Old Belief

Folk creatures, and where they actually come from

Slavic, Philippine and Mesoamerican folk belief, written from the collections and the fieldwork rather than from each other. Every creature has its sources named and its pictures made from them.

Start here

Wooden hut raised on two scaled chicken legs in a dark spruce forest, turningBaba YagaslavicTwo women in a dark doorway at night, one holding up an oil lamp and looking closely into the other's eyeAswangfilipinoTowering humanlike figure of bark and moss standing level with the crowns of pinesLeshyslavicDark skirt hem and two bare feet standing still on bare earth in a banana grove at nightManananggalfilipinoSingle moon low over dark water with bamboo silhouetted against its discBakunawafilipinoYoung woman seated at a river's edge at dusk, hair hanging loose and unboundRusalkaslavic

Traditions

Philippine creatures7 creaturesMesoamerican creatures4 creaturesSlavic creatures10 creaturesGood and evilacross traditionsHeroes and the questacross traditionsLossacross traditionsShapeshiftersacross traditionsWarningsacross traditionsWater spiritsacross traditionsaswang vs manananggalcomparisonleshy vs tikbalangcomparison vs comparisonrusalka vs la-lloronacomparison