The Azeman Vampire from South America

The azeman is a vampire in folklore from Surinam, which is situated north of Brazil, and it is in South America.  This vampire can be male or female, and it is similar to the Caribbean vampire, the loogaoo.  The two vampires share several traits such as the ability to shapeshift into different animals which it uses to search for pray during the night, and it is not classified as “undead” because the vampire is a living person who chooses to transform at night, and who cannot be easily identified as a vampire when they are in their human form.  

Similar to the loogaoo and many European vampires, the azeman has a very bad habit or obligation to count things, and people can use this as a way to distract the vampire during an attack and run to safety, defend their home from the threat of attack, or even distract the vampire until daylight.  A good way to protect yourself from this vampire is to put a pile of seeds in front of your house entrances and windows, so that the vampire will have to count them all before they are able to enter the premises.  A way to discover who the vampire is, is to get a big pile of seeds and scatter them when you see the azeman, so that it will take a very long time to count them all, resulting in the process taking until morning, then the azeman turns into their human form, and it can be identified.  This type of vampire does not die when the sun shines on it, but if someone sees it transforming into the vampire, they can use other “methods” to get rid of the vampire, before it gets rid of you. 

Protecting yourself from a vampire and farming at the same time is like killing two birds with one stone right?  Not many things are worse than an OCD bat flying into your house to suck your blood.

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?