Goya painting, “The Witches Kitchen.”

Philippine Aswang Tales

The thought of an aswang roaming around your house in the countryside at night is perhaps one of the most frightening to experience you can get in the Philippines, even if you don’t believe in them. But tales do get around and locals have recounted experiences with big black dogs in the provinces. Sometimes, mobs of townsfolk wielding torches, clubs, and machetes would go out in the dead of the night and hunt for a recently sighted aswang.

Sightings of aswangs are reported in the Philippines, but so far, no proof of one has ever been provided—there are no pictures, no video, or physical evidence that people could turn into giant bloodthirsty dogs or flying creatures of the night. It’s just like with the werewolves and vampires of the Western world—there’s simply no proof. The aswang is like an urban legend in the Philippines, but it’s a legend with details that include a secret to turning into one.

The Aswang Salve

Reporters have done stories on the concoction reputedly used by aswangs to turn into creatures of the supernatural. There have been reports of aswang salves procured by media people, but nothing about the components were actually documented fully or studied. It’s supposedly a brew of ingredients from plants and other stuff that you can find only in a witch’s cupboard. It’s difficult to believe that such a salve can actually turn a person into another being; sure, we’ve seen it in movies, but in real life? It’s ridiculous!

But what if this salve is really a powerful hallucinogen that makes a person believe or give him, or her, the delusion that the body is transformed into that of a dog or bird? The aswang, believing he has changed, roams the woods like a carnivorous animal, and because he believes that he is in an animal form, also begins to act like one, losing one’s identity as a person—even attacking other people and giving in to the primordial need to feed on flesh and blood.

Shape Shifting Potions

Social scientists like anthropologists have done studies on what’s been written in the past about witches and how they are able to fly to their sabbat gatherings with nothing more than a broomstick. Witches and people with mystical knowledge like shamans supposedly have the ability to change form, possess super strength, and to fly if necessary. Bu these powers are said to be not inherent in themselves. They acquire these abilities with the use of herbal potions that are rubbed on the skin, chewed, or smoked. In other words, natural drugs are used. What are these shape shifting “aswang” herbal preparations?

For ages, alchemists and healers have known and identified plants for their toxic and hallucinogenic properties. These plants are also known to science and their effects have also been studied extensively. In fact, because of the toxicology of these plants, some have been banned in some countries, which means their cultivation and use beyond what’s allowed in medicine is prohibited. Most of these plants belong to the order Solanaceae. The name sounds strange, but this order is also known as the potato family.

Yes, we all eat potatoes and we don’t get hallucinations of turning into an aswang from eating French fries, but little do people know that many members of the potato family are toxic. Among these are plant species of the genus Datura (devil’s weed, devil’s apple, jimson weed, mad apple, thorn apple, angel’s trumpet, and Gabriel’s trumpet), Mandragora (henbane and belladonna or deadly nightshade). These plants are found all over the world and have local names. All of them have one thing in common—tropane alkaloids like hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and atropine. These are all deadly chemicals that are easily absorbed by the skin and shut down the mind and body, leading to death. They have been called “witches salves” and “flying ointments.” But if this is so, then how come the aswangs and witches that use them do not die?

Aswang Visions and Symptoms

Through the ages, witches and native shamans have perfected the witch’s salve such that the percentages of ingredients are just right to keep the user from dying. Experimenting with the ingredients mentioned in this article is not recommended, although psychologists have done it in the past and have reported strange dreams of both pleasure and pain in strange circumstances and settings. In a 20th century experiment by psychiatrist, the agent harmaline was administered to a subject who thought he became a bird, then a fish, and then into a big cat—like a tiger. He recounted how he had freedom of movement, flexibility, grace, and power as he moved in the jungle. In his vision, he saw the neck of an animal, and felt “what a tiger feels when looking at its prey.” In reality he was looking at the neck of a woman and apparently he had attempted to bite her neck and had to be restrained. Such was the effect of the harmaline.

An ancient Greek account by Paulus Aegineta contains details about people afflicted with lycanthropy, the condition which causes a person to act and behave like a wild wolf. According to Aegineta, those with lycanthropy go out into the night imitating wolves by baying and romping around. They are said to frequent graveyards until the morning comes. Aegineta describes the physical appearance of these lycanthropes as pale with dry eyes and tongue. He adds that they are always thirsty and their legs have ulcers from falling frequently. Today, these characteristics are known symptoms of atropine poisoning. The effects include poor eyesight, dryness and constriction of the throat, intense thirst, and poor sense of balance. The accompanying hallucinations of the afflicted are said to include the sensation of growing the body hair or feathers of an animal.

engraving; people taking animal forms.

Aswangs Transform or Not?

With drug-induced hallucinations and visions of turning into an aswang or similar creatures, it’s hard to subjectively determine what’s real. But there were cases in the Middle Ages wherein people gathered to witness the transformation of witches who were supposed to fly to other places by virtue of the power of their witches salve. One story was told by Johannes Nider in 1692, where a priest requested a witch that he be present when she flies off to her sabbat. At the appointed time, the priest arrived with townsfolk in order to convince them of the woman’s madness. After anointing herself with her oil, the witch stumbled and fell, hurting her head, but she did not change or even fly anywhere.

As had been documented by writers and scientific researchers, could it be that the supernatural experiences of people who believe they are aswangs nothing more than powerful hallucinations? But what of the people who claim to have seen aswangs? Are they also on some kind of hallucinogen? If not, then are their claims simply a result of a very wild imagination?

Creepy dog peeking through door.

The next time you visit the Philippines, try not to pay attention to the dark if you are in a lonely rural area where aswangs are said to linger. Your imagination just might run away with you and you just might start seeing aswangs.

Also read:

Why we see ghosts when half asleep or half awake

How to hunt ghosts with a digital camera

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.