Aswang Tik-Tik

(AZ-wang TICKTICK)

This species of aswang from the Philippines gets its name from the small owl that accompanies it. The owl will make a cry of alarm that sounds like "tik-tik," alerting a potential sleeping victim.

This aswang only hunts at night when it shape-shifts from its human guise into that of a bird. It flies to the house of its intended victim, usually a child, and perches on the roof directly over the spot where its prey lies sleeping. Then it sends its long, thin, tubelike tongue into the house. Using a barb on the end of its tongue, it pierces a small hole in the flesh and sips up its meal. When the vampire has finished eating, the breasts of its bird form will be large and swollen with blood. It then flies back to its home where it will breastfeed its own children. In some tellings of the myth, rather than shape-shifting into a bird, the aswang tik-tik maintains its human appearance while hunting and feeding. Rather than looking like a bird with plump breasts, it looks like a pregnant woman.

If this species of aswang licks the shadow of a person, he will die.

Source: Curran, Vampires, 37; Ramo, Creatures of Philippine, 28, 66, 118; Roces, Culture Shock, 214; Serag, Remnants of the Great Ilonggo, 60