THE EVENING STAR —MAY 6, 1858
The curious among our readers will be interested in the perusal of the following notices of this superstition, as it now exists. An old Spanish paper, from which we translate them, introduces them with the trite remark that “the love of the marvelous has invented many extravagances.” To which it may be added with equal shrewdness that “Vampirism” is the maddest extravagance of them all. Fear, the cruelist of the passions, has not a more haggard minister than this revolting superstition. We translate :
In Illyria, in Poland, in Hungary, in Turkey, and even in some parts of Germany, whoever would publicly deny the existence of Vampires, would be taken for a very immoral and irreligious person. Vampire (or vudkadlak, in the Illyric dialect,) is the name given to the dead who leave their graves by night, to suck the blood of the living. Those who die by the hands of a Vampire are likewise converted into Vampires, as soon as they cease to exist ; and these are despoiled of all generous feeling, for they prefer to torment their kindred and friends rather than strangers. Some believe that the Vampire is a Divine judgment, and others that it is a fatality. The most accredited opinion is that schismatics and heretics being able to find no rest in their graves, revenge the pangs they suffer upon the living. The signs of Vampirism are : The preservation of the corpse from decay. The fluidity of the blood, and the elasticity of
