"A man was on his way home one night after serenading a girl. He was cursing himself because he didn’t notice the time. It was almost midnight and what’s worse is that he has to walk through the forest to reach his house.
As he was walking, a strong gust of wind blew. He stopped in his tracks. Suddenly, he heard the flapping of wings. There was no need for him to look up to see what creature made the sound. He ran as fast as he could but there was no way he could outrun the creature. His screaming was so loud that the townspeople heard him. Then there was silence.
The townspeople already knew what happened. Another victim was claimed by the manananggal.”
That is just one of the many horror stories my mom used to tell me during bedtime. I did not grow up listening to stories like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, or the story of Rapunzel and the likes. I was raised listening to horror stories, stories about mananaggals, kapre, white ladies, and other creatures of Philippine folklore, which my mom fondly calls “Not like ours.” (I didn’t realize that it was “Not like ours” and not “natleykars”, which I thought was some ancient way of calling those kinds of creatures until I was in 5th Grade).
One creature from our own horror stories is the Manananggal, a woman who can transform into a winged monster by disengaging her upper body from the lower part, below the waist. She has a huge appetite for human innards. Manananggals usually live deep inside the forest and use some kind of oil (which, I think, has human fats in it) to help them transform into their hideous appearance. They fear salt (especially being spread on their severed lower body), onions (and other spices), palaspas (palm), rosaries and crosses (and other religious items, depending on the mananaggal’s religion), sunlight and bamboo spears, usually used to stab through their hearts.
I did not question the manananggal’s existence until late my senior year in high school when I saw the first installment of the Shake, Rattle and Roll movie series again. The Roll episode, which was directed by Ishmael Bernal, is about two brothers and their lola (grandmother) who are being terrorized by a sexy manananggal.
After the movie, I wondered about how the manananggal really victimize. I mean, how could a mananaggal could fly with great aerobatic skill inside a thick forest. I think it would be safe to assume that each of its (her?) wings would span at least 2 meters, 4 meters when spread. If so, it would have some difficulty passing through thick trees and bushes, right? And secondly, how could it devour its victim if its lower body is missing? All the chunk of meat it eats would just pass through its severed body. And it wouldn’t have its intestines. That’s how I came up with some more plausible explanation on how manananggals really eat their victims and how would they really look like, well, for me at least.
I think manananggals don’t really fly inside the forest like in the movies. They fly above the forest, circling around and looking for prey as birds of prey do. Then after they spot a victim, they would swoop down and attack then use the momentum to glide back up. They use their talons to puncture the prey’s jugular veins to kill them. Manananggals don’t eat their victims on the spot; they bring bayongs (uhm, native shopping bags) with them. Using their sharp teeth, they would dismember their pitiful victim (usually drunkards) and put the body parts inside the bayong. They then return home to reunite with their lower body and transform back to their human form and cook their meal.
When in human form, their skin would be bloodless white (Pond’s models can’t compare) because they usually lose a lot of blood when they transform (Helloooo? Severed body?). And they appear to have a lump behind them where the wings should have been.
If you find yourself being chased by a manananggal, find a place where their wide wings could not flap easily. You could also run to the sea, they can’t chase you there because they fear salt (I find this difficult to explain, maybe some fatal allergy) and obviously, salt is made up of dried sea water. Wait till sunrise but don’t expect them to burst into flames like vampires do. They’re just afraid of the sunlight because the romorondang (roving) townspeople could spot them easily(not to mention TV news crew and people with camera phones and digicams).
You may or may not believe mananaggals exist but for me, believing in them and other such creatures once in a while brings color and excitement to my life (yeah I admit, it’s a little geeky so fuck off!). That’s my own explanation on the case of the manananggal. So beware of the freakishly white lady with a lump on her back carrying a bayong in your neighborhood.
Who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in you neigh-bor-hood, who are the people in your neighborhood, they the people that you meet each day!
10. Clowns
