When I was a kid, one of the scout camps I regularly went to had it’s own personal urban legend. Along one of the trails on the property there was a big, roughly grave-shaped dirt mound, which was purported to be the final resting place of an insane Appalachian medicine woman, a witch, if you will, who died under vaguely-defined circumstances decades ago. On certain nights, the witch’s head allegedly rose from the grave and flew menacingly in the night sky to prey upon the flesh of innocent young campers.

Of course, I know now that the story was utter fabrication, and that the “grave” was just a conveniently shaped ant hill. But, two decades later, I remember the stories about the “Witch’s Head” with a certain fondness. The story gave the camp character, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who recalls it with affection.

Now, after reading a bit about the Penangglan (vampiric creatures of South Asian legend, appearing to be beautiful women by day, but by night detaching their heads from their bodies, flying about, their entrails trailing behind them*, in search of victims), I’m wondering if the originator of this camp legend spent any time in Singapore or Thailand.

There definitely are some parallels here, if one ignores the midwife/childbirth association (which would make sense if you were trying to tie this legend to a Boy Scout camp). It’s all speculation that this legend was the inspiration, but it makes logical sense, and it’s one of those things that sparks my interest (probably related to all those cryptozoology texts and Brunvard urban legend books I own), so I enjoy the possibilities. I don’t take these kinds of stories seriously, but I love that all these little places have these great local ghost and monster stories; it makes the world a more interesting place.

Oh well. It kinda makes me sad that when vampire legends can be this cool, these days we’re stuck with sparkly, baseball-playing vegetarians.

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* – according to wikipedia, these entrails “twinkle like fireflies” as the Penanggal flies through the night sky. Could this be the source of the defining characteristic of the Meyer undead? Nah, I’m clearly giving too much credit.