When it was run through again with sharp-pointed stakes, before the
burning, it uttered piercing cries and vomited masses of crimson blood.
The apparition of the spectre ceased only after the corpse had been
reduced to ashes.
Fortis, in his _Travels into Dalmatia_, says that the Moslacks have no
doubt as to the existence of vampires, and attribute to them, as in
Transylvania, the sucking of the blood of infants. Therefore, when a man
dies, and he is suspected of vampirism, or of being a _vukodlak_—the
term they employ—they cut his hams and prick his whole body with pins,
pretending that he will be unable to walk about after this operation has
been performed. There are even instances of Moolacchi who, imagining
that they may possibly thirst for human blood after death, particularly
the blood of children, entreat their heirs, and sometimes even make them
promise, to treat them in this manner directly after death.
Dr Henry More, in his _Antidote against Atheism_, argues for the reality
of vampires, and relates the following stories.
“A shoemaker of Breslau, in Silesia, in 1591 terminated his life by
cutting his throat. His family, however, spread abroad the report that he
had died of apoplexy, which enabled them to bury him in the ordinary way
and save the disgrace of his being interred as a suicide. Despite this,
however, the rumour got abroad that the man had committed suicide. It was
also reported that his ghost had been seen at the bedsides of several
persons, and the rumours and reports spreading, it was decided by the
authorities to disinter the body. It had been buried on September 22nd,
1591, and the grave was opened on April 18th, 1592. The body was found
to be entire; it was not in any way putrid, the joints were flexible,
there was no ill smell, the wound in the throat was visible and there
was no corruption in it. There was also observed what was claimed to
be a magical mark on the great toe of the right foot—an excrescence in
the form of a rose. The body was kept above ground for six days, during
which time the apparitions still appeared. It was then buried beneath the
gallows, but the apparition still came to the bedsides of the alarmed
inhabitants, pinching and suffocating people, and leaving marks of its
fingers plainly visible on the flesh. A fortnight afterwards the body
was again dug up, when it was observed to have sensibly increased its
size since its last interment. Then the head, arms, and legs of the
corpse were cut off; the heart, which was as fresh and entire as that in
a freshly killed calf, was also taken out of the body. The whole body
thus dismembered was consigned to the flames and the ashes thrown into
the river. The apparition was never seen afterwards. A servant of the
deceased man was also said to have acted in a similar manner after her
death. Her remains were also dug up and burned, and then her apparition
ceased to torment the inhabitants.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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