VAMPIRES
The word ‘vampire’ is from the Slavonic wampyr; and since the famous novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker (Constable and Co, London, 1897), and the many films and plays based upon it, people usually associate the belief in vampires with the Balkan countries. It is not generally realised that this belief was formerly just as strongly held in Britain.
Nevertheless, it is the real origin of the old custom of burying the unhallowed dead at a crossroads, with a stake through the corpse’s heart. The object of this practice, which was not abolished by law until 1823, was to prevent the corpse becoming a vampire.
Vampirism has always been associated with black magic. Those who practised black magic in their lifetime were particularly likely to become vampires after their death. Some occultists today believe vampirism to be a fact, although fortunately a rare one.
Opinions differ as to what precisely a vampire is. Some believe it to be an evil spirit, which animates the newly-dead body of a person wicked enough to have some affinity with it. Others say that the vampire is the soul of the dead person, who because of his or her bad conscience, is afraid to pass on to the Other World, and so remains earthbound. The soul clings deperately to its link with earth; that is, its mortal body. It prevents this from decaying by sending a ghostly simulacrum of itself, formed of etheric material, to attack the living and feed upon their blood, which is the vital stream of life. This dangerous ghost feeds not so much upon the actual blood, as upon the vitality of its victim, whose very life may be slowly drained away by such a visitation.
A third theory is the more crude one, that the vampire is actually a living corpse, which sleeps in its tomb by day, and leaves it at night to prowl in search of blood, by which means it sustains its unholy life. The Slavs call such hideous creatures of darkness Nosferatu, “the Undead”.
It is a vampire of this kind that is described in the famous and horrible story of the Vampire of Croglin Grange, recorded by Augustus Hare in his memoirs. Augustus Hare was a Victorian clergyman with a penchant for collecting ghost stories, and he set this one down as if it were fact. Later researchers, however, think it may be fictional; as, although there is a place called Croglin in Cumberland, they cannot trace the ‘Hall’ or ‘Grange’ where this frightful tale is supposed to have happened.
In brief, a young lady living at Croglin Grange was supposed to have been attacked by a terrible, corpse-like being which got in through her bedroom window and bit her in the throat. The men of the house pursued the horror, and shot at it; but it escaped in the darkness, and made its way towards the churchyard. The next day, they renewed the search, and eventually discovered the creature lying in a coffin, within a vault. In its leg was the mark of the bullet that had been fired at it the previous night. The body was destroyed, and the haunting ceased.
However, if there is any truth in the legend of the vampire, the second of the theories detailed above seems the most likely one.
In the days when witches were hanged in England, it is probable that their bodies were often buried at a crossroads, with a stake through the heart, because witches were believed to be likely to become vampires after their death. There are many stories of haunted crossroads in lonely places in the English countryside, which probably have their origin in this old custom. Suicides, too, and anyone who died under the Church’s ban, were often buried in this way.
Some interesting particulars of very old English vampire stories are given by Thomas Wright, in his Essays on Subjects Connected with the Literature, Popular Superstitions, and History of England in the Middle Ages (2 vols, John Russell Smith, London, 1846). He tells us:
Several stories of the English vampyres of the twelfth century are given in the twenty-second and twenty-third chapters of the fifth book of William of Newbury’s History. The body of a man in Buckinghamshire left his grave, and wandered about both by night and day, to the terror and danger of the neighbourhood. Application was made to the bishop of Lincoln, then at London, who held a consultation with his friends on the subject; and in the course of the inquiry some of them told him that it was a thing of no uncommon occurrence in England, and that the only remedy was to dig up the body and burn it. However, another method of getting rid of the monster was suggested. The bishop made out a chartula of absolution, the grave was opened, and the body was found without any signs of corruption: the chartula was placed on its breast, and, after the grave had been again closed up, it was never more seen or heard of. Another such body caused a pestilence at Berwick-upon-Tweed. The body of a priest of Mailros, which wandered about in the same manner, was wounded in the shoulder by a man who was watching to drive it away; and when, immediately afterwards, the grave to which it had been traced was opened, it was found full of blood. Another had been so destructive, that some of the young men of the village agreed to go together to dig him up and burn him. They found the body but slightly covered with earth, ‘swoln out with an enormous corpulency, and its face red and chubby’; and so much blood flowed from it when pierced with a sharp weapon, that it might thereby be known to have been a ‘sucker of the blood of many’.
Walter Map, in his treatise De Nugis Curialium, also gives some curious stories of English vampires in the twelfth century, which shows how prevalent this belief was among our forefathers at that period.
The correct wood for the stake which was driven through the corpse’s heart is generally said to be ash; though some accounts give whitethorn or rowan. Garlic, either the flowers or the bulb, is also recommended as a protection against evil influences. It should be used fresh; when it has dried up and become stale it should be burned, and replaced with fresh flowers or root, as necessary. The wild dog rose is another flower which has the virtue of repelling vampires.
The probable reason why we connect the Balkan countries of Transylvania, as that region used to be called, with vampirism, is that so great a terror of vampires prevailed there in the early eighteenth century that a government enquiry took place, and was reported in the contemporary press.
At Meduegya in Servia in 1732 the case occurred which prompted the official investigation referred to above. There had been previous reported cases; but this was the first one to be investigated in such a way, and it seemed to bear out the old belief that vampirism is contagious. Those who die of the vampire’s assaults become vampires themselves.
It appears that five years previously a man called Arnod Paole had been killed by falling from a wagon. During his lifetime, Paole often recounted how he had once been bitten by a vampire. The people of Meduegya soon had good reason to remember these tales, when an outbreak of vampirism began to terrorise the neighbourhood. As a result of it, four people died.
It was decided to open Paole’s grave, and forty days after his burial this was done. The body was found to be quite fresh, and shockingly stained with blood. The vampire corpse was burnt at once; but the epidemic continued to spread. Eventually, the trouble reached such proportions that it came to the ears of the government, and official action was taken.
A detachment of soldiers, including three army surgeons, together with their commanding officer, were sent to Meduegya. Their orders were to open the graves of those who had died recently, examine the bodies, and if necessary, burn those which appeared to be in the vampire condition.
They made a detailed report of what they found, dated 7th January 1732. It makes one of the most amazing and grisly stories ever to find its way into official records. Thirteen graves were opened in all; and of these, ten were found to contain corpses that were fresh and rosy-cheeked, and which when dissected proved to contain fresh blood. The other three bodies, although exhumed from the same cemetery, and in some cases more recently interred than the suspect corpses, were undergoing the normal process of decomposition.
All the bodies which were found to be in the vampire condition were beheaded and then burnt to ashes.
The lore of vampires tells us that they are only active between sunset and sunrise. They are things of darkness, and cannot bear the clean light of the sun. Dogs, which are psychically sensitive animals, can perceive the approach of a vampire, and will become unusually disturbed, barking and howling, if such a fearful entity is abroad in the night. The Buckinghamshire vampire, written of by William of Newbury, was unusual in being active “both by night and day”.
I have not touched here upon the subject of vampirism by the living; to do so in full would make this entry excessively long. It should be said, however, that apart from such psychopathic cases as that of the murderer John George Haigh, who drank the blood of his victims, there is a very dangerous kind of vampirism which consists of draining the vitality of another person. When done deliberately, this is a form of black magic. It is sometimes done, however, more or less unconsciously, by selfish and possessive people, and the results for the victim can be serious.