202 104 6MB
English Pages [104] Year 1977
illustrated
with yhotoEraphs and old prints
THOMAS G. AyUESWORTH illustrated with
photographs and old prints
How
would you recognize a vampire if you saw one on the street? Well, it might depend on what he was buried in. A vampire is a ghost who wanders around at night, looking for people to bite. If you remember how Dracula looked in the movies, you already have a pretty good idea about the appearance of a vampire. But there have been other embellishments, and Tom Aylesworth recounts them with (piiet humor as he draws on lore from Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Albania, Greece, Ire-
and Hungary among other places. Mr. Aylesworth tells how one can become a vam])ire (it takes a vampire
land,
to
make
a vampire, but
more than one detected
(try
bite);
it
how one can be
the old
mirror trick);
how vampires can be (would you guess
might take
away And he
kept
garlic?).
you have a corjDse that you think has vampire possibilities, be sure to bury it under running water. Though clues and caution differ, vampires have fascinated people for ages, as this witty book will fascinate gives an imj)ortant
tip: if
readers today. (continued on hack flap)
,
I.
..
No
tonner the property’ ni %
tf-.j
^p
of this material bAn^fitg
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
•le
Lfbrar
THE STORY OF VAMPIRES
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR The Alchemists: Magic Into Science Astrology and Foretelling the Future Cars, Boats, Trains, and Planes of
Today and Tomorrow
ESP Graphology Into the It
Mammal's World
Works Like This
Monsters from the Movies
Movie Monsters Mysteries from the Past Palmistry
The Search for
Life
Servants of the Devil
Teaching for Thinking This Vital Air, This Vital Water Traveling Into
Tomorrow
Vampires and Other Ghosts
Werewolves and Other Monsters
Who's Out There? The World of Microbes
THOMAS
G.
Illustrated with
AYLESWORTH
photographs and old prints
McGRAW-HlLL BOOK COMPANY New
York
•
St.
Louis
•
San Francisco
•
Montreal
•
Panama
•
Toronto
Copyright © 1977 by Thomas G. Aylesworth. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted
in
any form or by any means,
electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Aylesworth, Thomas Bibliography:
p.
G
The
story of vampires.
Includes index.
SUMMARY: Presents vampire lore from various parts of the world. 1. Vampires Juvenile literature. I. Title. [1. Vampires] GR830.V3A94 398. ZT 76-53581 ISBN 0-07-002647-5 ISBN 0-07-002648-3 lib. bdg.
—
1
2345R ABP78987
—
For Victoria and Alexandra Copeland
godchildren and lovely young ladies
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2016 with funding from China-America Digital Academic Library (CADAL) in
https://archive.org/details/storyofvampiresiOOayle
TABLE OF CONTENTS COME FROM?
1
/
WHERE DID
2
/
WHAT DOES
IT
3
/
HOW
BECOME A VAMPIRE?
4
/
WHAT DOES
5
/
HOW DO YOU AVOID
6
/
HOW DO YOU
IT?
45
7
/
WERE THERE REAL VAMPIRES?
54
8
/
WERE THERE OTHERS?
65
9
/
SOME REAL EXPLANATIONS
71
OTHER BOOKS ABOUT VAMPIRES
79
INDEX
81
DID
IT
IT
IT
LOOK
LIKE?
1
19
DO?
25
29
IT?
GET RID OF
39
« %
V
THE STORY OF VAMPIRES
%
J
WHERE DID IT COME FROM? anybody
Jl^^ardly
The
truth
is,
believes in vampires today.
hardly anybody outside of Eu-
rope ever believed in vampires. But there were a
few places where the
in those places,
You be.
all
It is
a
it
belief
was strong. And
was very strong.
know what a vampire is supposed to ghost who wanders around at night,
looking for people to
and goes home
The people
that
to it
bite. It
sucks their blood
grave to sleep
its
bites are
and become vampires,
1
too.
all
supposed
day.
to die
Since they are ghosts, they must have been alive once. After a
all,
a
ghost
who seems
dead person
may have heard
is
to
supposed
be
alive.
that vampires
to
be
But you
were some-
times called the undead. Call them what you
want
— dead
or undead, at least they are not
alive.
That means that they are not
and
devils.
Demons and
And
they are not
alive.
like
demons
devils never like
witches
were
and
monsters. Witches and monsters are not dead yet.
Where did those strange stories about vampires come from? The whole thing might have started in ancient Greece.
There were
stories
about things called empusas (em-poo-sahs).
These were
spirits that
young women. They
into beautiful
coax handsome young
them.
When
killed their
What
could turn themselves
men
the wedding
into marrying
was over, they
husbands and drank
a terrible
wedding present.
2
tried to
their blood.
The ancient Greeks lamias (LAY-me-ahs) that could
remove
.
also told stories of the
These were phantoms
their
own
also could turn into beautiful
eyes.
And
women.
they
A lamia
would drink blood. The Greeks thought that they could be found only in Africa.
An to
old drawing of a lamia. These creatures were able
change the forms of
their bodies.
3
A
figure
from an island
off the coast of India. It has
vampirelike fangs.
4
.
.
Another ancient-Greek striges (sTRAi-jes).
of the blood of
belief
in the
These creatures were fond
young
children.
supposed to turn into birds and eries.
was
Then they would
They were
fly into
nurs-
feast while the chil-
dren were sleeping.
Over the years, vampire
many were
different countries. called
In In In
And
were
told in
these creatures
by many different names:
was the upuir (oo-pweer). Bulgaria, it was the vapir (vah-PEER). Poland, it was the vilkolak (vEEL-koh-Iahk) Albania, it was the wurwolaka (voor-VAH-Iah-kah). Greece, it was the vrykolaka (vree-KOH-Iah-kah) or
In Russia,
In
stories
it
vroucolaca (vroo-KOH-Iah-kah). In Ireland, it was the dearg-dul (oEE-urg dool).
Hungary, it was the pamgri (pAHM-gree). In Crete, it was the katakhana (kah-XAHK-ah-nah). In Polynesia, it was the tii (xEE-ee). In Malaysia, it was the hantu penyardin (uAHN-too pen-Yahr-deen) In
5
X
Two Malaysian vampire
The one
dolls.
on the
left
women who
attacks
are having
a child. The one on the right attacks children.
But the vampire belief was never very well-
known Greek pire
in
Western Europe
writer,
book
in
Leone
about 1645.
Allaci, published a
year.
that
until
It
A
vam-
was printed
in
Cologne, Germany, and circulated widely in
Germany, France,
Italy,
and other countries
in the area.
Another popular book about vampires appeared in 1746.
monk,
Dom
It
was written by
a
French
Augustin Calmet. This caused
more Europeans
to
wonder about vampires.
6
Famous the
writers kept the idea alive. Goethe,
German author
of
Faust;
Lord Byron,
Keats, and Southey, the English poets, wrote
poems about vampires. There were formed a
in Paris
where the main character was
vampire. There was even a
about
a
plays per-
vampire
German opera
in 1828.
John Kents, the poet, wrote about the lamia.
Here
is
an
illustration for
his
poem. She
doesn't look like a
vampire, does she?
7
No.
1.3
Nop.
2,
3 and 4 aje Pre sented, Gratis, with this No.
1
Prico Id,
I
The people vampire 1853, a
was
of
England became interested
in
stories in the nineteenth century. In
book about
a
vampire appeared that
by storm. And these
to take the country
creatures
became popular once again
in
Great
Britain.
The book was Varney
the Vampire,
was written by Thomas Preskett over eight hundred pages in didn't sell well. Eight
book. Then
it
E.
and
It
is
it
had
at first
hundred pages
was broken up
by the publisher,
it,
Prest.
and
it
a big
into small parts
Lloyd. These parts were
sold like a continuing printed soap opera,
and
the books became very popular.
By the way,
it
might seem that Prest got
tired of writing so
much about Varney. He
ended the book by having Varney commit suicide
by jumping into
a volcano.
quick ending. But Prest
Here is the cover of the the Vampire.
first
9
knew
a
That was
a
good thing
installment of
Varney
" Soldiers find a
staked
woman
vampire
in the
house of Sir Francis Varney.
The terrible deed had been done by a mob.
(Left)
Varney came out
in
220 installments.
Here
is
an
illustration
showing
awful Sir Francis Varney and the
one of the heroines of the
tale.
Varney
at
work. In England, books issued
in
installments
were called
"penny dreadfuls,
because each part sold for a
penny.
many
And
people
thought that they were dreadful.
when he saw
it.
He
later
wrote such books as
The Goblet of Gore, The Death Grasp, and The
Maniac
Tather.
Then came everybody's book.
vampire
was Dracula, written by Bram Stoker,
It
and published
in 1897.
It still sells
and the vampire, Dracula,
we
favorite
think about
all
vampires
is
well today,
the person that
when we
think about
at all.
Movies have kept the vampire legend going, too.
1896.
It
The was
first
one was made
called
in
France in
The Devil's Castle. Then
Germany in 1922. Lon Chaney, Sr., the master of makeup and the man of a thousand faces, made London After Midnight in 1927. Then came the another, Nosferatu, was
first
made
in
vampire movie with sound. This was
Dracula,
made
in 1931, starring Bela Lugosi.
(Top Right) Lon Chaney,
Sr., in his great
makeup as a vampire in London After Midnight.
12
Bnvu
Stoker, the author of
Dracula.
He had
studied
vampire legends thoroughly. But he said that his inspiration
came
final in
a
nightmare after eating too
much
crab for dinner.
Then the dam burst. Vampire been made in many countries ever
many
of these
films have since.
How
have you seen? All of them are
rerun on television pretty regularly:
The Bat (American, 1959) Blood of Dracula (American, 1957) Blood of the Vampire (English, 1958) Billy the
Kid Versus Dracula (American, 1965)
The Brides of Dracula (English, 1960) The Devil Bat (American, 1940)
The Devil Bat's Daughter (American, 1946) Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (English, 1968) Dracula, Prince of Darkness (English, 1965)
Dracula's Daughter (American 1936)
The Horror
of Dracula (English, 1958)
The House of Dracula (American, 1945)
The House of Frankenstein (American, 1944) The Kiss of the Vampire (English, 1962) The Mark of the Vampire (American, 1935)
The Return of Dracula (American, 1958)
A
poster for the
first all-talking
was Dracula.
15
vampire picture.
It
The Return of the Vampire (American, 1944)
Son
of Dracula
(American, 1943)
The Vampire Bat (American, 1933) The Vampire Lovers (English, 1970)
There have been Mexican vampire films, a scene from El Vampiro.
16
too.
Here
is
Lou CIniuey,
Son
Jr.,
following
in his father's footsteps as
of Dracula.
17
2 WHAT DOES
we
IT
LOOK
LIKE?
we usually Dracula. And the
think of a vampire,
think of a creature like
legends of this kind of ghost started in the early 1500s in Eastern Europe.
Some
countries from which these stories
of the
came were
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Russia, Poland,
Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria,
Albania,
Greece, and Turkey. Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, studied these legends before
wrote his book. Everybody's idea of what a vampire ought like. Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
19
to
look
he
The vampire times. After
supposed
is
all,
at
most
for a
long
be thin
to
he has been dead
time and would have lost weight. But sometimes he might be
happen
after
fat.
This
he has had
is
supposed to
heavy meal
a
of
blood.
You
can't
tell
a
vampire by his clothes.
He
could be dressed in a funeral costume, a
formal His
suit, or a
lips are said to
because of his
eye
business
teeth
molars
diet.
outfit.
be red and thick. That
And
between
his canine teeth
the
incisors
is
—the
and the
— are extra long and sharp. That helps when it is dinner time. hands might be numb because he has
with the neck biting His
been
in the coffin for a long time with his
crossed on his chest. That would cut
blood circulation.
And
his
arms
down on
hands are
also
Of course
it is,
hairy.
The vampire's he
is
a
skin
is
cold.
dead person. His eyes
red light, especially
when he 20
may is
give off a
hungry. His
Vampires their
may
lie in
their coffins for a long time with
hands crossed on
Eyssen
in
The Horror
their chests. This
of Dracula.
21
is
John Van
eyebrows are thick and hairy and probably
meet over
his nose.
He must have
long, pointed, clawlike fin-
gernails because he
may have
out of the grave. For
to claw his
some reason,
way
his ears are
said to be pointed, too.
The early German movie Nosferatu showed a vampire with pointed ears and fingernails.
%
22
As you might
guess, the vampire
He must
strong. victims.
In
be able to attack
most
very
is
sizes of
all
of those countries
it
was
believed that the vampire had terrible breath.
This was probably caused by the blood that he drank. It
was
was
And watch said that
out for an awful body odor.
you could
room by
in the
just
tell
when
a
vampire
smelling him.
But there were exceptions to this description. In parts of Russia,
was thought
it
vampire had teeth made of of
clawing his
gnawed
his
way
way up
There were places
that a
And, instead
steel.
he
out of the grave,
to the surface. in Bulgaria
where
it
was
thought that the creature would have only one nostril. Also, in parts of
that his tongue
In
at
some
it
was
said
was pointed. In other areas
that country, his tongue
fishhook
Poland,
the end of
had
a
barb
of
like a
it.
parts of Greece
it
was believed
anybody with blue eyes was
a
that
vampire. The
reason for that was that there were very few
23
people in Greece with blue eyes.
And
people
always seem to be suspicious of someone is
who
different.
Along
that
same
line, there
where people with red
hair
have been places
were thought
to be
vampires. They were just unusual.
And babies
mouths
or strange
born with teeth
in their
birthmarks were also suspected.
Even men and
women who didn't like garlic
might be vampires. After garlic
is
all,
as
we
shall see,
supposed to keep vampires away.
There were even places where people were suspected only because they were boring. The
vampire drinks
human
blood and so makes his
victim tired. Boring people
make
us tired. So
maybe boring people are vampires. The one thing that almost everyone seemed to agree
on had
of the vampire.
ows.
to
do with the ghostly nature
Vampires do not
And you cannot
cast shad-
see their reflection in a
mirror.
24
3
HOW
DID IT BECOME A VAMPIRE?
most
common
belief
pires got to be vampires
bitten
one
about
is
how vam-
that they
were
by another vampire. Some thought that
bite
was enough. Others thought
that
several bites over a period of several nights
were necessary. But there were exceptions
to
this belief.
In various parts of the world, that
you could become
ways.
If
you died
a
it
was thought
vampire
in a state of sin
in
other
without
being forgiven by a priest, you would become
25
a
vampire.
could
A child cursed by his or her parents
become
suicide,
if
vampire.
a
you
If
you committed
lied in court, or
if
you were
excommunicated by the church, the same thing could happen. In parts of lieved that a
without the
become
a
Mexico and Burma,
woman who
vampire.
There are parts tized
women who
come vampires. suffer the
woman who was
is
to
he or
fate.
died were thought to be-
unbaptized
men
did not
not explained. Also,
pregnant saw
was not blessed by supposed
died,
Romania where unbap-
of
Why
same
church would
And if her child
she would suffer the same
was be-
died in childbirth
of the
rites
last
it
a
a
a
vampire and
a priest, the child
become
if
werewolf. That
was is
a
mixture of two legends that very few people could believe.
anyone born on Christ-
In parts of Greece,
mas Day was thought
to
be a vampire.
And in
other parts of the same country, anybody
26
She is about to become a vampire. movie Dracula.
27
A
scene from the
born between Christmas Day and January 6 (Epiphany), had better be careful. Another
Greek story
a
that the seventh son or
vampire. That should be an encour-
agement
to
keep the
sizes of families
Finally, in parts of Bulgaria it
was believed
careful
when
become
that
down.
and Yugoslavia
people must be very
they are laying out a dead body
before burial. will
daugh-
seventh son or daughter would be-
ter of a
come
is
If
a
a bird flies over the corpse,
vampire.
And
if
a
dog jumps
over the body, the same thing will happen.
28
it
WHAT DOES
m
IT
DO?
pst of the vampires in legends are able to
change into something around looking
like a
may turn into a when they want on top
corpse
all
the time.
mist. Usually that to
come up through
They
happens the dirt
of their graves.
Some cats, or
They don't go
else.
vampires turning into
stories told of
wolves, or even owls. But hardly ever
did they turn into bats.
The
bat business
during the
seemed
last century.
to
have begun
Travelers from Europe
29
Native Americans had their bat-people legends.
began
to journey
that time. stories
And
through South America
they went back
home
at
with
about a small bat that sucked blood.
The vampire legend was popular
in
Europe
at
the time (the belief was never very popular in the United States), so these bats were said to
be vampires. They were even
named vampire
bats.
But they had nothing to do with the real belief in vampires.
They
are small bats.
do not suck blood. Rather, they victim and lick up the blood
wound. 30
They
bite their
coming from the
These woodcuts from the nineteenth century show
what some people thought like.
that vampire bats looked
And
much blood. They might be able to drain a mouse or a small bird, but a human might not even know they don't drink
that he or she
all
that
had been attacked.
It
would
take about five visits from a vampire bat to
much blood
take as
from us during don't
let
as the
a blood donation.
the vampire bat bite you.
them have been known As we
all
Some
of
to carry rabies.
tomb
or coffin before sun-
But there have been stories in which that
One of them tells of Alexanshoemaker. He lived on the Greek
was not the der,
However,
know, the average vampire must
get back into the rise.
Red Cross takes
a
case.
Island of Santorin.
This cobbler was supposed to have been a
vampire. But after he was buried, he came out of his grave to help his family.
Many
He mended
people are afraid of bats. Here
is
an
by Gustave Dore showing bat-people
illustration
in hell,
from
Dante's Inferno.
32
Bela Lugosi, as Dracula, obviously anxious to get
back
to his coffin.
their shoes.
cut
wood
He
fetched water for his wife.
for the stove.
pire, especially since
He
Hardly a typical vam-
he did
all
this
during the
day.
As
far as
nourishment goes, not
pires bit their victims' necks.
34
The
all
vam-
usual crea-
ture
is
said to hypnotize his prey.
That means
that after being bitten, he or she
remember the Russia,
attack. But in
some
parts of
vampire stays in the
said that the
it is
would not
grave and chews on his or her
own hands and
feet.
There
another kind of vampire that leaves
is
the neck alone. This one chews on the victim's chest.
dinner.
hits
out his back. to collect
One
another sneaks up behind his
Then he
He
back.
Still
it
hits the
him
Then
poor person on the
so hard that blood
comes
the vampire grabs a bucket
in.
strange thing about vampires.
the old stories say that
it
own
An example
relatives or friends.
Most
usually attacks
of its
of this
is
the story of the Buckinghamshire vampire.
Buckinghamshire
an English county
is
just
northwest of London. In the 1100s, so the story goes, a
man
to be a vampire.
died.
The
And he was supposed
first
night after he was
buried, he appeared in his wife's
35
bedroom and
jumped on
her.
The next night the same thing
happened.
On
the third night, the wife was prepared.
She had
some
relatives in to sit
up with
came the vampire. Everyone began
her. In
shout
invited
at
him, and
seemed
it
to frighten
to
him
away. But then he switched to scaring his brothers.
too.
And
they were able to frighten him away,
So he came back
to startle the
the town. This was the last straw. ing,
animals of
The neigh-
mooing, and baaing kept people awake.
So the
priest of the
town wrote
to the
Bishop
of Lincoln for advice.
The Bishop's then to place
and put worked,
it
a
advice
was
to dig
up the body,
note of forgiveness on the body
back in the grave. This must have
since
the
vampire was not seen
again.
There
is
an
Irish tale of a
bothered his relatives, too.
posed to have happened
36
vampire
And
this
is
who sup-
in the early 1900s.
A
priest
had died and was buried. But the
cemetery was so she could not
far
away
make
the
that his trip.
mother
felt
So she stayed
home.
an old woodcut showing the ghost of a father appearing at his son's deathbed. Ghosts seemed to
Here
is
pick on relatives.
37
When
the mourners returned from the cem-
etery, they
found the mother lying uncon-
scious
on her living-room
woke
up, she told this story.
floor.
When
she
She had heard footsteps on her front walk.
Then came
a
knock
at
the door. She opened
the door, and there was her dead son. His skin
was white. His eyes were aflame. His teeth had grown longer. But when ed,
he ran
off
his
mother
faint-
and was not seen by anybody
ever again.
38
5
HOW DO YOU AVOID I
Jit it
would make sense
to avoid vampires.
makes even more sense
to fix
cannot get out of the grave In
parts
of
IT?
it
And
so that they
in the first place.
Yugoslavia and Bulgaria some
people tried just that.
If
a
corpse were suspect-
ed of being a vampire, they sometimes put a piece of iron in said,
make
it
its
hands. That would, they
stay put.
In other countries, vampires were said to be
nervous around water. So bury the body of suspect under running water. This can't
39
a
al-
ways work, because streams and
rivers
some-
times change their courses.
By the way,
was sometimes thought
it
vampires could not cross
So people
a
stream or a
that
river.
houses where running
built their
water would protect them. But in the book, Dracula rents a boat to cross the ocean. In
some
places, iron rods
through the
K
/
on top
dirt
were driven down
when
of the grave
the
J.
Dissertatio
HISTORICO PHILOSOPHICA -
MASTICATIONE MORTUORUM, Dci (ScSuperiorum rn illullri
Academ.
indulai,
the dead.
S R S
M. PHILIPPLIS
2Rp|)r/
many
strange ideas about
Lipi?
(idenc
P R
People had
Marckran-
Here
is
a
poster telling of a
ftadio-Mifnic.
B£N]AM1N FRI2SCHIUS,
on how
lecture
RESPONDENS Mul'ilavia-Mirmcus,
to
feed the dead. The
Alumm dd iUm
XV
1.
Eledtorales. Anpu(lt Ann A/. DC.LXXIX.
HL.
talk
aC
was given
at
the University of L
Typis I)F
I
P
S
I
E)
Leipzig,
Michaelis Voctii.
MASTICATIONE MORTUORL'M
in
Ht PSilip RoKf
40
1679
.
Germany,
vampire was
in
wasn't necessary to pierce
it. It
the body, because iron
magic metal.
It
was
is
supposed
also thought to be
for frightening witches. This
keep the vampire
to
what
can do to a vampire.
it
is
supposed
is
And
is silver,
Another thing afraid of
is
a
of If,
a
by
able to get out of the
grave, a crucifix
the cross
to
in place, too.
accident, the creature
if
a
good
was supposed
Everybody knows about the power cross and
be
so
keep
to
much
it
away.
the better.
that vampires are said to be
consecrated wafer. That
communion bread
that has
is
the
been blessed by
a
priest in church.
The
cross
and the
crucifix
legends
thing about the vampire beliefs.
was an invention
of
people
tell
some-
The vampire
who
lived
in
Christian countries. Garlic too.
It
was supposed
to hold off vampires,
probably keeps more than vampires
away. To use
it,
somewhere.
If
you can either
you want
41
to
eat
it
or
hang
protect
it
your
house, hang
over the door.
it
protect your boat,
hang
If
you want
to
over the stern.
it
There are other things that you can do
to
your house for protection. In parts of Serbia, paint a cross
Use
paint.
on your door. But don't use
tar.
This will keep the vampire
away.
On
Man, the mayflower or rowan was used. The rowan is similar to the mountain ash tree. Hang a cutting of either of these plants over the door. Then you are safe. the
Isle
of
But suppose that you are out of the protection of your house.
And you meet
a
vampire.
What can you do? For one thing, be quiet. islands
was believed
it
On some
that a vampire never
repeated what he or she had said. So
hear your think is
is
a
If
You
called
if
you
by something that you
vampire, don't answer.
called a
all.
name
Greek
second time,
it
If
your name
wasn't a vampire
at
are safe.
you are lucky enough
42
to
have
a sprig of
Not
all
vampires were men. This
is
a
nineteenth-century engraving of a female vampire,
about
to
do her dirty work.
43
hawthorn or
a
with you, they
pocket
full of
may come
mustard seeds
in haiidy.
If
you
think you see a vampire, throw the hawthorn
on the ground.
It is
that the vampire will have to over.
And
scatter
Some
some places stop. Then bend
believed in
then pick up the sprig. Or you can
the mustard
seeds
on the ground.
people think that the vampire must then
stop to pick up every seed before he chases
you. While the creature or the seeds,
But
if
is
picking up the sprig
you can be running away.
you are unlucky enough
don't give up. Here
is
to be bitten,
an old Hungarian
Find the grave of the vampire that
some
of the dirt
bit
from the grave. You
turn into a vampire yourself.
44
belief.
you. Eat will
not
6 HOW DO YOU GET RID OF
m
any people
But
the vampire
if
killed?
some
talk of is
ways
IT?
to kill a vampire.
already dead, can
To avoid an argument,
of the
ways
let's just
of putting a
it
be
look at
vampire out
of
commission.
There was
a
time
when
people were rather
kind to a vampire. In France in the sixth
centuries,
it
was
felt
that
a
fifth
and
vampire
should only be punished by being kept out of the church by excommunication.
At that time, the vampire even had some
45
There was an early French law that
rights.
provided fines for vampire pire
trials.
was convicted, he was
who
person
wrong, the
If
the
fined. But
vamthe
if
accused him was proved to be
fine
was almost
as large.
The vampire and the werewolf do share one them can be stopped by
legend. Both of
And
silver bullet.
priest
it
will
the bullet
if
be more
But probably
trick.
most popular way
the
The
blessed by a
effective.
knocking the vampire out stake
is
stake
is
the old
should
supposed
to
driven in with one blow.
of
wooden-
be
through the heart of the vampire while its coffin. It is
driven it is
work best when
And many
Some Russians
preferred
the
in
it is
people
believed that a stake from a white thorn best.
a
is
aspen,
however.
The stake-through-the-heart technique can cause trouble, though. In
many
places
who committed vampire. It may be
it
was
thought that anyone
suicide
would become
that
a
46
it
Peter Cushing uses the stake in the movie
Vampire Lovers.
47
The
Not seen
all
ghosts like to have their graves opened up, as
in this
old illustration.
was too popular an idea
in
England. In 1823 a
law was passed there making
it
illegal to drive
stakes through the hearts of suicides.
Then
there
is
a
chance that
work, anyway. There
man who
died
in
a
is
might not
the story of a herds-
part of
48
it
what
is
now
Czechoslovakia.
He was
suspected of being a
vampire. The body was dug up. Then a stake
was driven through not work.
It
was
its
it
to drive
away
him
He
wild dogs.
stake and
This time he was
started prowling around.
body was
His
thanked
a stick.
The next night he took out the caught.
stake did
said that the corpse
the people there for giving
would use
The
heart.
hanged and then
burned. This must have worked, because he
was never seen again. Burning was another popular way of getting rid of a
vampire. There
woman who was buried,
a
is
a story of a
Czech
died in 1706. Four days after she
monster was seen
in her village.
This monster was sometimes in the shape of
human. And sometimes It
choked people.
It
in the
it
no more. They dug
up the
woman and
creature
was not seen again. there
is
a dog.
killed cattle. Finally the
townsfolk could stand
Then
shape of
a
burned the body. The
the story of the Berwick
49
vampire of the 1100s. In that town lived a very rich but very evil
died, people said that they
up
and down the
smelled awful,
man. After he
saw him running
streets
was
it
said.
dark.
He
Remember
that
after
people thought that vampires
some men grave. Ten it
town went
of the of
in Scotland
So
smelled.
to the evil
man's
them dug up the body, chopped
up, and threw
it
into a furnace.
The vampire
problem had been solved.
Another method to cut off the
head
ger's shovel.
Or
of stopping a
of the
if
vampire was
body with
a gravedig-
the leg muscles were cut,
the vampire could not walk. Driving a nail
through the side
of the
head was popular. And
the body could also be tied up.
One
of the strangest
methods was used
parts of Bulgaria. Put food in a bottle.
vampire, in the form of a small cloud, into the bottle after the food. bottle
On
up and throw
one
of the
it
Greek
into a
The
will
go
Then cap the
fire.
islands,
50
in
it
was believed
that
vampire's
a
body
carried
past
forty
churches and buried again would prevent the
coming back. But
creature from
like a great deal of
One a
of the
few
work and
a
that sounds
long hike.
about a cure for being
stories
vampire comes from Russia. But
done
it
has to be
in a hurry. Find the grave of the
vampire
that killed the person
you are trying
to save.
Cut
the burial shroud of the
off
the
left skirt of
vampire. Take victim's
some
And
body
it
is
back to the room where the lying and lock the door. Put
live coals in a pot.
the
in the cloth.
smoke from the burning
bring the person back to
Many
Throw
of these stories
cloth will
life.
tell
about finding the
how is this possible? of how to do this.
grave of the vampire. But
There are several ideas If
you
find a grave with holes in the dirt that
looks like finger holes, open the grave. These holes were thought to be the passages used by
the vampire to get out of the grave. Probably
he or she had
to turn into a mist to
51
do
it.
In parts of Greece,
it
was thought
vampire could not leave
its
That means that Friday
is
opening In
all
some
that a
grave on Friday. a perfect
day
for
graves.
places people believed that a horse
could find the vampire's grave. First find a
white male horse that has never stumbled. Put the horse in the graveyard and
let
him wander
around while you watch. The horse walk on the grave of
a
will
not
vampire. In some
places the horse has to be black and
must be
ridden by a young boy.
This seventeenth-century print
shows one of
the
examples of raising the dead. It is an illustration of the Witch of Endor calling up the earliest
biblical
52
prophet Samuel.
7 WERE THERE REAL VAMPIRES? here
is
no such thing
as a real vampire. But
there have been real people
who
acted in very
strange ways. Bloodthirsty, cruel people they
were.
And
they frightened superstitious peo-
ple to the point
where they could believe
in
vampire legends.
One
of
them was
a prince.
Province of Walachia, which
is
He ruled the now a part of
Romania. The prince's name was Vlad IV, and he was
also called Vlad Tepes.
means "the impaler," and
that
is
the
method
that Vlad used to execute his enemies.
54
Tepes
Vlad came by his cruelty honestly. His
Vlad
father,
meaning
was
III,
Vlad
called
Dracul,
the Devil." Because of his
'^Vlad
nickname, Vlad IV was sometimes
father's
which means "son
called Draculaea,
Devil."
It
was
used for the
There
is
name
this
title
he was also quite
Bram Stoker
book, Dracula.
of his
no doubt
that
of the
was
that Vlad
a fighter.
He was
cruel.
But
constantly
fighting to preserve the independence of his little
kingdom.
When
the Turks were not
attacking him, the Saxons, from a part of Eu-
rope that
is
now
East
Germany, were.
In
between wars, the peasants would sometimes try a revolution.
After one battle
early
in
his
career,
he
executed every prisoner that had been captured.
They were
all
impaled on sharp stakes.
But Vlad claimed to be
a
gentleman.
He gave
the captured officers the highest stakes. That
was because they were thought to the
common
soldiers.
55
It
is
to
be superior
said that
he
56
Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad,
son of the Devil.
(Left)
Vlad at dinner, enjoying his
handiwork. From
an old
print.
57
executed more than ten thousand Turks after
one
battle alone.
When the Saxons invaded from the west,
he
thought up another scheme. Vlad was not content with killing the captured soldiers. also killed civilians.
town
of Brasov,
When
He
he captured the
he impaled forty-one store-
keepers and burned three hundred farmers.
This group of three hundred included men,
women, and
children.
Vlad didn't neglect his
He
own
soldiers, either.
toured the places where his
were being
treated.
On
at least
he checked out the men.
If
own wounded one occasion,
they were wound-
ed in the front of their bodies, they got
medals.
He
figured that they had been hurt
wounds
advancing toward the enemy.
If
were
were impaled.
in the back, the soldiers
the
Vlad assumed that they had been running
away from the
battle.
Once a group of five Turks came to his court. They were wearing turbans and did not 58
remove them said that
it
was not
their
their turbans, Vlad got
had
Although they
in his presence.
custom
even for
to take off
this insult.
He
their turbans nailed to their heads.
There was another time when he invited
all
the cripples, orphans, beggars, and other un-
come
fortunate people to
they
all
When
got there and were fed, he had
Then he claimed
killed.
to a banquet.
that he
them
had wiped out
poverty in Walachia.
He was
and put
finally captured
in a
Hun-
garian prison for twelve years. But after he
was released, the people
Walachia put him
of
back on the throne. In
1476,
When and
he was captured,
taken
known
he was defeated by the Turks.
back
to
as Istanbul).
the Turks at
home
his
head was cut
Constantinople
That was
that Vlad
just to
was
off
(now
prove to
really dead.
His body, without the head, was buried in the church of the Snagov Monastery. story goes that
many years 59
later the
The
grave was
opened. The only thing in the coffin that looked
like a
body was
some
also said that
is
monastery saw
a pile of
horse bones.
of the
monks
his headless ghost
around from time
It
of the
walking
to time.
Vlad was obviously not a real vampire, of course.
He was
just blood-thirsty.
But over the
years, possibly because of the popularity of
Bram as the
Stoker's book, he
granddaddy
ably a part of this
came
to
be thought of
vampire story. Prob-
of the
was the common Romanian
belief in the moroi, or the
undead.
It
would be
easy for a superstitious person to believe that a
man who
acted like Vlad did might be a
vampire. But, in a strange way, Vlad
He
did defend his country
recently the people of
A
was
many
a hero, too.
times.
And
Romania have been
photograph of a corner of one of Vlad's castles in Romania.
60
A
Vlad doll that was sold to tourists
in
Romania.
saying that he might have been a national
hero because he fought the foreign invaders. This
new
pride, plus the interest of people
from other countries
in vampires, recently led
to a strange situation. In 1972,
Pan
Am
lines organized eighteen-day tours to nia.
The
and
to the
travelers
were taken
to
Air-
Roma-
Transylvania
Carpathian Mountains, where Vlad
62
had operated. They also saw some castles
where he had
of the
lived.
The Romanian government put on sound and light shows for the tourists. They made Dracula
They
dolls.
They
sold Dracula paintings.
restored the tower of the castle at Tir-
goviste,
which was Dracula's main home.
The Romanians even made Dracula plum brandy for the tourists.
63
By 1974, more than one hundred and thousand
come
tourists
from
body
over the world had
all
Even the monks
to see the sights.
Snagov were thinking
fifty
of
of trying to find the real
of Vlad.
But by 1976, the tourists were beginning to stop coming. Part of this of course.
began
But part of
was it
a lack of interest,
was
to get tired of people
that
Romania
making fun
of a
national hero.
The Romanians
feel
The book Dracula and banned
them
all
in that country.
to stop being so
strongly about this.
vampire movies are
So
it
makes sense
for
commercial about Vlad
Tepes.
One
last bit of
information.
A direct descen-
dant of Vlad, Count Alexander Cepesi, has lived in
Turkey since 1947. What does he do
for a living?
He
runs a blood bank.
64
$ WERE THERE OTHERS?
'%jlad
was
was not the only person so
bloodthirsty
thought to be
a
that
in history
who
he or she was
vampire. Another was the
Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Elizabeth was born in
1500s
— either
Hungary
in 1555 or 1560.
in the late
She
have been beautiful. At the age of
is
said to
fifteen,
she
married Count Ferencz Nadasty. The couple
moved into the Count's castle, Csejthe. The marriage was not a happy one.
Eliza-
beth refused to take her husband's name.
65
The dreaded Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
66
Then,
some
too,
Count Nadasty was always away
in
battle or other.
She was
woman.
a cruel
was
It
said that she
beat her servants and sometimes poured hot
wax on them. But
was her
it
women
that
practice
of killing
No one
got her into trouble.
knows how many
young
victims there were. But
it is
agreed that she often took baths in their blood.
At night she would side looking for
up
young
in the castle
drained.
Then
travel over the country-
and
girls.
their blood
King Matthias
soldiers to her castle.
they
chained up in
found cells.
it.
II
about Elizabeth and her
inside,
was slowly
the countess would either drink
the blood or take baths in Finally,
They were locked
Hungary heard
of
evil
When
sent
the troops got
thirteen
They
He
deeds.
also
young found
girls
fifty-six
bodies buried in the castle yard. They were still
digging for more bodies
67
when
the court
told
them
They had found enough
to stop.
some estimate that Elizabeth had killed more than six hundred girls. The countess was tried and convicted. The evidence. But
sentence was that she be taken back to her relatives to
up
in her
be held prisoner. She was walled
bedroom, with only one
for food to be passed through.
on the morning
And some
slit left
open
She died there
of her fifty-ninth birthday.
believe that screams can
still
be
heard coming from that walled-up room. Elizabeth
was not
a ghost, of course.
And
she certainly was not a vampire. But her habits, like Vlad's,
people
who
may have
worried
many
believed in vampires.
But don't think that people like that no longer
exist.
happened
One
of the
most famous cases
in the twentieth century.
the story of Fritz
Here
is
Haarman, the German vam-
pire.
Haarman was born in 1879.
When
in
Hanover, Germany
he was old enough, he joined
68
the army. Although he was thought to be a
good
One
soldier,
of
he did have some bad habits.
them was
that he
Because of
children.
army, he was sent
Haarman was
this,
was
said to
after
he
harm
left
the
mental hospital.
to a
able to escape
from the hos-
and joined the army again. He was
pital
discharged once more and went back to Hanover.
He became
a thief, a burglar,
and
a
con
man.
When
he was caught
to prison.
opened
a
He
he was sent
got out of prison in 1918 and
combination meat market and res-
taurant in his
home town.
This time he was ket
this time,
His meat mar-
a success.
was very popular because he
sold
meat
lower prices than any other butcher. But
at
many
housewives probably regretted that they had
shopped
at his store.
Haarman was
arrested, tried,
of a terrible crime.
twenty-four and
He had
fifty
and convicted
killed
between
young boys. No one
69
knew the exact number. Worse than that was the way that he had killed them. He had bitten their throats, drained their blood,
and then
eaten their bodies.
He was
executed in Berlin in 1925. But his
body was not buried immediately. Before al,
his brain
buri-
was taken out and examined by
professors at the University of Gottingen.
No
information was uncovered that might explain
why he had committed
70
such awful crimes.
SOME REAL EXPLANATIONS
can't
blame
all
of the
superstition, however.
vampire
beliefs
There are things
on
to be
considered that should help you understand
why It
they came about.
seems that people have always believed
ghosts.
In fact,
based upon this
And
it
also
some modern
The
religions are
belief.
seems that blood has always had
magical properties as far as cerned.
in
Some
humans
are con-
religions used blood sacrifices.
Bible points out that blood
71
is life.
If
you believe that there are such things
ghosts and that blood result?
You might
magical
way
the living.
is
magic, what
believe
a
back to haunt
And you might even
believe that a
having his or her blood taken
is
away by some supernatural let's
be
scientific.
called
see-ah).
The people who
Not
creature.
There
mental
a
is
hematodypsia (he-mat-o-Dip-
disease
blood.
is
of bringing a ghost
dying person
But
the
is
that blood
as
that
most
of
drink their blood. But
suffer
them
if
from
it
crave
and
bite people
they happen to cut
themselves, they might have an overpowering desire to lick
up the blood. But there have
been exceptions
to this gentle behavior.
John George Haigh ran It
was
later
a hotel in
found out that he had
London.
killed
nine
people in the 1940s. Haigh had lured them to his
home and
opened
their veins
was executed There
clubbed them to death. Then he
is
and drank
their blood.
He
in 1949.
also a
chance that Elizabeth Bath-
72
Daily
-
Mirror WIPM 'Ml
John George Haigh as a
-
I
twelve-year-old choirboy.
Top
right.
Mr. Haigh,
YAMPIREA MAN HELD
at the
time of his conviction.
Bottom right. This may be how vampire legends start. The front page of a London newspaper when Haigh was arrested.
3 thirsty Russians rush the barricade
Ikf
r'Mti
•••
iMiii
ai
(
--
(
I
ory had this mental disease.
about
that there have
is
it
One
nice thing
been cases where
the sick person was cured by psychiatrists.
Another explanation premature
for the belief in
pires
is
may
not be really dead
burial.
buried. This probably in the past,
were not
That
is,
a
vam-
person
when he or she is happened many times
when medicine and embalming
as exact as they are
now. There was
probably a real possibility that a death report
was not accurate and the person was
when
it
came time
trance. Catalepsy
the body becomes a
coma.
alive
for the funeral.
Perhaps the ''dead" person was in tic
still
a condition in
is
stiff.
a catalep-
The
Normal body
patient goes into
functions,
breathing and heartbeat,
which
may
such as
almost stop.
The person looks dead. This condition can from
a
few minutes
Combine
last
to several days.
this possibility
with
all
that dig-
ging up of graves that went on, and here
another explanation for vampire
74
stories.
is
Sup-
pose that someone has been buried
Then he
or she
wakes up
alive.
in the coffin.
The
victim might not live long, but will probably
claw and fight to get out.
Now They
suppose that people dig up the grave.
find a
body
since the burial.
An
that has
The corpse may have
old painting, called
shows
the
changed position torn
The Resuscitated Corpse,
agony of being buried
75
alive.
and bloody es
fingernails.
There may be scratch-
on the face or even blood on the clothing.
Small wonder that the gravediggers might think that here was the body of a vampire
wandered around
who
at night.
Besides that, the body will not be as rotted as people it
would expect. After
was supposed
to.
all, it
died after
There are religions that
preach that a body that has been cursed
will
not be received by the ground. That
the
body
will
not
is,
rot.
There are other reasons besides premature burial that
would explain why
decomposed very much. Most were buried
in places that
a
of these bodies
were unusual.
For one thing, the burial place area
where
bacteria
of
body has not
may
be in an
decay cannot
live.
People buried in places where the temperature
never gets above freezing would come under that heading.
where
it
is
So would bodies that are buried
very dry. These bodies would be
preserved like dried meat.
76
In
these two cases,
superstitious people
might believe that the undecayed body was the body of a vampire.
But don't forget that the belief in vampires has never been as strong as the belief in other kinds
of
ghosts.
Vampire
stories
seem
spring up just after a piece of fiction lished.
and
Without Varney
all
the
to invent
afraid of.
77
pub-
the Vampire, Dracula,
Creature Features
might have had
is
to
movies,
something
we
else to be
OTHER BOOKS ABOUT VAMPIRES IN
FOLKLORE
Aylesworth, Thomas G. Vampires and Other Ghosts. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1972.
Cohen, Daniel. A Natural History of Unnatural Things. York: The McCall Publishing Company, 1971.
New
Parson, Daniel.
Vampires, Zombies, and Monster Men.
New
York: Doubleday
& Company,
Inc., 1976.
Garden, Nancy. Vampires. Philadelphia,
Company,
B.
Lippincott
of the Unlaiown.
New York:
Pa.:
J.
1973.
Godwin, John. Unsolved: The World Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976.
Summers, Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. Secaucus, N.J.: University Books, Inc., 1960.
The Vampire
in
Europe. Secaucus, N.J.: University Books,
Inc., 1961.
79
IN THE MOVIES
Thomas
Aylesworth, phia, Pa.:
J.
G. Monsters from the Movies. Philadel-
B. Lippincott
Company,
Movie Monsters. Philadelphia,
1972. Pa.:
J.
B. Lippincott
Com-
pany, 1975. Edelson, Edward. Great Monsters of the Movies.
Doubleday
&:
Company,
Manchel, Frank. Terrors
New
York:
Inc., 1973.
of the Screen.
Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970.
IN LITERATURE Haining, Peter (ed). Vampires Dunlap, 1970. Stoker, Bram. Dracula.
New
at
Midnight.
New York:
York: Grosset
80
&
Grosset
Dunlap, 1974.
&
INDEX
Albania,
5,
Calmet, Dom Augustin, 6 Carpathian Mountains, 62
19
Leone, 6 Alexander (Greek shoemaker), 32-34 Allaci,
catalepsy, 74
Cepesi, Alexander, 64
Chaney, Lon
Sr., 12
Creature Features, 77 Crete, 5
Bathory, Elizabeth, 65, 67-68, 72, 74
bats, 29-32
Csejthe, 65
Berwick vampire, 49-50 Bible, The, 71 Bishop of Lincoln, 36 Buckinghamshire vampire, 35-36
Czechoslovakia, 19, 48-49
decapitation of vampires, 50
Bulgaria, 5, 19, 23, 28, 39, 50
Devil's Castle, The, 12
burial,
dearg-dul, 5
Death Grasp, The, 12
premature, 74-76
Dracula, 19, 63
Burma, 26
Dracula (Stoker), 12, 19, 40,
burning vampires, 49, 50 Byron, Percy, 7
55, 60, 64
Dracula
81
(film), 12, 77
empusas,
2
England,
7,
Maniac 35-36, 48
excommunication
of
vam-
Father, The, 12
Matthias II, 67 Mexico, 26
•
mirrors, 24
pires, 45
moroi, 60
45-46
movies about vampires, 15-16
68-70
Nadasty, Ferencz, 65, 67
Faust, 7
France,
6, 7,
Germany,
7,
Nosferatu, 12
Goblet of Gore, The, 12
Goethe, 7
pamgri, 5
graves of vampires, 51-52 Greece, 2-3, 5, 6, 19, 23-24, 26, 28, 42, 50-51, 52
Haarman,
12,
physical characteristics of
vampires, 20-24 Poland,
5, 19,
23
Polynesia, 5
6S-70 Haigh, John George, 72 hantu penyardin, 5 Fritz,
hematodypsia,
Prest,
24, 39-42, 44
horses, 52 44, 65,
Preskett, 9
protection against vampires,
72, 74
Hungary, 5, 19, hypnotism, 35
Thomas
67-68
Romania,
19, 26,
54-64
Russia, 5, 19, 23, 35, 46, 51
Scotland, 49-50 Ireland, 5, 36-38 Isle of
Man, 42
Serbia, 42
shadows, 24 silver bullet,
46
katakhana, 5
Snagov Monastery,
Keats, 7
Southey, 7
vampire, 45-46, 48-51
killing a
59, 64
Stoker, Bram, 12, 19, 55, 60 striges, 5
suicide, 26, 46
lamias, 3
London After Midnight, 12
tii,
Lugosi, Bela, 12
Tirgoviste, 63
Malaysia, 5
Transylvania, 62 Turkey, 19
82
5
vrykolaka (vroucolaca), 5
upuir, 5
Varney the Vampire,
9,
werewolves, 26, 46
77
vapir, 5
witches, 41
vilkolak, 5
wooden
Vlad III (Dracul), 55 Vlad IV (Tepes), 54-55, 58-
wurwolaka,
stake, 46, 48-49 5
Yugoslavia, 19, 28, 39
60, 62-64, 68
83
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Thomas G. Aylesworth, Ph.D, has
written
WHO'S OUT THERE?, MONSTERS FROM THE more than fourteen books, including
MOVIES, and THIS VITAL AIR, THIS VITAL WATER. He has taught in public schools and has been a professor at Michigan State University and a special lecturer at
Wes-
leyan University. At one time senior editor of
Current Science, he a
is
now
a senior editor
with
major publishing house. Dr. Aylesworth
lives in
Stamford, Connecticut with his wife
and two children.
85
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