The Aswang

The Aswang is the most popular aswang in the Philippines. I don't know if it's because the word aswang is also used as a generalization of all their mythological creatures or if it just simply popular. Aswangs are human in form during the day and at night turn into demonic creatures. They can be indentified during the day by it's thin and sickly body and by seeing an upside-down reflection in their eyes but at night their eyes blaze, the body grows in size, and the fingers sharpen. It has a tubular tongue it uses to feed on a victim. It likes to eat fetus' from out of pregnant women while they sleep. It will attack anyone who sleeps in the middle of the sleeping mat but not those who sleep on the edges. It also makes a fake body out of banana stalk that it will replace the victim with. The fake body will grow sick and die but you can tell it's not real if the dying person has no fingerprints. The aswang's presence is announced by a bird called a tiktik. The louder the tiktik the farther away the aswang is. The aswang can be warded away with calamansi and garlic rubbed on your body or having a stingray's tail displayed in your house. It's uncertain if the aswang can fly but next week I'll share about a flying aswang called the manananggal!