Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
General
Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
Folklore -- Russia
[416] The ordinary Modern-Greek word for a vampire, βουρκόλακας, he
says, "is undoubtedly of Slavonic origin, being identical with the
Slavonic name of the werwolf, which is called in Bohemian _vlkodlak_,
in Bulgarian and Slovak, _vrkolak_, &c.," the vampire and the werwolf
having many points in common. Moreover, the Regular name for a vampire
in Servian, he remarks, is _vukodlak_. This proves the Slavonian
nature (_die Slavicität_) of the name beyond all doubt.--"Volksleben
der Neugriechen," 1871, p. 159.
[417] In Crete and Rhodes, καταχανᾶς; in Cyprus, σαρκωμένος; in
Tenos, ἀναικαθούμενος. The Turks, according to Mr. Tozer, give the
name of _vurkolak_, and some of the Albanians, says Hahn, give that of
βουρβολάκ-ου to the restless dead. Ibid, p. 160.
[418] Russian _vampir_, South-Russian _upuir_, anciently _upir_;
Polish _upior_, Polish and Bohemian _upir_. Supposed by some
philologists to be from _pit'_ = drink, whence the Croatian name for a
vampire _pijawica_. See "Songs of the Russian People," p. 410.
[419] Afanasief, _P.V.S._ iii. 558. The story is translated in full in
"Songs of the Russian People," pp. 411, 412
[420] In a most valuable article on "Vampirism" in the "Zeitschrift
für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde," Bd. iv. 1859, pp. 259-82.
[421] How superior our intelligence is to that of Slavonian peasants
is proved by the fact that they still drive stakes through supposed
vampires, whereas our law no longer demands that a suicide shall have
a stake driven through his corpse. That rite was abolished by 4 Geo.
iv. c. 52.
[422] Compare with this belief the Scotch superstition mentioned by
Pennant, that if a dog or cat pass over a corpse the animal must be
killed at once. As illustrative of this idea, Mr. Henderson states, on
the authority of "an old Northumbrian hind," that "in one case, just
as a funeral was about to leave the house, the cat jumped over the
coffin, and no one would move till the cat was destroyed." In another,
a colly dog jumped over a coffin which a funeral party had set on the
ground while they rested. "It was felt by all that the dog must be
killed, without hesitation, before they proceeded farther, and killed
it was." With us the custom survives; its explanation has been
forgotten. See Henderson's "Notes on the Folk Lore of the Northern
Counties of England," 1866, p. 43.
[423] A great deal of information about vampires, and also about
turnskins, wizards and witches, will be found in Afanasief, _P.V.S._
iii. chap. xxvi., on which I have freely drawn. The subject has been
treated with his usual judgment and learning by Mr. Tylor in his
"Primitive Culture," ii. 175, 176. For several ghastly stories about
the longing of Rákshasas and Vetálas for human flesh, some of which
bear a strong resemblance to Slavonic vampire tales, see Brockhaus's
translation of the first five books of the "Kathásaritságara," vol. i.
p. 94; vol. ii. pp. 13, 142, 147.
CHAPTER VI.
LEGENDS.
I
_About Saints._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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