The Greeks are persuaded that these dead are sorcerers; they call them
"_broucolacas_," or "_vroucolacas_," according as they pronounce the
second letter of the alphabet. The Greek corpses go into houses to suck
the blood of little children, to eat the supper of the fathers and
mothers, drink their wine, and break all the furniture. They can only be
put to rights by burning them when they are caught. But the precaution
must be taken of not putting them into the fire until after their hearts
are torn out, which must be burned separately. The celebrated
Tournefort, sent into the Levant by Louis XIV., as well as so many other
virtuosi, was witness of all the acts attributed to one of these
"_broucolacas_," and to this ceremony.
After slander, nothing is communicated more promptly than superstition,
fanaticism, sorcery, and tales of those raised from the dead. There were
"_broucolacas_" in Wallachia, Moldavia, and some among the Polanders,
who are of the Romish church. This superstition being absent, they
acquired it, and it went through all the east of Germany. Nothing was
spoken of but vampires, from 1730 to 1735; they were laid in wait for,
their hearts torn out and burned. They resembled the ancient
martyrs--the more they were burned, the more they abounded.
Finally, Calmet became their historian, and treated vampires as he
treated the Old and New Testaments, by relating faithfully all that has
been said before him.
The most curious things, in my opinion, were the verbal suits
juridically conducted, concerning the dead who went from their tombs to
suck the little boys and girls of their neighborhood. Calmet relates
that in Hungary two officers, delegated by the emperor Charles VI.,
assisted by the bailiff of the place and an executioner, held an inquest
on a vampire, who had been dead six weeks, and who had sucked all the
neighborhood. They found him in his coffin, fresh and jolly, with his
eyes open, and asking for food. The bailiff passed his sentence; the
executioner tore out the vampire's heart, and burned it, after which he
feasted no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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