The story of vampires : illustrated with photographs and old prints 0070026475, 0070026483

Citation preview

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

J GP62C

U56G81C