Aswang Shape-Shifter Vampire

Its Vampire Wednesday, Baby!

Okay so last week we looked at Aswang Mannananggal, this week we’ll look at some other “Aswang” vampires.

If you remember from last week, the Aswang Mannananggal comes from the Philippines. She’s some freaky vampire because she rips herself in half to hunt. Her guts trail out of her torso as she hunts. Do you also remember I said there were quite a few Aswang vampires. Today will learn about the Shape-shifter Aswang

Aswang Shape-shifter

This vampire can be either male or female, but it prefers the shape of an old woman with bloodshot eyes. She has long black hair and a tongue to match. A sorcerer can become this kind of vampire by performing a special ceremony, but if he/she wants to change someone else, all she has to do is blow on his or her neck.

There are healers (mananamble) who can make a special potion that will have to be poured down your throat (because come on even vampires have survival instincts) and you convert. The Aswang will vomit; weird things like eggs or live birds. When the Aswang’s vomiting stops, it’s cured, but the willing sorcerer isn’t she’ll die.

“So, what does this weird vampire eat, how does it hunt?”

I’m so glad you asked. Aswang Shape-shifter hunts women, children, the sick, and the old. They prefer to attack while the prey sleeps. If the prey wakes up, Aswang Shape-shifter will emit a strong smell that paralyzes the victim. If her intended prey is awake when she attacks, she’ll overpower them.

Once she has taken what she wants, she makes a replica out of banana leaves, grass, and sticks. She then uses her magic (remember she was a witch/sorcerer to begin with) to animate the replica. Over the next few days, the replica will get sick and die. You must look into the person’s eyes to find out if it’s the true person or the replica.

“How do I know by looking in its eyes?” You ask.  If it’s a true person, you will see your reflection, if it’s a replica your reflection will be upside down.

While you’re looking into sick replica eyes, the Aswang has carried her prey off to her lair where she tortures it and slowly eats it. The liver is the favorite part.

You’re sitting there thinking, “This just might be as strange as last week’s vampire but I have one question for you Mari. Why shape shifter….”
Oh, you brave of heart who still reads here. You who continue to come back week after week to get your vampire fix…

The Aswang shape-shifter is called a shape-shifter for no other reason than her amazing shape-shifting abilities. She can change into any animal and/or person, but also (here is the amazing part…) inanimate objects! Are you freaked out yet? You should be this vampire can even fly, not while in bird form. She can fly! An oily substance secreted through her armpits lets her FLY! Your desk or couch just might be an Aswang Shape-shifter.

So are we doomed to be prey to Aswang shape-shifter?
There is a way to know if she’s nearby… On Good Friday, complex oil can be made. (No word on how to make it) After it’s made, it will boil anytime she’s near.

Sorry folks that’s all I know, I can’t tell you how to protect yourself. I don’t know what kills her. I’m thinking keep the tried and true close by.

Next week another “Aswang” vampire..there’s still a few left.

Photo Credit: http://inakda.blogspot.com/

Aswang Mannanggal

This is one crazy vampire. This post is not for the weak of the heart or stomach. Are you still here? Remember I warned you.

All right let’s get into to this.

The Aswang Mannanggal is a vampire from the Philippines.

There seems to be two different creatures here. The Aswang, Mannanggal. The Aswang Mannanggal is a common variation of Mannanggal.

Aswang Mannaggal is a vampire witch (Love how most old myths involve witches turning into vampires. Both of my loves in one, or it may show how evil people think witches are. Either way I’m in heaven. :D)
So Aswang Mannaggal gets her name from the Tagalog word TANGGAL, meaning, “To separate” weird right. There’s a reason her name means “Separate”.

This vampire has a very different way of creation too. No, protecting yourself from her bite, or drinking her blood. No that’s not the way this vamp rolls. From what I can tell, men aren’t changed. Therefore, women pay attention. An Aswang Mannanggal will trick another woman into drinking cooked blood of another person. Never eat anything an Awang Mannangal gives you! Listen to me, never trust her, and remember she tricks you into eating.

All right, so someone didn’t listen to me right. She’s all like “This vampire-phile doesn’t know what she is talking about. Free food, I love free food. I gotta bounce.” Aswang Mannanggal hears this and tricks her into eating. Now she’s transformed into a vampire too. Aswang Mannanggal’s are portrayed as a beautiful woman with long luscious hair. Cool right and they live like normal humans most of the time.

Remember that “Separate” part?

Here’s where it gets freaky! On the full moon, another transformation takes place and her true form it revealed. Large leather like wings with clawed hands erupts through the skin of her back. Her teeth get longer and sharper and her tongue grows longer and forked at the end. Now “Separate” she rips her upper torso from her lower body. She flies through the night with her guts dangling out of her torso in search of unborn children (her favorite delicacy) she’ll even tear them from the womb. If she can’t find a pregnant woman, she’ll feast on human entrails.

Aswang Mannaggal is vulnerable while separated from her body. The only way she can be killed is by finding her lower body and rubbing salt or garlic all over it. When she returns the top, half won’t be able to reattach to the lower half. When the sunrises she’ll return to her human form and die.

There are other vampires who can separate their bodies the Penangglan, the Asema, Asiman can remove the skin from their bodies.

When I came to the Aswang Mannanggl, I thought it would make a great post. As soon as I started researching, I found there are another six or so Aswang variations. I’ll run one or two each week until we cover them all.

Photo Credit: http://movies.sopaipleto.com/2011/11/07/philippine-mythical-creatures-stories-that-needs-to-be-filmed/

Vampires of Czech Republic

Last week I wasn’t feeling well, so I flaked out on Vampire Wednesday. I promised I’d make it up this week.

A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned he thought of Czech Republic when he thought of vampires. So today, we will look at all the vampires from the area I could find. Because Czech Republic was at one time Czechoslovakia, I’m including that too. We have 8 count them eight vampires today. (I won’t do The Count thing. I loved The Count!)
Are you ready? This is going to take awhile…

Upir
The Upir was believed to have two (yes 2) souls. The second soul was indicated by the corpse’s flexibility, open eyes, and (get this!!) Two curls in its hair. The upir was/is sometimes-called Nelapsi.

Nelapsi
the Nelapsi is similar to the upir. It has two souls but it also has two hearts. This vampire can destroy a whole village in one night. (I guess he has one hell of an appetite!) Nelapsi is incredibly fast and strong. He can kill a human with a single blow. It’s also believed to be a plague carrier. (Strange how those from times past thought vampires carried plagues but we think they can’t, or they can’t themselves get sick.) So how can someone kill a nelapsi? Place money, religious icons, or personal items in the coffin at the time of burial. Those who are suspected of becoming a nelapsi must have a complex ritual performed. A stake must be run through the heart. Carry the body head first to its grave. Be sure to add some Poppy seeds into the grave with the body.
If for some reason, you didn’t do this at the time of burial or an unsuspected person rises. He must be staked through both hearts with a stake made of Hawthorn (wink wink I wrote about Hawthorn already. Go check it out.) iron or oak.

Muroi
The Muroi pronounced ME-oy in Czechoslovakian vampire lore is a vampire spirit meaning fatal destiny. When an evil person dies, remove the heart from the corpse. This should make it harder for the corpse to rise. If you didn’t it will rise. It has a red face. It will prey on people from its village each night. It has a cry that will freeze a person with terror. Whoever hears the cry will be the next victim. Spirits rest in the grave by day. To find the vampires grave walk a stallion through the graveyard. The horse will refuse to walk over the vampire’s grave. With the body exhumed, you must place a nail through the heart and the skin between the thumb and index finger must be cut with iron scissors.

Mahr
The Mahr lives in the Carpathian Mountains. The area of Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and ending near the Danube River in Serbia. This species lives by consuming human souls! (Yes, souls not blood). It swoops down in the form of a moth and takes a bite or two before it flies off. The more it attacks one victim the easier it will be to keep attacking him/her. Eventually the prey is killed and the soul is consumed. There are two ways to kill a Mahr. First, drive a wooden stake through its heart.  –If you can kill it this way, all of the souls it has consumed will return to their bodies. Second, find where it hides during the day and expose it to sunlight. The sunrays will turn it to ash. It isn’t stated if this method will return the consumed souls.

Moravia
The Moravia is a Czechoslovakian revenant. It leaves its grave to search for blood in the NUDE! nightly. It can be laid permanently to rest if its burial shroud is destroyed. (I guess you have to burn it.)

Ogoljen
The Ogoljen (stripped bare) is a revenant from the Czech Republic. It rises from the grave to hunt for human blood. It keeps dirt from its gravesite in its navel. It can’t be destroyed, but you can capture it and bury it at a crossroads. That will keep it from ever rising again.

Poludnica
The Poludnica pronounced Poe-low-NICA meaning noon is from Slovenia. She is a vampire demon that looks like a beautiful tall woman. She wears white or is dressed in mourning clothes. She carries a scythe or shears. At harvest time right around Noon she will attack laborers who aren’t resting. She caused heatstroke or madness, if their lucky. She seduces the unlucky to a secluded place and drains them of their blood. If anyone happens to come by, she will break his or her arms and legs. If she comes across a field-worker, she’ll ask him hard questions. Once he can’t answer one she’ll chop of his head.  If you happened to see a Poludnica drop to the ground and be perfectly still until she leaves. She also attacks children wondering alone while the adults worked. A bundle of grain is usually decorated when harvest starts the offering keep Poludnica away. It’s burned after harvest.
My source states it is probably a tale told to keep the children behaving or allowing a worker to take a break.
The male version is called Polevoy. No word if he only attacks females.

Poludnitsi
The Poludnitsi pronounced pole-ah-NITS-ee , meaning noon wife, is a spirit vampire from Czechoslovakia. She preys on young first time mothers and their children. (I have reason to believe she is related to Poludnica, but I can’t confirm it.)

Photo Credits:

Upir:   http://corazondevampiro.blogspot.com/2008/05/razas-y-clanes-de-vampiros-upir.html
Mahr Vampire Moth:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/topics/evolution/
Poludnica:   http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/333196514?paging_mode=0

Bulgarian Vampires

Today we will explore the vampire myths of Bulgaria.

Bulgarians were serious about their vampires. They would keep their eyes on the living, (the living will die at some time, and who was to tell if the curse of the vampire would fall upon someone.) Therefore, they would watch the living, if you were a habitual drunk, thief, murder or a witch, you should be watched carefully. Those who enjoyed the above stated hobbies were believed to become vampires after death.

http://zindy-zone.dk/html/drawings/mixed/vampire.htm

Bulgaria’s vampires were called Opyrb or Opirb in original Slavic but modernly they are called Vipir, Vepir or Vapir. They have evolved over centuries, but vampirism has always been associated with problems of death or burial. It was believed that spirits of the dead went on a journey guided by their guardian angel. After 40 days, the spirit then went to the next life. If the burial wasn’t done properly, (like a dog or cat jumped over the body or a shadow fell on it before burial; or it wasn’t washed correctly; or even if it died a violent death or died excommunicated from the church) the spirits may find their passage to the next life blocked. The family was responsible for the preparing the body. None of this let the funeral home take care of it, as we do in current times.

Popular Bulgarian vampire stories would go a little something like this: Frank (names have been changed to protect the vampires!) died in Boston three weeks ago. He moved to a little town in Montana. (No one in Montana knows dead Frank; they all think he’s alive Fred, thanks to the help of the black market and false documents). Alive Fred is getting down living the large live for years in Montana. Alive Fred falls in love with the town beauty and they get married 14 months later Fred as a little Freddy all bundled up in his mama’s arms. They have a huge party to welcome the newborn into the world, where Fred is seen drinking and eating, and all around being merry.

There is no way Fred could be dead Vampire Frank! I mean come on, he’s out in the day, eats human food, drinks alcohol, and has a kid. No vampire can do that! Well, Bulgarian Vampires could. Of course, Fred still craved blood and had to fulfill that craving or he’d become Dead Fred and Dead Vampire Frank, I mean really Dead!

The Gagauz people (the Gaguaz spoke their own language) of Bulgaria had their own vampire too. The Obur. Obur means glutton in Turkish. It was a gluttonous blood drinker. When the people decide they want to kill the Obur, they entice him with a banquet of food, because of his gluttonous ways he would come and pig out. A funny thing about the Obur, he’s capable of creating loud noises like firecrackers and he can move things poltergeist style.

Here is a little something something about Bulgarian Vampire Hunters, (just in case you’re down with the hunting of Vampires). A Djadadjii was a special hunter; he would chase a vampire while holding out a holy picture; one of Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, or another Christian saint. The vampire would run (hopefully he would take refuge in the set up trap). What trap? You may be asking. (Oh, this is good! Wait for it!) Djadadjii had set up a bottle with a little bit of the vampires favorite food. If everything worked out, the vampire would run into the bottle, the Djadadjii would cork it up and toss it into the fire. Bam! No more vampire.

Stay tuned! Next week will take a little look at another Bulgarian Vampire, the Ustrel.

My take on Vampire Evolution

The Undead Duo at Deadly Ever After have a wonderful post today about vampire myths.
Thank you for the shout out ladies. I really appreciate it.

So they have some really cool info about vampires, too much to comment about there so I will comment here.

The farther I get into the myths the funnier I think they are. A very strange thing I’ve noticed is, what we now have as myths isn’t always what was believed centuries ago. I’ve also noticed that they are all similar even though they are worlds away.

For example, we mostly agree that Vampires can’t father children. I remember reading somewhere a large group of people freaking out because Stephenie Meyer’s Edward fathered a child. A dead being can’t have children. It isn’t possible. They said. Most writers agree.
If we look at those old myths we find a few types of vampires can father children. Some women can even carry and deliver children. It was believed that these mothers would feed from the babies they birthed.
There were even special names for these hybrid children.. Dhampir, and Cambion come to me off the top of my head.

Some vampires were even able to be around in the daylight. Australia has it’s own little vampire creature. The Pink Vampire, he is harder to kill, may have to do with not dying in sunlight. Stoker’s Dracula, Lord Ruthven, Varney and Carmilla were all “Daywalkers.” Many old legends tell us that the suspected vampire led a normal life. That would have to mean he was out and about during the sunlight hours.
Nosferatu (an old black and white movie from the 1920s) was an attempt to bring Stoker’s Dracula to the big screen, Stoker’s widow refused to allow Hollywood the Dracula story so Hollywood got creative and mixed some things up. Now they could film and not get sued. In the novel Dracula dies at the hands of Harper and Quincy Morris -they cut his head off right before dawn. In Nosferatu, the vampire spends the night drinking from his victim. When he finally leaves it’s too late and he burns in the early morning rays.
Here’s something to think about, the Blut Aussauger from the Bosnia area, and the Rakshasas from India, must have prolonged exposure to the sun for it to die.
China’s Ch’ing Shih is a blind vampire creature. It’s powers come from the moon, so during the day or moonless nights it stays hidden underground.
The Poludnica of Slovenia attacks her victims at noon.

Now on to the blood. Old myths say vampires could drink the blood of animals: sheep, goats and cattle were the most common, but cats and dogs could do in the case of an emergency or if that was all that was easily available. Although again, we are told in the old myths (if you care to look) that vampires could eat normal food. That was how they could stay hidden. Some vampires prefer breast milk. The Jaracaca from Brazil for example, it’s believed he takes the shape of a snake. He finds a woman who is nursing and pushes her child out of the way, he nurses instead. If the child begins to cry, he’ll stick the tip of his tail in its mouth to quiet it.
Charlaine Harris’ idea of synthetic blood is brilliant. I love the idea, unfortunately that is a ways off. Unless vampires like the stuff scientists are still working on, Scientists still are happy with it yet.

If we are going to talk about survival of the fittest, I personally think that would also mean the smartest.
The Undead Duo bring us some interesting points about how a vampire in our world finding prey could be very hard to do and dangerous to his secret. There are so many people who are missing, (I would have to Google the numbers) that are never found. How many of these missing do the police and then others give up on finding? A lot!
A smart vampire could be the culprit. What about all the people who no one would miss: homeless, prostitutes, drug addicts. A smart vampire would watch carefully almost stalking his prey. He would know if someone had family that would know the prey was missing. If he/she attacked one of these “unloved” and disposed of the body in a way it wouldn’t be found. No one would know that person was missing. Brilliant!
Stephenie Meyer has a few evil vampires in the Bree Tanner novella, that are brilliant. They attack what most would call street scum and hide the bodies somewhere in the water. (My memory fails me exactly where it is.)
I really don’t want to get into this, but just go with me for a moment. Through out history vampires attacked children (smaller, and weaker. better prey). In our world thousands of children go missing, a lot are never found. ?Vampires?

I also find it strange that most of what is commonly believed about vampires has been brought to us by literature or movies. When a writer or a Vampirologist (I love that word) brings old myths to the table people freak out. That’s what was believed when vampires roamed about freely. Some are just plain funny, but who are we to say they are wrong?

Leave comments here or at Deadly Ever After I’ll be spending some time there today.

Dhampir

Today is Vampire Wednesday!

Ancient myths believed vampires could father child.    Umm? Yeah, baby vampires rise a whole new set of questions.

Gypsies believed that some vampires (MULE) would pay their spouse or other young women nightly visits; sometimes these visits would result in pregnancy. The hybrid child was called a dhampir. Dhampirs in myth were usually male -although recent fiction has female dhampirs usually called dhampirlla.
Dhampirs lived a normal live in their communities. It was believed that dhampirs had special powers for finding and destroying vampires. A highly paid for skill.   Some dhampirs would supplement their incomes by selling their skills.  If the vampire was outside of his grave the dhampir could shoot it with a pistol. (No staking through the heart!)
Here’s some strange info..
Residents of Gypsy communities thought that dhampirs had slippery, jelly-like bodies, because they thought vampires didn’t have bones. (Huh? Alrighty then!) They were believed to live short lives.
A dhampirs’ powers would pass to his sons, through a family line. The powers couldn’t be learned.

Nosferatu, and Incubi were also believed to be able to father children.

Other vampire hybrid children were called Cambion and Glog. More on them another day.

Armenian Vampire

Today is Wednesday … and that means it’s Vampire Wednesday here at my blog.

The Armenian Vampire

The first mention of a vampire creature in Armenia was in a text by Baron August von Haxthausen in 1854. Montague Summers mentioned the text.
The local legend says Dakhanavar (a vampire) protected the valley from intruders. He would attack nighttime travelers by sucking blood out of their feet.

–Yuck! What would Dakhanavar do if they had athletes foot? What if their feet stink? Would you be safe then? Or was that part of his foot fetish?—
Anyways…

Two travelers outsmarted him who had heard the story before.
No, they didn’t rub garlic all over their feet. Get this!
They went to sleep with the others feet under their heads. Dakhanavar was so frustrated by the creature with two heads and no feet that he ran away never to be heard from again.
Now that doesn’t sound like a scary vampire to me. Well, as long as I have a friend who is willing to use my feet as a pillow.

On a separate note, my right wrist is much better. No brace! My left is not yet. So I am hunting and pecking with the right hand while my left hand rests in my lap; enjoying the special treatment it receives.

A stake through the heart?

Okay, so we know that a stake through the heart kills a vampire.

I want to know WHY?

If a vampire is “undead” and no longer has a beating heart, how would a stake through the heart kill him?

So when I started writing my vampire story (Awakened By Death is what I’m calling it) I researched this heartbeat thing.

First , we all agree that the point of staking the heart is to stop the heart from pumping blood right? Yes. Okay. So, you’re being chased by a vampire you just happen to have some sharp object and are alive and close enough to shove that object into the vampire’s chest. Oh Yeah! You just killed your attacker, right? But wait! His heart doesn’t beat. He glares at you, pulls that stake out of his own chest and proceeds to see you as a steak.  Yummy, a fiesty one, he thinks. So all you accomplished was really pissing him off. NOW you’re in for it. Prepare to die at the hands of an Angry and hungry vampire.

OR! Maybe you are lucky and our beliefs of vampires are wrong and he does have a beating heart. Not beating as your’s or mine (some 60 – 72 beats per minute, more like under 25 beats per minute) but beating none the less. That stake sticking out of his chest, stops him for enough time that you are able to get away. (HOPEFULLY) We all know vampires have incredible rates of recovery.

Many ancient legends believed in living vampires, so we would have to agree there is a chance of a beating heart. The idea of killing a vampire with a stake only makes sense if the heart beats. Also we have to think why a vampire needs to feed off living blood. Most agree that he needs the blood of the living to keep him in a state of reanimation. Once the blood he’s fed off of gets to the stomach, what happens?

Somehow that blood has to move from the stomach to the rest of the body to allow him to move. I read somewhere that the muscles move the blood to various places in the body, instead of the heart. However, that would mean (under normal circumstances) that the muscles would have to spasm to push the blood through the veins. Yet, we never see or hear of a vampire having constant muscle twitches in able to move. Normally the muscles aren’t able to do that job of moving the blood, so either that was very wrong or Vampires have some special rule for their blood flow.

Please don’t tell me they don’t need blood moving through the body! They would not be able to move if blood was not in their whole body some way or other. Unless you want to say Vampires are a fictional character and as such don’t have to follow any of biology’s rules! In which case I would smile slyly and turn. “To each his own.” But, if you are like me and want to believe in the possibility of a true creature…

Leave me your thoughts. Lets get deep into this.

Witches

I wrote a short story for a magazine Witches and Pagans  ( I haven’t heard back yet, I hate waiting. I also don’t have much patience.)

It’s about a young girl -Tessa- who wants to learn witchcraft. She found a mentor (that’s the name “Mentor”) and how she’s learning with her.

I thought that was the end of that story. “Good. Done.” I said nodding to myself. Well, Tessa had different plans. I wrote another segment of her story. Again I thought “DONE” well she still isn’t done with me. I’m in the process of writing the third segment. Here is a paragraph from the first segment. (The one I submitted. )

I sat back down at the table with her. Yet she still didn’t speak so I also kept silent. We sat there for a long time. I tried not to fidget; I wasn’t use to the silence. I had two younger sisters; my house was never quiet. I thought I would welcome the quiet. Yet it scared me in some unknown way. Wanda watched me; I knew she was preparing me. I knew this was another lesson. Maybe it was even a test. I tried to endure the silence, what I should have thought was peacefulness.

So I thought I would share a little bit about witch folklore.

Witches were believed to meet with their coven (strange how witches and Vampires both call their group/family covens, and a lot of folklore believed witches turned into vampires*) from midnight to 2:00 AM on Tuesdays and Fridays at a crossroad.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I knew when evil witches were meeting, I’d be for trying to stop them. I’d try to set up a trap or something with the other villagers.  (Well, maybe not. I might be too afraid of them.)

There are good witches. (I’ll save that for another post.)

Evil witches could ruin crops, cause life stock illness or death and kill or cause illnesses against humans. They became “hunted” during the time of the Inquisition. Before the Inquisition most areas and their populations believed that witches were good. They were seen as healers, it was the Inquisition that changed the mind of the people.

*Spain believed their witches or Brujas engaged in Vampirism of children. Portugal’s Bruxa and Italy’s Strega were all believed to be living vampires or become vampires after death. Romania believed witchcraft was one of the evils that would cause you to be a vampire in the afterlife.

Portugal’s Bruxa

Did you know Portugal has its very own vampire?
It does, she’s called a Bruxa.She can never die!
Yeah, she’s really not a good thing to run into.
Uh-huh. Everything you’ve ever thought you knew about killing vampires; won’t work with her.

So how was the Bruxa created?
It’s believed when a woman was a witch in her life, when she dies she becomes a Bruxa.

I’ve also heard that the witch will leave her house during the night (depending on where you read, as a beautiful woman or a bird); she torments travelers and drinks blood from infants.
She can carry and birth her own children, which are usually her main source of food.

There are ways to protect your child from a Bruxa. The first being put a pair of scissors under the child’s pillow. (huh? You heard me right; the Bruxa is more dangerous than a pair of scissors.)
If that’s a little too dangerous for your taste; you can place iron nails along the floor around the child’s bed, or nail it into the ground.
You could sew garlic cloves into the child’s clothes. Witches didn’t like garlic either (Who knew?).

If you suspect a Bruxa is tormenting your child, boil his clothes. Stab a sharp object -preferably iron or steel- into the boiling pot, the Bruxa will crawl to your house and beg you to stop.

I’m thinking about making Wednesdays Vampire Day. I’ll post about Vampires that day. What do you think?