(The St. Charles Herald, Louisiana, September 06, 1884)
A physician of local fame in an Eastern city said to the writer recently: “This is an age of queer mental and bodily delusions, despite its enlightenment. One of the oddest cases that I ever saw I was called on to treat the other day. A man came in to complain that his ankles were wounded, found that the wounds were scratches, and expressed my surprise that he should have consulted a physician about a trifle. He said he often found the skin of his ankles broken in the same way on rising from bed. I suggested that he smooth the foot board, and not kick it so much. Then the real object of his visit came out. What do you think it was? With bated breath he whispered that he was the victim of a vampire—
not a vampire bat, but human vampire. Actually, here was a sound, healthy, intelligent man cowering from the effects of that old superstition. He hinted to me that he knew who the vampire was—a former enemy now deceased. He had come to me for a charm, or something else, to exorcise his terrible visitor. I tried to laugh and chaff’ him out of the idea. Whether I succeeded I don’t know. The man went away very much depressed, and hasn’t returned since. I ought to have mentioned that he was a native of Hungary, and had imbibed vampirism in his childhood’s home.”
This is one of several instances that have come under the writer’s notice to prove that the ancient and horrible vampire belief is yet lingering upon earth. Certainly no more extraordinary or appalling belief ever troubled men’s wits. The very idea is startling. That the dead returned from their graves to prey on the flesh and blood of the living should have ever been believed by thousands of people sounds incredible. But it is a fact nevertheless.
The history of the vampire superstition ranges over 2000 years. It begins with the Lamia of the Greeks, a beautiful woman who enticed youths to her in order to drink their blood, and it may be said to end with the dawn of general education about seventy-five years ago. At certain periods its believers have numbered hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, not, of the unlettered entirely, but included educated and scientific men of France, Germany and Italy. Fifty years ago the vampire was a well known figure in literature and the drama. The foremost poet in England was credited with the authorship of a popular play called the “Vampire,” and did not wholly deny it. A hundred years before this time vampires and ghouls were the topic of interest in the salons of Paris, that ranked with Law and his schemes. At this period, in deed, the superstition obtained the greatest currency among educated people, and its literature is the richest. Voltaire expressed astonishment at the spread of the belief. The shafts of his pen and the powers of other writers were directed against it. We learn from the memoirs of a court lady at the time that vampirism was talked at every soiree, and that its ardent believers were nearly as many as those who scoffed it. Among the former were members of the army, the law, several members of the academy, and numerous scientific men. Physicians were divided. They agreed there must be some foundation for the vampire belief, and for the were-wolf belief, which was closely allied to it. Finally they gave the monomania which lay at the bottom of all the vampire belief the name of lycanthropy, Elaborate treatises were written for and against, and a host of minor writers flung out books on the subject. The principal of these were Raufft and Calmet. The latter’s work is especially rich in cases of vampires, many of which are described by actual witnesses.
One of the best attested vampire stories in Calmet’s work is that of Marshal de Retz. This was a noble, brave and worthy man, who lived in France in the reign of Charles VII. He was a soldier and after distinguishing himself in the wars retired to his country seat. Shortly after he took up his residence the neighborhood became alarmed at the disappearance of many young children. Only children under the age of seven disappeared, and soon the number of distracted parents mourning their lost ones was very great. No amount of vigilance could discover the mysterious agency which as it were swallowed the children up. Accident, however, directed suspicion to the noble de Retz. His castle was watched by desperate parents who had lost their little ones, and circumstances multiplied to give the people courage to accuse him of being at the bottom of the mystery.
He was arrested and placed on tria1, charged with having kidnaped over one hundred children. He was convicted and executed. Before he was led to the block, the monster confessed that in three years he had killed 800 children. He was led to do it, he said, by an insatiable desire to taste their blood. Calmet relates this story circumstantially, adding though it is largely exaggerated that he believes it is not a myth. He cites de Retz’s confession that he was led to commit the horrible atrocities by an irresistible impulse as an evidence that there must be a trait in humanity which leads to vampirism, and which awakens from its dormant state in individuals from time to time. A case rather different from the above was that of Jean Grenier, a herd boy. In 1603 he was placed on trial for attacking young girls in the form of a wolf. The girls themselves and then fathers gravely and positively identified him, and what was more singular, Grenier himself admitted that their charge was true. He declared that ho had eaten several of them. He produced what his judges accepted as good evidence of his assertions. It is presumed that he had suffered the penalty of being a vampire, though Calmetomits to state what his punishment was.
The most celebrated vampire case, perhaps, and the latest, happened in 1849. In that year the cemeteries of Paris were entered, graves broken open, and corpses rudely tossed about the ground. The greatest alarm was felt as the horrible depredations continued. The strictest watch failed to detect their author. Physicians who were called to examine the wounds and mutilations inflicted on the corpses declared the depredators could not be, as was first supposed, resurrectionists. A man-trap was set in Pere la Chaise, and a heavy bomb concealed beneath it. One night the sentinels posted about the cemetery heard the bomb explode. They entered, but beyond a few drops of blood and some fragments of military clothing, found no trace of the vampire.
Next day it became known that Sergeant Bertrand, a soldier, was dangerously wounded. He was arrested. On his court-martial, of which Colonel Mansolon was President, Bertrand confessed to having committed all the horrible violations of graves, but could not explain why he did it. He was controlled by a great power, he said. Like de Retz, this man was frank, gay, and gentle. He was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment, and a counsel of physicians appointed to examine his mind.
These are more properly stories of were-wolves, since the distinction in vampirism made between the vampire proper and the were-wolf is that the latter is alone all the time, and the other arises from his grave only at night. The true vampire, according to the superstition, may be detected by the signs of life he presents on being exhumed from his grave. His cheeks are red, his lips moist, his flesh warm, and his veins full of rich red blood. In the literature and legends of Hungary, Silesia, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia and the Grecian Islands, where the vampire is easiest found, he is always the same, a terrible creature who returns to earth at night to kill men and women and drink their blood. He is a vampire by inclination, by inheritance, or by the curse of his own misdeeds. He has usually the power to transform those persons whom he attacks into vampires like himself Such is the vampire of the legends of these countries, and such, it may be added, he is in all essential particulars the same to-day. For among the poorer and more ignorant peasantry of Silesia, Poland. Hungary, and especially Crete, the vampire
belief is by no means eradicated. It still exists. A traveler in the latter country informed the writer he witnessed a few years ago the ceremony of exorcising a vampire. It was the same method in use a hundred and fifty years ago. The body was dug up, the heart removed and burned on the seashore. Among the old charms this was the only one considered effective. Driving a stake through the vampire’s heart, whipping his grave with a hazel switch wielded by a virgin not less than twenty-five years old, putting pieces of silver in his mouth, tying up his jaws tightly, wore all of no avail—the vampire continued to return until his body was exhumed and incinerated.
From a large collection of vampire stories these are a few of the best. The story of the Arnold Paul vampire gained a wide celebrity in Europe about 1725. Arnold Paul was a peasant who lived on the borders of Hungary. Near Madnerga he fell from a wagon and was crushed to death. He was duly buried and forgotten. Thirty days later four persons had died, each with a small incision in his throat, the edges of which were purplish. Another person, a young girl, declared that in the night she had awakened with a terrible feeling of suffocation. In the dim light she recognized Arnold Paul, and cried: “Avaunt, vampire, in Jesus’ name.” and the vampire immediately vanished. Paul’s grave was opened and his body was found to present strong signs of life. There were traces of blood about his lips and blood on his hands. The Embassador of Louis XV, was present at the disinterment and stated that the full life blood was in the cheeks of the supposed corpse. Paul’s body was burned, his ashes scattered to the four winds, and from that time the vampire vexed Badnerga no more.
Another vampire story is taken from a book containing many which was published under the protection of the Bishop of Olmultz in 1706. A herdsman named Blow, who lived near Kadam, in Bohemia, was suspected of being a vampire while in life. After his death and burial several persons were killed and the flocks about the place were sadly decimated. Blow’s grave was opened. He sat up, confessed he was a vampire, and defied the villagers to prevent him from glutting his fearful appetite. A stake was put into his coffin by direction of a physician, whereupon the vampire thanked him ironically. That night he arose and killed three persons, besides twenty head of cattle. His body was carried out of the village and burned, his blood gushing forth the while, and his lips uttering fearful cries. Another somewhat similar case in Gradltz is attested by two officials of the tribunal of Belgrade, and the Kino’s officer, who were present as ocular witnesses at the operation of destroying the vampire.
Mr. Pashley relates that a man of note was buried in St, George’s Church in Kalkrati, in the island of Crete. In the popular belief he was in life a vampire. An arch was built over hid grave to hold him down. One night a shepherd lay down to sleep near the grave, leaving his arms arranged so as to form a cross. The vampire rose in the night, but could not pass over the cross. He requested the shepherd to remove it, as he had important business in the village. On his promise to return shortly, the shepherd removed the cross. The vampire went into the village, killed a man and woman, and drank their blood. The following day his body was taken out and burned. A drop of his blood spurted upon the foot of a bystander, and instantly that member withered.
The scene of another manifestation of the superstition which ended in a tragedy was laid in Hungary. A young miller, on the eve of his marriage with a peasant girl, was suddenly seized with a mortal illness, expired, and was buried the next day. That night several cattle were killed in a mysterious manner, and the young man’s betrothed dreamed that she heard him calling for help. Her story, together with the incident of the dead cattle, inflamed the minds of the villagers, already saturated with the vampire belief. They repaired in a body to the miller’s grave. On opening it the supposed corpse sat up with a loud cry. The mob cried vampire, and fell upon him immediately and beat and mangled him with stones and clubs. A physician who examined the body shortly afterward declared it his opinion that the young man had awakened from a trance only to be murdered by his former friends.— Chicago Inter-Ocean