The Aswang · By Day, Your Neighbour

In the towns of the central Philippines the aswang is a thing that changes its lower half and flies off at night; by day it looks no different from a neighbour.

Folk ways of identifying it are many: whose stove ash keeps footprints turned the wrong way, who will not let anyone come near at night, who knows too much about the inside of a sick person.

The older generation also has a set of practical rules: hang garlic and salt in the house, and do not look back on the road during a funeral.

Folklore / Panay · Philippines / Time immemorial