Notes on vampires

A. From the “story of Vidūṣaka”:

Note: this text is extracted from Book III, chapter 18:

“And in the middle of that cemetery, where the cries of vultures and jackals were swelled by the screams of witches and the flames of the funeral pyres were reinforced by the fires in the mouths of the fire-breathing demons, he beheld those impaled men with their faces turned up, as if through fear of having their noses cut off. And when he approached them those three, being tenanted by demons, struck him with their fists; and he for his part slashed them in return with his sword, for Fear has not learned to bestir herself in the breast of the resolute. Accordingly the corpses ceased to be convulsed with demons, and then the successful hero cut off their noses and brought them away, binding them up in his garment”

Cf Ralston’s account of the vampire as represented in the Skazkas:

“It is as a vitalised corpse that the visitor from the other world comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human appetites, constantly endowed with more than human strength and malignity”

(Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, p. 306).

The belief that the dead rose from the tomb in the form of vampires appears to have existed in Chaldæa and Babylon. Lenormant observes in his Chaldæan Magic and Sorcery (English translation, p. 37):

“In a fragment of the Mythological epopée which is traced upon a tablet in the British Museum, and relates the descent of Ishtar into Hades, we are told that the goddess, when she arrived at the doors of the infernal regions, called to the porter whose duty it was to open them, saying:

‘Porter, open thy door;
Open thy door that I may enter.
If thou dost not open the door, and if I cannot enter,
I will attack the door, I will break down its bars,
I will attack the enclosure, I will leap over its fences by force;
I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living,
I will give the dead power over the living.’”

The same belief appears also to have existed in Egypt. The same author observes (p. 92):

“These formulae also kept the body from becoming, during its separation from the soul, the prey of some wicked spirit which would enter, reanimate, and cause it to rise again in the form of a vampire. For, according to the Egyptian belief, the possessing spirits, and the spectres which frightened or tormented the living, were but the souls of the condemned returning to earth, before undergoing the annihilation of the ‘second death.’”

—Another version of the above translation of the attempt of Ishtar to get into Aralū (Sheol or Hades) is to be found in Morris Jastrow’s The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 1898, pp. 568-569. There are seven doors, and at each Ishtar is forced to abandon some portion of her clothing and ornaments, until finally she is entirely naked. This is symbolic of the gradual decay of vegetation (see Jastrow, op. cit., p. 570). The whole reference, however, although very interesting, has little to do with vampires. For these see R. Campbell Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, 1903-1904, which contains numerous Babylonian and Assyrian incantations against vampires; while for Indian vampires and other evil spirits see W. Crooke, “Demons and Spirits (Indian),” Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. iv, pp. 601-608. —n.m.p.

B. Vampire stories in popular literature:

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 73.

Cf. the vampire stories in Ralston’s Russian Folk-Tales, especially that of “The Soldier and the Vampire,” p. 314. It seems to me that these stories of Vetālas disprove the assertion of Hertz quoted by Ralston (p. 318), that among races which burn their dead, little is known of regular corpse-spectres, and of Ralston, that vampirism has made those lands peculiarly its own which have been tenanted or greatly influenced by Slavonians. Vetālas seem to be as troublesome in China as in Russia (see Giles’ Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, vol. ii, p. 195). In Bernhard Schmidt’s Griechische Märchen, p. 139, there is an interesting story of a vampire who begins by swallowing fowls, goats and sheep, and threatens to swallow men, but his career is promptly arrested by a man born on a Saturday. A great number of vampire stories will be found in the notes to Southey’s Thalaba the Destroyer, Book VIII, p. 10. See also his poem of Roprecht the Robber, Part III. For the lamps or candles fed with human oil see Vol. Ill, pp. 150-154, and Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. i, p. 312, Waldau’s Böhmische Märchen, p. 360, and Kuhn’s Westfälische Märchen, p. 146.——Tawney is, of course, correct in not accepting the assertions of Hertz and Ralston with regard to vampires. They exist, in one form or another, in nearly every part of the world, although their nature varies considerably. The method of disposing of the dead must not be regarded as a factor in determining whether a particular race believes in the existence of vampires or not. All races at all times have naturally shown the utmost interest in the condition of the dead and their behaviour in the unknown land. The manner of the person’s death, the mode of his life, or any unusual phenomena noticed immediately after his death are all important factors which have helped to foster the belief that the spirit of the dead man, being unable to rest in peace, comes to visit the scenes of his former life, perhaps with the intent of revenge, or through dissatisfaction with his present abode. Hence ghosts, spirits and vampires play a very important part in the beliefs and superstitions throughout the world, and we find it hard to classify either the spirits or the beliefs.

One definite and widespread belief is that the dead, who for one reason or another are discontented, wish to return to the world of the living. Blood being the vehicle, or sign, of life, it is only reasonable that the first thing the pallid ghost wants is a fresh supply of blood. Naturally he can only get this by taking it from the living; hence he returns to the scenes of his former life and sucks blood from people in their sleep. This is the generally recognised idea of a vampire. Thus when the lack of medical knowledge among certain peoples failed to account for the gradual weakening and wasting away of a person, they imagined that a demon must be stealing his blood.

The thirst of the dead for human blood is well known from the classical example of Odysseus in Hades (Od., xi, 34 et seq.) and the trouble he had in keeping the shades from reviving their strength by drinking his blood. In order to prevent the dead from robbing the living in this way, the custom has arisen of pouring blood over graves. (See Frazer, Golden Bough (The Magic Art), vol. i, p. 98; ditto (Belief in Immortality), vol. i, p. 159 et seq.)

In order to understand to what extent the Vetāla of Hindu folk-tales is a vampire, we must try to define the term rather more closely. In his article “Vampire,” in Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. xii, pp. 589-591, J- A. Macculloch says that a vampire may be defined as (1) the spirit of a dead man, or (2) his corpse, reanimated by his own spirit or by a demon, returning to sap the life of the living, by depriving them of blood or of some essential organ, in order to augment its own vitality. It will consequently be realised how widely the term vampire can be applied and how impossible it would be to differentiate, with any degree of exactness, between a demon, evil spirit, ghost and vampire. The vampire, as a demon that revitalises the corpses of perfectly innocent people, is found throughout Greece, Russia, India and China, and also in Polynesia, Melanesia and Indonesia. The more usual form of vampire, however, is a corpse reanimated by his own spirit and dealing out death and destruction in whatever unlucky household he chooses to pay his nocturnal visits.

Numerous hair-raising tales are to be found throughout Europe, especially in the Balkans and Russia. A number of these tales will be found in a popular little work by Dudley Wright, Vampires and Vampirism, 2nd edition, 1924.

Consequent on the belief of the terrible results brought about by vampires is the assurance of the power to put a stop to their evil deeds if the necessary rites of riddance are carried out. These again differ largely with the locality. The usual method, however, is to pierce the body of the supposed vampire with a sharpened stake, and to reduce it to ashes.

The body must be transfixed by a single blow, for two blows would restore it to life. (For this curious idea cf. Ocean, Vol. III, p. 268. To the notes given on that page I would add: Hartland, Legend of Perseus, vol. iii, p. 23; Dawkins, Modem Greek in Asia Minor, pp. 226, 373.) Great care had to be taken to push back into the flames any creature, however small, that was seen to issue from them while the body was being reduced to ashes, for the vampire might have easily embodied itself in one of them. It was easy to recognise a vampire once suspicions had been aroused, because the corpse would be found in a state of perfect preservation, with blood freely flowing through the body, and often with a bloody mouth, fresh from its last feast of human flesh. In many cases the skin and nails of the body would be found loose, and would fall away when touched, but underneath a perfectly new skin and new nails would appear.

The reasons given to account for vampires in European countries are numerous. People who had been excommunicated, who had committed suicide, who had died under peculiar conditions, or in a state of “uncleanliness,” who were thought to have been witches or magicians—all these were likely to become vampires. Furthermore, they were always anxious to swell their ranks, and a perfectly innocent corpse might nolens volens become a vampire through some animal, especially a cat, jumping over its grave.

Whether the blood-sucking vampire had its origin in Europe is, of course, impossible to say; but such evidence as exists seems to favour some ancient Balkan people, rather than the Slavs, as the creators of the belief—the very word vampire is of Serbian origin. It is found among all Balkan nations and in Rumania, where it is known as strigoiu, which stands in close connection with similar words like strega in the Romance, Slavonic, Albanian and Greek languages. Dr Gaster refers me to Buerger’s Leonora, the famous ballad, round which so many vampire tales have arisen. See L. Şăinénu, Basmele Romăne, Bucuresti, 1895, p. 874 et seq. It is interesting to note that there is no trace of vampires in Jewish literature.

The vampires found in the East and among primitive races do not possess such clearly defined attributes as attach themselves to those of Eastern Europe. They can better be classified under the general heading of “demons” or “spirits of the departed,” though in some cases, as with the Langsuir and Pontianak of the Malay Archipelago, the vampire element shows itself strongly.

The earliest references to unmistakable vampires are those in the Assyrian tablets translated by Campbell Thompson in his Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia (see vol. i, p. 71). Here we hear of the “Seven Spirits” who are described in a charm as saying:

“We go on our hands, so that we may eat flesh, and we crawl upon our hands, so that we may drink blood.”

Their vampire nature is still better shown in the Assyrian incantation:

“Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind,
They spill their blood like rain,
Devouring their flesh and sucking their veins...
They are demons full of violence,
Ceaselessly devouring blood.
Invoke the ban against them,
That they no more return to this neighbourhood.
By Heaven be ye exorcised!
By Earth be ye exorcised!”

For an actual representation of an Assyrian vampire, Mr Campbell Thompson refers me to the reproduction of a seal in Revue d’ Assyriologie, vol. vii, 1910, p. 61.

Space will not permit even the mention of the vampire-type of spirit in other countries, but in every case their deeds are of the bloodiest, and they are altogether most objectionable creatures.

Now when we come to compare the extra-Indic vampire with the Hindu variety, we notice certain marked differences. As far as the Ocean of Story is concerned, the “Demons” which appear are Rākṣasa, Piśāca, Vetāla, Bhūta, Dasyus, Kumbhāṇḍa and Kuṣmāṇḍa (see Vol. I, p. 197 et seq.). Of these that most resembling the European vampire is probably the Rākṣasa, and readers will remember the horrible description in Vol. II, pp. 197, 198, and the way in which Vijayadatta became a Rākṣasa.

In real Indian life, however, these form but a very insignificant part of the huge array of demons and spirits known and feared throughout the country, particularly by forest tribes and lower castes. It would be impossible to enumerate them all. In South India they are known by the collective term Bhūta, which includes three classes—Bhūta, Preta and Piśāca. For the description of them see M. J. Walhouse, Joum. Anth. Inst., vol. v, 1876, p. 408 et seq. In Gujarat both the Bhūta and Preta reanimate corpses and cause no end of trouble.

Now the Vetāla, which is seen in all its glory in the present work, is a curious individual. He is the Deccan Guardian, in which capacity he sits on a stone smeared with red paint, or is found in the prehistoric stone circles scattered over the hills. In fiction, however, he appears as a mischievous goblin, and that is how we find him in the Ocean. A study of his actions will show him to be quite above the ordinary run of such demons. He is always ready to play some rather grim, practical joke on any unwary person who chances to wander near burning-ghats at night, for here are corpses lying about or hanging from stakes, and what more effective means could be formed to frighten the life out of humans than by tenanting a corpse!

I would describe the Vetāla as “sporting,” in that he has an innate admiration for bravery and is perfectly ready to own himself beaten, and even to help and advise. In the Vetāla tales, which begin on p. 165 of this volume, we shall see that as soon as the Vetāla discovers the persistence and bravery of Trivikramasena, he at once warns him of the foul intents of the mendicant. We have also seen that even the Rākṣasa can become quite tame, and act the part of a kind of Arabian jinn who appears on thought (Vol. I, p. 50). Thus we see that the Vetāla of Hindu fiction is by no means an exact counterpart of the blood-sucking vampire of Eastern Europe who never had a good intention or decent thought in his whole career.

Apart from the references already given, much information will be found in the numerous articles on “Demons and Spirits” in Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. iv, pp. 565-636. See also R. Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart, 1878-1889; A. Calmet, Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires, Paris, 1751 (Engl, trans., The Phantom World, London, 1850); S. Hock, Die Vampyrsagen und ihre Verwertung in der deutschen Litteratur, Berlin, 1900; Hovorka and Kronfeld, Vergleichende Volksmedizin, Berlin, 1908-1909; and Ran ft, Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern, Leipzig, 1734.—n.m.p.