Dear Archy,--In acknowledging my former letter, you express an eager
desire to learn, as you phrase it, "all about vampyrs, if there ever
were such things." I will not delay satisfying your curiosity, wondering
only how my friend, your late tutor, Mr H., should have left you in a
state of uncertainty upon a point on which, in my time, schoolboys many
years your juniors had fully made up their minds.
"Were there ever such things as vampyrs?" _tantamne rem tam
negligenter?_ I turn to the learned pages of Horst for a luminous and
precise definition of the destructive and mysterious beings, whose
existence you have ventured to consider problematical.
"A vampyr is a dead body, which continues to live in the grave, which it
leaves, however, by night, for the purpose of sucking the blood of the
living, whereby it is nourished, and preserved in good condition,
instead of becoming decomposed like other dead bodies."
Upon my word, you really deserve--Since Mr George Combe has clearly
shown in his admirable work "On the Constitution of Man, and its
adaptation to the world around him," that ignorance is a statutable
crime before Nature, and punishable, and punished by the laws of
Providence,--you deserve, I say, unless you contrive to make Mr H. your
substitute, which I think would be just, yourself to be the subject of
the nocturnal visit of a vampyr. Your scepticism will abate pretty
considerably, when you see him stealthily entering your room, yet are
powerless under the fascination of his fixed and leaden eye--when you
are conscious, as you lie motionless with terror, of his nearer and
nearer approach,--when you feel his face, fresh with the smell of the
grave, bent over your throat, while his keen teeth make a fine incision
in your jugular, preparatively to his commencing his plain, but
nutritive repast.
You would look a little paler the next morning, but that would be all
for the moment; for Fischer informs us, that the bite of a vampyr leaves
in general no mark upon the person. But he fearfully adds, "it (the
bite) is nevertheless speedily fatal, unless the bitten person protect
himself by eating some of the earth from the grave of the vampyr, and
smearing himself with his blood." Unfortunately, indeed, these measures
are only of temporary use. Fischer adds, "if through these precautions
the life of the victim be prolonged for a period, sooner or later he
ends with becoming a vampyr himself; that is to say, he dies, and is
buried, but continues to lead a vampyr life in the grave, nourishing
himself by infecting others, and promiscuously propagating vampyrism."
Now this is no romancer's dream. It is a succinct account of a
superstition, which to this day survives in the east of Europe, where
little more than a century ago it was frightfully prevalent. At that
epoch, vampyrism spread like, an epidemic pestilence through Servia and
Wallachia, causing innumerable deaths, and disturbing all the land with
apprehension of the mysterious visitation, against which no one felt his
life secure.
This is something like a good solid practical popular delusion. Do I
believe it?--to be sure I do; the facts are matter of history. The
people died like sheep, and the cause and method of their dying was, in
their belief, what has just been stated. You suppose, then, they died,
frightened out of their lives; as men have died, whose pardon has been
proclaimed when their necks were already on the block, of the belief
that they were going to die? Well, if that were all, the subject would
be worth examining; but there is more in it than that, as the following
o'er true tale will convince you, the essential parts of which are
attested by perfect documentary evidence.
It was in the spring of 1727 that there returned from the Levant to the
village of Meduegna, near Belgrade, one Arnod Paole, who, in a few years
of military service and varied adventure, had amassed enough to purchase
him a cottage, and an acre or two of land in his native place, where he
gave out he meant to pass the remainder of his days. He kept his word.
Arnod had yet scarcely reached the prime of manhood; and though he must
have encountered the rough, as well as the smooth of life, and have
mingled with many a wild and reckless companion, yet his natural good
disposition, and honest principle, had preserved him unscathed amid the
scenes he had passed through. At all events, such were the thoughts
expressed by his neighbours, as they discussed his return and settlement
among them in the stube of the village Hof. Nor did the frank and open
countenance of Arnod, his obliging habits, and steady conduct, argue
their judgment incorrect. Nevertheless, there was something
occasionally, noticeable in his ways, a look and tone that betrayed
inward inquietude. Often would he refuse to join his friends, or on some
sudden plea abruptly quit their society. And he still more
unaccountably, and as it seemed systematically, avoided meeting his
pretty neighbour, Nina, whose father occupied the next tenement to his
own. At the age of seventeen, Nina was as charming a picture as you
could have seen, of youth, cheerfulness, innocence, and confidence in
all the world. You could not look into her limpid eyes, which steadily
returned your gaze, without seeing to the bottom of the pure and
transparent spring of her thoughts. Then why did Arnod shrink from
meeting her? He was young, had a little property, had health and
industry, and he had told his friends he had formed no ties in other
lands. Why, then, did he avoid the fascination of the pretty Nina, who
seemed a being made to chase from any brow the clouds of gathering care?
But he did so. Yet less and less resolutely; for he felt the charm of
her presence; who could have done otherwise? and how could he at last
resist--he didn't--the impulse of his fondness for the innocent girl who
often sought to cheer his fits of depression?
And they were to be united; were betrothed; yet still an anxious gloom
would fitfully overcast his countenance even in the sunshine of those
hours.
"What is it, dear Arnod, that makes you sad? it cannot be on my account,
I know; for you were sad before you ever noticed me; and that I think,"
and you should have seen the deepening rose upon her cheek, as she
added, "surely first made me notice you."
"Nina," he answered, "I have done, I fear, a great wrong in trying to
gain your affections. Nina, I have a fixed impression that I shall not
live; yet, knowing this, I have selfishly made my existence necessary to
your happiness."
"How strangely you talk, dear Arnod! Who in the village is stronger and
healthier than you? You feared no danger when you were a soldier; what
danger do you fear as a villager of Meduegna?"
"It haunts me, Nina."
"But, Arnod, you were sad before you thought of loving me. Did you then
fear to die?"
"Ah, Nina, it is something worse than death:" and his vigorous frame
shook with agony.
"Arnod, I conjure you, tell me."
"It was in Cossova this fate befel me. Here we have hitherto escaped the
terrible scourge. But there they died, and the dead visited the living.
I experienced a first frightful visitation, and I fled, but not till I
had sought his grave, and exacted the dread expiation from the vampyr."
Nina uttered a piercing cry, and fell senseless. Afterwards, they found
a consolation in the length of time, now months, that had elapsed, since
Arnod had left Cossova, during which no fearful visitant had again
approached him; and they fondly began to hope _that_ gave them security.
For the poor girl well knew from many a village tale the danger to which
Arnod had been exposed.
It is a strange world. The ills we fear often never befall us: the blows
that reach us are for the most part unforeseen ones. One day, about a
week after this conversation, Arnod missed his footing and fell from the
top of his loaded hay-wagon. He was picked up stunned and insensible.
They carried him home; where, after lingering some hours, he died; was
buried; but _not_ forgotten.
Twenty or thirty days after his decease, says the perfectly
authenticated report of these transactions, several in the neighbourhood
made complaints that they had been haunted by the deceased Arnod; and
four of the number (among whom, there being nothing in the report to the
contrary, I am afraid we may include poor Nina) died. To put a term to
this fearful evil, the villagers were advised by their Heyduke, who had
had before some experience in such matters, to disinter the body of
Arnod Paole. This step was accordingly taken _forty days after his
burial_.
"The body," says the report, "was found in a perfectly fresh state, with
no sign of decomposition. Fresh blood had recently escaped from its
mouth, with which its shirt was wet. The skin (the epidermis, no doubt)
had separated together with the nails, and there were new skin and nails
underneath. As it was perfectly clear from these signs that he was a
vampyr, conformably to the use established in such cases, they drove a
stake through his heart.
"Whereupon he gave an audible groan, and a quantity of blood flowed from
him. The same day his body was burned to ashes, which were returned to
the grave."
The authorities further staked and burned the bodies of the four others,
who were supposed to have been infected by Arnod: but no mention is
made of the condition in which they were found.
The adoption of this decisive, measure did not, however, entirely
extinguish the evil, which continued still to hang about the village.
About five years afterwards it had again become rife and very prevalent,
and many again died of it. Whereupon the authorities determined to make
a general clearance of the vampyrs in the churchyard of Meduegna, and
for that purpose they had all the graves to which suspicion was
directed, opened, and their contents dealt with conformably to the state
in which they were found, of which the following is the medical report,
here and there _abridged_ only:--
1. A woman of the name of Stana, 20 years of age, who had died 3 months
before of a 3 days' illness following her confinement. She had before
her death avowed that she had anointed herself with the blood of a
vampyr, to liberate herself from his persecution. Nevertheless she, as
well as her infant, whose body through careless interment had been
half-eaten by dogs, both had died. Her body was entirely free from
decomposition. On opening it, the chest was found full of recently
effused blood. The heart and blood-vessels contained no coagulated
blood, and the bowels had exactly the appearances of sound health. The
skin and nails of the hands and feet were loose and came off, but
underneath lay new skin and nails.
2. A woman of the name of Miliza, who had died at the end of a 3 months'
illness. The body had been buried 90 and odd days. In the chest was
liquid blood. The viscera were as in the former instance. The body was
declared by the Heydukes who recognised it, to be in better condition
and fatter than it had been in the woman's legitimate lifetime.
3. The body of a child of 8 years old, that had likewise been buried 90
days; it was in the vampyr condition.
4. The son of a Heyduke, named Milloc 16 years old. The body had lain in
the grave 9 weeks. He had died after 3 days' indisposition, and was in
the condition of a vampyr.
5. Joachim, likewise a Heyduke's son, 17 years old. He had died after a
3 days' illness; had been buried 8 weeks and 4 days; was found in the
vampyr state.
6. A woman of the name of Rusha, who had died of an illness of 10 days'
duration, and had been buried 6 weeks, in whom likewise fresh blood was
found in the chest.
[The reader will understand, that to see blood in the chest it is first
necessary to _cut_ the chest open.]
7. The body of a girl of 10 years of age, who had died 2 months before.
It was likewise in the vampyr state, perfectly undecomposed, with blood
in the chest.
8. The body of the wife of one Hadnuck, buried 7 weeks before; and that
of her infant, 8 weeks old, buried only 21 days. They were both in a
state of decomposition, though buried in the same ground, and closely
adjoining the others.
9. A servant of the Heyduke of the place, by name Rhade, 23 years old;
he had died after an illness of 3 months' duration, and the body had
been buried 5 weeks. It was in a state of decomposition.
10. The body of the Heyduke Stanco, 60 years of age, who had died six
weeks before: there was much blood and other fluid in the chest and
abdomen, and the body was in the vampyr condition.
11. Milloc, a Heyduke, 25 years old. The body had been in the earth 6
weeks. It was in the perfect vampyr condition.
12. Stanjoika, the wife of a Heyduke, 20 years old; had died after an
illness of three days, and had been buried 18 days. The countenance was
florid, and of a high colour. There was blood in the chest and in the
heart. The viscera were perfectly sound. The skin remarkably fresh.
The document which gives these particulars is signed by three regimental
surgeons, and formally countersigned by the lieutenant-colonel and a
sub-lieutenant, it bears the date of June 7, 1732, Meduegna near
Belgrade. No doubt can be entertained of its authenticity, nor of its
_general_ fidelity; the less so, that it does not stand alone, but is
supported by heaps of parallel evidence, only less rigorously
verifiable. It appears to me to establish beyond a question, that,
where the fear and belief of vampyrism is prevailing, and there occur
several deaths after short illnesses, the bodies, when disinterred,
weeks after burial, present the appearance of corpses, from which life
has only recently departed.
What inference shall we draw from this fact?--that vampyrism is true in
the popular sense, and that these fresh-looking and well-conditioned
corpses had some mysterious way of preternaturally nourishing
themselves? That would be to adopt, not to solve the superstition. Let
us content ourselves for the present with a notion less monstrous, but
still startling enough: That the bodies, which were found in the
so-called vampyr state, instead of being in a new and mystical
condition, were simply alive in the common way; that, in short, they
were the bodies of persons who had been buried alive; and whose life was
only extinguished by the ignorance and barbarity of those who
disinterred them. In the following sketch of a similar scene to that
above described, the truth of this inference comes out with terrific
force and vividness.
Erasmus Francisi, in his remarks upon the description of the Archdukedom
of Krain, by Valvasor, speaks of a man of the name of Grando, in the
district of Kring, who died, was buried, and became a vampyr, and as
such was exhumed for the purpose of having a stake thrust through him.
"When they opened his grave, after he had been long buried, his face was
found with a colour, and his features made natural sorts of movements,
as if the dead man smiled. He even opened his mouth, as if he would
inhale fresh air. They held the crucifix before him, and called in a
loud voice, 'See, this is Jesus Christ who redeemed your soul from hell,
and died for you.' After the sound had acted on his organs of hearing,
and he had connected, perhaps, some ideas with it, tears began to flow
from the dead man's eyes. Finally, when, after a short prayer for his
poor soul, they proceeded to hack off his head, the corpse uttered a
screech, and turned and rolled just as if it had been alive, and the
grave was full of blood."
Alive, then, the bodies surely were. And it is from this position, as a
starting point, that we must follow and unravel the whole mystery, _if
we dare_.
Not that there is any particular virulence in this superstition, but
that all superstitions are awkward things to deal with. They have their
own laws, and run through definite stages, but always menace those who
meddle with them. A superstition waxes and flourishes--that is its first
stage; it then wanes in public opinion, is discredited, and is declared
obsolete; that is stage the second. Eventually comes more enlightenment;
its wonders are again admitted, but explained; the false in it separated
from the true; this is its third and last period. And it may be
remarked, that society is never safe against the reproduction of a
superstition, till it has gone through this third stage (analogous to
the disinterment and dissection of a vampyr); till then, it is always
capable of "walking" again. But, which is singular, to the end the
operation of explaining a superstition is unsafe, that is to say, if you
step a quarter of an inch before the sagacious nose of the public. Of
course, if any one should attempt to explain away a flourishing
superstition, he would encounter, not martyrdom, perhaps, any more, but
the persecution of opinion certainly, and the ban of society. But if he
ventures upon the same process, even with one that is already put down,
he is liable to be viewed and attacked as a credulous person, disposed
to revive forgotten rubbish; for he has unwittingly affronted public
opinion by asserting that to be worth examining, which society had
proclaimed an error. Doubly wo to him if his explanation contain some
startling novelty! But, courage! again,--
The bodies disinterred and found in the so-called vampyr state, were
then alive.
But how could they, you ask, be alive after an interment of days or
weeks? How is it possible they could lie without air, boxed up in a
manner which would certainly kill a strong and healthy person in a few
minutes or hours, and yet retain their vitality? I will not bring
forward as favourable cases in point, the instances of frogs and toads
that have been discovered in rocks, where they must have been encased
for years or centuries, alive: first, because, although they are true,
you might equally question these; secondly, because a human being cannot
compete in vitality with a cold-blooded reptile. I shall content myself
with falling back upon the evidence already adduced. The disinterred
bodies _proved_, by their appearance, some even by their behaviour, that
they were alive; and I shall retort upon you the question, how came you
not to know that bodies could live under such circumstances a
considerable length of time, and that many cases have transpired in
which, totally _apart from vampyrism_, bodies have been found turned
over in the coffin, through efforts made by them, when, after their
burial, they had unhappily recovered consciousness?
But what, then, was the pathological condition in which these persons
continued to exist, after they had ceased to appear alive?
It is just one of the profitable results of examining the superstition
before us, that the above question becomes explicitly propounded, and
its solution demanded of physiologists. Its solution cannot fail of
being full of interest, but it is yet, unluckily, a desideratum, or,
like the principle which gives motion to the divining rod, as yet only
indicated and partially outlined.
What is wanted is direct scientific examination, and verification by
competent persons, of all the phenomena the body presents in these
strange circumstances. In the absence, however, of recorded observation,
let us imagine how the thing might come about.
The series of effects surmised would not begin in the heart; analogy
leads us to suppose that primary interruption of the heart's action for
a very brief period is fatal. Somewhere in the Indian seas, death is
inflicted by a backward blow with the elbow on the region of the heart;
a sudden angina is produced, which is promptly fatal. Neither, upon
similar showing, can it commence in obstructed breathing. Then the
commencement of the changes must be sought in the brain. Now it is
analogically by no means very improbable, that the functions of the
nervous system admit of being brought to a complete stand-still, the
wheels of the machinery locking, as it were, of a sudden, through some
influence directly exerted upon _it_, and that this state of interrupted
function should continue for a very considerable period, without loss of
power of recovery. Nor would it be contrary to analogy that such an
arrest of activity in the nervous system should stop, more or less
completely, the act of breathing and the action of the heart, without at
the same time the consequences following which result from either of
these changes, _when they are primary_. The heart, when _not acting by
order_, need not be supposed to lose its contractile force and tendency.
The blood, though not moving, being in contact with living vessels, need
not coagulate. There is no physiological absurdity in supposing such a
general arrest of function, originating in the nervous system, and
continuing an indefinite period without life being extinguished. If a
swimmer be taken with cramp and sink, he is irretrievably dead in five
minutes. But if he sink from a fit of epilepsy, he may remain a longer
time under water, yet recover. But epilepsy is a form of loss of
consciousness beginning in the nervous system--a kind of fit which may,
under certain circumstances, be thus preservative of life. So may we
presume, that in the singular cases we are considering, the body is but
in another and deeper fit, which suspends the vital phenomena, and
reduces its vitality to that of the unincubated egg, to simple life,
without change, without waste or renewal. The body does not putrefy,
because it is alive; it does not waste or require nourishment, because
every action is stilled within it.
But this must be a dull subject of speculation for you, and your mind is
perhaps wandering thence to more practical views. It has struck you
possibly, not without an uncomfortable misgiving, that this obscure, but
unpleasant event may happen to yourself, and what on earth is there to
prevent _your_ being buried alive?
If you wish individually to be as safe as possible, leave by will to
some eminent surgeon, not your habitual attendant, L50, and his railway
expenses, &c., to be paid him for opening your body, when you are
certainly dead; L25 if he opens you, finds you alive, and succeeds in
sewing you up, and keeping you so; L200, on the contrary, to be expended
in indicting him for manslaughter if you die under his hands. I do not
venture to affirm that with all these precautions you would be perfectly
safe. The eminent Vesalius, surgeon, and a favourite of the Emperor
Charles V., with all his experience and knowledge, was unlucky enough to
open a Spanish nobleman by mistake, while he was yet alive. The
consequences, no doubt, were more serious than they would be now.
Vesalius hardly escaped the claws of the Inquisition, and died during
his expiatory pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
If, more comprehensively, you should wish to save others, as well as
yourself, from this awful risk, and have a friend in the legislature,
urge him, or otherwise Mr Wakley, to move for the insertion in any
convenient bill a clause to appoint in every district a qualified
officer to license burials; he had better not be a practising doctor,
but his office might embrace necroscopic inquiries for the coroner, and
the registrarship of births and deaths.
In either case, I would recommend you to offer publicly a premium of
L500, to be paid at the expiration of three years, for the best treatise
upon the signs of death; the same being calculated to form a useful body
of instruction, as yet wanting, either for your private surgeon, or the
new officials.
In England, indeed, our decent respect for the dead, which leads us to
postpone interment as long as possible, is a tolerable security against
being buried alive. The coffin is seldom closed upon the remains, before
decomposition has already commenced. _That_ is death's certain seal;
nor, in the present state of our knowledge, special cases of course
excepted, is it right to consider life surely extinct, till the impress
of that seal is perceptible to the senses.
On the Continent, generally, the interval observed before burial is far
too short for safety. They calculate that in France from twenty to
thirty are annually interred alive, computing from the number of those
who, after supposed death, come to life before the funeral is completed.
I cannot help imagining that this seeming death must be much less
frequent in England than in some other countries; (is that owing to the
more vigorous practice for which English medical men are celebrated,
they either cure or kill?) In Germany, interment is forbidden by law for
three days after death. And there is a curious and humane provision in
the grave-houses attached to the cemeteries of some of the principal
towns: Bodies which are brought too soon, not having performed the three
days' quarantine, are received and lodged, being disposed upon tressles,
with rings on their toes and fingers which are attached to bell-pulls.
The corpse thus, on coming to itself, may have immediate attendance
merely by ringing for it; some one is always there on the watch. But the
humanity of this arrangement, though perfect as long as it lasts, is
finite in duration. As soon as the seventy-two hours prescribed by law
are expired, it is another thing. The body is then legally dead, and
must comport itself accordingly. At any rate, it is at its own risk if
it behaves otherwise than as a corpse, and gives itself any airs of
vitality. This is appalling enough, and would certainly justify any
body, if it could, in getting out at nights and turning vampyr.
And now, to return again to our inquiry. We have got thus far. The
bodies found in the so-called vampyr state are alive. They are in a sort
of fit, the possible duration of which is undetermined. The same fit may
occur, and does occur continually, with no reference to the superstition
of vampyrism. But where the belief in vampyrism is rife, these fits are
more prevalent, and spread sometimes like an epidemic.
The question naturally follows, how is this malady, viewing it as one in
these cases, propagated?
At such seasons, it is far from improbable that there is some physical
cause in operation, some meteorological influence perhaps, electrical or
otherwise, disposing the system to be a readier prey to the seizure. As
certain constitutions of the year alter the blood and lead to fever or
cholera, why should not others render the nervous system irritable and
proner to derangement?
Then it is well known that fright will bring on certain kinds of
fits--in women hysteric fits, in the youth of either sex epileptic fits;
and certainly no ghastlier terror can there be than the accredited
apprehension of vampyrism. And it deserves remark, that impressions upon
the mind are known to be capable of shaping particular kinds of fits,
and especially of exciting and determining the features of sensorial
illusions, that seem adjuvants in vampyrism.
We are able to creep yet a step nearer to the mark. There is great
reason to believe that some human beings have had the power of throwing
themselves into the state of seeming death, _voluntarily_. In Gooch's
surgical works, there is an account of a Colonel Townsend, who asserted
this of himself, and challenged Gooch to witness the performance. And
you may read in the narrative of Gooch, how he and two or three other
competent witnesses saw Colonel Townsend dispose himself to favour the
invasion of this fit, and how he gradually fell into a state apparently
devoid of animation. A very few years ago there was a story in the
papers of a native in India, who undertook for a reward to do the same
feat, and to allow himself to be buried for a stipulated period. A
gentleman, certainly not of a credulous turn in general, told me he was
in India at the time with his regiment; and, though not on the spot,
that he knew the parties who brought the conjuror to work; and that he
believed they positively buried him, and, at the end of the time agreed
upon, disinterred him, and found him alive. But be _this_ story true or
false, the case of Colonel Townsend remains to show the thing asserted
to have been possible--and this remark may be safely added: Whatever
change of the kind the will can bring about, can be twice as readily
wrought by fear or a disturbed imagination.
You are, I hope, or fear rather, by this time satiated with the
marvellous and with the subject. What!--yet another question? Ay. How
came this superstition to arise?
The answer is ready. In those days the belief in ghosts was absolute,
and a vampyr was a sort of ghost. When an ignorant person, that is, when
any one in those days became the subject of a sensorial illusion
representing a human being, to a certainty he identified the creation of
his fancy as somebody he had seen or heard of; then he would tell his
acquaintances that the ghost of such a person haunted him. If the fright
brought on a fit, or seemed to cause his death, the neighbours would
remember how he had before been haunted. Then, in any case, what more
natural than to disinter the body of a supposed visitant, to know why he
is unquiet in the grave? Then, if once a body so disinterred were found
in the fresh and undecomposed state, the whole delusion would start into
existence. The violence used would force blood from the corpse; and that
would be construed into the blood of a victim. The absence of a scar on
the throat of the victim, would throw no difficulty in the way to the
vampyr theory, because vampyrs enjoyed the ghostly character, and all
its privileges. Supposing, again, that at any time chance had brought to
light a body interred alive, and lying still in this fit, the whole yarn
of superstition might again have been spun from that clue.
Do you want more than this? I shall begin to think you at heart
superstitious. I tell you it is contrary to the rules of inductive
logic, to look for, or to use more principles than are sufficient for
the reasonable explanation of phenomena. Yet you urge, do you, that it
is no less unphilosophical, in an obscure and unsettled inquiry, wholly
to exclude the consideration of unlikely possibilities?--Well! it is
nothing to me. Have it your own way: suppose, if you like, that the man
in the grave _had_ something to do with spreading the disease, and that
his nervous system, in its abnormal state, could put itself in relation
with that of another person at a distance. If you like it, have it so.
In one sense, it simplifies the matter. But though I cannot deny your
supposition to be possible, you will excuse me if I profess to hold the
solution, which I have myself given, to be sufficient.
Well! _there_ is an end of the subject, at all events; and I accept your
thanks for having told you all I know about vampyrism. I deserve them
more than you are aware. At the churchyard in Meduegna, my dear Archy, I
had you thoroughly in my power. I saw how your curiosity was raised, and
that an picture I had drawn would have been accepted by you with
avidity; and I must confess it did at one moment occur to me, to
describe to you the exact dress and deportment of the three regimental
surgeons, or Feldscherers, (a handsome word signifying field-barbers),
John Flickinger, Isaac Stegel, and John Fredrick Baumgartner, as well as
the behaviour and remarks of a drummer boy, who held the instrument case
during the _intermortem_ examination, an event he witnessed for the
first time. But I would not abuse my advantage; so I let you off cheaply
with the sole fabrication of Nina, and the personal characteristics of
Arnod Paole, of whom unfortunately nothing has come down to posterity,
but that he was haunted by a vampyr at Cossova, fell from a hay-cart at
Meduegna, and died, and lived a vampyr himself.
I remain, dear Archy,
Yours, &c.
MAC DAVUS.