strangled; or unable to keep off the fearful visitant who lies on their breast, they decline very rapidly, after their death become themselves vampires, and so on without end, until, by some forcible measures, the fearful terror is dispelled.     According to this superstition, which prevails in Poland and Western Prussia, the ability to become a vampire is given with the so called Fortunatus’ cap, which in all ages and among all people has been regarded as an emblem of prosperity. Such vampire candidates are said to be somewhat dictatorial and avaricious. The principal sign, it is believed, is to be found in the corpse. The face retains its color; the blood flows freely; the stiffness and offensiveness of dead bodies are entirely absent, as though the person were in a trance.     There are various methods addopted by these superstitious people for destroying the vampire; some mild, others more severe. One is to turn the dead body in the coffin with the face downwards. Another is to drive a wooden stake through the breast, and further to cut off the head and lay it, face downwards, between the legs. While the body is thus horribly treated, the people declare that groans are heard and wild laughter from the mouth of the vampire. In some cases the dead body is burned to ashes.     After Anton Von Poblocki’s death, and his mother and sister were taken sick, the family determined to resort to the severest measures of relief, the execution at which devolved on the second son, Joseph, who was now the head of the family. The same operation was to be performed on the father on the night before the sons funeral.

Joseph Von Feblocki, with this view, went the day before to the grave digger of the place, and offered him a round sum of money, if he would dig the grave for his brother so near to the father’s, that they could, without much trouble, break through the separating earth and open the coffin of the supposed vampire.     The grave-digger consented to do this, but first consulted the pastor of the village church. The worthy clergyman forbade his taking any part in such a desecration and ordered him to dig the, grave as usual. He also set a watch on the night before the funeral. The watchman was, however, careless, and the men were not disturbed until they had accomplished their purpose.     Joseph and his assistants were tried for their act of desecration and were found guilty by the district court. This sentence was reversed by the Court of Appeals but the verdict was set aside by the Superior Court, and the case sent back to be tried again by the tribunal of the district. The trial was protracted through two years, but all the parties were finally acquitted, on the insufficient ground that they meant no harm.     It now ask for the origin of this strange and horrible superstition, we shall probably find it in the ancient doctrine that the souls of the dead pass into the bodies of other animals,—a doctrine still held by the Hindoos. There is a bat in South America which sometimes sucks the blood of animals, and if this species once existed in Europe, it may have given rise to the belief that the dead sometimes rise from their graves and nourish themselves on the blood