Ghost Stories., part 4 · page 21 2101But generally he sucks the blood of sleepers.102Those on whom he has operated will be found next morning dead, with a very small wound on the left side of the breast, exactly over the heart.103The Lusatian Wends hold that when a corpse chews its shroud or sucks its own breast, all its kin will soon follow it to the grave.104The Wallachians say that a _murony_--a sort of cross between a werwolf and a vampire, connected by name with our nightmare--can take the form of a dog, a cat, or a toad, and also of any blood-sucking insect.105When he is exhumed, he is found to have long nails of recent growth on his hands and feet, and blood is streaming from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.106The Russian stories give a very clear account of the operation performed by the vampire on his victims.107Thus, one night, a peasant is conducted by a stranger into a house where lie two sleepers, an old man and a youth. "108The stranger takes a pail, places it near the youth, and strikes him on the back; immediately the back opens, and forth flows rosy blood.109The stranger fills the pail full, and drinks it dry.110Then he fills another pail with blood from the old man, slakes his brutal thirst, and says to the peasant, 'It begins to grow light! let us go back to my dwelling.'"111[419]112Many skazkas also contain, as we have already seen, very clear directions how to deprive a vampire of his baleful power.113According to them, as well as to their parallels elsewhere, a stake must be driven through the murderous corpse.114In Russia an aspen stake is selected for that purpose, but in some places one made of thorn is preferred.115But a Bohemian vampire, when staked in this manner in the year 1337, says Mannhardt,[420] merely exclaimed that the stick would be very useful for keeping off dogs; and a _strigon_ (or Istrian vampire) who was transfixed with a sharp thorn cudgel near Laibach, in 1672, pulled it out of his body and flung it back contemptuously.116The only certain methods of destroying a vampire appear to be either to consume him by fire, or to chop off his head with a grave-digger's shovel.117The Wends say that if a vampire is hit over the back of the head with an implement of that kind, he will squeal like a pig.118The origin of the Vampire is hidden in obscurity.119In modern times it has generally been a wizard, or a witch, or a suicide,[421] or a person who has come to a violent end, or who has been cursed by the Church or by his parents, who takes such an unpleasant means of recalling himself to the memory of his surviving relatives and acquaintances.120But even the most honorable dead may become vampires by accident.121He whom a vampire has slain is supposed, in some countries, himself to become a vampire.122The leaping of a cat or some other animal across a corpse, even the flight of a bird above it, may turn the innocent defunct into a ravenous demon.123[422] Sometimes, moreover, a man is destined from his birth to be a vampire, being the offspring of some unholy union.124In some instances the Evil One himself is the father of such a doomed victim, in others a temporarily animated corpse.125But whatever may be the cause of a corpse's "vampirism," it is generally agreed that it will give its neighbors no rest until they have at least transfixed it.126What is very remarkable about the operation is, that the stake must be driven through the vampire's body by a single blow.127A second would restore it to life.128This idea accounts for the otherwise unexplained fact that the heroes of folk-tales are frequently warned that they must on no account be tempted into striking their magic foes more than one stroke.129Whatever voices may cry aloud "Strike again!" they must remain contented with a single blow.130[423]131FOOTNOTES:132[379] Some account of Russian funeral rites and beliefs, and of the dirges which are sung at buryings and memorials of the dead, will be found in the "Songs of the Russian People," pp.133309-344.1 2← previousGhost Stories., part 3next →Ghost Stories., part 5↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-loreThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/54/page/2/