Berbalang

Also Known As: plural Berbalangs; the spelling is that of Ethelbert Forbes Skertchly, whose 1896 report from the island of Cagayan Sulu, now Mapun, is the only first-hand record of the name
Region/Culture: Southeast Asia
Mythos: Philippine Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: The Berbalangs are corpse-eating ghouls who can leave their bodies in a trance and fly out as winged heads to feed on the entrails of the living.
Role in Mythos: In the one report that describes them, they are the feared people of a single village in the middle of Cagayan Sulu, a village that answered to neither of the island’s two chiefs.
Relation to Humans: The islanders buried their dead under or beside their houses and sprinkled the graves with lime juice every day to keep the Berbalangs out. A person who met them at night could be saved only by a coconut pearl or by a kris rubbed with lime.

The sound comes first, and it is the wrong way round. Far off across the grassland it is a loud moaning, like someone in pain. As it draws nearer it shrinks to a feeble wail, so that the quieter the night becomes, the closer the thing is. Then there is a noise of wings, and small lights dancing in the dark like fireflies. The lights are eyes.

Everything known about the Berbalangs goes back to one man and one article. Ethelbert Forbes Skertchly, writing from Hong Kong, published “Cagayan Sulu, its Customs, Legends, and Superstitions” in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1896, volume 65, part III, pages 47 to 57. Cagayan Sulu is the small volcanic island in the Sulu Sea now called Mapun, home of the Jama Mapun people. No earlier writer uses the name, and no later fieldworker is known to have recorded it there again. What follows is his report, and it should be read as a report.

The island, he says, was divided between two chiefs. In the centre stood one small village that owed allegiance to neither, and its people were the Berbalangs. The other islanders lived in great fear of them. They were ghouls who had to eat human flesh from time to time or die. In daylight they could be told from anyone else by one thing only: the pupils of their eyes were not round but narrow slits, like those of a cat.

Their ordinary work was done in graveyards. They dug open the graves and ate the entrails of the dead. An island that small does not bury many people, though, and when the craving came and there was no fresh grave, a Berbalang walked out into the long grass, hid its body with care, held its breath and fell into a trance. Its astral body then came loose in the form of a head, with the feet attached to the ears as wings. The head flew to a house, entered the body of someone inside and fed on the entrails there. The victim died in agony.

The islanders had two answers. The first was the coconut pearl, a stone like an opal that is sometimes found inside a coconut. It was the only really reliable charm, and it worked for the finder alone. Given away, it lost its power. When the finder died it lost its lustre and went dead too. The second answer was a kris with lime juice rubbed along the blade. Even then the fighter had to know one more rule. Berbalangs go by contraries and are never where they appear to be. A man who saw the lights and heard the moaning in front of him was to wheel round and cut behind. The same sharp juice guarded the dead, which is why graves were dug under or beside the houses and sprinkled with fresh lime every day.

Skertchly wanted to see the village. The only guide he could find was Matali, a chief’s son, who took him to within half a mile of it, handed him a kris and limes, warned him to eat nothing he was offered there, and stayed behind to pray. Skertchly walked in near evening and found about a dozen houses of the ordinary kind, a few fowls and one goat. There were no people. Everything was in order, and in one house rice stood in basins, still hot, as if the family had been called away at the start of supper. He shouted. Nobody answered. When he went back and described it, Matali turned pale and said the Berbalangs were out.

On the walk home, in a still open valley with no trees, the two men heard the moaning, then the wings, and saw the lights pass over. The sound faded near the lonely house of a man named Hassan, whom Skertchly knew. Matali would not stop. Soon after daybreak Skertchly went back alone, found the door fastened, put his shoulder to it and went in. Hassan lay huddled on the bed with his hands clenched, his face distorted and his eyes staring as if in horror. He was dead. Skertchly adds that he has set down the facts as they happened and cannot explain them.

That is the whole record. It does not say how the first Berbalang came to be, whether the condition was born or caught, or what the villagers called themselves. It gives no named Berbalang and no tale of one being killed. It is one visitor’s account, and it has never been checked.

It travelled well all the same. Andrew Lang put the Berbalangs into a story in The Disentanglers in 1902 and named Skertchly as his source. M. R. James, who knew a good ghost when he read one, passed the article to Rupert Gould around 1911, and Gould reprinted it in his book Oddities in 1928. Nearly every later mention comes from Gould.

The neighbours offer some company. The Tausug of the Sulu islands speak of a balbalan, a flying creature with a taste for the livers of corpses. On Palawan, Dean Worcester was told in the 1890s of the balbal, a manlike thing with curved nails that sails through the air like a flying squirrel and licks up the dead with a long tongue. The names sit close to Skertchly’s, and so do the habits. Nobody has shown that they are the same being, and neither one has the cat’s eyes, the winged head or the village in the middle of the island.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Berbalang?

A Berbalang is a ghoul from the island of Cagayan Sulu, now called Mapun, in the southern Philippines. Berbalangs are said to dig up graves and eat the entrails of the dead. When there are no corpses, a Berbalang goes into a trance and sends out its astral body as a flying head to feed on a living person.

Where does the Berbalang legend come from?

The Berbalang legend comes from a single article by Ethelbert Forbes Skertchly, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1896. No earlier writer uses the name. Later accounts, including Rupert Gould’s 1928 book Oddities, repeat Skertchly’s report.

What does a Berbalang look like?

In the body, a Berbalang looks like an ordinary person except for the eyes, which have narrow slit pupils like a cat’s. In its flying form the Berbalang is a head with its feet attached to its ears as wings. Its eyes flash in the dark like fireflies.

How do you protect yourself from a Berbalang?

The best protection against a Berbalang is a coconut pearl, an opal-like stone sometimes found inside a coconut, which only works for the person who found it. Without one, the defence is a kris with lime juice rubbed on the blade. Lime juice sprinkled daily on a grave keeps Berbalangs from digging it up.

What sound does a Berbalang make?

A Berbalang makes a moaning noise that is loud when it is far away and fades to a feeble wail as it comes close. Its wings can be heard when it is near. Because Berbalangs are never where they seem to be, a person who hears the moaning in front is told to turn and strike behind.