THE MCCOOK TRIBUNE — JUNE 2, 1888
Blackwood’s Magazine.
In the “nosferatu,” or vampire, every Roumanian peasant to this day as a firm believer, and doubtless much of his cumbrous funeral ceremonial is intended to prevent the dead from entering upon evil courses after their burial. This terrible plague of vampire is as contagious as the small-pox. Let a vampire once get out of his grave and suck the blood of an innocent person, that person is at once inoculated and only waits for his death and burial to break out for the gratification of his unclean tastes and to propagate the plague in fresh quarters. A village where vampirism was prevalent on a large scale must have enjoyed the same cheerful sense of security as a district feels when it lies in the path of an advancing wave of cholera. The common remedy is to open the grave of the vampire and drive a stake through the body, which, we have been told, is always fresh, plump and in good condition, or, in cases of extreme obstinacy in this reprehensible practice, to “cut off the head and replace it in the coffin with the mouth filled with garlic; or to extract the heart and burn it, strewing the ashes over the grave.” Less irreclaimable vampires may be settled by firing a pistol-shot into the coffin, or even by walkin round the grave smoking on the anniversary of the vampire’s death. A thorny sprig of wild rose laid across the coffin is also of service.
From— The McCook Tribune. (McCook, Neb.), 02 June 1888. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
