About vampires

A bloodsucking ghost or undead person. Vampirism and vampirology have been practised at least since the days of the ancient Egyptians and probably since much earlier centuries. Modern vampirologists belive that the original vampire was Lilith, Queen of the Night and Mother of Demons, who was Jehova's first flawed attempt at making womankind. The tainted touch of her lips upon the throat of some hapless mortal of the Middle East, and the razor-sharp incision of her teeth so that she might suck her bloody feast, began the line of vampires which has proliferated internationally.

The greatest concentration of vampires is found in Magyarorszag of the Country of the Magyars, which covers portions of modern Hungary and Roumania. Our own word vampire derives from the Magyar wampyr or vampyr. Possibly the vampires of the Middle East drifted into the region of in search of fresh blood, or they may have entered Magyarorszag during the Turkish invasions. The rapid development of transport facilities furing the last century or so has enabled vampires to spread widely through the First, Second and Third Worlds, even though it is said that vampires cannot cross the sea. In fact, they may do so quite easily if they fill their pockets with grave soil.

There is no relationship between vampires and the so-called 'vampire bat' (Desmodus rufus) of South America. The bloodsucking bats were named after vampires and not vice versa. The true vampire always appears in the form of a human male or female.

Vampirism is contracted only by blood contact with an existing vampire, who enters a sleeper's bedroom and with exquisite delicacy presses a vampire kiss against the throat or the carotid artery. Then, with supernatural surgical skill, the vampire's scalpel-sharp teeth pierce through the artery, and release the life essence which ensure a vampire's horrid immortality.

The vampire drinks its fill of hot blood and then, using a process which scientists cannot understand, seals the wound so that it is no more than a faint red mark. Now that the victim has been selected the vampire returns to the blood feast again and again. The involuntary blood donor wanes, becomes feeble and skeletal, and eventually dies.

But now the tainted kiss shows its eternal effect. The victim himself becomes a vampire and in due course rises from the grave to seek his own victims, thus continuing the dreadful cycle.

It must be noted, however, that a vampire's victim does not always die. Often the effect of a vampire kiss is so powerful that the victim is vampirised while he or she is still alive, and seeks his or her own blood supply in the community.

It is sometimes said that vampires appear as bats or other animals, to creep or climb into the victim's bedroom, but this is unlikely. A vampire combines the attributed of ghosts and mortals and so is able to pass freely, in ghostly or ectoplasmic form, through any obstacle, and manifest himself or herself as a 'human' on the other side. Jonathan Harker, who was a vampire victim, has left a clear description of a female vampire manifesting herself, through what he thought was a strange whirling of dust in the moon rays entering his chamber, and then transforming into a voluptuous young woman.

The symptoms of vampirism are easily detected. If it is belived that a 'dead' person is responsible then the grave or vault must be opened and the corpse inspected.

A vampire corpse, even if centuries old, will probably have the appearence of a healthy human being or at least will not show any signs of corruption. If it has not had a blood feast for some considerable time, it will look pale and weak but will have a slowly beating pulse. If it has fed recently, it will have flushed cheeks and ruby-red lips, abundant glossy hair, and soft pliable skin. If it should open its eyes, then it will look up at the investigators with a brilliant hypnotic stare of cold intelligence. The only way to deal with such vampire corpses is to remove them instantly from the original place of interment to a new grave, preferably dug at a cross-roads. When the corpse is laid in the raw earth, it must be pinned down by a stake driven through the heart. The corpse will remain inert throughout the operation if it is carried out between sunrise and sunset, but not otherwise.

The vampires that are alive, that is, those infected on this side of the grave, always develope long sharp white incisors, pointed ears, hairs in the palms of the hands, and a foul breath. Their diet of the life-essence of other humans gives them an appearance of abounding vitality, with red cheeks and lips, although this may fade from time to time if there are long intervals between blood feasts.

As a final check, one should sprinkle a suspected vampire with a few drops of holy water. He or she will scream as though burnt with acid. The elimination of such a vampire is inevitably a messy affair, because the heart must be cut out of the body and burned.

Vampire-infested communities should follow a preventative programme to check the spread of the problem. When burying a person who has died from the vampire kiss, the attendants must sprinkle poppyseeds within the coffin, secure it with a rope tied in many knots, and place the branch of a thorn tree on the lid before the grave is filled. Each householder should place a crucifix and a string of garlic bulbs above each bed in the house, and encourage a 'vampire garden' to grow close to the windows and doorways. This garden consists of wild rose bushes, garlic, wolfsbane, hemlock, and wormwood. Vampires abhor the smell and touch of these plants and will not venture near a home protected by such a garden. If these precautions are carried out then the vampires will move away and inflict themselves on some other community.

The first published vampire-story is from 1734 and is an Anglo-Saxon poem called The Vampyre of the Fens. Hereafter there are numerous other vampire-literature, such as John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), Thomas Prest's Varney the Vampire (1847), which was printed in a weekly magazine and had 220 chapters, Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), Victor Roman's Four Wooden Stakes (1925) and most recently Anne Rice's large colection of various vampirestories.

There have been a lot of films and theatre-plays built upon this literature, especially Bram Stoker's Dracula and Sheridan's Carmilla.

There are legends of vampirelike creatures from as far back as 125 AD, when one of the first known vampire stories occured in Greek Mythology. But the word Upir (an early form of the word later to become 'vampire') appears for the first time in written form in 1047 in a document to a Russian prince as Upir Lichy or 'Wicked Vampire'. Vampire legends originated in the far East and made their way west with caravans along the Silk route to the Mediterranian. From there they spread up into the Slavic lands and the Carpathian Mountains.

The Slavic people has the richest vampire legends in the world. They were originally more related to the Iranians, and they migrated to where they are now around the 8th century. Almost as soon as they arrived the Christianization process began, and vampire legends survived as myths. Later the Gypsies migrated westward from the northern part of India (where they have a number of vampire myths as well), and their myths mingled with those of those the Slavic people already had. The Gypsies arrived in Transsylvania shortly before Vlad Dracula was born in 1431. The vampire here was the ghost of a dead person, which in most cases had been a witch, mage or a suicider.

Vampires were feared creatures, because they killed people but at the same time looked like people; the only differences were, that they didn't have a shadow, nor did they reflect in a mirror. Besides this, they could change their shape into a bat (and in some stories even wolves and cats), which made them impossible to catch.

At daytime the vampires slept in their coffins, but at night they lived from drinking human blood as the sun's rays were deadly for them. The most common method was by midnight to fly through a window, in the shape of a bat and bite the victims neck and suck it dry for blood. The vampires couldn't enter a house if they hadn't been invited, but as soon as they had, they could reenter as often as they liked. The slavic vampire wasn't only dangerous because it killed people, but also because the victims, after death turned into vampires. The vampire's strongest side was, that it was almost immortal; only some very special rites could kill them such as: putting a stick through their heart, chop their head off or burn the body. This type of vampire is also the most known type, especially Bram Stokers Count Dracula is of this type.

Of course, almost everybody has heard about this Nosferatu: through movies featuring Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman; in several books - among which the recent Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice; or even in bedtime stories told to us in our childhood. We all have an idea of who or what the Count is. However, on the other hand, Vlad Tepes Dracula, the historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker for his novel, is definitely less known. The centennial of the gothic masterpiece provides us with a good pretext to dive back into the life of this machiavellian fifteenth century leader - an initiative that will enable us to better appreciate the work of Stoker.