VAMPIRISM IN HUNGARY, BAVARIA, AND SILESIA
The Hungarians believe that those who have been passive vampires in life
become active vampires after death; that those whose blood has been
sucked in life by vampires become themselves vampires after death. In
many districts the belief also prevails that the only way to prevent this
calamity happening is for the threatened victim to eat some earth from
the grave of the attacking vampire, and to smear his own body with blood
from the body of that vampire.
That the belief in vampirism is still current in Hungary was evidenced
recently. The _Daily Telegraph_ of February 15th, 1912, contained
the following paragraph: “A Buda-Pesth telegram to the _Messaggero_
reports a terrible instance of superstition. A boy of fourteen died
some days ago in a small village. A farmer, in whose employment the boy
had been, thought that the ghost of the latter appeared to him every
night. In order to put a stop to these supposed visitations, the farmer,
accompanied by some friends, went to the cemetery one night, stuffed
three pieces of garlic and three stones in the mouth, and thrust a
stake through the corpse, fixing it to the ground. This was to deliver
themselves from the evil spirit, as the credulous farmer and his friends
stated when they were arrested.”
In 1732, in a village in Hungary, in the space of three months, seventeen
persons of different ages died of vampirism, some without being ill,
and others after languishing two or three days. It is reported that a
girl named Stanoska, daughter of the Heyduk Jotiutso, who went to bed in
perfect health, awoke in the middle of the night trembling violently and
uttering terrible shrieks, declaring that the son of the Heyduk Millo,
who had been dead nine weeks, had nearly strangled her in her sleep. She
fell into a languid state and died at the end of three days. Young Millo
was exhumed and found to be a vampire.
Calmet, in his work _The Phantom World_, relates the following: “About
fifteen years ago a soldier who was billeted at the house of a Haidamaque
peasant, on the frontiers of Hungary, as he was one day sitting at table
near his host, the master of the house, saw a person he did not know
come in and sit down to table also with them. The master of the house
was strangely frightened at this, as were the rest of the company. The
soldier knew not what to think of it, being ignorant of the matter in
question. But the master of the house being dead the very next day, the
soldier inquired what it meant. They told him it was the body of the
father of the host, who had been dead and buried for ten years, who had
thus come to sit down next to him, and had announced and caused his death.
“The soldier informed the regiment of it in the first place, and the
regiment gave notice of it to the general officers, who commissioned the
Count de Cabreras, captain of the regiment of Alandetti infantry, to make
information concerning this circumstance. Having gone to the place with
some other officers, a surgeon and an auditor, they heard the depositions
of all the people belonging to the house, who decided unanimously that
the ghost was the father of the master of the house, and that all the
soldier had said and reported was the exact truth, which was confirmed by
all the inhabitants of the village.
“In consequence of this the corpse of the spectre was exhumed and found
to be like that of a man who had just expired, and his blood like that
of a living man. The Count de Cabreras had his head cut off and caused
him to be laid again in the tomb. He also took information concerning
other similar ghosts: among others, of a man dead more than thirty years
who had come back three times to his house at meal-time. The first time
he had sucked the blood from the neck of his own brother, the second
time from one of his sons, and the third time from one of the servants
in the house; and all three died of it instantly and on the spot. Upon
this deposition the commissary had this man taken out of his grave, and
finding that, like the first, his blood was in a fluidic state like that
of a living person, he ordered them to run a large nail into his temple
and then to lay him again in the grave.
“He caused a third to be burned who had been buried more than sixteen
years and had sucked the blood and caused the death of two of his sons.
The commissary having made his report to the general officers, was
deputed to the Emperor, who commanded that some officers both of war and
of justice, some physicians and surgeons and some learned men should be
sent to examine the causes of these extraordinary events. The person who
related these particulars to us had heard them from the Count de Cabreras
at Fribourg in 1730.”
Raufft tells the story of a man named “Peter Plogojowitz, an inhabitant
of a village in Hungary called Kisolova, who, after he had been buried
more than ten years, appeared by night to several persons in the village,
while they were asleep, and squeezed their throats in such a manner
that they expired within twenty-four hours. There died in this way no
less than nine persons in eight days; and the widow of this Plogojowitz
deposed that she herself had been visited by him since his death, and
that his errand was to demand his shoes; which frightened her so much
that she at once left Kisolova and went to live somewhere else.
“These circumstances determined the inhabitants of the village to dig
up the body of Plogojowitz and burn it, in order to put a stop to such
troublesome visits. Accordingly they applied to the commanding officer
of the Emperor’s troops in the district of Gradisca, in the kingdom of
Hungary, and to the incumbent of the place, for leave to dig up the
corpse. They both made a great many scruples about granting it; but the
peasants declared plainly that if they were not permitted to dig up this
accursed carcase, which they were fully convinced was a vampire, they
would be forced to leave the village and settle where they could.
“The officer who gave this account, seeing that there was no hindering
them either by fair means or foul, came in person, accompanied by the
minister of Gradisca, to Kisolova, and they were both present at the
digging up of the corpse, which they found to be free from any bad smell,
and perfectly sound, as if it had been alive, except that the tip of
the nose was a little dry and withered. The beard and hair were grown
fresh and a new set of nails had sprung up in the room of the old ones
that had fallen off. Under the former skin, which looked pale and dead,
there appeared a new one, of a natural fresh colour; and the hands and
feet were as entire as if they belonged to a person in perfect health.
They observed also that the mouth of the vampire was full of fresh blood,
which the people were persuaded had been sucked by him from the persons
he had killed.
“The officer and the divine having diligently examined into all the
circumstances, the people, being fired with fresh indignation, and
growing more fully persuaded that this carcase was the real cause of the
death of their countrymen, ran immediately to fetch a sharp stake, which
being driven into his breast, there issued from the wound, and also from
his nose and mouth, a great quantity of fresh, ruddy blood; and something
which indicated a sort of life, was observed to come from him. The
peasants then laid the body upon a pile of wood, and burnt it to ashes.”
Calmet says he was told by M. de Vassimont, who was sent to Moravia by
Leopold, first Duke of Lorraine, that he was informed by public report
that it was common enough in that country to see men who had died some
time before present themselves in a party and sit down to the table with
persons of their acquaintance without saying anything, but that nodding
to one of the party he would infallibly die some days afterwards. M.
de Vassimont received confirmation of this story from several persons,
amongst others an old curé who said he had seen more than one instance of
it. The priest added that the inhabitants had been delivered from these
troublesome spectres owing to the fact that their corpses had been taken
up and burned or destroyed in some way or other.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century several vampire investigations
were held at the instigation of the Bishop of Olmutz. The village of
Liebava was particularly infested, and a Hungarian placed himself on the
top of the church tower and just before midnight saw a well-known vampire
issue from his tomb, and, leaving his winding-sheet behind him, proceed
on his rounds. The Hungarian descended from the tower and took away the
sheet and ascended the tower again. When the vampire returned he flew
into a great fury because of the absence of the sheet. The Hungarian
called to him to come up to the tower and fetch it. The vampire mounted
the ladder, but just before he reached the top the Hungarian gave him a
blow on the head which threw him down to the churchyard. His assailant
then descended, cut off the vampire’s head with a hatchet, and from that
time the vampire was no more heard of.
In 1672 there dwelt in the market town of Kring, in the Archduchy of
Krain, a man named George Grando, who died, and was buried by Father
George, a monk of St Paul, who, on returning to the widow’s house, saw
Grando sitting behind the door. The monk and the neighbours fled. Soon
stories began to circulate of a dark figure being seen to go about the
streets by night, stopping now and then to tap at the door of a house,
but never to wait for an answer. In a little while people began to die
mysteriously in Kring, and it was noticed that the deaths occurred in
the houses at which the spectred figure had tapped its signal. The
widow Grando also complained that she was tormented by the spirit of
her husband, who night after night threw her into a deep sleep with
the object of sucking her blood. The Supan, or chief magistrate, of
Kring decided to take the usual steps to ascertain whether Grando was a
vampire. He called together some of the neighbours, fortified them with a
plentiful supply of spirituous liquor, and they sallied off with torches
and a crucifix.
Grando’s grave was opened, and the body was found to be perfectly sound
and not decomposed, the mouth being opened with a pleasant smile, and
there was a rosy flush on the cheeks. The whole party were seized with
terror and hurried back to Kring, with the exception of the Supan. The
second visit was made in company with a priest, and the party also took
a heavy stick of hawthorn sharpened to a point. The grave and body were
found to be exactly as they had been left. The priest kneeled down
solemnly and held the crucifix aloft: “O vampire, look at this,” he said;
“here is Jesus Christ who loosed us from the pains of hell and died for
us upon the tree!”
He went on to address the corpse, when it was seen that great tears were
rolling down the vampire’s cheeks. A hawthorn stake was brought forward,
and as often as they strove to drive it through the body the sharpened
wood rebounded, and it was not until one of the number sprang into the
grave and cut off the vampire’s head that the evil spirit departed with a
loud shriek and a contortion of the limbs.
Similar stories to this were continually being circulated from the
borders of Hungary to the Baltic.
At one time the spectre of a village herdsman near Kodom, in Bavaria,
began to appear to several inhabitants of the place, and either in
consequence of their fright or from some other cause, every person who
had seen the apparition died during the week afterwards. Driven to
despair, the peasants disinterred the corpse and pinned it to the ground
with a long stake. The same night he appeared again, plunging people into
convulsions of fright, and suffocated several of them. Then the village
authorities handed the body over to the executioner, who caused it to be
carried into a field adjoining the cemetery, where it was burned. The
corpse howled like a madman, kicking and tearing as if it had been alive.
When it was run through again with sharp-pointed stakes, before the
burning, it uttered piercing cries and vomited masses of crimson blood.
The apparition of the spectre ceased only after the corpse had been
reduced to ashes.
Fortis, in his _Travels into Dalmatia_, says that the Moslacks have no
doubt as to the existence of vampires, and attribute to them, as in
Transylvania, the sucking of the blood of infants. Therefore, when a man
dies, and he is suspected of vampirism, or of being a _vukodlak_—the
term they employ—they cut his hams and prick his whole body with pins,
pretending that he will be unable to walk about after this operation has
been performed. There are even instances of Moolacchi who, imagining
that they may possibly thirst for human blood after death, particularly
the blood of children, entreat their heirs, and sometimes even make them
promise, to treat them in this manner directly after death.
Dr Henry More, in his _Antidote against Atheism_, argues for the reality
of vampires, and relates the following stories.
“A shoemaker of Breslau, in Silesia, in 1591 terminated his life by
cutting his throat. His family, however, spread abroad the report that he
had died of apoplexy, which enabled them to bury him in the ordinary way
and save the disgrace of his being interred as a suicide. Despite this,
however, the rumour got abroad that the man had committed suicide. It was
also reported that his ghost had been seen at the bedsides of several
persons, and the rumours and reports spreading, it was decided by the
authorities to disinter the body. It had been buried on September 22nd,
1591, and the grave was opened on April 18th, 1592. The body was found
to be entire; it was not in any way putrid, the joints were flexible,
there was no ill smell, the wound in the throat was visible and there
was no corruption in it. There was also observed what was claimed to
be a magical mark on the great toe of the right foot—an excrescence in
the form of a rose. The body was kept above ground for six days, during
which time the apparitions still appeared. It was then buried beneath the
gallows, but the apparition still came to the bedsides of the alarmed
inhabitants, pinching and suffocating people, and leaving marks of its
fingers plainly visible on the flesh. A fortnight afterwards the body
was again dug up, when it was observed to have sensibly increased its
size since its last interment. Then the head, arms, and legs of the
corpse were cut off; the heart, which was as fresh and entire as that in
a freshly killed calf, was also taken out of the body. The whole body
thus dismembered was consigned to the flames and the ashes thrown into
the river. The apparition was never seen afterwards. A servant of the
deceased man was also said to have acted in a similar manner after her
death. Her remains were also dug up and burned, and then her apparition
ceased to torment the inhabitants.”
“Johannes Cuntius, a citizen and alderman of Pentach, in Silesia, when
about sixty years of age, died somewhat suddenly, as the result of a kick
from his horse. At the moment of his death a black cat rushed into the
room, jumped on to the bed, and scratched violently at his face. Both at
the time of his death and that of his funeral a great tempest arose—the
wind and snow ‘made men’s bodies quake and their teeth chatter in their
heads.’ The storm is said to have ceased with startling suddenness as the
body was placed under the ground. Immediately after the burial, however,
stories began to circulate of the appearance of a phantom which spoke
to people in the voice of Cuntius. Remarkable tales were told of the
consumption of milk from jugs and bowls, of milk being turned into blood,
of old men being strangled, children taken out of cradles, altar-cloths
being soiled with blood, and poultry killed and eaten. Eventually it was
decided to disinter the body. It was found that all the bodies buried
above that of Cuntius had become putrefied and rotten, but his skin was
tender and florid, his joints by no means stiff, and when a staff was
put between his fingers they closed around it and held it fast in their
grasp. He could open and shut his eyes, and when a vein in his leg was
punctured the blood sprang out as fresh as that of a living person. This
happened after the body had been in the grave for about six months. Great
difficulty was experienced when the body was cut up and dismembered, by
the order of the authorities, by reason of the resistance offered; but
when the task was completed, and the remains consigned to the flames, the
spectre ceased to molest the natives or interfere with their slumbers or
health.”