal is imbedded into the minds of Filipinos through oral accounts and its portrayals in films and television shows, books, magazines, and comics. From time to time an alleged sighting of the creature made it to the news. Even in the anime movie Blade the manananggal was featured as the titular character’s nemesis.
To some a manananggal’s appearance is so incredible that a professor of mine in college said that the creature is a caricature of the country’s local female shamans or priestesses known as babaylan, cooked up by Spanish missionaries in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century to destroy the image of the local healers among the natives and in order to sway the population to convert to Catholic faith. He said the friars gave the babaylan bat-like wings so they would be associated with the devil who had bat wings. And the act of discarding the lower half of the body, where the female reproductive organ was located is symbolic of the old Catholic belief that the female *******ia is a source of temptation and desire for flesh. They accused the babaylan of s†éáling and eating infants like the harpies and the Lamia of ancient heathen Greece. He added, it is the reason why they say all manananggals are female.
There are various notions on the origins of the manananggal, the internet is saturated with them. The name manananggal which means “one who detaches” or “one who removes” is derived from the root word “tanggal” meaning “to detach”. The Indonesian viscera-sucker and vampire Penanggal also shares the same root word. The penanggal is somewhat similar in habit with the manananggal, the only difference is that the former detaches its head with its entrails dangling in the air and has no wings but floats. Speaking of penanggal, it seems this creature or its variants actually reached the Philippine archipelago a long time ago, for tales of similar creatures exist in the country. There was the Magtatanggal, mentioned by the Spanish missionary Juan de Plasencia in 1581 when he identified the supposed priests of the Devil in Luzon. In some parts of Eastern Visayas was the tale of the Wuwug or Wowog. As the story goes, a young man and his father went fishing at night. While they were fishing the son talked to his father. When the latter did not reply the son turned to check on him and saw his head floating above him with the entrails dangling and sparkling. The other one, called the Ungga-Ungga or Unga was allegedly sighted in Negros Island before the Second World War. A certain strange sound is associated with this flying head as it hovers in the night sky with its dangling innards allegedly sparkling like a thousand fireflies.
The Abat is much like the manananggal except that it doesn’t grow wings on its back. Instead, its arms are the ones that transform into bat-like wings. Its eyes are bloodshot and almost bulge out of their sockets.
References:
Andres, T.D. Dictionary of Filipino Culture and Values.
Ramos, Maximo D. Creatures of Midnight.
Ramos, Maximo D. The Aswang Syncrasy in Philipine Folklore.
Wilson, Collin. Occult.
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