Aswang

Origin stories vary widely: in some tellings the condition is inherited within a bloodline and passed down through families, in others it can be transmitted by a bite, a curse, or contact with an object such as a black chick or an egg, and in still others it is acquired through a pact or ritual.

By day, the Aswang is said to look and live like an ordinary person, often a quiet neighbor, sometimes specifically a woman, giving no outward sign of its true nature; this ability to pass as human is central to why the figure inspires such deep communal suspicion in the tellings that feature it.

By night, it transforms and hunts, with favored targets including the sick, the dying, and above all pregnant women and unborn children, echoing the predatory focus found in Manananggal lore.

Some tellings describe the Aswang digging up and devouring freshly buried corpses, sometimes substituting a fake body such as one carved from a banana trunk in the grave to conceal the theft.

Various methods of detection and protection appear across accounts, including garlic, salt, holy items, and stingray-tail whips, along with signs said to reveal an Aswang's true nature, such as a reflection that looks upside down or the creature's inability to cross certain thresholds.

Some tellings describe the Aswang digging up and devouring freshly buried corpses, sometimes substituting a fake body such as one carved from a banana trunk in the grave to conceal the theft.

By night, it transforms and hunts, with favored targets including the sick, the dying, and above all pregnant women and unborn children, echoing the predatory focus found in Manananggal lore.

The Aswang is described in some tellings as capable of shapeshifting into animal forms, most often a black dog, a pig, or a large bird, moving through a community unnoticed until it strikes.