Sinister Spirits of Asia (part 1)

According to tradition, ever since the the first lansuyar appeared,any woman who dies in childbirth has been at risk of becoming a member of her grim sisterhood. Wards and provisions against both langsuyar attack of the living and the creation of a new undead include tying a strand of red thread around the neck and treating the area with charms consisting of eggs, pins and glass beads (for their fertility/phallic/yonic connotations, respectively?).

Pontianak- Naturally (or unnaturally) enough, the spirit of the langsuyar's stillborn often fares little better than its mother. The ghost of such a child, called a pontianak in Malaysia, takes the form of a screech-owl, and soothes its raging jealousy of the living by drawing the life-force from mortals as they sleep. Wearing socks to bed in the tropics might make more sense than you'd think- the big toe is this night-flyer's favourite bite-site (eep!).

Polong- The polong is a tiny monster created by black magic, which has many characteristics in common with the wizard's familiars and alchemists' homunculi in Western traditions. Polongs are reputedly created by Malaysian witches by means of a blood ritual involving a sample of the caster's own blood. Once animated, the polong takes up residence in a magical narrow-necked jar constructed by its mistress. A polong will live only as long as the sorceress continues to feed it several times a week by placing her finger in the neck of the jar and allowing it to suck her blood.

When a sorceress kept a polong, it is said that her charm and physical beauty greatly increased, and her apparent age was far less than her actual one. A polong could also be ordered to attack its mistress' enemies by sucking blood or by momentarily possessing victims and inflicting them with temporary madness, which caused them either to suffer seisures or to be struck dumb.
For this reason, the expression, "Have you got a polong?" is sometimes used in a context similar to that of "Cat got your tongue?" in the West. However, the use of this expression is considered unlucky, since a single polong is reputedly able to afflict more than one victim at a time, and, hearing its name spoken aloud, is likely to react.

In very rare circumstances, a polong may cause the death of an enemy of its mistress, either through its madness-inducing attack, or by causing other dominated victims to assault

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