VAMPIRISM IN GREAT AND GREATER BRITAIN
William of Newbury, who flourished about the middle of the twelfth
century, relates that in his time a man appeared corporeally in the
county of Buckingham for three nights together, to his wife and,
afterwards, to his other relatives. The way they took to defend
themselves against his frightful visits was to stay up all night and make
a noise when they observed that he was coming. Upon this he appeared to
several people in broad day. Hereupon the Bishop of Lincoln summoned his
council, and was informed that the thing was common in England, and that
the only way to stop it which they knew of was to burn the spectre. The
bishop did not relish this advice, as he thought the expedient a cruel
one; but he wrote out a form of absolution on a scrap of paper and
ordered it to be laid on the body of the deceased, which was found to be
as fresh and entire as if it had been dead only a day; and from that time
the apparition was no more heard of. The author adds that these stories
would be thought incredible if several instances of them had not happened
in his time, attested by persons of undoubted credit.
The same author mentions a similar story, the _locale_ of which was
Berwick-on-Tweed, where the body was cut in pieces and burnt. Another
vampire was burnt at Melrose Abbey. It was that of a very worldly priest
who had been in his lifetime so fond of hunting that he was commonly
called a _hundeprest_. A still more remarkable case occurred at a castle
in the north of England, where the vampire so frightened all the people
that no one ever ventured out of doors between sunset and sunrise. The
sons of one of his supposed victims at length opened his grave and
pierced his body, from which a great quantity of blood immediately
flowed, which plainly proved that a large number of persons had been his
victims.
At Waterford, in Ireland, there is a little graveyard under a ruined
church near Strongbow’s Tower. Legend has it that underneath the ground
at this spot there lies a beautiful female vampire still ready to kill
those she can lure thither by her beauty.
A vampire story is also related concerning an old Cumberland farmhouse,
the victim being a girl whose screams were heard as she was bitten,
and who only escaped with her life by thus screaming. In this case the
monster was tracked to a vault in the churchyard, where forty or fifty
coffins were found open, their contents mutilated and scattered around.
One coffin only was untouched, and on the lid being taken off the form
was recognised as being that of the apparition which had been seen, and
the body was accordingly burnt, when the manifestations ceased.
In vol. iii. of _Borderland_ Dr Franz Hartmann gave particulars of some
vampire cases which had come under his observation.
“A young lady of G—— had an admirer, who asked her in marriage; but as
he was a drunkard she refused and married another. Thereupon the lover
shot himself, and soon after that event a vampire, assuming his form,
visited her frequently at night, especially when her husband was absent.
She could not see him, but felt his presence in a way that could leave
no room for doubt. The medical faculty did not know what to make of the
case; they called it ‘hysterics,’ and tried in vain every remedy in the
pharmacopœia, until she at last had the spirit exorcised by a man of
strong faith.”
Another case is that of a miller at D—— who had a healthy servant boy,
who soon after entering his service began to fail in health. He had
a ravenous appetite, but nevertheless grew daily more feeble. Being
interrogated, he at last confessed that a thing which he could not see,
but which he could plainly feel, came to him every night and sat upon his
stomach, drawing all the life out of him, so that he became paralysed for
the time being and could neither move nor cry out. Thereupon the miller
agreed to share the bed with the boy, and proposed to him that he should
give him a certain sign when the vampire arrived. This was done, and when
the sign was given the miller grasped the invisible but very tangible
substance that rested upon the boy’s stomach, and although it struggled
to escape, he grasped it firmly and threw it into the fire. After that
the boy recovered his health and there was no repetition of the vampire’s
visits.
Dr Hartmann adds to this last account: “Those who, like myself, have on
innumerable occasions removed astral tumours and thereby cured physical
tumours will find the above not incredible nor inexplicable. Moreover,
the above accounts do not refer to events of the past, but to persons
still living in this country.”
The following account is taken from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of July
1851:—
“_Singular Instance of Superstition_, A.D. 1629
“The Case, or, rather, History of a Case that happened in the County of
Hereford in the fourth Year of the Reign of King Charles the First, which
was taken from a MS. of Serjeant Mainard, who writes thus:
“‘I write the evidence which was given, which I and many others heard,
and I write it exactly according to what was deposed at the Trial at the
Bar in the King’s Bench. Johan Norkot, the wife of Arthur Norkot, being
murdered, the question arose how she came by her death. The coroner’s
inquest on view of the body and deposition of Mary Norkot, John Okeman
and Agnes, his wife, inclined to find Joan Norkot _felo de se_: for they
(_i.e._ the witnesses before mentioned) informed the coroner and the jury
that she was found dead in the bed and her throat cut, the knife sticking
in the floor of the room; that the night before she was so found she
went to bed with her child (now plaintiff in this appeal), her husband
being absent, and that no other person after such time as she was gone
to bed came into the house, the examinants lying in the outer room, and
they must needs have seen if any stranger had come in. Whereupon the
jury gave up to the coroner their verdict that she was _felo de se_.
But afterwards upon rumour in the neighbourhood, and the observation of
divers circumstances that manifested she did not, nor according to these
circumstances, possibly could, murder herself, thereupon the jury, whose
verdict was not drawn into form by the coroner, desired the coroner that
the body which was buried might be taken up out of the grave, which the
coroner assented to, and thirty days after her death she was taken up, in
the presence of the jury and a great number of the people, whereupon the
jury changed their verdict. The persons being tried at Hertford Assizes
were acquitted, but so much against the evidence that the judge (Harvy)
let fall his opinion that it were better an appeal were brought than so
foul a murder should escape unpunished.
“‘_Anno, paschæ termino, quarto Caroli_, they were tried on the appeal
which was brought by the young child against his father, the grandfather
and aunt, and her husband Okeman. And because the evidence was so strange
I took exact and particular notes of it, which was as followeth, of the
matters above mentioned and related, an ancient and grave person, the
minister of the parish where the fact was committed, being sworn to give
evidence according to custom, deposed, that the body being taken out of
the grave thirty days after the party’s death and lying on the grave and
the four defendants present, they were required each of them to touch the
dead body. O.’s wife fell on her knees and prayed God to show token of
their innocency, or to some such purpose, but her very words I forget.
The appellers did touch the dead body, whereupon the brow of the dead,
which was all a livid or carrion colour (that was the verbal expression
in the terms of the witness) began to have a dew or gentle sweat, which
reached down in drops on the face, and the brow turned and changed to a
lively and fresh colour, and the dead opened one of her eyes and shut
it again, and this opening the eye was done three several times. She
likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three times and pulled it
in again, and the finger dropt blood from it on the grass.
“‘Hyde (Nicholas), Chief Justice, seeming to doubt the evidence, asked
the witness: “Who saw this beside yourself?”
“‘Witness: “I cannot swear that others saw it; but, my lord,” said he,
“I believe the whole company saw it, and if it had been thought a doubt,
proof would have been made of it, and many would have attested with me.”
“‘Then the witness observing some admiration in the auditors, he spoke
further, “My lord, I am minister of the parish, long knew all the
parties, but never had any occasion of displeasure against any of them,
nor had to do with them, or they with me, but as their minister. The
thing was wonderful to me, but I have no interest in the matter, but am
called upon to testify the truth and that I have done.”
“‘This witness was a reverend person as I guess about seventy years of
age. His testimony was delivered gravely and temperately, but to the good
admiration of the auditor. Whereupon, applying himself to the Lord Chief
Justice, he said, “My lord, my brother here present is minister of the
next parish adjacent, and I am assured saw all done as I have affirmed,”
whereupon that person was also sworn to give evidence, and he deposed
the same in every point, viz., the sweat of the brow, the changes of
its colour, the opening of the eye, the thrice motion of the finger and
drawing it in again; only the first witness deposed that a man dipped
his finger in the blood to examine it, and swore he believed it was real
blood. I conferred afterwards with Sir Edmund Vowel, barrister at law,
and others who concurred in this observation, and for myself, if I were
upon my oath, can depose that these depositions, especially of the first
witness, are truly here reported in substance.
“‘The other evidence was given against the prisoners, viz., against the
grandmother of the plaintiff and against Okeman and his wife, that they
lay in the next room to the dead person that night, and that none came
into the house till they found her dead next morning, therefore if she
did not murther herself, they must be the murtherers, and to that end
further proof was made. First she lay in a composed manner in her bed,
the bed cloaths nothing at all disturbed, and her child by her in the
bed. Secondly, her throat was cut from ear to ear and her neck broken,
and if she first cut her throat, she could not break her neck in the
bed, nor _e contra_. Thirdly, there was no blood in the bed, saving that
there was a tincture of blood upon the bolster whereupon her head lay,
but no other substance of blood at all. Fourthly, from the bed’s head on
there was a stream of blood on the floor, till it ponded on the bending
of the floor to a very great quantity and there was also another stream
of blood on the floor at the bed’s feet, which ponded also on the floor
to another great quantity but no other communication of blood on either
of these places, the one from the other, neither upon the bed, so that
she bled in two places severely, and it was deposed that turning up the
matte of the bed, there were clotes of congealed blood in the straw of
the matte underneath. Fifthly, the bloody knife in the morning was found
clinging in the floor a good distance from the bed, but the point of the
knife as it stuck in the floor was towards the bed and the haft towards
the door. Sixthly, lastly, there was the brand of a thumb and four
fingers of a left hand on the dead person’s left hand.
“‘Hyde, Chief Justice: “How can you know the print of a left hand from
the print of a right hand in such a case?”
“‘Witness: “My lord, it is hard to describe it, but if it please the
honourable judge (_i.e._ the judge sitting on the bench beside the Chief
Justice) to put his left hand on your left hand, you cannot possibly
place your right hand in the same posture.”
“‘It being done, and appearing so, the defendants had time to make their
defence, but gave no evidence to that purpose.
“‘The jury departing from the bar and returning, acquitted Okeman and
found the other three guilty; who, being severally demanded why judgment
should not be pronounced, sayd nothing, but each of them said, “I did not
do it.” “I did not do it.” Judgment was made and the grandmother and the
husband executed, but the aunt had the privilege to be spared execution,
being with child. I enquired if they confessed anything at execution, but
did not as I was told.’
“Thus far the serjeant, afterwards Sir John Mainard, a person of great
note and judgment in the law. The paper, of which this is a copy, was
found amongst his papers since his death (1690) fair written with his own
hand. Mr Hunt of the Temple took a copy of it, gave it me, which I have
hereby transcribed.—H. S.”
It has been asserted by some writers that the vampire is not to be found
in Indian lore and legend, and an attempt has been made to connect this
supposititious absence of the blood-sucking demon with the Brahminical
and Buddhistic vegetarian and cremation customs. The Indian belief,
however, in the existence of vampire spectres is as prevalent as it is
in any other country, although the folk-lore and legends concerning them
may, perhaps, be more scarce.
Fornari, in his _History of Sorcerers_, relates the following story: “In
the beginning of the fifteenth century there lived at Bagdad an aged
merchant who had grown wealthy in his business and who had an only son to
whom he was tenderly attached. He resolved to marry him to the daughter
of another merchant, a girl of considerable fortune, but without any
personal attractions. Abul-Hassan, the merchant’s son, on being shown
the portrait of the lady, requested his father to delay the marriage
till he could reconcile his mind to it. Instead, however, of doing this
he fell in love with another girl, the daughter of a sage, and he gave
his father no peace till he consented to the marriage with the object of
his affections. The old man stood out as long as he could, but finding
that his son was bent on acquiring the hand of the fair Nadilla, and was
equally resolute not to accept the rich and ugly lady, he did what most
fathers under such circumstances would do—he acquiesced.
“The wedding took place with great pomp and ceremony, and a happy
honeymoon ensued, which might have been happier but for one little
circumstance which led to very serious consequences.
“Abul-Hassan noticed that his bride quitted the nuptial couch as soon as
she thought her husband was asleep, and did not return to it till an hour
before dawn.
“Filled with curiosity, Hassan one night, feigning sleep, saw his wife
rise and leave the room. He rose, followed cautiously, and saw her enter
the cemetery. By the straggling moonbeams he saw her go into a tomb: he
stepped in after her.
“The scene within was horrible. A party of ghouls were assembled with the
spoils of the graves they had violated and were feasting on the flesh of
the long-buried corpses. His own wife, who, by the way, never touched
supper at home, played a no inconsiderable part in the hideous banquet.
“As soon as he could safely escape Abul-Hassan stole back to his bed.
“He said nothing to his bride till next evening when supper was laid,
and she declined to eat; then he insisted on her partaking, and when she
positively refused he exclaimed roughly: ‘Oh yes, you keep your appetite
for your feasts with the ghouls.’ Nadilla was silent; she turned pale and
trembled, and without a word sought her bed. At midnight she rose, fell
on her husband with her nails and teeth, tore his throat, and, having
opened a vein, attempted to suck his blood; but Abul-Hassan, springing
to his feet, threw her down and, with a blow, killed her. She was buried
next day.
“Three days after at midnight she reappeared, attacked her husband again,
and again attempted to suck his blood. He fled from her and on the morrow
opened her tomb, burnt her to ashes and cast the ashes into the Tigris.”
There is a monstrous vampire which is said to delight in sucking the
blood of children, and is known as a Pănangglan. It has also a liking for
sucking the blood of women at childbirth; but, as it is also credited
with a dread of thorns, the custom has arisen of placing thorns about the
rooms of Indian houses on the occasions of births.
One of the Northern Indian witches—the Jigar-Khor or Liver-eater—is
believed to be possessed of the power of being able to steal the liver of
another by looks and incantations. A class of witches known as Bhúts are
said to have an extraordinary fondness for fish, but also eat rice and
all kinds of human food.
Hugh Clifford, in his interesting work _In Court and Kampong_, refers
to the “Pĕnangal, that horrible wraith of a woman who has died in
childbirth, and who comes to torment small children in the guise of a
fearful face and bust with many feet of bloody, trailing entrails in her
wake,” also of that “weird little white animal, the _Mati-ânak_, that
makes beast noises round the graves of children; and of the familiar
spirits that men raise up from the corpses of babes who have never seen
the light, the tips of whose tongues they bite off and swallow, after the
child has been brought back to life by magic agencies.”
In the Tamil dream of Harichándra, the frenzied Sandramáti says to the
king: “I belong to the race of elves, for I killed thy child in order
that I might feed on its delicate flesh.” The Vetala is said to feed
chiefly on corpses. The Bhúts and other dismal ravenous ghosts, who are
dreaded at the moon-wane of the month Katik (October-November), were not
supposed to devour men, but only their food.
Then there is the Hántu Sàburo, which chases men into the forest by
means of his dogs, and if they are run down he drinks their blood. The
Hántu Dondong resides in caves and crevices in rocks. He kills dogs and
wild hogs with the sumpitan, and then drinks their blood. The Hántu Parl
fastens on to the wound of an injured person and sucks the blood.
Barth, in his _History of Religions_ (Hinduism), says that “Siva is
identified with _Mrityu_, Death, and his old name _Pacupati_, Lord of
herds, acquires the ominous meaning of Master of human cattle. He is
chief of the mischievous spirits, of ghouls and vampires that frequent
places of execution and those where the dead are buried, and he prowls
about with them at nightfall.”
Other classes of demons are also known as the _Rakshasas_ or the
_Pisâchâs_, a word which literally means “flesh-eaters,” which
Delongchamps has translated as “bloodthirsty savages,” but other
etymologists actually as “vampires.”
The vampire demon is no stranger to Australia. Bonwick, in his _Daily
Life of the Tasmanians_, tells us that: “During the whole of the first
night after the death of one of their tribe they will sit round the body,
using rapidly a low, continuous recitative to prevent the evil spirit
from taking it away. This evil spirit was the ghost of an enemy. Fires at
night kept off these mischievous beings, which were like the vampires of
Europe.”