Philippines' Upper-Body Separation Ghost: Leaves the Lower Body at Home at Night, Flies Out with the Upper Body

There is a ghost in the Philippines called the Manananggal, which in Tagalog roughly means “one who separates oneself.”

During the day, she is a very ordinary woman, living in a village, perhaps a neighbor, perhaps a street vendor. At night, she chants a spell, rubs on an oil, and her upper body separates completely from the waist, growing a pair of bat-like wings behind her back, carrying her internal organs, and flies away. The lower body remains where it is, standing in the dark.

She specifically targets pregnant women. Landing on the roof of a pregnant woman’s house, from the eaves she extends a very long, very thin tongue, like a mosquito’s proboscis, inserting it into the pregnant woman’s belly to suck the fetus’s blood and heart.

To kill her, legend says one must first find the lower body she left at home, sprinkle salt on the severed surface, or apply garlic, ash, and if she cannot return or reconnect before dawn, once the sun comes out, she dies.

This belief is popular in rural Philippines. Capiz in the central region is called the “hometown” of this type of monster; some families hang garlic at the windows and place salt at the door.

Later, scholars suggested this legend may have been used to explain accidental deaths of pregnant women and infants. Back then medical conditions were poor, and childbirth was the most dangerous time; finding a “something” to blame made it easier to bear. Other scholars found that the “monster” in the legend was often a woman disliked in the village; once the legend spread, that woman became the person suspected.

Such beliefs, even today, in some places, are still believed by some people.

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