The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (8 page)

As far as mythical creatures are concerned, the Filipino creature known as the
Aswang
is probably one of the most difficult for which to find a concrete description. This is probably because, in the Philippine language of Tagalog, the term Aswang has come to be used in reference to just about any evil supernatural being. For the most part, pop culture describes the Aswang as a winged, vampirelike creature. However, the original lore of the Aswang tells of one category of these creatures, referred to as “fake beasts” or “false beasts.”

These types of Aswang are actually pure shapeshifters and therianthropes, since they can transform into just about any shape—human, dog, cat, or any other animal. Some lore claims that an Aswang will transform into whatever living being (human included) it first encounters when it sets out for the night. Aswang live mainly on a diet of human flesh. However, they are said to have a great preference for the flesh of pregnant women and infants.

On the hot evening of August 16, 1996, a number of children from the village of Banbirpur, India, were going to the bathroom in an earthen toilet just outside the village proper when they claim that an unusually large wolf lunged at them from the nearby brush. The youngest child, a four-year-old boy named Anand, was dragged off screaming into the woods, trapped in the fangs of the beast. The other children returned to their village and frantically reported what had happened to their parents. The local police were notified, and a search party was immediately sent to investigate. After three days of searching, they found nothing but little Anand’s severed head. The rest of his body was never discovered and is thought to have been eaten by the wolf … if it was, in fact, a wolf.

 

Following this attack, wolf hunts were organized by both villagers and police. However, less than a dozen wolves were ever killed in these hunts (none of which were proven to be man-eaters). To make matters worse, the attacks seemed to continue as time passed. None of the wolves killed seemed to be responsible. Some residents of the area claim that this is because the attacks are not the work of a wolf … but of a werewolf.

According to the eyewitness testimony of the 10-year-old sister of Anand, who saw the wolf that dragged away her little brother, the creature that attacked them pounced forward on all fours (which would be indicative of a wolf). Once the creature grabbed the little boy, however, she claimed that it rose back onto its hind legs and walked in a bipedal fashion (which would not suggest a wolf but a werewolf). She then claimed that the creature threw the boy over its shoulder, took the form of a man, and ran off into the woods. In some of her testimony, however, she claimed that, in its human form, the creature wore a jacket, goggles, and a helmet (which would not suggest a werewolf but a human). Some werewolf enthusiasts claim that what the girl saw was some sort of top secret “werewolf super-soldier.” However, this explanation sounds highly unlikely.

The mythical
Layak
of Indonesia is a type of therianthrope. As with the Filipino Aswang, definitions of this being vary. Some lore claims that it is an evil spirit that has the ability to shapeshift into the form of a human or animal. The Layak will then use its form to make mischief, wreaking havoc and causing illnesses in the village of its choosing.

In other lore, the Layak is said to be a human skilled in the dark arts of poisons and black magic. According to this version of the Layak’s lore, these creatures require the entrails of humans and/or the blood of unborn children for both the executions of their spells and as a source of food.

 

Some stories claim that, in order to shapeshift, a witch-type of Layak is required to leave its human body and possess the body of the form it wishes to assume. If one is able to find the human body of a Layak while it is not occupying it, then one has a chance to kill it. First, a sharp object must be stabbed upward through its head. Once this has been done, the Layak will be trapped in its alternate body. If it stays out of its human body for a period of time, it is said that the Layak will eventually die.

The Japanese word for wolf,
O-kami,
has a double translation. In general, the word can be used to mean “wolf.” Literally, however, the term means something like “great deity.” This term is not surprising when one considers that the wolf was long revered as a god,
O-Guchi no Magami,
the “Great-mouthed Pure-Kami,” in the
Shinto
nature religion of Japan.

In later Shinto belief, wolves were said to be the divine messengers of the popular Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. It was even believed that a white wolf was the goddess Amaterasu in physical form. For centuries, wolves were viewed as divine beings and as the friends of humans for a number of reasons. As a result, they were often protected from humans. During some periods of Japanese history, harming or killing a wolf was considered a serious crime, one that could result in strict punishments for perpetrators. (Sometimes this included the death penalty.)

 

In addition to their religious status, wolves were beneficial to the agricultural environment of Japan. The worst enemies to the livelihoods of Japanese farmers were deer and wild boars. The wolf was the natural predator of both, and farmers would often pray and make sacrifices to the O-kami in order to ask for assistance in the protection of their crops. In areas where farming was a common occupation, it was not uncommon to find shrines and temples dedicated to the O-kami. Unfortunately, however, the noble status of the Japanese wolves eventually came to an end.

 

By the eighteenth century, Japan had entered a period now referred to as the Meiji Restoration. This was an era of sudden and extreme modernization for Japan. The reinstated Meiji imperial rulers feared that Japan was too far behind technologically and sought to catch up to the West as quickly as possible. This meant a sudden increase in urbanization, the spread of new technologies, and the creation of railroads. During this period, the O-kami ceased to be viewed as the noble messengers of the Kami or as themselves divine. They now came to be viewed as obstacles to progress, which led the government to portray these animals as vicious, man-eating devils that threatened human existence.

 

In 1868, bounties began to be offered for dead wolves, and many men started to make their living by hunting the animals down. Widespread, government-organized wolf hunts were held in order to “purify” the land of wolves, and the once-revered animals were now commonly referred to as
bakemono,
meaning “demons/monsters.”

By th
e end of the nineteenth century, the former wolf lords of Japan were all but extinct. Today, the Japanese wolf is believed to have been wiped out. They have not been seen by anyone for nearly 150 years.

There are some who still believe, however, that the O-kami wolves were divine beings. There is an obscure legend among the Japanese that the wolves were not wiped out, but just left the earth and returned to the paradise reserved for them by the gods. Some versions of this legend claim that, when the age of men is about to end, the O-kami will return to Japan. They will come to witness the destruction of the human race that once dared to hunt them and will lead those who remember them to a paradise where the earth will once again be reborn.