Vampires hate sunlight. They don’t see their reflections in mirrors. They can turn into bats. And Dracula vants to suck your blood. If you’ve had any exposure to pop culture, you already knew all that.
But these creatures are just myths, right? Author Dudley Wright compiled stories from around the world “to supply as far as possible all the instances which could be collected from the various countries” in his 1914 book, Vampires and Vampirism.
It was written at a time when scientists believed in intelligent life on Mars and Spiritualists believed in life after death. So were undead folks thirsty for blood all that outrageous?
Many of the Spiritualists, as Wright states, “admitted the possibility of the phenomena” though they didn’t quite accept all “of the many stories told concerning the deeds, or rather the misdeeds, of the apparitions.”
Vampire folklore, of course, had been around for centuries. Were stories born out of some kernel of truth? For example, unusual and unknown medical conditions, like catalepsy, may have led to premature burials—and thus screams and shouts coming from graves.
Wright thought it best to keep an open mind: “How far a certain amount of scientific truth may underlie even what may be regarded as the most extravagant stories must necessarily be, for the present, at any rate, an open question; but he would indeed be a bold man who would permit his scepticism as to the objective existence of vampires in the past or the possibility of vampirism in the future to extend to a categorical denial.”
Below are just a few short tales collected that, while not as exciting as Dracula, are fascinating for the fact that they weren’t written as fiction. For more undead fun, you’ll find the full text here.
Baron von Haxthausen, in his work on Transcaucasia, tells us that there once dwelt in a cavern in Armenia a vampire called Dakhanavar, who could not endure anyone to penetrate into the mountains of Ulmish Altotem or count their valleys. Everyone who attempted this had in the night his blood sucked by the monster from the soles of his feet until he died. The vampire was, however, at last outwitted by two cunning fellows. They began to count the valleys, and when night came on they lay down to sleep-taking care to place themselves with the feet of the one under the head of the other. In the night the monster came, felt as usual, and found a head; then he felt at the other end and found a head there also. “Well,” cried he, “I have gone through the whole 366 valleys of these mountains, and have sucked the blood of people without end, but never yet did I come across anyone with two beads and no feet!” So saying, he ran Sway and was never more seen in that country, but ever after the people knew that the mountain has 366 valleys.
E. P. Evans, in his interesting work on the Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, relates that in 1337 a herdsman near the town of Cadan came forth from his grave every night, visiting the villages, terrifying the inhabi tants, conversing affably with some, and murdering others. Every person, however, with whom he associated was doomed to die within eight days and to wander as a vampire after death. In order to keep him in his grave, a stake was driven through his body, but he only laughed at this clumsy attempt to impale a ghost, saying, “You have really rendered me a great service by providing me with a staff with which to ward off the dogs when I go out for a walk.” At length it was decided to hand him over to the two public executioners to be burned, and it is averred that when the fire began to take effect, “he drew up his feet, bellowed for a while like a bull, and he-hawed like an ass, until one of the executioners stabbed him in the side, so that the blood oozed out, and the evil finally ceased.”
Again, in 1345, in the town of Lewin, a potter’s wife, who was reputed to be a witch, died, and, owing to suspicions of her pact with Satan, was refused burial in consecrated ground and dumped into a ditch like a dog. The after-events proved that she was not a good Christian, for, instead of remaining quietly in her grave, such as it was, she roamed about in the form of divers unclean beasts, causing much terror and slaying sundry persons. Thereupon her body was exhumed, and it was found that she had chewed and swallowed one-half of her face-cloth, which on being pulled out of her throat showed stains of blood. A stake was driven through her breast, but this only seemed to make matters worse. She now walked abroad with the stake in her hand and killed quite a number of people with this formidable weapon. Her body was then taken up a second time and burned, whereupon she ceased from troubling. The efficacy of this post mortem auto-da-fé was accepted as conclusive proof that her neighbours had neglected to perform their whole religious duty in not having burned her when she was alive, and they had been thus punished for their remissness.
A reprint of Vampires and Vampirism is now available from Curious Publications! Available at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and wherever else you buy books online.
