This is one of several instances that have come under the writer’s notice to prose that the ancient and horrible vampire belief is yet lingering upon earth. Certainly no more extraordinary or appalling belief ever troubled means 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 2,000 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, indeed, 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 courtlady at the time that vampirism was talked at every solree, 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 wore written for and against, and a host of minor writers flung out books on the subject. The principal of these were Raufit 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 Betz. 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 Betz. 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 trial, charged with having kidnaped over one hundred children. He was