Thy corpse shall from it's tomb be rent:
Then gastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loath the banquet which preforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse.
Thy victims are yet they expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
(Lord George Byron 1788-1824)
The Modern Vampire
The Vampire has become an easily recognizable character in Western popular culture. Vampires are often recognized by similar popular charactaristics. Vampires are like "normal" human beings in most respects and are thus able to live more or less comfortably in modern society. They are different, however, in that they posses a pair of fangs, have a pale complexion, sleep in coffins, are associated with bats, and tend to only come out at night. Their long eye teeth (fangs) are used to create holes in the neck of their victems and then blood is extracted out of these holes. The blood is their nourishment.
Vampires are said to sleep during the day, and awaken at night due to possible death if exposed to sunlight. During the day, they are in a coma like sleep. Another rumor, is that they have red eyes and their flesh is cold to the touch. Another idea is that they may not be able to enter some rooms without being invited. In addition, Vampires are thought to aquire supernatural powers which include, Extreme strength, the ability to fly (or at least levitate), possesion of hypnotic powers, acute vision, and they can under go thansformation into animal forms.
Objects That Can Damage Vampires
There are many beliefs that Vampires can be hurt by a number of things. These things are, Garlic, Sunlight, sacred symbols such as the cross, and holy water. They may also be killed by a wooden stake driven into the heart (which would kill any mortal as well), or by fire. It is alos said that some Vampires need to sleep on Native soil or at least carry some soil from their home area with them.
Folkloric Vampires
The Vampire has not always been described as above. Folkloric Vampires appeared in numerous forms as demonic creatures. The Malaysian penangglan, for example, was pictured as a severed head with entrials dangling down. The Indian Goddess Kali had a hideous form and was often pictured as dancing on corpses with fangs portruding from her bloodied lips. However, most commenly, the vampire appeared as the corpse of a person recently deceased. It could be recognized by its dress in burial clothes and could be identified by someone who had known them in life and understood that they were deceased and should not be walking around the town. Very often, the Vampire would not be seen. Instead, the effects of the Vampire would be found. Usually the wasting away and dying of people from unknown causes and the unusual deaths of livestock.
Vampires, if seen, generally appeared to the people that closest knew them. In some cases, especially amont the Gypsies and southern Slavs, they would return to engage in sexual relations with a former spouse or lover. In other cases, they would launch a personal attack on family members, friends, or local livestook. In some instances, the Vampire would assume a new existance, something that approached normal life. In Malaysia, for example, the langsuyar assumed the role of a wife and could not bear and rasie children.
Vampires in America
European settlers who came to America brought their belief in Vampires with them. Although most colonists arrived before the the Vampire became part of the popular culture of Great Britain. Certainly, Polish settlers from the Northern Kashab area of Poland brought and kept alive vampire belifs in their Anadial settelments. Amid the vast mythology of many Native Americans tribes there have been few vampires reported, and even passing references to American Indians are rare in vampire literature, and even passing references to American Indians are rare in vampire literature. Similarly, there have been few reports from the African American community, though remnants of African vampire mythologies have appeaared in the South.
While reports of Vampires in the United States have been infrequent, there are stories scattered throughout the nineteenth century of what appear to, at least on cursory examination, to document a belief in vampires and actions taken against them by setters in a rather confined areas of New England. The first such incident reportedly occured during the American Revoltion. A man named Stukeley, who had 14 children, began to experiance the death of his brood one by one. After six had died, one of the deceased, his daughter Sarah, began to appear in dreams to his wife. The bodies were exumed and all but that of Sarah had decomposed. With each body, they cut out the heart, and burned before reburying the bodies. The first account of this story was not published until 1888, a century after it supposedly occured. No contemprary accounts of this story exist.
The secondcase was reported in 1854, much closer to the time of its occerance. It concerened the Ray family of Jewett City, Connecticut. Besides the father and mother, there were five children. Between 1845 and 1854, the father and two sons had died of consumption, and a third son had become ill. (Throughout the nineteenth century, consumption i.e., tuberculosis, was a deadly disease with no known cause of cure. It thus became the subject of much occult speculation.) The family believing that their deceased relitives were the cause of the problem, exhumed all of the bodies and burned them. Henry Thoreau recorded in his journal on September 16, 1859, "I have just read of a family in Vermont who, several of its membershaving died of consumption, just burned the lungs, heart, and liver of the last deceased in order to prevent any more from having it.
There are many othe occurences recorded of vampires in America. The list goes on, yet I wish not to continue writting of this.
Vampires in China
The Chinese Vampire is refered to as The "chiang-shih". Belief in vampires partially derived from a chinese belief in two souls. Each person had a superior and an inferior soul. The former had the form of the body and upon seperation could appear as its exact double. The supirior soul could leave it's sleeping body and wander about the countryside. For a short period it could possess the body of another and speak through it. If accidents befall the wandering soul, it would hve negitive repercussions on the body. On occasion, the supirior soul appeared in an animal form.
The inferior soul, called the p'ai, or p'o, was the soul that inhadited the fetus during a pregnancy and often lingered in the body of a deceased person leading to its unantural preservation.
The chiang-shih seems to have originated as a means of explaining problems associated with death. The chiang-shih arose following a violent death due to suicide, hanging, or drowning. It could also appear in a person who had died suddenly, or as a result of improper burial procedures.The dead were thought to become angry or restless if their burial was postponed for a long time after death. Also Animals, especially cats, were kept away from the body to prevent them from jumping over the unburied corpse. Lest it would then become a Vampire.
The chiang-shih lacked some of the powers of the Slavic Vampires. It could not for example, dematerialize, hence it was unable to rise from the grave, being inhibited both by the coffin and the soil. Thus their transformation would have to take place before burial. The Chinese Vampires were nocturnal creatures and limited their activity to the night hours. The chiang-shih hac trouble crossing running water.
The chiang-shih were vicious. Reports detailed their attacks on living people, where they ripped off their heads or limbs. They had to surprise their victems because they had to powers to lure their victims to them. Over a period of time, the vampires gained strength and began to transform to a mobile state. They would frsake the coffin habitat, master the art of flying, and develop a covering of long white hair. They might also change into wolves.
There were several means of protecting one from the Chinese Vampire. Garlic, a universal medical herb, was said to keep vampires away. Salt was believed to have a corrosive effect on the Vampires skin. Vampires were easily offeneded with loud noises, and thunder would occasionaly kill one. Brooms were weapons in the way that a brave person could actually sweep the Vampires back to their resting place. Iron filings, and red peas created barriers to the entry of the Vampire and would be placed around a vacant coffin to keep a vampire from taking this as it's resting place.
Expainations Of Vampirism
As reports of vampires filtered into the mainstream, So did “credible” explanations. Scholars and Church officials attempted to explain the accounts as simple superstition. And some actually took the matters seriously and explained possible reasons for
occurrences. Actual accounts of vampirism usually began with people dying from alingering disease. After some of these people died, neighbors dug up the corpses and observed a variety of unusual conditions, all signs of continuing life. The bodies had not
decayed. The skin had a ruddy complexion and the hair and fingernails had continued to
grow. Fresh flesh had appeared as the outer layer of the skin peeled off. Blood was
present around the mouth and in the body when it was cut or punctured. There might be a
sexual erection on the bodies of males. If staked, the body reacted as if in pain.
Occasionally, when a stake was thrust into the body, the corpse was heard to cry out in
pain. In Northern Europe, reports of chewed off appendages suggested to observers that
vampires fed on themselves before leaving the grave to feed on others.
By far, The most popular explanation of vampire reports was premature burial.
Many people in the eighteenth century knew of catalepsy, a disease in which the person
took on many of the symptoms of the dead; on occasion, such people were removed by
the undertaker and even buried before they reawakened.
Others suggested that anomalous incidents of preservation of the body for its
normal rate of decay accounted for the state of the exhumed bodies. Perhaps something in
the soil or an unusual lack of moisture in the air slowed the decay. Possibly the shriek
heard when the corpse was staked was the escape of trapped air. Similarly, others
suggested that what was being observed was simply the natural decay of the body. Most
people were unaware of the continued changes in the body after death, such as the loss of
rigidity.
Another debatable reason for the vampire epidemics was diseases that caused
vampire-like symptoms. High on the list was the Black plague sometimes known as the
black death. An epidemic of the plague occurred simultaneously with the vampire
outbreak in East Prussia in 1710. The spread of the plague germs could account for the
spread of vampire symptoms. During the twelfth century, rabies was offered as a specific
explanation of vampirism. People with rabies would often bite others and manifest
animal-like behavior, and had an unquenchable thirst. There also were outbreaks of rabies
in Hungry, Saxony, and East Prussia during the eighteenth century. In nineteenth century
New England, people suffered from Tuberculosis. They then blamed multiple deaths on
Vampires and treated the bodies accordingly. Most recently, in the 1960’s, the disease
porphyria has been suggested as an explanation of vampire reports. One characteristic of
porphyria is an extreme sensitivity to light.
So, there were many possible explanations for Vampires. But it seems that People
still stuck to there beliefs in the walking undead. On possible explanation for their beliefs
is that People that have recently lost a loved one due to an unexplainable death were not
likely to listen to possible rational explanations. And from that, they simply relied on their
superstitions.