Sigbin

Lola's story

The sigbin is not from Manila. I first heard about it from a classmate whose family came from the Visayas. She said it was about the size of a goat, but with no horns, ears so long they dragged on the ground, and a tail like a whip. "And it walks backward," she said, "with its head down between its back legs, so it can see you coming."

I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. "Then how does it see where it's going?"

"It doesn't need to," she said. "You smell it first." Ang baho!

When I told this story to my grandkids, Chun tried to walk like a sigbin all the way down the hallway, head between his knees, giggling, until he bumped right into Kuya. Didi said her brother was the stinkiest sigbin in Queens. Kuya wrote it all down in his notebook.

What people say

The sigbin comes from the folklore of the Visayas and parts of Mindanao. People describe it as a small creature like a hornless goat, or sometimes like a kangaroo, with huge ears it can clap together like hands, and a long, thin tail. It walks backward with its head lowered between its hind legs, and it gives off a strong, bad smell.

Some stories say the sigbin can turn invisible, and that it comes out at night, especially during Holy Week. Others say certain families secretly keep one, hidden in a clay jar. Folklorist Maximo D. Ramos collected many of these stories in his books on Philippine creatures.

How to stay safe

Stay home after dark, the old stories say. And if you smell something terrible and hear ears clapping, don't wait to see what it is. Walk the other way, forward.