LIVING VAMPIRES
There is, however, the living vampire, distinct and separate from
the dead species. In Epirus and Thessaly there is a belief in living
vampires, who leave their shepherd dwellings by night and roam about,
biting and tearing men and animals and sucking their blood. In Moldavia
and in Wallachia, the _murony_ are real, living men who become dogs at
night, with the backbone prolonged to form a sort of tail. They roam
through the villages, and their main delight is to kill cattle.
In some countries the belief prevails that the soul of a living man,
often of a sorcerer, leaves its proper body asleep and goes forth,
perhaps in visible form of a straw or fluff of down, slips through the
keyholes, and attacks its sleeping victim. If the sleeper should wake in
time to clutch this tiny soul-embodiment, he may through it have his
revenge by maltreating or destroying its bodily owner.
The following account was contributed by me to the _Occult Review_ for
July 1910. The particulars are given exactly as I wrote them down in
shorthand from the narrator’s dictation. My informant is a well-known
medical practitioner in the West End of London, who has held various
official appointments in the tropics, and I received his assurance that
the incidents recorded happened exactly as they are described. Whether
the Indian referred to is still alive or not is unknown, but certainly
the two other principals, at the time of writing, are.
Some years ago a small number of English officials were stationed in a
small place in the tropics. Their residences were about a quarter of
a mile from each other, three of the bungalows standing in their own
compounds and on separate elevations. Suddenly one of the officials fell
ill, but the district medical officer was quite unable to trace the cause
of the illness. The official in question made several applications to
the Colonial Office for transfer to another station, saying he felt he
should die if he remained there. At first the application was refused,
but the man got worse and fell into a very depressed mental condition.
He eventually wrote again, saying that if his application for transfer
could not be granted he would be compelled to throw up his appointment—a
serious matter for him, as he had no private means. The application was
then granted; he was transferred, and he recovered his health.
About eighteen months later another official had a slight attack of
fever, from which he fully recovered; but after this attack he began to
complain of lassitude until he went beyond a certain distance from his
residence. The moment he returned to within this distance he said he felt
as though a wet blanket had been thrown over him, and nothing could rouse
him from the depression which seized him. He, too, fell into a low state
of health, and on his request was transferred to another station.
Shortly after this transfer the wife of the district medical officer,
living within the same area, began to fail in health and became terribly
depressed, apparently from no cause whatever. Previously she had been
a cheerful, happy woman, indulging in games and outdoor sports of all
kinds, but now she became most depressed and miserable. At last, one
night, about twelve o’clock, she woke up shrieking. Her husband rushed
into her room, and she said she had woken up with a most awful feeling
of depression, and had seen a creature travelling along the cornice of
the room. She could only describe it as having a resemblance to something
between a gigantic spider and a huge jelly-fish. Her husband ascribed it
to an attack of nightmare, but he was disturbed in the same manner on the
following night, when his wife said she had been awake for a quarter of
an hour, but had not had the strength to call him before. He found her
in a state of collapse, pulse exceedingly low, temperature three degrees
below normal, pallid, and in a cold sweat. He mixed her a draught which
had the effect of sending her to sleep.
In the morning she said she must leave the station and go home, as to
stop there would mean her death. Thinking to divert her attention, her
husband took her away on a pleasure trip, when he was glad to see that
she entirely recovered her former cheerful expression and high spirits.
This state of things lasted until, returning home in a rickshaw alongside
her husband’s, her face changed and she resumed her gloomy countenance.
“There,” she said, “is it not awful? I have been so well and happy all
the week, and now I feel as though a pall had been thrown over me.”
Matters got worse, and she became more depressed than ever, and only a
few nights passed before her husband was again called to her bedside
about midnight. He found his wife in a state of considerable weakness,
although it was not so acute as on the previous occasion. She said to
him: “I want you to examine the back of my neck and shoulders very
carefully and see if there is any mark on the skin of any kind whatever.”
Her husband did so, but could not find a mark.
“Get a glass and look again. See if you can find any puncture from a
sharp-pointed tooth.”
He made a microscopical examination, but found absolutely nothing.
“Now,” said his wife, “I can tell you what is the matter. I dreamed that
I was in a house where I lived when I was a girl. My little boy called
out to me. I ran down to him, but when I reached the bottom of the
stairs a tall, black man came towards me. I waved him off, but I could
not move to get away from him, though I pushed the boy out of his reach.
The man came towards me, seized me in his arms, sat down at the bottom
of the stairs, put me on his knee, and proceeded to suck from a point
at the upper part of the spine, just below the neck. I felt that he was
drawing all the blood and life out of me. Then he threw me from him, and
apparently I lost consciousness as he did so. I felt as though I was
dying. Then I woke up, and I had been lying here for a quarter of an hour
or twenty minutes before I was able to call you.”
“Have you ever experienced anything of this character before?” asked her
husband.
“No, I have not; but night after night for many months I have woken up
in exactly the same state, and that has been the sole cause of my mental
depression. I have not said anything about it because it seemed so
foolish, but now I have had this definite dream I cannot hold my tongue
any longer.”
She soon passed into a peaceful sleep, and on discussing the matter the
following morning with her husband she said: “I have a feeling somehow
that it will not happen again. I feel quite well and strong, and all my
depression is gone.”
In the afternoon husband and wife were going together to the club, when
around the corner of the jungle came a tall Indian, the owner of a large
number of milch cattle, and reputed to be a wealthy man. The surgeon’s
wife suddenly stopped, turned pale, and said immediately: “That is the
man I saw in my dream.”
The husband went directly up to the man and said to him: “Look here, I
will give you twelve hours to get out of this place. I know everything
that happened last night at midnight, and I will kill you like a dog if I
find you here in twelve hours’ time.”
The Indian disappeared the same night, taking with him only a few
valuables and a little loose money. He left behind him the money that
was deposited in the bank, as well as the whole of his property. His
forty head of cattle, worth eighty dollars each, were impounded, and no
news had been heard of him five years afterwards. Since his departure no
one has complained of depression and lassitude in that area.