The body of Arnod was then burnt to ashes, which were returned to the
grave. The authorities further staked and burnt the bodies of the four
others who were supposed to have been infected by Arnod. No mention
is made of the state in which they were found. The adoption of these
decisive measures failed, however, entirely to extinguish the evil, which
continued still to hang about the village. About five years afterwards
it had again become very rife, and many died through it; whereupon the
authorities determined to make another and a complete clearance of the
vampire in the cemetery, and with that object they had all the graves,
to which suspicion attached, opened, and their contents officially
anatomised, and the following are abridgments of the medical reports:—
1. A woman of the name of Stana, twenty years of age, who had died three
months before, of a three days’ illness following her confinement.
She had before her death avowed that she had _anointed_ herself with
the blood of a vampire, to liberate herself from his persecution.
Nevertheless she had died. Her body was entirely free from decomposition.
On opening it the chest was found filled with recently effused blood, and
the bowels had exactly the appearance of sound health. The skin and nails
of her hands and feet were loose and came off, but underneath were new
skin and nails.
2. A woman of the name of Miliza, who had died at the end of a three
months’ illness. The body had been buried ninety and odd days. In the
chest was liquid blood. The viscera were as in the former instance.
The body was declared by a heyduk, who recognised it, to be in better
condition and fatter than it had been in the woman’s legitimate lifetime.
3. The body of a child eight years old, that had likewise been buried
ninety days; it was in the vampire condition.
4. The son of a heyduk, named Milloc, sixteen years old. The body
had lain in the grave nine weeks. He had died after three days’
indisposition, and was in the condition of a vampire.
5. Joachim, likewise the son of a heyduk, seventeen years old. He had
died after three days’ illness; had been buried eight weeks and some
days; was found in the vampire state.
6. A man of the name of Rusha, who had died of an illness of ten days’
duration and had been six weeks buried, in whom likewise fresh blood was
found in the chest.
7. The body of a girl ten years of age who had died two months before. It
was likewise in the vampire state, perfectly undecomposed, with blood in
the chest.
8. The body of the wife of one Hadnuck, buried seven weeks before; and
that of her infant eight weeks old, buried only twenty-one days. They
were both in a state of decomposition, though buried in the same ground
and closely adjoining the others.
9. A servant, by name Rhade, twenty-three years of age; he had died after
an illness of three months’ duration, and the body had been buried five
weeks. It was in a state of decomposition.
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