The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.Calmet, Augustin
Religion
The Phantom World; or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c.
Calmet, Augustin
Apparitions; Demonology; Spirits
In consequence of this, the corpse of this spectre was exhumed, and
found to be like that of a man who has just expired, and his blood
like that of a living man. The Count de Cabreras had his head cut off,
and caused him to be laid again in his tomb. He also took information
concerning other similar ghosts, amongst others, of a man dead more
than thirty years, who had come back three times to his house at meal
time. The first time he had sucked the blood from the neck of his own
brother, the second time from one of his sons, and the third from one
of the servants in the house; and all three died of it instantly and
on the spot. Upon this deposition the commissary had this man taken
out of his grave, and finding that, like the first, his blood was in a
fluid state, like that of a living person, he ordered them to run a
large nail into his temple, and then to lay him again in the grave.
He caused a third to be burnt, who had been buried more than sixteen
years, and had sucked the blood and caused the death of two of his
sons. The commissary having made his report to the general officers,
was deputed to the court of the emperor, who commanded that some
officers, both of war and justice, some physicians and surgeons, and
some learned men, should be sent to examine the causes of these
extraordinary events. The person who related these particulars to us
had heard them from Monsieur the Count de Cabreras, at Fribourg en
Brigau, in 1730.
CHAPTER IX.
ACCOUNT OF A VAMPIRE, TAKEN FROM THE JEWISH LETTERS (LETTRES JUIVES);
LETTER 137.
This is what we read in the "Lettres Juives," new edition, 1738,
Letter 137.
We have just had in this part of Hungary a scene of vampirism, which
is duly attested by two officers of the tribunal of Belgrade, who went
down to the places specified; and by an officer of the emperor's
troops at Graditz, who was an ocular witness of the proceedings.
In the beginning of September there died in the village of Kivsiloa,
three leagues from Graditz, an old man who was sixty-two years of age.
Three days after he had been buried, he appeared in the night to his
son, and asked him for something to eat; the son having given him
something, he ate and disappeared. The next day the son recounted to
his neighbors what had happened. That night the father did not appear;
but the following night he showed himself, and asked for something to
eat. They know not whether the son gave him anything or not; but the
next day he was found dead in his bed. On the same day, five or six
persons fell suddenly ill in the village, and died one after the other
in a few days.
The officer or bailiff of the place, when informed of what had
happened, sent an account of it to the tribunal of Belgrade, which
dispatched to the village two of these officers and an executioner to
examine into this affair. The imperial officer from whom we have this
account repaired thither from Graditz, to be witness of a circumstance
which he had so often heard spoken of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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