Demons and Aaps

On the way to Phnom Penh, I noticed that Mouly had a green, woollen band tied around his wrist.
"Why are you wearing that?" I asked. I'd seen many people sporting something similar during a bus ride in Laos the previous year and had been told it was to help ward off travel sickness and expected to hear a similar answer.
Mouly chuckled and said it was supposed to help protect him from demons. He'd gone to the pagoda at his wife's insistence and for five thousand rials, about a day's wages, he and the band had been blessed as a form of travel insurance.
"What do demons do?"
"They give you bad luck. Maybe they cause an accident."
"Where are they then?"
"Maybe they are up in the trees."
"Can you see them?"
Mouly said that normal people couldn't see them, only the most powerful monks and even then only once in a great while.
Demons, are apparently everywhere and always intent on creating mischief. Prayer flags flutter at the highest point of many a house. From there, in a nod to gravity, the protective magic flows downwards thereby shielding the whole building from nefarious demonic influences. But, even then, demons can still sneak in and create havoc. In such an event, a monk must be called in. Using special incantations the soul of the demon can be coaxed into a glass bottle which is then immediately stoppered and a magic, woollen string wrapped around the top. The demon-filled bottle is then brought into a pagoda and stored there.
"Can you pick-up the bottle?" I asked.
"No! No!" Mouly warned. Merely touching it can bring on a bout of bad luck.
"What happens if the bottle breaks?"
"Then the demon will escape and create bad luck again."
He added that even if it did manage to escape the bottle, it would still be trapped inside the pagoda until one of the doors or windows was opened.
Mouly had nominally converted to Protestant Christianity some years previously but I'd always sensed he only half accepted it; the hold of his native Buddhism and the powerful folklore of Cambodia are still very much a part of him.
"Do you believe in demons?" I asked, stressing the "you".
He laughed nervously. "In the countryside many people believe. In the city, not so many," he said, avoiding a straight answer.
"Are there other types of demons? "Ghouls. Or something like that?" After describing what a ghoul was, Mouly introduced us to the aap.
Aaps look just like human beings during the daylight hours but when night descends a dramatic transformation takes places. The aap's head and vital organs detach themselves from the body then fly around looking for filth to eat.
"You mean garbage?" I asked while looking out the window at one of the ubiquitous piles of trash littering the side of the road.
"Yes. They eat that," he said excitedly.
"I think I see a business opportunity here," I joked.
It's debatable what aaps do actually eat. Perhaps there are several varieties as I was told later by Jasmine that some have a taste for human blood.
No one Mouly knew had seen an aap but if someone did, and had their wits about them, sticking a thorn through the vital organs and pinning them to the ground can be very beneficial for the perpetrator. An aap needs to reattach itself to its body before the dreaded light of dawn. Fearing for its life, it will reveal where a piece or two of gold has been hidden.
"Is it possible to tell if someone is an aap?
Apperently It is. They have a thin red scar going all around the base of their neck.
Just then we drove by a movie theater. On the billboard a grisly head with organs attached was flying across a bright red background. I'm told horror movies are very popular in Cambodia.