THE CINCINNATI DAILY STAR — AUGUST 14, 1876
A Horrible Story of a Young Girl Killed by a Vampire.
In Servia, as in most Slavonic countries, exists a popular belief in vampires, dead folk who quit their graves at night to torment the living. The signs by which the vampire is known are the preservation of the body for a long time after it should have decayed, the fluidity of the blood and the suppleness of the limbs. Prosper Merimee, in the course of his travels, was the witness of a case of alleged vampirism, which he describes as follows.
In 1816 I was traveling on foot in Vargaraz and chanced to stop at the little village of Varboska. My host was one Vuck Poglonovich, well-to-do for the region, a good fellow and sufficiently drunken. His wife was yet young and fair, and his daughter, a girl of sixteen, charming. I would fain have remained with him several days, in order to study the ruins in the neighborhood, but he would not rent me a room, insisting that I should be his guest, and as this involved holding my own with him at the wine after dinner, the relation was not particularly pleasant. One evening the woman had left us about an hour and, to avoid being compelled to drink, I was singing to my host, when we were startled by the most fearful cries from the sleeping apartment, which, as is the custom of the country, was occupied by the whole household in common. Arming ourselves, we hurried thither, and beheld a frightful sight—the mother, pale and haggard, holding her still more pallid
