User:Ashleyal/sandbox2

General Side Notes
Taken directly from the article to fix/look further into: (Focusing on the appearance of the aswang)

The wide variety of descriptions in the aswang stories makes it difficult to settle upon a fixed definition of aswang appearances or activities. However, several common themes that differentiate aswangs from other mythological creatures do emerge: Aswangs are typically described as shape-shifters. Stories recount aswangs living as regular townspeople that are quiet, shy and elusive. At night, they transform into creatures such as a bat, bird (usually a crow), wild boar, black cat, or most often, a big black dog.

Some aswang have long proboscises, which they use to suck the children out of their mothers' wombs when they are sleeping in their homes. Some aswang are so thin that they can hide themselves behind a bamboo post. They can also have bloodshot eyes, the result of staying up all night searching for houses where wakes are held to steal the bodies.

''Continuation... (Activities) - Put into the article already.''

An aswang usually prey on pregnant women (specifically targeting the unborn child), newly dead or newly buried dead or the bedridden or the deathly sick. Though those targets may be the most likely, they can attack anyone they encounter when hunting for potential prey.

They love to eat unborn fetuses and small children, favoring livers and hearts. Using their long proboscises they are able to suck the children out of their mothers' wombs while they are asleep. They are fast and silent. Some also make noises, like the Tik-Tik, (the name was derived from the sound it produces) which are louder the farther away the aswang is, to confuse its potential victim; and the Bubuu, an aggressive kind of aswang that makes a sound of a laying hen at midnight. They may also replace their live victims or stolen cadavers with doppelgangers made from tree trunks or other plant materials. This facsimile will return to the victim's home, only to become extremely sick and then die.

Aswangs are physically much more like humans at daytime; they only change their appearance at night when they feel they are hungry. It has been said that if an aswang married a human, upon their wedding, his or her mate would become an aswang as well but rarely can they reproduce. The couple may hunt together at night but will most often go in separate directions, either to avoid quick detection or because they do not like to share their food.

Taken from the book: "The Story of the Aswang" By: Amador F. Brioso Jr.

A more comprehensive definition of the term Aswang - "An aswang is a witch whose extreme use of powers enables him or her to wield formidable strength, employ supernatural movement and execute or undergo physical mutation, and drives him or her to attack people or the newly dead to feed on their flesh, organs and blood, prey on pregnant women to feed on their fetuses, and stalk people who are bedridden or the deathly sick to feed on their voided or expectorated phlegm." Page 7.

General Notes:

Unlike what most think. it seems like the Aswang myth has been around before the Spaniards came to the Philippines. It seems to be quite widespread across the whole Philippines rather than just a singular regional thing.