The Asasabonsam Vampire from Ghana

Today's vampire is the asasabonsam, which lurks in the dark jungles of Ghana, and it doesn't look too much like most other vampires.  The vampire is said to look like a normal human but they have big hooks instead of feet, and very long legs. The asasabonsam hangs from tree branches with its hands, then when an animal or person is unknowingly walking underneath, the hooks are used to impale and snatch the victims up the tree, where they will meet their maker. The vampire then sucks the blood from its victim before devouring them with its sharp, iron teeth, then it cleans its hooks so that they don’t rust. Strangely, the vampire is also said to bite its victim’s thumbs off before moving onto the rest of the body but this is possibly as a way of disarming them in case they manage to escape its clutches, and try to grab a weapon or make a run for it. 

I'm not quite sure how anyone would be able to escape or protect themselves against this monstrosity, and I doubt that garlic is going to work!  I guess that you just have to keep out of dark jungles in Ghana.

Mysterious Dogu Spirit Vessels

The actual use of the dogus continue to be very mysterious, but countless of them have been discovered in old graves in japan and they all appear to have been cracked on purpose, and this shows that they had a strong ritualistic use.  Many people believe that they were created by a strange race of aliens, but most believe that they have a less exciting background than that.

There have been over 18,000 of the clay figures found and they all come in the shape of people or animals and in all shapes and sizes ranging from big 1 meter tall ones to small ones that can fit in your hand, but they tend to have big faces with big eyes, a compact body shape, and small arms and hands.  The oldest ones are from the Jomon period in Japan and date as far back as 12,500-300 BC.  It’s hard to figure out what their exact use was for because many depict different groups of things such as women giving birth, people wearing masks, and other figures having heart-shaped faces.  Many believe that they were supposed to be talismans that represented spirits or gods who protected women and children and some were spirit guides who would be buried along with a person in order to aid them in the afterlife.  Since most seem to represent women, many believe that they were used with the belief that they would be blessed with fertility, and this also suggests that they may have believed in a mother goddess.  Some have even been found purposely broken, but it’s still unknown the purpose of this type of ritual.  

What's your opinion on these statues, and what do you think they were used for?

The Mysterious and Ominous Bunyip

The bunyip, also known as the kianpraty is a mythical creature which originates from Australian Aboriginal mythology, and it was first reported in the early 1800s.      

The translation of the word bunyip roughly translates to “devil” or “spirit”.  In Australian folklore, the bunyip is described as a large, grim, bloodthirsty creature that lurks in swamps and rivers, and feasts on the flesh of animals and people who are unlucky enough to be ambushed by it.  The bunyip is also said to have a terrifying howl which it uses to scare off unwanted intruders.

The bunyip’s size, physical features, and environment have varied widely from tribe to tribe, but this may be due to the Aboriginals who spotted it, running away from it and being too scared to take a note of the creature’s physical appearance.  The bunyip is most commonly reported to having, a horse-like tail, horns or tusks, a face like a dog, a crocodile-shaped head, flippers, a bill that resembles the bill of a duck, and dark fur.  All of these features describe a misshapen and grisly creature which you wouldn’t like to come across at night, but it may also be a proof of how vastly the witness accounts vary from each other, resulting in a strange chimera-like creature.  There are also researchers who think that the bunyip isn’t just one creature, but instead it’s a name for a group cryptid.

In Challicum, Australia, there is an outline of what is supposed to be the image of a bunyip which measure around 11 paces long and 4 paces in breadth, which was made by the local Aboriginals.  The outline wasn’t recorded until 1851, but it’s reported that a bunyip was speared to death there after it had killed a man, and every year, the local Aboriginals would go to the banks of the Fiery Creek and trace the outline of where the slain bunyip once lay.  Sadly, the image doesn’t exist anymore, so it may not be a good idea to try and visit it.

Since no bunyip have ever been found or recorded, for over 150 years, non-aboriginal Australians have tried to clarify the mystery behind the bunyip.  Some believe that when seals began making their way up the Murray and Darling rivers, that the aboriginals were not too used to seeing these animals in the past and hearing their howling sounds, therefore as time passed, their stories and description of the creature may have changed and become over-exaggerated as it was passed around.  This assumption may be backed up by seals and the bunyip sharing features such as their bellowing cry and smooth fur.  Another theory is that the legends of the bunyip may have been created by Aborigines who came across ancient bones from prehistoric animals that roamed Australia, such as Thylacoleo and Diprotodon, or possibly from the prehistoric animals themselves.

Nowadays most Australians consider the bunyip to be a mythical creature, but stories about this creature will continue to live on.

What do you think caused the legend of the bunyip to be created?

The Dark Side Of Kuman Thong Spirit Vessel for Good Luck and Wealth

In Thailand, there is a belief that there are effigies which grant their owner luck and wealth, known as Kuman Thong, which translates into “golden child”.  They are similar to the effigies for the boy spirit Elegua in the Santeria religion in Cuba.  The charm describes the spirit of a young child or baby and they are usually made of wood, and sometimes they may even be made partly of gold.  The boy spirit is also a big responsibility to take care of.  The effigies are given a home on their owner’s shines,  and they require to be looked after well, given food, treats, and drink daily, and they are worshiped and prayed to so that they may grant the owner luck and wealth.  If the owner neglects this responsibility that they have taken up, then it’s believed that the spirit boy can become enraged and cause misfortune.  This practice has been around since the 18^th century and it was told in a Thai fairy-tale called Khun Chang Khun Phaen, and the main character gains a powerful spirit by removing the stillborn foetus of his son from his wife.

Like many good things, there is a darker and more eerie side to the Kuma Thong, and it doesn't involve any malicious curses or ghost stories, or poltergeists in which the owner of the charm is harmed, like you would expect.  In the past, the original Kuma Thongs were required to be made with a dead fetus, which were often surgically removed from the wombs of their mothers.  The dead fetus would be transported to a cemetery where a sequence of dark incantations were chanted as the fetus is being dry roasted above a fire so that the spirit can be bound to it. The name "Golden Boy" doesn’t sound too appropriate now right?  Illegal practitioners of this are also known to bless their fetuses by covering them in fat from human babies or Nam-man, which is gathered by placing a candle under the chin of the corpse of a pregnant woman then collecting the oil which comes out of her skin.  

A recent arrest was made in 2012, of a 28 year old man who was smuggling 7 roasted fetuses in order to sell them on the black market for £24,000.  In 2010, the temple Wat Phai Ngoen situated in Bangkok, was found to have collected almost 350 aborted fetuses which it had collected from an illegal abortion clinic and was helping to dispose of them, although it’s believed that some were sold off to black magic practitioners too.  Incidents like these show that despite the practices being illegal, there are still those deeply dedicated to the occult that are still willing to buy these burnt fetuses.

Do any of you have any good luck charms?  If so, do you have any which you think other people would consider strange? 

Penanggalan - The Dark and Terrifying Malaysian Vampire

The Penanggalan vampire is a variation of vampire from South-East Asia, primarily Malaysia.  Like the Loogaoo, the Penanggalan vampire is not quite undead since it’s a living person during the day who transforms into the vampire at night. The Penanggalan vampires are all woman who at night detaches their heads from the rest of their body in order to fly off in search of victims, but their stomachs and entrails are still connected to their head and they glow in the night as they fly around. Talk about scary and disgusting!

In folklore, the vampire is either a beautiful old or young woman who gained her powers through the use of black magic or through other dark and supernatural methods in order to stay beautiful forever.  A woman may also become a Penanggalan by being cursed by someone with the use of black magic.  The Penanggalan was also said to be a midwife who had made a pact with the devil to not eat meat for 40 days, but she failed this and as punishment she was cursed forever to suck the blood from mothers who have given birth and their infants. This vampire can also control its hair and organs like tentacles in order to remove obstacles from its path as it flies.

The penanggalan flies around at night in search of pray. The vampire can drink blood and also eat flesh, but it prefers to drink blood. This vampire may also wait on rooftops of houses where women are giving birth, and it screams out when the infant is born.  It’s preferred pray are infants, the blood from mothers who recently gave birth, and the placenta which it eats after it has been buried. If the vampire is unable to gain entry to a house, then it can stretch its tongue through under the front door or any other small openings and then it begins to such the blood from its victims. Victims who come into contact with the tongue but are not killed in the encounter, are said to then die from the wasting disease unless they are healed by a medicine man. Many Malaysian houses are built on stilts, therefore it is also believed that this vampire can use its organs like tentacles and squeeze its way above the floorboards then proceed to devourer any infants in the premises.

There are a few ways in which one ca protect themselves from this vampire.  One way to protect yourself against it is to scatter the spiky leaves from the pandanus palm tree, in hope that the vampire would puncture its exposed organs and lungs on them. The thorny vine can also be strung up around windows and doors, so that the flying vampire can get its organs snared in the vines and then it can be killed with a machete. Although the snares wouldn’t protect the infants for when the vampire enters through under the floorboards, therefore several months before a child is expected to be born, the family can plant pineapples under the house, and the spikes from the plant and fruit will protect against the penanggalan. Pregnant women can also sleep with scissors or nut cutters, since the vampire is afraid of these items.  A way to identify when a midwife is a penanggalan is to notice if they are licking their lips when a woman is giving birth as if they are looking forward to drinking her blood at night, and these vampires tend to avoid making eye contact when they are in their human form. Men should find out where the vampire lives and when it flies away into the night, they should go into the house and locate the detached body and either cremate it or stick broken glass down the neck so that when the vampire returns they puncture their organs and die or are unable to go into their body and daytime comes and they die. A non-lethal way of dealing with one of these vampires is to find the detached body and move it back to front so that the vampire with attach its body with its head facing the wrong way for everyone to see.

It is also believed that the penanggalan’s body begins to decompose when it becomes detached from its head therefore she stores it in a vinegar vat in order to preserve it while she flies around. Similar to the loogaoo, if you find her detached body and rubs garlic paste on the inside, then the vampire with perish. 

How would you react if you saw this monstrosity flying outside your window at night?