The Philippine Dark Web -- Mythical Creatures

The girl looked around her. It is already dark. She walked faster. The darkness is creeping on her skin. It took her just seconds to realize that she lost her way. In a distance, she heard a loud “Wak! Wak!”. The girl almost cried while she looked for shelter. Again, a weaker “Wak! Wak!” filled the silence. The girl felt more desperate. She wished that those sounds will come louder. She didn’t wish it to be gone. But the moment came. There was no whacking sound anymore. The girl burst into a cry. She expected an image. And that image appeared in no less than a second. The Wakwak that terrorizes their baryo is now in front of her, preparing to devour her young, fresh flesh…

Freaky, isn’t it? Well, what you just read is a typical scenario in a Filipino storytelling time. If in Western countries the themes are more about fairy godmothers or princesses or castles, here in the Philippines, we are more “exotic”.

We talk of witches, elves, dwarfs, sirens, ghouls, viscera-suckers, vampires,  and demons. Actually, the creature on the above situation is a Wakwak, a viscera sucker, whose sounds will tell how far she is from you -- loud "waks" tell she's far away, but small "waks" tell you she's at your side. But it doesn’t mean that those are always the talk of us. We also tell stories about lazy boys, beautiful enchantresses and other folk stories that teach us moral lessons.

But now, let me first just introduce you to the Filipinos Creatures of the Dark web.

The Filipinos believe in all forms of life. Way back on our forefathers time, they believe that nature is a form of life – they believe that spirits dwell in trees, mountains, rivers, oceans and other pictures of nature. And if we have light force, it is implied that we have the dark force.

Filipinos believe in witches. They are extremely revengeful. Witches can harm anybody. Filipinos are afraid of them because witches are believed to hurt or even kill anyone with their incantations and orations. The Visayan witch called mambabarang or barangan can fill a persons’ stomach with worms, bugs and other insects to his death. It is also said that a person who survived a mambabarang’s attack becomes a mambabarang too. The manggagamod is the witch that Filipinos believed to be using dolls in order to hurt her enemies. The manggagaway is also a witch but is thought to have healing instead of hurting powers. Similarly, the alburaryo is someone believed that can counter-attack the powers of a witch.

The dwarfs of the Filipino folklore are similar to the dwarfs of Europe. They are small old men who offer gold and gifts to those who please them. These dwarfs have their kingdoms under the earth and are full of jewels and other treasures. Some stories tell that beautiful maidens are taken by dwarfs into these kingdoms and lure them to stay there forever. It is even believed that a day in a dwarf house is actually three days in earthly time. Mounds on earth are told as the dwarfs’ home. If you spitted on this mounds, it is said that the dwarf in that mound will make your tongue swell or if you stepped on their home, they will make your feet swell. It is a custom on a Philippine barrio to say “Tabi-tabi po…” each time you will pass on a wooded place. It means “Excuse me…” and it is your way of respecting the unseen dwarf. The aran is even believed to have feet that point backward. Dwarfs are called by many names – ansisit, aran, duwende, kalanget, lampong, and tianak. A tianak is a dwarf who pretends himself as a baby. One of his legs is believed to be shorter than the other. Once you picked him, he will transform himself to an old man with sharp teeth and he will bite you.

The elves of the Filipino folklore are beautiful lads and maidens with long hair and fair skin. Elves are called in many names in different regions in the Philippines. They are called aghoy, dalakitnon, dayamdam, enkanto/ada, kiba-an, kamanan-daplak, lewenri, palasekan, ragit ragit, tamawo, tirtiris, and ugaw. Some elves are good but some do some mischieves. They live in big trees and the most common tree for them is the balete. People think that those trees are mansions but the elves enchanted them. Elves try to lure young people into marrying them and after they do, they become ugly. It is also believed that elves own the trees and we should first ask permission to them before cutting trees or else, they will get angry and may cause us harm. Another common conception about them is the belief that they steal rice from your bin and has got feet that lead to opposite ways so that no one can track their footprints.

The Philippine sirens are different from the sirens that Odysseus encountered. The Philippine merfolks  are half human above the waist but are half-fish below. The most common perception about mermen is that they lure people to go near the water with their sweet singing voices then drown them. Other stories also tell that merfolks get people to marry them. It is also believed that they can easily drown people who disobey them or go against their will.

Ghouls are creatures who live on corpses. They live like common people at day but change at night. They are believe to hear sounds of them miles away and can hasten the death of a sick person. Ghouls have different names but they have the same characteristics. They have eyes that can’t look straight at yours, teeth that grow at night and strong smell. they are believed to live near at cemeteries so that they can see if there is someone newly buried. They have foul odors. The ghoul balbal can replace a corpse with a banana trunk and no one will ever recognize that the corpse is stolen unless someone looked at his hands and sees that his fingers have no finger prints. Other ghouls are called busaw, kagkag, paraduno, segben and ungo.

Viscera suckers are creatures that suck your insides with their long tongue. The most salient characteristics of them is that they are very beautiful women by day but turn to ugly monsters at night. Viscera suckers are believed to be afraid of salt, pepper, onion and garlic and other spicy foods. At night, when the crows are noisy, people think that there’s a viscera sucker roaming around looking for a victim. They throw salt and garlic outside the window and they trust that these creatures will go away. They always watch their roofs because viscera suckers attack through those by suspending their long tongue that looks like a red thread. Pregnant women are afraid of them because their favorite food are unborn babies. Folks believe that viscera suckers can separate their upper bodies (waist up to their heads)  and turn their arms into wings when they roam at night. It is also believed that you can kill an aswang by putting salt, pepper, onion and garlic on her lower body part that she leaves on a dark place when she goes away to hunt. With this, she can never return to her lower body until sunrise. Sunrise can burn an aswang that wasn’t able to join her body. The different names for aswang are abat, boroka, manananggal and mangalok.

The Philippines has also vampires. Philippine vampires aren’t the same with Dracula. Some vampires are beautiful by day but become ugly by night. They choose strong men for them to marry. Legends are told about how vampires become vampires. The Isnegs believe that the danags are gods. They help people in their lands. They make their lands fertile. One day, when a man was wounded, he asked a danag for help in removing the bamboo sliver in his finger. The danag sucked his finger so as to help him but by doing that, she learned that human blood was sweet. From then on, the danags stopped their duties on fields but instead lived as vampires. Another story also tells us the story of the amalanhig. An amalanhig is a dead woman who comes back from the grave. According to legends, an amalanhig cannot die unless she has passed the mutya to one of her relatives. The relatives often refuse to accept the mutya because they will inherit the vampire trait from the amalanhig. If still, all of her relatives refuses to take the mutya, the amalanhig wont rest and will keep from raising in the grave and will still be a vampire.

Lastly, the Filipinos also believe in demons. These demons take devilish forms and always causes fear to folks. We have the allawig or the ball of fire. It is also called sansilimo or santelmo. It is said that an allawig will mislead a traveler caught at night. The allawig will lure the traveler away from the right path and will lead him to a deep hole that will lead him to his death. In order to remove the enchantments from an allawig, one must inverse the way his clothes are worn. This way, it is believed that you will finally find the right way. A kapre is a half human and half horse creature. You might think of a centaur but a kapre is its counterpart -- its upper part is a horse and the lower, human. It is said that if you can mount the kapre and pull out its three golden hairs, you may have him as aservant on your fields. Another is the ani-ani or kapre. They are big creatures that loves cigars. They stay at old trees and fear travelers. The bangungot is said to cause nightmares. A big man, bangungot, will sit on your chest at night and will let you have bad dreams that may cause your death. The bantay is an old man who takes care of a very old tree. When you go near a tree, you may see a white cloud that surrounds it that will later may change to a big white rooster. The baras is fond of beautiful women. He often steals sleeping girls and takes them to his lair. When the girl he wakes up in the lair, the girl is believed to grow insane. The lagtaw has a bad reputation of scaring children so as the kapre. The mutya is a bead from banana blossoms that is believed to give you enormous strength. All you have to do is wait for it on a full moon night. But, there is a twist. When the mutya comes out, a big, strong man will try to strangle you. Beat him and you will have the mutya. A pugot is a headless man with fire coming out from its neck. Ironically, the pugot is afraid of fire.

The creatures above doesn’t imply that Philippines is a dark country. In fact, for me, it adds to the spices of our Filipino lives. Personally, I haven’t had an experience with the above creatures. But their presence on folk stories makes me proud that I came from an oriental country with a very colorful history.