Barangan, aswang and hilo-an: are there truths to these people who are supposed to possess extra-ordinary powers to inflict harm to other people?

Samar and Leyte are said to be two places where these witchcrafts are being practiced. However, in the almost ten years that this writer did cultural research in these parts, I did not get a concrete proof that such practices exist. It’s supposed to be a secret though for outsiders so I only got vignettes of these practices.

The Barangan

The barangan is said to be a sorcerer who could cast a spell to a person by piercing needles to a doll, chanting, fumigation and other rituals. They are dreaded by other people in the community and they usually live in an isolated part of the village near the forest and/or cave where they get plants and animals that they use for their practice of sorcery.

The services of a barangan are employed by a person who wants his enemy hexed. The victim will become mysteriously sick and hallucinates about imaginary things. In some cases, the victim will have bloated stomach but no amount of medicine could cure it. The barang is supposed to take effect if the victim is guilty (i.e. he inflected harm to the other party’s relative) but it will not take effect if the intended victim is innocent.

The barangan’s spell could be countered by a good tambalan (shaman) who has the power to cure sick people by means of medicinal herbs and plants coupled with powerful chants that he learned from another shaman (presumably handed to him by a shaman-relative). Common insects like bees, cockroaches, centipedes and ants supposed to come out of the victim’s ears and mouth as he is cured of his mysterious illness.

In one of my research trips in Basey, Samar, I chanced upon a wreath with black cloth, twigs and leaves installed on the trunks of coconut trees. It is locally called awog. Awog, according to my interview with a tambalan, is was a warning device for would-be thieves that anyone who eats from that tree will get poisoned or sick.

Aswang

Aswang is person who can transform like a chameleon into a dog, cat, pig or other creatures. Just like the barangan, they are ostracized in the community because of their supposed evil practices. They live among the community but their houses are always closed. The aswang is said to use special oil that they rub all over their bodies when they go out at night to prey on pregnant women, new born babies and sick people. The aswangs has a bird-guide called kikik which is called such because of the peculiar sound that it produced. There are two popular image of an aswang: one is the mananangal, a female whose body cuts in half and has bat-like wings and sucks the blood of its victims. The male aswang on the other hand is usually seen on the roof of houses with flaming red eyes and elongated tongue reaching on the bellies of pregnant women or sick people. Both the male and the female aswang could transform into a werewolf, a giant pig or any animal. The aswangs are said to have the ability to heal its wound.

To counter the aswang: onions! Or you could simply tell them to go away by naming the suspected aswang when is starts hounding your house at night.

According to popular belief, you could actually tell if an aswang is in the room if ordinary oil starts to boil.

My encounter with the “aswang”

This writer was at home in Capul for the semestral break on October 1992 when Nanay thought that she saw somebody outside the house at about 8 o’clock that evening so she called me to go home from a friend’s house nearby. Our walls and windows back then were made of nipa and my bed was close to the window. As I lay on my bed, I heard some noise on the roof then it went down to the ground outside my window but I thought it was just some stray cat. As I was about to sleep, I put my left leg on the windowsill when a hand suddenly grabbed it. I was startled so I shouted that there is an “aswang” outside. Tatay, who was in the other room with Nanay quickly got the bolo and chased the aswang outside. I actually heard running footsteps towards our backyard then the dogs start howling and followed the “aswang” around the village. The howling stops at the plaza which is just a house away from ours then we hear footsteps again outside my window. I could not sleep that night.

Hilo-an

The hilo-an is an ordinary person who has the power to poison anybody through a deadly concoction from mysterious plants. Some people believed they get the poison from a deep see aquatic plant which they insert between their nails. The victim will experience an unbearable stomachache which if not countered could lead to his death.

The victim must vomit out the poisoned food to be out of danger but there are cases that the poison is very fatal that the victim dies after a few hours. To counter hilo, a person must take a black seed (which name escapes at the moment) before he goes to a social gathering. But if he has already taken the poison, one way to counter it is by taking a cup-full of coconut oil so that the poisoned food is vomited out.

The hilo-ans are very unpopular in the community and they are actually real people living among the community. They are not usually invited in any social gatherings like weddings, baptismal or birthdays but if they are present, they are given separate foods and drinks and their leftover are buried in the ground because it is not even fit for animals.