VAMPIRE (Ger. vampyr), called also by the Servians vukodlak, and by the Wallach inns murony, is, according to the popular belief of the Slavonic, Romanic, and Greek population of the Lower Danube and the Thessalian peninsula, a blood-sucking ghost. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks, beings of a similar nature existed—the Lam ins, beautiful phantom women who, by all sorts of voluptuous delusions, allured youths to them in order to feast on their fresh, young, and pure blood and flesh. And among the Greek Christians there is a belief that the bodies of those who have died in excommuni cation are kept by the devil in. a kind of life; that they go forth from their graves by night and suddenly destroy other men, and also by other means procure food, and thus keep themselves in good condition. They are 'called BurkolakkE, or Tympanitit; and the only way of escaping from their molestation is by digging up their unwashed corpses and burning them, after the removal of the excommunication. The vampire proper is the illegitimate offspring of parents themselves illegitimate, or the troubled spirit of one killed by a vampire. During the clay he lies as a corpse, but turned in his grave, with a florid appearance and warm blood, open staring eyes, and skin, hair, and nails still growing. But by night, especially at full moon, lie wanders about in the form of a dog, frog, toad, cat, flea, louse, bug, spider, etc., and sucks the blood from living persons by biting them in the back or If a dead person is under suspicion of being a vampire his body is disinterred, and if it is found putrid it is only sprinkled with holy water by the priest; but if it is red and bloody, the devil is dris en out, and on re-interring it a stake is driven through the breast, or a nab through the forehead; or it is perhaps burned. The Vukodlaks, who are particularly greedy for the blood of young girls, pair with the Wjeschitza, a female ghost with wings of fire, which by night sinks down on the breast of the sleeping soldier, presses him in her arms, and inspires him with her fury. As, according to popular belief, every one who is killed by a vampire becomes
himself a vampire, an outward sign of the vampire bite usually remains, although not always visible and recognizable by every one; therefore, at the obsequies of every Wal lachian, of whatever age or sex, there is always a skilled person, generally a midwife, called in, in order to take precautions against the corpse becoming a vampire. A long nail, for instance, is driven through the skull; it is then rubbed in various places with the lard of a pig killed on St. Ignatius's day, and a stick made of the stem of it wild rose is laid beside it. Thessaly, Epirus, and the Wallachians of the Pinch's know another kind of vampire still—living men who by night leave their shepherd dwellings, and, roving about, bite and tear everything that they meet, men as well as beasts. The Priccolitsch and the Priecolitschone of the Moldavo-Wallachians, who wanders about more frequently than the Murony proper, is likewise a real living man, who, by night, in the form of a dog, roams over heaths, pastures, and villages; and especially kills cat tle and sucks their blood, from which cause lie always looks healthy and blooming. Such a man is known by his backbone being prolonged in the form of a dog's tail. Thus the Vakodlak and the Murony would be something analogous to the nightmare of Ger man mythology; and the Priccolitsch, on the other hand, to the Werwolf (q.v.). The ghouls of the Arabs and Persians would seem to be identical with the vampires. In 1725 and 1732 exciting rumors about supposed vampires arose in Hungary and Servia, which resulted in the disinterment of numerous corpses, and caused the publication of a multi tude of writings in Germany for and.against the matter, among which the most impor tant is Ranft's Treatise on the True Nature of the llungarian Vampire, in which an account is given of all the writings which had appeared on the subject (Leip. 1734).