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The White Lady of Köhlholz Forest

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In a forest near Kemoding in Germany, the pregnant Anna Schwarzenberger was murdered. Since then, people have spoken of the White Lady of Köhlholz, who finds no peace. A cross now stands as a reminder of this event.

A large wooden cross in the Köhlholz forest, directly on the B 388 near Kemoding, has been erected as a wayward shrine as a reminder of several events: terrible accidents along the dangerous road and a bloody murder that happened in 1831.

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The 2.5-meter-high “Fertlbauernkreuz” (Fertlbauer Cross) was built by initiative of Andreas Faltermaier from Kemoding, as a wayside shrine of the same name had long stood on this spot , but disappeared a few years ago. In the Kemoding area alone, a small hamlet belonging to the municipality of Fraunberg, several very different crosses can be found.

Köhlholz Forest: The forest can be found along the way to Kemoding Village, part of the municipality of Fraunberg, Erding district, Upper Bavaria.The village lies approximately six kilometers southeast of Fraunberg. Image Source

The Murder in Köhlholz Forest

The Köhlholz is one of the largest wooded areas in the district and stretches from Kreuthäusl on the B 388 to Danerberg, just before Ottering. Since the 19th century, the forest has been primarily known for a gruesome murder.

On July 31, 1831, a lover stabbed a young, heavily pregnant woman 14 times there. Because of people still living with the name in the area, his name is often retracted from records. He was an unmarried farmer known as MG from H. She was Anna Schwarzenberger from Lern ​​(Berglern). 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories in haunted forests

On that fateful night, he had tricked his lover into believing he was inviting her to the fair in Dorfen. After stabbing her, he then drowned her in a small pond when she was still alive, even after all of her stab wounds. The murder went undiscovered for almost three weeks until G. turned himself in. 

Anna Schwarzenhuber was eight months pregnant at the time of her death and the newspaper at the time, the Bayerische Landbötin, called the perpetrator a “reject of humanity.” G. was sentenced to death. However, his mother, through an appeal to the king, managed to have the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment in chains. G. presumably died in prison.

The Haunting of the Forest

Since then, the legend has persisted that Anna has never found peace. Since the 19th century, many coachmen have reported seeing the sad, heavily pregnant mother wandering about as a white figure. In the past, farmers used to drive their carts at high speed through the Köhlholz forest. 

Even today, she is occasionally sighted by walkers in the Köhlholz forest. Many people still report that they are overcome by a deep sadness when they drive through the Köhlholz. Driving through the Köhlholz forest, Anna is said to appear and sit in the passenger seat and gaze at you with large, sad eyes. 

Especially at the end of August and beginning of September, a faint crying or sobbing can supposedly be heard. It was during this time of year that Anna’s child was said to have been born.

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References:

An der B 388 bei Kemoding: Ein Kreuz für die weiße Frau vom Köhlholz 

7 wahre urbane Legenden aus München 

Fraunberg: Jedes Kreuz hat seine Geschichte 

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Soucouyant: The Skin-Shedding Vampire of the Caribbean

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As one of the shapeshifting vampiric witches of the Caribbean, the Soucouyant has been the nightmare for generations and the fear lurking in the dark. 

In the night traditions of the Caribbean, there exists a figure both feared and whispered about in equal measure. Known as the soucouyant, this being is not a ghost in the usual sense, nor a corpse risen from the grave. It is something far more unsettling. It is a living person who becomes a vampire by night, abandoning human form to hunt in secret.

The legend is most strongly rooted in the folklore of Trinidad, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Haiti, where it appears in slightly different forms but always carries the same essential horror. The soucouyant is a woman, often elderly, who moves among her community unnoticed by day. At night she becomes something else entirely.

Shedding the Human Form

She goes by many names. In Guyana, Belize and Jamaica they call her the Ol’  Higue. In Suriname Asema and Hag in the Bahamas and Barbados. Belief in soucouyants is still preserved to an extent in Guyana, Suriname and some Caribbean islands, including Saint Lucia, Dominica, Haïti and Trinidad. The Soucouyant’s name comes from the French Creole “sucer,” meaning to suck, and “couir,” meaning to run or flow.

By day she appears as a normal woman. Either an elderly woman on the fringes of society, or even a young woman leading men astray.

After nightfall the vampiric witch removes her skin. The discarded flesh is hidden carefully, often in a mortar, a hollow tree, or a dark corner of her home. Sometimes, the repeated shedding of her skin made her human form unusually wrinkled. Described as a ball of fire or light, sometimes flickering like an ember carried by the wind she starts her hunt.

She slips through cracks in walls, under doors, through keyholes and shutters. Entering homes while the occupants sleep, she approaches her chosen victim and drinks their blood. The focus is often on the vulnerable. The sick, the elderly, and especially children are frequent targets in the stories. In some accounts she leaves small, bruise marks, easily overlooked. The victim simply grows weaker over time without understanding why. If she feeds too much, the victim will die, or become a Soucouyant self. 

The Danger of Discovery

The greatest weakness of the soucouyant lies in the skin she leaves behind. If it is found and destroyed, or treated with certain substances, she cannot return to her human form. Folklore across the Caribbean speaks of salt, rice, or hot peppers being used to interfere with her return. Sprinkling salt into the hidden skin is said to burn her upon reentry, killing her at dawn.

The skin of the soucouyant is considered valuable and is part of black magic rituals.

Rice has another function. The soucouyant is believed to be compelled to count grains if they are scattered in her path. This obsession delays her until sunrise, when she is caught outside her skin and destroyed by the light.

Regional Variations of the Vampiric Shapeshifting Witch

This creature has many regional variations that are so similar, they seem the same, or so different it seems like a different entity entirely. 

In Haiti, it is known as the lougawou and in the Dominican Republic it is known as the Lugarú, also known as the Galipote or Zángano. Here they are a mythical shapeshifter that is able to take the form of not just various animals, but also inanimate objects like trees or stones. It has incredible strength and is immune to bullets.  Like other versions of the legend, the Lugarú was also rumoured to be immortal, and maintained this state by prowling the night to drink the blood of children.

The Lagahoo and Rougarou: The Rougarou is a legendary creature in Cajun and Creole diaspora and a trickster in oral traditions in Métis and Francophone communities like a werewolf. In Trinidad and Tobago, a similar creature called “Lagahoo” or “La Gahoo” is more like a bloodsucking, shapeshifting sorcerer. At night, he is described as taking the appearance of a man with a coffin on his neck instead of a head, atop which are three lit candles. He carries a chain around his waist, which trails behind him, and commonly feeds on livestock. Sometimes, he is so tall his head disappears among the trees. To defeat him, he must be repeatedly struck with a stick doused in holy water and holy oils for nine days. He will then rapidly switch forms, from a savage dog, an angry bull, and stormy waves, before finally turning to mist. // Image: praline3001/Flickr

In Mauritian folklore, the Lougarou is a notorious figure mostly used to scare children, appearing during the full moon. Following Cyclone Hollanda in 1994, a form of Lougarou, known as Touni Minwi, was believed to visit women in their homes at night. This led to hysteria among the local population; many witnesses would affirm having seen frightful manifestations at night time, including apparitions of Lougarou. The Touni Minwi phenomenon led to a large mobilization of people in the capital, Port Louis, and in the village of Lallmatie.

Origins and Meaning

The soucouyant belongs to a wider family of night beings found across West African and Caribbean traditions. Her closest relatives include the loogaroo and other shapeshifting vampire figures brought through the transatlantic slave trade and reshaped in the Caribbean environment. Sometimes, The Loogaroo and the Soucouyant stories are so similar, they come across as the same creature.

Soucouyants belong to a class of spirits called jumbies. Unlike the ghost folklore which represents a wispy fog-like entity, the jumbee is cast as a dark, shadowy figure. Particularly in the case of the Firerass, or ole Higue is said to share the same compulsion to count sand, salt or rice. 

Jumbies: A jumbee or jumbie, also known as mendo or chongo in Colombia and Venezuela, is a type of mythological spirit or demon in the folklore of some Caribbean countries. “Jumbee” can be a generic name given to all malevolent entities. There are numerous kinds of jumbees, reflecting the Caribbean’s complex history and ethnic makeup, drawing on African, Amerindian, East Indian, Dutch, English, and even Chinese mythology. // Image: depicting the bloodsucking Old Higue it has been known as as well.

It is likely the origin of the Soucouyant as well as the Bahamian “Hag” have a strong connection to the Aje, or the witch of the Yoruba people. Many Bahamians who descended from the Yoruba referred to old Congolese women as witches who shed their skins in the night and sucked human blood.

The book, Items of Folk-lore from Bahama Negroes, written by Clavel and published in 1904, describes the Bahamian version: “when a hag enters your house, she always shed her skin. When you first see her, she appears like the flame of a candle floating about; in some way, she puts you to sleep, and resumes her body (but without the skin); she then lies on you, and sucks away every drop of blood that God has put in you.”

There is also another creature from Ghana and Togo where there is said to be an organ eating vampire called The Adze that appears as a firefly but reverts to its human form if captured. Where one type of Vampiric creature ends and another starts, is difficult to say, but there are certainly threads from all around the world to make up the horror of the Caribbean. 

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References:

Soucouyant – Wikipedia

The Soucouyant | USC Digital Folklore Archives

Soucouyants | FOLKLORISTICS

Jumbee – Wikipedia

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Hiyang Athouba: The Neglected and Forgotten Corpse Returned from the Dead

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In Meitei tradition, tales about the Hiyang Athouba warn about the dangers of not taking proper care about the dead and ill in your community and family. Left alone to decay, a corpse can sometimes rise as a vampiric monster. 

In the traditional folklore of the Meitei people of Manipur, death does not always mark an ending. Among the most feared supernatural beings recorded in ancient tales is the Hiyang Athouba, a revenant born not from curse or sorcery, but from neglect. It is a dead body that rises again, transformed into something predatory, aware, and deeply unnatural.

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The Hiyang Athouba belongs to the category of Lai Phattaba, malevolent spirits within Meitei belief systems. Unlike wandering ghosts or ancestral spirits, it is explicitly physical. The danger lies not in an invisible soul, but in the corpse itself returning to motion.

The Manipur Vampire of Neglect

The story of the Hiyang Athouba (ꯍꯤꯌꯥꯡ ꯑꯊꯧꯕ) is and old one, perhaps from the ancient Kangleipak, a lesser known civilisation in modern day Manipur in northeastern India. With strong shamanistic traditions, some of their folktales have the same spirit. 

The Kingdom of Kangleipak: The Kingdom of Kangleipak (present-day Manipur, India) was an independent monarchy with a rich cultural and political history. Traditionally believed to have been founded in 33 CE by King Nongdā Lāiren Pākhangbā, Kangleipak was ruled by Meitei kings, who established a distinct administrative system and patronised the indigenous Sanamahism religion. // Image: Illustration of common people of Kangleipak.

Folktales in Meitei tradition have many cases where the dead have a transformation and come back as something evil. Traditional narratives describe the transformation occurring when a body remains unattended after death. Isolation is central to the legend. A person who dies alone, without funeral rites or communal care, risks becoming something else entirely. Folklore frequently notes a specific omen. If an animal, especially a cat, passes over the corpse, the transformation may begin.

The Returning Wife of Neglect

One widely preserved tale tells of a poor couple separated by necessity. They are poor people and are expecting a baby. The husband leaves home to earn money while his pregnant wife remains behind to rest and wait for his return. 

He gave her enough money to get by for a couple of months, and hopefully their neighbours would also assist when he went away. As months pass, resources disappear. She falls ill. Neighbors initially assist her but eventually withdraw, burdened by their own survival. Also anger toward the man made them eventually stop visiting her.

She didn’t get better though and she died alone in the house. No one knew about her death, and she left unattended for days. A cat jumped over her dead body. 

Days later, the husband returns at night carrying his earnings. When he calls for his wife, she answers from within to get in. At first nothing seems wrong. Yet her clothing hangs loosely, her hair is disordered, and her movements feel unnatural. Gradually he notices signs of decay beneath familiarity. Her teeth appear enlarged. Her gaze does not blink. She had become a Lai Phattaba, a Hiyang Athouba.

Lai Phattaba: (ꯂꯥꯏ ꯐꯠꯇꯕ), also spelled as Lai Phataba (ꯂꯥꯏ ꯐꯇꯕ),[1] is a term in the Meitei language that refers to an evil spirit. Meitei polytheism recognizes multiple evil spirits, which can be grouped according to their nature and domain. Hiyang-Athouba being a demonic and haunting spirit. When offering food to the Lai Phataba spirit, devotees always face east. This is considered the correct direction for prayer. It is believed to roam around the surroundings of every family. During the offering, the head of the family places the food on a plantain leaf set on a bronze plate. // Image: The long handed demoness Lai Khutsangbi aiming to the lonely house in the village, by Subadani, Ksh.

Realizing the truth, he flees into the darkness while Hiyang Athouba pursues him through the village. Doors remain closed. No one answers his pleas.  Some say it was simply night and no one heard. Some say they heard, but ignored. He survives only by climbing some lianas beyond the creature’s reach and waiting for dawn. With daylight, the being returns home and collapses once more into lifeless flesh.

The villagers later cremate the corpse immediately, understanding that destruction of the body is the only safeguard against further return.

The Persistence of the Dead

The Hiyang Athouba remains one of the clearest examples of a Southeast Asian corpse revenant tradition. Whose fault is it that she died, and whose responsibility is it that the dead doesn’t come back as a vampiric revenant? The husband or the bigger society? One thing is sure though. No one gains anything with a Hiyang Athouba on their tail. 

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References:

Hiyang Athouba – Wikipedia

Kangleipak – Wikipedia

Lai Phattaba – Wikipedia

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The Iron Maiden and the Haunted Jungfernturmstraße

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In the ruins of the Jungfernturm in Munich, some say the victims of the mythical torture device is still haunting the street where the tower once stood.

The Jungfernturm, or Maiden Tower on Munich’s old city wall was said to once be the site of feared death sentences and mysterious disappearances. Although the tower itself was torn down, still to this day, people still talk about experiencing strange things while walking through the street of Jungfernturmstraße. 

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The Jungfernturm served mainly as a battery tower for the defence of the city, but according to legend, it is said the tower got its name from torture and executions carried out with the Iron Maiden said to be within it.

By Carl August Lebschée (1800–1877)

History of the Maiden Tower

The first city wall around Munich was built as early as the 12th century, but the construction of the defensive tower didn’t begin until 1493. It stood between the second city wall and the inner wall for the protection of its people. As it was a battery tower, it had no windows, only hatches for firing projectiles and it was difficult to say what went on inside of it from the outside. 

It could only be accessed from within the city. With the dismantling of Munich’s fortifications in 1791, it became obsolete as a means of defence and ended up as a storage room for the opera nearby. It remained in its place for over a decade before its demolition finally began in 1804 as a means to modernize and beautify the city.

The Iron Maiden and the Statue of Virgin Mary

Did something else happen within the tower though except for preparing for an attack on the city? According to the legend, death sentences were said to have been handed down in the Maiden’s Tower in secret. 

Most legends claim that the victims were taken to the tower by carriage. Often the legends talk about men in black being the ones taken from them. This is often in connection to the mysterious Guglmänner, a secret and veiled society in Munich, although officially, these were mourners at funeral processions. At night, these men in black robes with pointed hoods would knock on the door and collect the offender in a black carriage, taking him to the Jungfernturm.

The Guglmänner: Originally, they were attendants of a funeral procession. As early as the 14th century, penitents veiled themselves from head to toe, leaving only a peephole for their eyes. Since around the late 1990s, the term has mostly referred to a Bavarian secret society whose members see themselves as guardians of the monarchy and contribute to the perpetuation of the legends surrounding the death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1886. Their motto, referring to the deceased, is Media vita in morte sumus , which translates as: “In the midst of life we ​​are surrounded by death.”

According to legend, there was a statue of the Virgin Mary at the tower, which the condemned man had to kiss before a trapdoor opened beneath him and he fell into a dungeon below, being impaled in the Iron Maiden torture device. 

The iron maiden: this mythical torture device, believed to have been first created in the 19th century. It consists of a solid iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. While often popularly thought to have been used in the medieval period, there is no known mention of the iron maiden from before the 19th century. The most famous iron maiden that popularized the design was that of Nuremberg, first displayed possibly as far back as 1802. The original was lost in the Allied bombing of Nuremberg in 1945. The 19th-century iron maidens may have been constructed as a misinterpretation of a medieval Schandmantel, which was made of wood and metal but without spikes.

The Ghost of Captain Franz von Unertl

The popular legend links the mysterious powers of the Iron Maiden to the time of Elector Karl Theodor in the mid 1700s, whose secret committee, headed by the notorious Privy Councilor Lippert, issued banishments and death sentences without a court trial, carrying them out secretly and without fanfare. 

A time of unease in the realm: Between fighting for Bavarian reign, wars and the brewing French Revolution that would affect nobles across Europe, there was much unease and scheming going on in the shadows. Illustration showing Privy Councilor Lippert informs Karl Theodor that the people of Munich are dissatisfied and are resisting his orders.

According to this legend, individuals deemed dangerous to the state due to their revolutionary principles were suddenly arrested, taken to the residence, interrogated and condemned by the secret committee in the dreaded Yellow Room. They were then sent to the Maiden’s Tower to be murdered by the arms of the Iron Maiden.

One such alleged executed person was Captain Franz von Unertl. He was reportedly picked up from an inn by a horse-drawn carriage on the evening of January 6, 1796, after Munich had already dismantled its fortifications, and taken to the tower. The story tells that the Captain met his death by the Iron Maiden at 3:00 a.m. on January 7. 

Franz Xaver Josef Baron von Unertl: (21 February 1675 – 22 January 1750) was a Bavarian politician. Unertl was born in Munich. He served as Electoral Bavarian Privy Council Chancellor and Conference Minister. His role under the Austrian occupation during the Spanish Succession War remains dubious. He died in his home town of Munich.

However, we have no documentary evidence of such mysterious activities during the reign of Elector Karl Theodor. After his death, his successor, Elector Maximilian Joseph, later King, ordered an investigation into the proceedings of the secret committee on March 26, 1799. The thing is, only those dating back to 1796 were found. What happened before that had been destroyed. 

So were there actually secret executions at the Jungfernturm throughout the centuries it stood? Hard to prove, and no Iron Maiden was ever found. However, it is said that the executioner of Munich from this time told that he had once been forced to execute a person unknown to him in the Residence.

The Corpses in the Tower

So what was the truth? With no Iron Maiden found, it’s hard to prove the validity of the legend. However, the remains of people in the tower could point to the fact that more than one person died here. 

General Field Master and Chief Warrant Officer Josef Count von Salern told about a terrible find he encountered working with the costumes for the opera when he was Intendant of the Court Music in 1751. He noticed that a small piece of paving in the first-floor floor was sticking up slightly, making it easy to trip and fall. When they tried to repair it, they discovered a trapdoor leading to a lower room. A few masons lowered themselves into the hole below and found two unattached, almost completely decomposed corpses. 

These bodies with a pile of rags were then removed without further investigation and buried in the churchyard that was located right next door according to the Imperial Police Director Baumgartner. Could this be proof that the tower at least was used as a place of criminal justice? 

From Baumgartners story about the tower: Source

Demolition of the Tower

This tower was demolished and along with it, the proof. What we do have though it the reports from the Royal Police Director Baumgartner who said this: 

“Rumors always circulated among the people that in ancient times a secret court had operated in this tower and perhaps buried some victims there. When the tower was demolished, I, along with the city building director von Schede and the city master mason Ferdinand Zimmermann, examined every nook and cranny. At the top of the first floor, we found an old Gothic door, inside this door a bricked-up thwarted chamber, and at ground level a trapdoor. I descended a ladder with a mason and found myself in a burial chamber, where a kind of resting place had been prepared in a niche. I found no trace of chains or iron rings, but in the vault above the trapdoor itself, I did find an iron hook for a pulley, used to lower or raise things into the depths. There was a musty smell in this recess, and the floor was completely covered with moth husks, which are found on long-buried animals.” dead bodies were found. Some of the bones found inside were from the jaw of a dog.”

From all this, the most probable conclusion is that the Maiden’s Tower, in earlier times before it was used as a decoration storehouse, served as a prison of that barbaric kind.. Such cruel prisons were common in medieval castles, fortresses, and town halls. According to testimonies from people visiting it throughout the years, this would have happened between 1666, when Colonel-Master of Ordnance Baron von Rouyer examined it and found it completely empty, and 1724, when it was designated for the storage of opera decorations.

By Johann Georg von Dillis (1759–1841)

The Haunting of the Tower

Some claim that the screams of its victims who never returned from the tower still echo in the winds. On dark nights, people claim to hear their screams coming from the remains of the tower. 

It is said that on the night of January 6th to 7th, a man in a tailcoat and leather boots can be seen on Jungfernturmstrasse. This is the ghost of Captain Franz von Unertl, said to haunt the area. If it is so that he never went to the tower for his demise, and died in his home, could it be one of the other unfortunate people who fell into the clutches of an Iron Maiden?

The Remains of the Jungfernturm: Image by Moonmausoleum

The Remains of the Tower

The legend of an iron maiden as an execution machine appears in several cities and towns, but not much proof of its existence has ever been found. 

Not much remains of the former defensive tower today. Only a few remnants of the red brick wall on Jungfernturmstrasse still bear witness to its former location. A plaque commemorates it with the inscription: “Here stood the Jungfernturm, built in the year 1493, demolished in the year 1804.” 

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References:

Jungfernturm – Wikipedia 

Die Überreste dieses geheimnisvollen Turms mitten in der Münchner Innenstadt erzählen eine gruselige Geschichte über einen zum Tode Verurteilten – Sein Geist soll noch heute in der Nacht des 07. Januars durch die Straße spuken

Rest der ehemaligen inneren Stadtmauer in München – Jungfernturmstraße 0 (erbaut 1300) | Baudenkmal & Architektur 

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The Yara-ma-yha-who: Australia’s Daylight Vampire Beneath the Fig Tree

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Not all vampires rise with the moon and dwell in dark castles. Some wait in the heat of the Australian wilderness. Like the monster Yara-ma-yha-who from Aboriginal folklore, found under the Australian Fig Trees. 

In the mythic landscapes of Aboriginal Australian storytelling a devouring creature lurks from the Dreamtime cosmology. The Yara-ma-yha-who belongs to no crypt, no ruined castle, and no midnight hunt. It dwells instead in branches heavy with leaves.

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According to recorded versions of the legend, particularly those preserved by David Unaipon, the Yara-ma-yha-who is a vampiric being from southeastern Aboriginal traditions, notable not only for its grotesque appearance but for the bizarre, cyclical horror of its feeding.

The Thing in the Tree

The Yara-ma-yha-who is often described as a small, red, frog-like humanoid creature, with an enormous head, a wide toothless mouth, and sucker-like appendages on its hands and feet. Its body is unnatural from the outset, evoking something both childlike, absurd and deeply menacing. 

Its preferred habitat is the fig tree. The weary traveler, escaping heat beneath its branches, unknowingly places themselves directly beneath danger. It drains blood using the suckers on its fingers and toes, attaching itself to the body in a manner more parasitic than predatory. 

Dreamtime: also referred to as the Dreaming or Tjukurrpa, which means “to see and understand the law” in the Arrernte language ,is a fundamental concept in Australian Aboriginal culture that encompasses a worldview connecting the human, physical, and sacred realms. It represents the beliefs, knowledge, and values of Aboriginal peoples, often shared through storytelling, art, dance, and ceremonies. Dreamtime stories convey the Creation myths and the ongoing relationship between the Ancestor Spirits and the land, illustrating how these spirits shaped the world and established connections among people and their environment. // Image: Source

After partially draining its victim, however, the Yara-ma-yha-who does something even stranger. Rather than simply kill, it swallows the person whole. It then drinks water, falls asleep, and later regurgitates the victim. The prey emerges alive, but altered, described as shorter and redder than before. This process repeats over successive encounters until the victim becomes shorter and shorter, eventually transformed into another Yara-ma-yha-who. Some say after the third time. 

It is active during the day, not at night.  According to legend, one possible means of surviving an encounter is to play dead until sunset, exploiting the creature’s daytime habits. 

David Unaipon: David Unaipon (1872-1967) was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and writer who has been widely credited as the first Aboriginal published author from Point McLeay Mission in South Australia. During the late 1920s Unaipon was frequently described as among the best-known Aboriginal people in Australia and was often called upon by the Australian government to act as the sole spokesperson for the country’s Indigenous population.

Child Warning and Cultural Function

Like many folkloric beings, the Yara-ma-yha-who likely served practical as well as spiritual purposes. Recorded traditions suggest the story may have been used to warn children against wandering, misbehavior, or resting in dangerous places alone. 

The Collector of Tales: After David Unaipon wrote his book, an alleged misunderstanding developed between the author and his publisher. The result was that Unaipon’s collected folklore was published in 1930 by William Ramsay Smith, a Scottish doctor, who presented Unaipon’s work as his own, almost word for word, in Myths & Legends of the Australian Aboriginals. Unaipon’s original manuscript, Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, was finally published, three-quarters of a century late, in 2006.

Scholars and commentators have proposed various speculative inspirations for the Yara-ma-yha-who. Could it perhaps have come with Malay settlers telling about the tarsier primate from Southeast Asia? Or is it perhaps a story spinning on the Thylacoleo carnifex, a carnivorous marsupial that dropped onto its prey from the tree tops.

And somewhere, in the oldest corners of story, where sunlight burns and fig branches sway without wind, there remains the possibility that not every red thing in the leaves is fruit.

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Yara-ma-yha-who – Wikipedia

The Child-Eating Bloodsucker of Aboriginal Australian Nightmares

Dreamtime | Religion and Philosophy | Research Starters

David Unaipon – Wikipedia

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La Patasola: The One-Legged Hunger of the Colombian Wilds

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Deep from the Colombian wilderness, there is a vampiric entity said to lay in wait. The one-legged La Patasola is said to lure away those threatening to harm her forests. 

“I, as if, / but as you can see, / supposing that it was so, / the same as before, / if someone were to cast the same rhythm on me, / that was it, it depends on that, / I suppose you already understand me, / I don’t have to say more. / Patasola, do no harm / for your good is in the mountains.”
– Protection incantation  against the Patasola

Within the green and shadow-soaked wilderness of Colombia there are warnings that have outlived generations. Cautionary legends, woven from fear, morality, and the importance of untamed land. Among the most haunting of these figures is La Patasola, a monstrous feminine presence whose name means simply, and terribly, “the one-legged woman.”

She is both said to be a vengeful ghost as well as a guardian, occupying a strange and chilling role within Colombian myth. 

La Patasola at The Edge of the Jungle

According to legend, she appears first as an extraordinarily beautiful woman, often alone in the wilderness, seen by hunters, loggers, miners, or wandering men deep in isolated terrain. She may resemble a lost traveler, a mysterious maiden, or even someone intimately familiar to her victim, such as a lover or wife. In this form, she draws men away from companions and safety, luring them deeper into the jungle’s embrace.

Once her prey is beyond rescue, La Patasola sheds her human disguise and reveals the thing she truly is.

Descriptions vary by region, but nearly all agree on her defining horror: she possesses only one leg, often ending in a hoof-like appendage, and despite this grotesque anatomy, she moves with terrifying speed through forest and mountain. Her body is described as misshapen and horrifying, with tangled hair, bulging eyes, enormous fangs, and in some versions, a single breast or animalistic features that place her somewhere between woman and beast.

She is also said to sometimes transform into other animals like a large black dog or cow. In many accounts, she tears apart her victims with her feline like fangs, drinks their blood, or devours their flesh. Her violence is often explicitly vampiric, placing her among the broader family of blood-drinking folkloric entities while retaining a uniquely Latin American identity rooted in jungle terror rather than graveyard dread.

Origins Written in Blood

Like many folkloric monsters, La Patasola’s backstory changes depending on region, storyteller, and moral emphasis, but several themes remain consistent: betrayal, violence, and punishment.

The Patasola’s origin story varies, but usually follows the pattern of a scorned, unfaithful, or otherwise bad woman. Some believe that she was a wicked temptress who was cruel to both men and women and for this reason they mutilated her with an axe, chopping off one leg and throwing it into a fire. She then died of her injuries and now haunts the forests and mountain ranges.

One of the most common versions describes her as a woman whose infidelity led to catastrophe. In this telling, she was an unfaithful wife who betrayed her husband with another man, often his employer or close associate. When her husband discovered the affair, he murdered her lover and mutilated her, severing one of her legs before her death. Her spirit, cursed by betrayal and violence, returned to haunt the forests forever.

Other versions portray her as a cruel mother who harmed her own child, or as an immoral woman whose vanity and wickedness earned supernatural punishment.

Stories of her are often told close to mountain rangers, virgin forests or other thick forests and jungles. 

Another more urban variation of the legend places the origin of La Patasola in a more urban and specific context, reducing her to a specter associated with the legend of a woman cursed by her mother, whose tormented spirit materializes on the nights of Riosucio.

These stories reveal the moral architecture beneath the legend. La Patasola is frequently framed not just as a creature of fear, but as an embodiment of social anxieties surrounding sexuality, fidelity, motherhood, and female transgression. She becomes both a cautionary tale and supernatural consequence.

According to some accounts, the story may originate in the region of Tolima in Colombia, as the version found here: La Patasola: The Transformation of a Woman Victim of the Cholera of Love. Although it is said to be a Colombian legend, stories of her are also found in Ecuador and Peru.

La Patasola as a Guardian of the Wild

Beyond her role as predator, La Patasola occupies another fascinating place in Colombian folklore: protector of the natural world.

She is often said to haunt remote wilderness, particularly places threatened by hunters, woodcutters, or trespassers. Her legend seemed to flourish in the second half of the 19th century as colonization and cutting down the lush forest accelerated.

Read More: Check out all ghostly stories from haunted forests and jungles

Some stories tell about her blocking of certain roads to those intending to harm the wild, punishing those who exploit or disrespect the forest. She disorients hunters, sabotages pursuits, and terrifies those who intrude too deeply.

This duality makes her especially compelling. She is not evil in the simplistic sense. Like the jungle, she is beautiful, seductive, and lethal to those who underestimate her.

Some traditions describe her emitting horrifying screams or mournful cries that echo through mountains and valleys. Others speak of seductive singing, a supernatural lure that functions much like the sirens of older mythologies. 

The Protector of the Forest: La Patasola is often given the symbol of protector of the forest and her stories often include the battle between human kind and nature.

A Living Folklore

La Patasola remains one of Colombia’s most enduring legendary figures, especially in rural and mountainous communities where oral storytelling still preserves ancient warnings. She reminds of other female vengeful spirits, luring men to their death in South America, like The Legend of La Sayona  and even the story about the La Llorona. 

She can be interpreted as a ghost story, a feminist symbol, a morality tale, or an ecological spirit. She is at once colonial and indigenous, social and supernatural. And in the oldest parts of the Colombian wilderness, where roots twist like fingers and moonlight fractures through thick canopies, her legend still whispers a warning.

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References:

Patasola – Wikipedia

La Patasola Is the Vengeful Protector of the Andes

La Patasola | USC Digital Folklore Archives

La Patasola: Mito y Naturaleza | Mitos de Colombia 

CVC. Rinconete. Cultura y tradiciones. Bestiario latinoamericano (III). La Patasola, por Alexander Prieto Osorno.

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Kanjirottu Yakshi: The Vampire Spirit of the Sacred Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple

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Sealed away in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala is an old and bloodthirsty deity said to pray to atone for her sins. Known as the vampiric Kanjirottu Yakshi, people still fear her wrath and refuse to open her vault. 

Along the backwaters and shaded groves of Kerala, where river and forest blend into shadows long before nightfall, old folk tales speak of a being as beautiful as she is deadly. She is known as the Kanjirottu Yakshi, a female spirit once human, now hunting for blood. 

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The yakshi spirits are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies. The benign ones are worshipped as tutelaries and are attendees of Kubera, the treasurer of the gods, and also the Hindu god of wealth who ruled Himalayan kingdom of Alaka. There are also malign and mischievous yakshinis with poltergeist-like behaviours. Many folk stories feature murdered women reborn as vengeful yakshis. Among these, the Kanjirottu Yakshi is one of the most feared, admired, and enduring figures.

Yakshi Spirits: Here depicting The Besnagar Yakshi, from the 3rd–1st century BC.

The Vengeful Courtesan

Kanjirottu Yakshi, also known as Mangalathu Sreedevi or Chiruthevi was said to have been born into a Padamangalam family called Mangalathy. She grew up in Kanjiracode, a small village in Southern Travancore that is now in Tamil Nadu.

Said to have been a beautiful courtesan, she had a relationship with Raman Thampi, son of King Rama Varma and rival of Anizhom Thirunal Marthanda Varma in the 1700. She was also known as a flirtatious woman, playing with men’s feelings and driving them to financial ruin for sport. 

She loved her servant and palanquin-bearer named Kunjuraman though. The job of Kunjiraman was to carry Sreedevi and her brother Govindan on his back. He was a married man and one of the few that had no interest in her romantically. 

He was close with her brother, Govindan though, some even claiming they were lovers. They often shared the same room, but she didn’t do anything about this. Instead, she directed her anger toward his wife.

Frustrated and arrogant, she plotted to have his wife killed, although her brother intervened and stopped the plan by spilling it all to Kunjiraman. Thinking she had gotten her way, Kunjiraman agreed to sleep with her. But he was plotting for himself and murdered her to avenge his wife. Some say he strangled her to death when they were in bed together. Her brother turned a blind eye to his crime and protected his friend. 

After her death, she turned into a yakshi, the malevolent kind. She was reborn in the village of Kajirottu in Kundara as a grown woman, still as beautiful as always. Hunting Kunjuraman and terrorising the rest of the villagers, she drank their blood. She said that she would stop if he decided to marry her. 

Her brother was a devoted upāsaka and follower of Lord Balarama, a deity of farming. She made a deal with him that she would spend a year with Kunjuraman if she agreed to become a devotee of Narasimha after this year ended. 

Narasimha: is a deity in Hinduism, revered as the fourth of the ten principal avatars (Dashavatara) of the god Vishnu. Narasimha is venerated as a fierce protector who destroys evil and safeguards his devotees. He is the destructor of not only external evil, but also one’s own inner evil of “body, speech, and mind”

She also had to agree to pray for Govindan and his relationship with Kunjuraman in this birth and all subsequent ones. The yakshi swore on ‘ponnum vilakkum’ in agreement.

Later, she was installed at a temple that Kanjiraccottu Valiaveedu owned. devotees used to give ‘Pongala’ to the Sreedevi Yakshi Amma on Pooram on the first Friday in every Malayalam month except Meenom. This temple no longer exists, so where is she now?

Pongala: Pongala is a harvest festival of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The name ‘Pongala’ means ‘to boil over’ and refers to the ritualistic offering of porridge made of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins. Generally women devotees participate in this ritual. Here from the Kalam Karikkal festival on Makara Chovva at Kalathil Sree Rudhiramala Bhagavathy Temple, Manatthala, Chavakkaadu, Thrissur. // Source

The Vampire of the Night in the Vault

The Kanjirottu Yakshi is now said to reside in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. This is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. which supposedly also contains an enormous treasure and secrets inside of their sealed vaults.

Source

B vault is one of the six vaults of the temple and its original name being “Mahabharata Kallara” and is the largest cellar. A four-day Ashtamangala Devaprasnam conducted in August 2011 declared Kallara B as a “forbidden zone”. The enchanting and ferocious forms of this Yakshi are painted on the south-west part of Sri Padmanabha’s shrine. This is where Kanjirotty Yakshi is said to dwell. 

The temple was originally built in 6th century A.D., and later beautified further by the Kings of Travancore after 10 centuries. The royal family of Travancore is believed to be descendants of the adored saint Kulashekhara Alwar and are the ones watching over it.

Interior of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple from the early 20th century.

The vault remains unopened due to ongoing legal issues and the legend of the Yakshi, whom some believe will wreak havoc on the world if her prayers to Lord Narasimha within Vault B are disturbed by opening the vault.

Around a hundred years ago, when the area was grappling with serious famine, the temple authorities tried to open the chamber to use the treasure kept locked behind the doors. But, when they heard the sound of gushing ocean waves from behind the door, they stepped back and gave up the idea. Since then, it is believed that the chamber is connected to the Arabian Sea, and any attempt made with the modern technology to open the door will unleash catastrophes across the state and in Kerala.

Legend has it that in the 1930s, when a gang of temple invaders tried to siphon off the belongings of Vault B. But when they encountered Cobras, they fled the scene. 

In 2011 following the Supreme Court’s order five of them were opened and were found to be one of the largest treasure troves in the world. bags full of ancient gold coins, diamonds, gemstones, very heavy and huge gold and diamond necklaces.

The untimely death of Sundarajan, the petitioner, a month after the doors were opened. Another observer lost his mother to death as a result of the curse.

Kanjirottu Yakshi of Fear and Reverence

So what of the bloodthirsty Yakshi? Has all her years in prayers changed her terrorizing nature, or would she go back to her old ways if let out? 

Over the years, her deity has also garnered followers. Sundara Lakshmi, an accomplished dancer and consort of HH Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, was an ardent devotee of Kanjirottu Yakshi Amma.

In July 2020, the Supreme Court of India upheld the rights of the Travancore royal family to manage the Temple. The royal family has maintained that they oppose the opening of Vault B, stating that it is a “secret and sacred place.” According to them, no amount of treasure hidden inside would be worth the danger of letting her out. 

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References:

Kanjirottu Yakshi – Wikipedia

Yakshini – Wikipedia

Kanjirottu Yakshi: Blood Drinking Tale of Kerala – Scientific Monk

Padmanabhaswamy Temple ‘Vault B’: facts about the scary, inaccessible chamber, Thiruvananthapuram – TimesTravel

Kanjirottu Yakshi – Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Ukategorisert

Krasue: The Floating Head of Southeast Asian Nightmares

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Floating in the air in rural parts of Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia, the disembodied ghost of the Krasue is hunting for blood. 

Across Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and parts of Malaysia, villagers share a haunting vision that lives in whispered folklore. They speak of Krasue, a spirit unlike ghosts tied to graveyards or old houses. Krasue is a night creature that floats, haunting fields, villages, and the spaces between human life and the unseen world. In tradition she is known as a flying female ghost whose existence is bound to hunger, loss, and a body untethered from death.

Read More: Check out more ghostly tales from Thailand

While exact details differ by region, the core of the legend remains consistent: Krasue is a detached head with its internal organs trailing below like shimmering tendrils. She moves by night, drawn to life, to blood, and to the living body.

An Unquiet Spirit of Loss

Origins of Krasue vary in telling. In some versions she was once a human woman who died a violent or untimely death. In others she was cursed, punished, or transformed because of forbidden knowledge or unclean acts. After she dies, her sins cause her to be reborn as a phut (Thai: ภูต) that has to live off wasted, uncooked or rotten food.

There are others claiming that this spirit was formerly a rich woman, who had a length of black gauze or ribbon tied around the head and neck as protection from the sunlight. This woman was possessed by an evil spirit and cursed to become a Krasue.

Perhaps most popular is the origin story of the Krasue, a woman dabbling in black magic. While casting a spell, she made a mistake or used the wrong spell, causing her head and body to separate. These witches and witchcraft are also called “Mae Mot” (แม่มด) or “Yai Mot” (ยายมด). If not the witch turned into a Krasue herself, her daughters or granddaughters could, like an ancestral curse.

Usually, her upper part is described as a young and beautiful woman, at least in visual media. She has also been described as an older woman. Her head glows faintly in the dark, often compared to a flickering lamp or a will-o’-the-wisp, floating in the air.  

Below the head hang her organs, trailing down from the neck. In contemporary representations her teeth often include pointed fangs in yakkha (Thai: ยักษ์) or vampire fashion. This as well as the belief she is hunting blood, has made people see her as a vampire-like creature as well as a restless spirit. 

A Predator of Night and Flesh

Krasue is not content to wander silently. She hunts. In the day she looks like any other person, perhaps a bit tired. But at night she sheds her lower par of her body at home or somewhere else to seek substance. Every night she floats through the forest looking for food. Most often this consists of rotting meat or the blood of living animals. 

But although her victims are often livestock, she loves the blood of humans as well. Especially children, and sleeping villagers whose breath and warmth draw her closer. 

In some regions she feeds by licking blood from wounds or drinking from open water. There is a legend that says that the people who are wounded should be aware of the Krasue because it can smell the blood and will come to eat the blood at night when people fall asleep. Thai people also believe that it’s a bad idea to leave your clothes hanging outside overnight because the Krasue might just come by and wipe the feces and blood from her mouth on them. 

Her lust for blood of children has especially struck a cord in the collective fear against the Krasue. This makes many in the olden days fear when someone is giving birth, as they believe a Krasue will be able to smell it and come devour on fresh placenta and newborns.

Protection Against the Night

The Krasue is, as mentioned, mostly spotted in rural areas, especially in marshy places. According to Thai ethnographer Phraya Anuman Rajadhon, the Krasue is accompanied by a will-o’-the-wisp-like luminescent glow. The explanations attempted about the origin of the glow include the presence of methane in marshy areas. The Krasue is often said to live in the same rural areas as Krahang, a male spirit of Thai folklore and these two spirits are often mentioned or represented together.

The Krahang: The Krahang (กระหัง) manifests itself as a shirtless man, wearing a traditional loincloth, who flies in the night. Krahang uses two large kradong (กระด้ง), round rice winnowing baskets to fly in the It also often rides a sak tam khao (สากตำข้าว), the long wooden pestle of a traditional manual rice pounder. Legends of the Thai oral tradition say that this is an evil spirit that may harm people walking at night in out of the way areas.

Because belief in Krasue was strong, so were the protective practices to keep her out of the house. House-owners usually build spiky fences or grow spiky bamboo to protect themselves from the Krasue. The Krasue is scared of spiky things because it fears its intestines will get stuck and it will not be able to escape.

If the top part of the body fails to find the lower half before daybreak it will die in terrible pain. The Krasue will also die if its intestines get cut off or if its body disappears or gets hidden by someone and exposed by the sun. Some folk beliefs hold that the creature can be destroyed by burning it. 

But can you destroy her completely? Some say the danger of her transforming someone into one of her own is high. It is said that if a human consumes food that is stained with the blood or saliva of a Krasue, they will be doomed to become one. In some versions she also shares her saliva when she is at the brink of death to move host bodies. 

The Southeast Asian Fear and Krasue in Modern Imagination

In modern interpretation, the Krasue has been morphed into a Khmer princess. One story tells about a Khmer princess many years ago who was in love with a man from a lower status even though she had been set to marry a Siamese nobleman. Eventually, he found out about this and sent her to be executed by burning at the stake. The night before the execution, the Khmer princess got in touch with a powerful witch and placed a spell over her to protect herself from the flames. Unfortunately, the affect arrived too late and only her head, neck, and her internal organs remained intact while the fire charred her body.

As mentioned, the Krasue is not only told in one place, but across many southeast asian countries and cultures. There are many variations to the legend, but one common denominator to it is the floating head and torso with her organs hanging down. 

The Name of the Monster: Krasue กระสือ (Thai), អាប Ahp (Khmer, Penanggal or Palasik (Malay), Kuyang ກະສື (Lao), Kui’yang, Leyak or Pok-Pok (Indonesian), Ma lai (Vietnamese). 

There have been written records of this lore since the Ayutthaya period (around 14th – 18th century), but even today she is grabbing headlines of people claiming to have seen her, causing panic and fear, and also a bit of intrigue. Often, women acting strangely in a community are suspected of becoming a Krasue at night by other members of the village. Many sightings are still being reported each year in rural areas with people blaming Kra Sue activity for mysterious livestock deaths and villages have set up night patrol squads after a reported Krasue sighting in the last few years.

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References:

Krasue – Wikipedia

The Tale of Phi Krasue and Her Floating Head – Spooky Stories From Thailand

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A Vrykolakas Vampire in Sunny Mykonos

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A vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore was said to terrorize the inhabitants on Mykonos island. To stop the haunting, they exhumed, burned and buried the remains of the body on an inhabited island. But did it work?

On the sunny Greek Island, Mykonos, people mostly think of vacationing, the blue sea and nightlife lights. What Greece was known to the western Europeans centuries ago was a wild and haunted country, and many came back with ghost stories. 

Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece

One of the stories told from the time when the Venetians and Ottomans fought for the island at the start of the 1700s. A story about the dead coming back from the dead to terrorize the living. 

Mykonos: Is a Greek Island part of the Cyclades islands. Today it’s known for its booming tourism and vibrant nightlife. It was in ancient times a poor island though, windy where the locals worshiped many gods, and where stories about the dead coming back was plentiful.

The Manic Panic of the Fear of the Vrykolakas

In 1701, a French botanist named  Joseph Pitton de Tournefort arrived in Mykonos and witnessed something that he didn’t believe in himself, but swept the whole local community in a panic.   

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort: French botanist sent by Louis XIV to catalog plants in Greece and Asia Minor. He detailed his journey in, A Voyage Into the Levant, posthumously published in 1717 after he was run over by a carriage. It turned out to be one of the most detailed accounts of the belief in Vrykolakas and what the community did in face of a supposed haunting.

An annoying local resident was murdered and buried in a chapel in the remote countryside. It’s not specified what happened to his killer and if someone ever paid for his death. In life he had been ill natured and argumentative, and not many liked him alive. No one liked him in his afterlife.  

Read Also: The Atoning Vrykolakas Vampire in Santorini

A few days after his burial he was reported by the locals to be stalking the village as a vrykolakas, harassing people in their homes, emptying wine barrels, and causing much disturbance of a poltergeist nature. Doors rattled and the lights went out on their own. 

Exorcising a Vrykolakas

The things and haunting the vrykolakas caused were said to be mostly harmless, but when he started harassing the wealthy people and when a donkey was found beaten up. The villagers gathered to call a priest to stop it all. 

Locals insisted that the man be exhumed and exorcised to stop the haunting of the vrykolakas. The church allowed it, at least, the rituals went ahead anyway and they buried the man up to look at his corpse. The witnesses claimed that the body was not decaying as it should have and that it was unnatural how well preserved it was. 

It’s worth noting that according to de Tournefort and his other foreign associates, it was well decayed. How it really was is unknown today, but as we have seen in other stories about the Vrykolakas, a decaying corpse in the ground doesn’t necessarily stop people from believing it needs to be exorcised.  

The Vrykolakas Vampires: In Greek folklore, they believed in the vampiric Vrykolaka. Traditionally believed that a person could become a vrykolakas after death due to a sacrilegious way of life, but also through other means, like A cat leaping across a fresh grave, Consuming meat from a sheep slain by a wolf or werewolf. Some believed that a werewolf itself could become a powerful vampire after being killed. This revenant wasn’t after just the blood, but also the flesh, some saying the liver was its favorite.

Burn the Heart of the Vrykolakas

As a final thing, they decided to remove the person’s heart to burn it, but there were no trained doctors there, and they brought a butcher to the chapel instead. The butcher had problems finding the heart however and ended up mutilating the body in search for it. It was a horrible stench, and although the priests burned incense to cover it up, fear spread through the crowd. The author things that the smell, sight and superstition caused people to hallucinate, and they started screaming “Vrykolakas” to his mutilated body, warm with what seemed like fresh blood. 

Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle

The corpse’s heart was removed, taken to the seashore and burned. A detail of the ritual that also happened on the other side of the world in the New England Vampire Panic a century later. His body was reinterred, but then the haunting of the vrykolakas’ only increased. He was apparently entering their homes now, beating people up in their sleep. According to lore, knocking on people’s doors appears in many stories about the vrykolakas. They only knocked once, calling the names of those living there. If you opened for the vrykolakas, everyone inside could die. That’s why there still is a saying in Greece, you should only answer the door on the second knock. 

They tried holding a chanting march of prayers through the village, but it didn’t work. They tried hammering nails into the body, but no luck. People fled their home, the streets were empty after dark. 

Read More: The Vrykolakas Vampire in Patmos

Finally the body was taken to another island and cremated. Lore tells that the Vrykolakas can’t cross salt water on their own, so on the Greek islands, bodies of those suspected of being vampiric would be put on uninhabited islands. In this case, his body was transported in secret, since this was apparently against Orthodox canon and the local priest feared an official reprimand. According to Ortodox doctrin, it’s not compatible with the doctrine of bodily resurrection. On January 16th, 1701, they took the boat out, some believing it could be to the islet of Baos just off the coast of Mykonos. With that extreme measure, all phenomena ceased, according to de Tournefort’s account.  

When the travel account was published in 1717, the timing coincided with the European vampire panic that would take hold of the continent, and the cases of vampires in Serbia and other places in eastern Europe would cement the lore of vampirism into modern folklore. 

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References:

By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture

The Vroucolaca of Mykonos: An Enlightenment Eyewitness to Greek Vampire Panic 

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t4th9mz1d&seq=368

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort – Wikipedia 

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Voyage_into_the_Levant/zDYZAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor%3A%22Joseph%20Pitton%20de%20Tournefort%22&pg=PA103&printsec=frontcover

Vrykolakas – Wikipedia

Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas

Ukategorisert

Manananggal: The Night Splitter of Filipino Folklore

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As part of the shapeshifting Aswang demons of the Phillipines, the Manananggal was soaring the sky in her bat-like appearance on her hunt for human blood. 

Magtatangal. A witch. They say that it flies and eats human flesh, but when it flies, it only has half its body, and that is why it is called that because it’s tangal which means that it can disengage, and he dislodges half of his body and carries the other half home.
— Fray Domingo de los Santos, Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala (1703)

In the haunted forests and rural villages in the Philippines lives one of the most terrifying figures. Known as the Manananggal, this creature is a type of vampire spirit that strikes under the cover of night, feeding on the living.

Unlike the typical vampire tales of Europe, the Manananggal is not a corpse that rises from a grave nor a spirit that floats invisibly through walls. It is a living woman by day who becomes a monster by night, revealing a grotesque dual nature that makes her one of folklore’s most haunting night beings.

A Woman Who Becomes Night

The legend holds that the Manananggal appears in human form during the day, indistinguishable from any ordinary person. She may be a neighbor, a villager, or a quiet woman passing through town. But when darkness falls, her body undergoes a terrible transformation. Its name comes from the Tagalog word tanggal, meaning “to remove,” because this being literally separates itself in two before it hunts. The torso splits from the legs. The lower half remains rooted to the earth, while the upper body sprouts bat-like wings and soars into the night on stealthy wings. 

Once airborne, the Manananggal hunts for her prey. She is very similar to other vampiric Visayan legends like of the Mandurug, vampiric being that live as people during the day. Sometimes the Mandrugo is said to have a bat-like appearance, but one thing setting them apart is the victims of the Manananggal. 

Read More: Mandurug is said to live in the region of Capiz and disguises itself as a beautiful woman. It sucks blood using a proboscis-like tongue. Some live in forests far from human communities, but the Mandurug can infiltrate human society by marrying into a community, either slowly draining their husband of blood or using him strictly as a hideout and leaving at night to raid other villages, thereby maintaining their cover. // Image: Capiz/ Source

The Manananggal’s favorite victims are sleeping humans, especially pregnant women. According to tradition, she uses a long, thin proboscis-like tongue to penetrate sealed doors and windows without disturbing the sleepers. With this horror-like organ she drains the blood of her victim or feeds on the unborn child inside the womb.

She is also said to target newlyweds and lovers, newborn children and men who were left before marriage. It’s not just a single bite, but often a slow death of feeding on them over a longer period of time. 

The Manananggal is not always hunting alone. The Tiktik is a type of bird that makes a “tik-tik” sound, warning people of the creature’s presence. As the sound gets louder, the farther away the Manananggal is. If it goes completely quiet, the Manananggal is too close for comfort. 

Image: Gian Bernal/Wikimedia

How to Battle the Manananggal

Can you fight against a creature like the Manananggal? According to legends, you have to strike on the body left behind while the Manananggal is out hunting. Folklore holds that if villagers find and sprinkle salt, garlic, or ash onto the detached lower half before sunrise, the monster cannot rejoin its body. When morning light arrives, the separated torso will burn and the creature will die. They are also thought to avoid daggers, light, vinegar, spices and the tail of a stingray, which can be fashioned into a whip and fight them. 

But the safest thing to do is to protect your house for the Manananggal before it gets close. Small containers of salt, ash and raw rice, and the smell of burning rubber are said to deter the Manananggal from approaching one’s house.

Birth of a Creature

But where does Mananaggal really come from? In some instances, shamanists or other practitioners of the occult have also been called Manananggal, using the word as a type of witch. And according to some lore, a Manananggal is not born, but created. 

The Filipino Shaman: Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan, were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. Babaylan were women serving in spiritual leadership roles or effeminate men (asog or bayok). There are also sorcerers who are said to have hereditary powers. This type of sorcerers are often conflated with the aswang, evil vampire-like supernatural beings capable of appearing human (or were originally human). The Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the introduction of Catholic Christianity resulted in the extinction of most native shamanistic practices and persecution of the practicioners. // Image: Babaylan Festival in Bago City by Hptina24

Some say that to become a Manananggal you need a special ointment and an egg containing a black chick. While chanting a special incantation you should anoint yourself with the ointment and place the egg in your armpit until it disappears.

Other traditions say when a Manananggal does not kill their victims outright they will turn into another Mananaggal.

Origins of the Manananggal Legend

The Manananggal appears most prominently in Tagalog and Visayan folklore, especially in Capiz, but similar beings are recorded throughout Philippine culture. The Manananggal is a part of the Aswang, or evil spirit lore in the Phillipines. 

Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting evil and malevolent creatures in Filipino folklore and the Spanish colonists noted that the aswang was the most feared among the mythical creatures of the Philippines in the 16th century. Aswang are traditionally described as one-dimensional monsters and inherently evil by nature, with no explicable motives beyond harming and devouring other creatures.

Among the Aswang types, the Manananggal is also often compared to the Wakwak, a vampiric and bird-like creature as well. The main way to tell the difference between the Manananggal and the Wakwak is that the Wakwak cannot separate its torso from its body.

Wakwak: The Wakwak is a vampiric, bird-like creature in Philippine mythology. In some places the Wakwak is believed to be another form a vampire can take or a type of witch-like entity. The Wakwak is generally described as a very large bird with either feathery or leathery wings, which is said to be as sharp as a knife. It is often described by old folks to have long sharp talons, which it uses to slash its victims and to get their heart. The sound associated with the Wakwak is considered to be an indicator that something is nearby. 

Colonizing Folklore

There are many witness accounts written down from the Spanish colonizers about the locals witnessing these types of entities. But what is the truth about the Manananggal legends, and exactly who shaped it into being what it is today?

The Manananggal legend is most likely from colonial times. The way to repel these entities are very similar to European vampire lore, especially Balkan lore. Chances are that the Spaniards likely villanised and demonized the Aswang entities when they came with Christian missionarries, trying to convert them from their pagan ways. 

The Spanish Colonizing the Phillipines: The colonization of the Phillipines by the Catholic Christian Spaniards shaped the way we view Filipino mythology today. // Image: The Principalia of a rural parish in colonial Philippines, joining the Holy Week procession. Illustration, c. 1870.

Spanish chroniclers like Antonio de Morga and Francisco Ignacio Alcina provided some of the earliest written accounts of Philippine beliefs and have therefore shaped them a lot in terms of how we view them. 

Why the Manananggal showed up during this time period is up for debate and even some conspiracy theories. Some speculate during this time of conversion, the Spaniards created the legend of the Manananggal, as an attempt to draw the local people out of the forests and into the cities. Making them easier to control.

What the truth is difficult to say today, and how the Manananggal legend changed and was shaped before colonisation is tricky as the lack of written documentation. 

A Legend Alive in Story

In modern times the Manananggal remains one of the Philippines’ most iconic supernatural figures. She appears in horror films, literature, and oral storytelling. 

When the moon rises and the world grows quiet, some still say she watches from treetops and rooflines, awaiting the moment when the last lamp goes out and the night feeds again.

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References:

Manananggal – Wikipedia

Aswang – Wikipedia

https://mythologicaencyclopedia.com/Manananggal