MANANANGGAL

            Well I’ll be darned if you haven’t heard any stories with these creatures. Well, when I was a child, this is one of the ghouls I really hate. Why? For it is the reason why I’m scared to go out at night, yeah you got it right; it deprived it from my playtime! Pity. Well enough with that.

            The term Manananggal is said to originate from the Tagalog term tanggal, which means “to remove” or “to separate”. Manananggal then means, “the one who separates itself”.

            Manananggals are a flying fiend, capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night to prey on unsuspecting, pregnant women in their homes. At night, especially during full moons, they rub a kind of oil to their whole body. Slowly, its body grows a pair of enormous bat-like wings, very sharp teeth and a dreadfully long sharp tongue. In the process, it produces tiny shrieking sound repeatedly. The lower part which they leave in an isolated place, then goes back to connect its upper part before dawn.

            One account says that a chick lives inside the manananggal, which must be passed on from one person—usually a relative on their deathbed- to another. The chick is said to be living in the pit of the creature’s stomach. The manananggal usually starts out human, but the chick devours the person’s own entrails while keeping them alive. Because of this, the person then begins to crave for human flesh and eventually transforms into a hideous man-eating creature. A manananggal cannot die until the chick is removed, which can be done by smoking the manananggal upside-down in a tree or spinning her until she vomits the chick.  Another account says that a ritual involves a special chant, oil and egg of a black chicken. The future manananggal should rub the oil onto their bodies while reciting the chant. Finally, they must keep the egg in their armpit until it disappears. Another account states that one becomes a manananggal by drinking its blood or saliva. The manananggal kill their victims or turn them into manananggal themselves. They live longer than humans especially if they feed on unborn children.

            These half-bodied creatures prey on victims at night. It has the ability to fly and uses an elongated proboscis-like tongue, which it uses to suck the heart of fetuses or the blood of their victims. Other accounts say that they seduce men with their beauty and lure them to a private place before eating them alive. They are always accompanied by a bird called tik-tik. The bird heralds the approach of a manananggal. Folklore dictates that the fainter the sound, the nearer the manananggal is. This is their way to confuse their victims.

            A similar creature on the Malayan origin called the Pananggalang, meaning: the severed head, described to be a human head with hanging viscera, preying on newborn babies and pregnant woman.

            It is believed that these creatures greatly detest salt, ash, garlic, and holy water. They also fear daggers, vinegar, onions and spices. Sunlight is deadly to these creatures. After separating themselves, they are vulnerable in their torso, which is left standing during her nightly hunts. One should search for the lower torso if interested to destroy them. Sprinkling salt and smearing crushed garlic or ash on the exposed flesh of the standing torso prevents them from combining again and leaving it vulnerable to sunlight during day break.