Young men in Pu Hong, a small village in Thailand’s Kalasin province, have started painting their fingernails as a way to fend off an evil ghost who they hold responsible for the recent deaths of several locals.

The bizarre trend became popular after the deaths of five residents of Pu Hong over the last three weeks. The first two men, who reportedly came from the same family, simply collapsed and died on the spot, another victim, a teenage girl died in a motorcycle accident, while the details of the other two fatalities have not been disclosed to the media so far. Instead of taking the high number of fatalities in their village as a tragic coincidence, locals believe that supernatural forces are responsible, and have started taking precautions to avoid becoming victims themselves.

Phost: Sanook

Bussadee Malasee, the 60-year-old psychic of Pu Hong Village, recently told Thai newspaper Sanook that she is convinced the deaths were caused by two ghosts – one of a vindictive widow targeting men, and a so-called ‘pop’, a ghost specific to Thai folklore which supposedly posses people and eats them from the inside. The psychic explained that the widow ghost wants to take men’s lives, while pops usually posses the elderly.

Unfortunately, there’s apparently no way to prevent a pop from possessing you, but men afraid of becoming the ghost widow’s next victim can try to trick it. That’s why many of the young men in the village have started painting their fingernails and posting signs that read “no men live here” outside their homes, to fool the ghost into looking for targets elsewhere.

Photo: Sanook

According to one village elder, some people have turned to the local temple for protection from the ghosts, and many avoid leaving their homes after dark.

via Coconuts Bangkok