WEEKLY EXPOSITOR — OCTOBER 2, 1891
How Superstitious Bohemians Rid Themselves of a Vampire.
The people of Bohemia (the most superstitious in all Europe), were formerly great believers in muronies, vampires and other uncanny apparitions. The most terrible vampire and perhaps, the most popular one in the annals of that country, made its appeaance in the year 1706. In that year Hans Blow, a herdsman, died and was buried, says the St. Louis Republic. For years before his death Blow was suspected of being a murony, or living vampire. He was buried near Kadam, Bohemia, and within a short time after several deaths had occurred within the immediate vicinity, each victim being left with the characteristic vampire marts upon the neck, which consist of a blueish raised wound directly over the left jugular vein. Having been suspected of being a murony during life, the deceased herdsman was, of course, given the credit of causing all this mischief; the flocks were begining to die off at a rapid rate—a misfortune also accorded to the agency of Blow’s vampire. When the grave of the dead herdsman was opened, preparatory to exercising the vampire, although he had lain in the ground nine weeks, he sat bolt upright in the coffin, and with a placid smile confessed that he was a vampire and that he was keeping himself alive on the blood of those with whose murder he was charged: he cursed the villagers for disturbing him, and openly defied them to prevent him from making his midnight raids. A large stake was then driven
