In the land of Golden Demons
Pop goes the penanggalan
It looks like the penanggalan isn’t limited to being an Indonesian monster as the same thing is present in Thai folklore. Called a pop, it is a spirit which is seeking revenge.
It is said that a prince once had the knowledge of magic words for spirit transmission from body to body. He once did this and was overheard by his servants. One of them did this after the prince left his body for that of an animal and impersonated the prince using his body. The prince found this out and jumped into a bird in order to tell his wife the princess. She had the servant’s body destroyed in order to trap them at which time the prince challenged the impsoter prince to perform the body swap with an animal. Showing the great power of body swapping they were tricked as the prince took his own body back and banished the animal from his court. The pop then lived on swapping from body to body all the while eating the intestines of its host. Its said that some sorceresses become inhabited by these spirits and are left at night in order to feed on the viscera of others. Before the sorceress is able to die the pop must be transmitted by the consumption of the old sorceress’ saliva.
It sounds like I might have a wonderfully horrifying monster to field with this.
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