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The
vampire is a specter which has been feared by peoples around the world for
many centuries. Despite the wide distribution of time and distance from which
tales of the vampire have come, the lore of the vampire is surprisingly
uniform. Most of the descriptions of the vampire attacks have come from Greece,
China, and the Slavic nations; the notions that these widely separated peoples
had of the origin of the vampire, his power, and his limitations are very
similar.
The
vampire is commonly considered to be one who exists in the state of "living
death," literally a re-animated corpse. Some traditions have it that a
vampire is a corpse inhabited by an alien demon, others, that it is a corpse
in the possession of a sorcerer as a "familiar," (a situation within
the realms of black magic) and still others, by far the majority, which
describe the vampire as a body possessed by the soul it had in life. Whatever
the means of animation, the vampire is one who once lived, died a corporeal
death, and then rose from the grave to walk the earth and haunt the living. He
inhabits the grave of his burial during the day and roams at night. The
purpose of his wanderings is the attainment of that which will maintain his
"living-death" state. He seeks blood, the life-fluid of the living,
to retain his own vitality. His victims grow emaciated, anemic, and extremely
weak; his death usually follows, while the vampire attains a state of "health."
Having drunk blood of a living being, the vampire, previously a fleshless and
bloodless ghastly figure gains the corporeal qualities of human life and
health: extreme strength, the power of speech, the ability to take in food,
and to beget children. The vampire also gains vitality through sexual
intercourse with the living and children are sometimes born from this union.
It
is only during the day that those who seek to destroy the vampire may come,
for the vampire's potency exists only at night, and disappears at cock-crow.
When the body of a vampire is exhumed, the corpse is found to be
uncorrupted--in the same undecayed from as on the day of its burial. The body
seems gorged and turgid, the hair and nails have grown, the lips are
blood-stains, the eyes are open, and the cheeks are more rosy than in life. To
end the wanderings of the vampire a stake must be driven through its heart
with one blow of a mallet; two blows would wake him up. The head is then cut
off and placed between the legs. Once the vampire is "killed," the
body turns immediately to dust, or to the state of corporeal corruption that
would be natural to the time period following the "first death."
Often the body is also cremated to make certain of the destruction of the body.
According to some tales, care must be taken during the cremation not to allow
any of the vermin (snakes & lizards) associated with or contained within
the vampire's body to escape destruction; if any do escape, the vampire will
grown from these to flourish anew.
There
are many who become vampires after their death. Their commonest denominator is
that there was some irregularity in their burial rites; for this reason their
souls are not permitted to rest and they are doomed to walk the earth until
their corpse has been properly buried, the original irregularity being
corrected. The list of "potential vampires" includes primarily those
refused the burial sacraments of the church because they had been
excommunicated, or had died unabsolved of their sins in life, had been
suicides, or died by drowning. Those who died especially violent deaths were
refused proper burial; those killed by lightning are refused burial because
their deaths are attributed directly to the wrath of God. Those especially
wicked in life are buried in unhallowed ground, as are suspected sorcerers.
Those dying while under the curse of a witch, second generation illegitimate
children, still-born babies, unbaptized children, the seventh out of seven
children born to one family, anyone touched by the blood of the vampire,
anyone with a caul (this only in the Slavic nations; in other countries, a baby
born with the caul is considered lucky.) the baby of a pregnant woman who
doesn't eat salt or who is seen by a vampire, or anyone who is killed by a
vampire will become, after his burial, a vampire. Emphasizing the close
connection between the vampire and the werewolf, anyone who is a werewolf in
life will be a vampire after death; the offspring of the union between a witch
and a werewolf is also a vampire. A corpse over which a cat or dog jumps, or
upon which the shadow of one of these animals falls will become a vampire. A
vampire may also be a soul in revolt against the natural order of the universe,
one who doesn't wish to relinquish his material body at death and thus returns
to walk the earth. The incidents of vampire attacks increase as does an
epidemic since anyone who is killed by one, becomes one.
Many
charms and methods have evolved to prevent vampire attacks, to discover the
location of the vampire's grave, to kill the vampire, and to keep a suspected
corpse quiet. Most charms were directed toward the immediate protection of the
house and its occupants. The most common charms were crosses of tar and pitch
painted on doors and windows to prevent the entry of vampires and witches. The
rationale was that the vampire would become stuck in the tar, and remain so
until dawn when the light of the sun would render him powerless. The rationale
was that the vampire would become stuck in the tar, and remain so until dawn
when the light of the sun would render him powerless. The vampire also fears
the sign of the cross, indeed anything connected with Christ, so this amulet
was double affective. Wreaths of thistle and thorn shrubs were used in the
same manner, the vampire supposedly becoming entangled in the thorns. Garlands
of garlic flowers were hung around the house, and around the neck of the
individual. Garlic is especially odious to the vampire so it is used as an
amulet. The mouth of a suspected corpse was often stuffed with it to prevent
his wandering. A man was considered a potential vampire if he refused to eat
garlic. Garlands of garlic flower, thistles, or wild roses were often wrapped
around the coffin of a suspected vampire to prevent his exit, he could become
entangled in the briars. Millet grains were often spread over a vampire's
grave because it was felt that he could not pass until he had counted them
all, and by that time it would be dawn. On that same rationale that a vampire
must follow out any complicated pattern or task presented to him before he may
pass it, other charms consisted of complex braids or painted patterns and were
placed on doors and windows, and around the grave itself.
Special
means were used to find the grave of a vampire. As a direct contrast to the
evil of the vampire, virgin purity was used to seek him out. A virgin boy on a
pure white stallion which had not yet mated walked through the cemetery. The
horse would not step over the grave of the vampire, and it would become
extremely agitated. A gander was sometimes used in place of the horse and it,
too, would not step on that grave. Once found, the measures already described
were used to dispose of the vampire. Differences arise among various peoples
as to the type of wood which will make the stake more effective. Most
prevalent are the thorn woods and mistletoe. A method of destruction used in
China was to place red rice, peas and pieces of iron around the grave of a
vampire at night, when he returned to his grave before dawn he would not able
to pass into the earth, and so would be rendered powerless when the sun rose.
Another variation was used in Greece. There, some vampires were transported
during the day to an island. The vampire cannot cross water, so there were
effectively isolated.
The
vampire, as I described above, is what I tern a historical vector-sum, the
product of the accumulation of man's darkest fears and deepest beliefs. The
different vectors are primitive man's fear of the dead, his search for
immortality, his desire to control his environment, his anthropomorphic
concepts of the fertility of the earth and its creation, his animism, his
concept of the universe and his place in it, and his gradual, intellectual
maturity, all of which have, over a long period of time, converged to give the
relatively sophisticated picture of the vampire we have today. The most
significant fact about the vampire, that he is able to go on "living"
beyond mortal death, and the myths concerning his origin and the articles
connected with him indicated a very strong connection between the vampire and
the serpent. The vampire is related to the ancient fertility myths, both by
the original fertility significance held by the serpent, and the vampire's own
cycled characteristics of life: his sleep patterns, his return from the dead,
and his revitalization through nourishment and intercourse with the living.
The
two myths explaining the origin of what may be called the vampire are very
similar. They probably are, therefore, variations on the same folk-lore motif.
The first myth is the story of Lamia, the beautiful queen of Libya who was
loved by Zeus. A child was born of their union. Hera, out of jealousy and
anger, stole the infant. Sorrowing, Lamia retired to a cave by the sea. Time
passed, and Lamia, now represented in an ugly form, roamed at night, stealing
and eating the new-born babies of others. Gradually her tastes expanded to the
seduction of young men, killing them by either making love to them until they
died, or by drinking their blood. She was able to assume a beautiful form at
will, but always returned to her ugliness. During one of her states, the lower
half of her body was serpentine, and she had wings. This half-dragon state was
considered to be one of her states of existence or a transition between the
beautiful woman and the serpent-dragon. Modern female vampires are supposed to
have red hair, very pale skin, and green eyes which they may remove at will.
Lamia, and those that followed her, known as Lamiae, was also able to remove
her eyes from her head.
The
second myth concerns Lilith, the first wife of Adam in the Bible. Lilith was
created at the same time as Adam, from the same clay as he was, and therefore
his equal in all things. She refused to be subservient to Adam, developed
wings, and flew from him. The angels found her hiding place and told her that
her punishment for leaving Adam would be that all children born to her would
die. Deep in sorrow, she contemplated suicide. The angels took pity on her and
gave her full power over all babies born for their first week of life. Into
more recent times, there are spells which mention Lilith by name to keep her
away from one's child. Special care is taken to place the baby in the care of
the angels to protect them from harm resulting from Lilith's jealousy and
sorrow for her own lost children. Lilith later became the wife of Satan,
himself often described as a serpent. Children of their union, which
apparently were not subject to the original course, lived and were known as
demons. Lilith also seduced young men and killed them.
Another
vector that has become a part of the vampire is the special life-significance
of blood. The vampire's nightly wanderings were specifically in search of
blood. The attainment of this goal meant the renewal of the human capacities
of corporeal life, but not only temporary. By drinking the blood of a living
human, the vampire gained the power of speech, strength, sexual potency, and
the appearance of extreme bodily health. The vampire, in effect, took life
from his victim in the blood, literally and figuratively. Primitive man felt
that the blood was the life of the person. The empirical proof was the fact
that extensive blood loss was always followed by death. The possession of
blood was the essence of life. Physically taking-in someone else's blood
resulted in the increment of one's own vitality. Since blood was so vital to
life, it was thought to have a soul of its own; thus drinking the blood of
another came to be identified with the removal and possession of his soul. The
heart of the vampire was always pierced with a seat of the emotions. The heart
of the vampire was always pierced with a stake when the vampire was being
destroyed, thus putting an end to his malice.
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