A vampiric demon from Malaysia, the hantu langsuir looks like a beautiful woman or as a floating woman’s head with a tail made of entrails and spinal column that hangs down from its severed neck. It is most difficult to keep this vampire from entering into a home, as it can squeeze through even the smallest opening or crack.

A picky eater, the hantu langsuir has a very specific order to the victims it preys on. Of all the sources of blood that a vampire can choose from, the hantu langsuir prefers the blood of a newborn male child. If none is available, then the blood of a newborn female will suffice. The entrails of either gender are consumed as well. When the hantu langsuir manages to find a suitable victim, it bites a tiny hole in his neck from which it draws the blood.

On occasion, it will drink milk from any available source and lick the blood off a sanitary napkin. If it does so, the woman to whom the pad belonged will start to grow weak as her life-energy is being mystically drained away.

Should the hantu langsuir be caught in the act of feeding, the head will detach from its body and fly off to safety as it shape- shifts into an owl, emitting an ear-piercing screech as it flees. Both parts of the vampire, the discarded body and the head, must be captured and burned to ash if the creature is ever to be destroyed.

There are some women who have the ability to see the hantu langsuir, as it is invisible during the day (See BRAHMAPARUSH).

Source: Annandale, Fasciculi Malayenses, 23; Guiley, The Complete Vampire Companion, 24; Laderman, Wives and Midwives, 126; McHugh, Hantu-Hantu, 125-128, 131, 201; Skeat, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, 697