The Vampire epidemic of the early to mid eighteenth century made news all over Europe, I have taken this report and explanation of this curious outbreak verbatim from the wonderfully named Fog's Weekly Journal - Saturday, 30th April 1737.
We have in these quarters, not many days since, a new scene of Vampirism, which is formally attested by two officers of the Tribunal of Belgrade, who went purposely to the very spot, and by a noted Commander in the Imperial Garrison at Gradisch, who was present at the whole proceeding.
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| Kisiljevo Cemetary |
Early last September, at a village named Kisilova (Kisiljevo, Serbia), three leagues from Gradisch, a man died aged sixty two years. On the third night after his burial, he appeared to his son, and asked him for something to eat. The young man sat before him what was at hand, when the father ate, and then vanished.
Next morning the son acquainted his neighbours with what happened. That night the father came not; but the next he returned, and again asked for victuals. It is not known whether his son gave him any, ot no; but on the morrow he was found dead in bed.
That very day, five or six of the village were suddenly taken ill, and in a short space of time they all died, one after another. The bailiff of that place sent thereupon a particular account of all this to the magistrates of Belgrade, who forthwith dispatched away to this village two of their officers, together with the executioner, to examine into the affair.
One of the Imperial Commanders at Gradisch, and from whom came this intelligence, is repaired likewise thither, in order to be eye witness of a fact whereof he had before heard so much discourse.
They caused the graves of all those who had been buried within six weeks, to be opened, when the said old fellow had been dug up, they found him with his eyes wide open, his countenance fresh and ruddy, with a natural respiration tho' dead and utterly motionless; from whence they absolutely concluded, that he was a notorious Vampire. The executioner then drove a stake thro' his heart, which done, a great fire was kindled, and the carcase reduced to ashes. No token of Vampirism was found on the body of the son, nor on those of any of the others.
God be praised we are not any way inclined to be over credulous. We withal avow, that none of all the physical lights, we can make use of with regard to this fact, do not discover to us any one of its causes. Nevertheless, we are not in a capacity of absolutely disbelieving a fact juridically attested, and confirmed by persons of credit and probity; besides its not being the only one of the kind.
We shall here copy out what did occur in the year 1732, and which we then inserted in the Glaneur, Number XVIII:
In a certain Canton of Hungary, the Latin name whereof is Oppida Heidonum, beyond the river Tibiscus, vulgarly called the Teysse, (that is to say, between the said river, which waters the fine and happy territory of Turkey, and the Principality of Transylvania) the people, commonly known by the appellation of Heyduques, do firmly believe, that dead bodies of persons, by them stiled Vampires, sucked out the blood of living persons; insomuch that many who undergo it waist away visibly.
Whereas the carcases of those Vampires, like unto leeches do fill up with blood in such abundance, that is seen distilling out from all the natural conduits, and even thro' the very pores. This opinion of theirs has lately been confirmed by divers facts, the truth whereof seems to be beyond all dispute, considering the quality of those eye witnesses by whom they are certified. We shall here relate some of the most considerable.
It is now about five years since a certain Heyduque, of Medreiga, whose name was Arnold Paulo, was accidentally crushed to death under a waggon loaded with hay which fell upon him.
Just thirty days after his decease, four persons of the neighbourhood died suddenly, and in the very same manner with such as, according to that country's tradition, are molested by the Vampire. It was thereupon recollected, that this Arnold Paulo had often been heard to say, that while he lived near Cassova, and on the frontiers of the Turkish Servia, he had been tormented by a Vampire.
They also believe, that they who, in their lifetime, have been passive Vampires, do become active ones after their demise; which is to say, that such as have been sucked, do themselves, in their turn suck others.
But he had found a cure, by eating earth taken out of the Vampire's grave, and anointing himself with some of the blood of his carcase; a precaution which did not, however, prevent his coming abroad after his burial, since, on the fortieth day, he was dug up again, and found with all the marks of a consummate Vampire.
His flesh was of a lively hue; the hair of his head and beard were considerably grown, as were likewise his nails; and he was withal very full of fluid blood, which ran a pace from every part of his body all over the shroud wherein he was wrapped.
The Hadnagy, or Bailiff of the place, in whose presence the examination was made, and who was an expert on matters of Vampirism, did, as is customary, cause to be driven thro' the defunct Arnold Paulo's heart and body a sharp stake, which made him, as they affirm, give a loud cry, as if he had been alive. This done, they cut off his head, and burned that with the corpse of him, the ashes whereof were cast into the river Save.
The like course was taken with the other four bodies of those who died suddenly, tho' fear lest they, in their turn, should be the death of others. However, all this could not prevent, that, towards the close of last year, that is, at the end of five years, these fatal prodigies recommenced, and that several of the same village died miserably.
Within the space of three months, seventeen persons, of both sexes and different ages, are actually dead of Vampirism, some without any sickness, others after two or three days languishment. They report, among others, that one Stanoska (daughter of a certain Heyduque named Jovitza) who went to bed in perfect health, waked about midnight trembling every joint of her, shrieking very frightfully, and saying, that the deceased son of Millo, the Heyduque, wanted little of strangling her while she was asleep.
From that moment she did nothing but languish, and at the end of three days she died. What this girl reported, concerning the said Heyduque's son, immediately gave people to understand, that he was a Vampire. His grave was thereupon opened, and he found to be such; he was buried nine weeks before.
The chiefs of those quarters with several physicians and surgeons, set themselves on examining, how and by what means Vampirism could have revived after the precautions which had, some years ago, been taken. At length, after many diligent researches, they discovered, that the defunct Arnold Paulo had not only sucked the above mentioned four persons, but also divers cattle, whereof the new Vampires had eaten afterwards, and among them this Millo's son.
Upon these tokens and discoveries, it was resolved, that they should dig up all such as had died within a certain distance of time; and, amidst about forty, no fewer than seventeen were found with all the most evident signs of Vampirism, and accordingly, stakes were driven thro' their hearts, their heads cut off, after which they were all consumed by fire, and the ashes thrown into the river.
All these informations and executions were taken and performed juridically, in due form, and attested by several officers quartered thereabouts, by Head Surgeons of Regiments, and by the principal inhabitants of the country. The verbal process of all was, towards the end of last January, remitted to the Imperial Council of War at Vienna, whence a Military Commission had been issued, purposely to examine into the truth of all these matters.
This was the Declaration made by Barriabar the Hadnagy, with the oldest Heyduques, and signed by Battuer; first Lieutenant of Alexander Wirtemberg's Regiment, by Flickenger Surgeon Major of Furstembusch's Regiment, with three other Surgeons of Companie's, and by Captain Gubsebitz, quartered at Stallath.
I judged proper thus to collect what I find published relating to Vampirism, the better to enable you to pass a judgment on this matter, by the number of facts; and, 'till I can have your sentiments thereupon, I will venture to give you my own.
There are two different ways to destroy all opinions of the existence of those pretended returners from below ground, and to show the impossibility of such effects as these carcases, utterly void of all sensibility, are affirmed to produce. The first is, to explain the prodigies of the Vampirism by physical causes,. The second is, totally to deny the verity of these facts; and this latter method is, undoubtedly, the most certain, and also the wisest.
But, as there are in the world people to whom the authority of a certificate given and signed by men in offices seems a manifest demonstration of reality of the absurdest stories, I will (before I demonstrate how little we ought to build on the formalities of justice in matters which only regard philosophy) for a while admit that a number of persons do really die of a distemper called Vampirism.
I first lay down this principal, that it actually may be, that there are certain dead bodies which, tho' they have been several days inhumed, put forth, from their several conduits, a quantity of fluid blood. I farther allow, that it is early enough for certain people to imagine that they are sucked by Vampires, and also that the fear, wherewith this fancy inspires them, causes in them a revolution sufficiently violent to deprive them even of life itself.
Being all day taken up with the dread of these imaginary strollers from the grave, is it any extraordinary thing that, in their sleep, the ideas of these phantoms should present themselves to their imagination, and cause in them a terror so violent, as to kill some instantly, and some others in a short time after? How many have been known to die on the spot with a sudden fright? And has not excess of joy frequently produced effects equally fatal?
In examining this recital of the death of these pretended martyrs of Vampirism, I discover all the symptoms of a mere epidemical fanaticism, and very plainly perceive, that the impression which fear makes on them is the sole cause of their loss. They report among others, (say they) that one Stanoska, ect.
Nor was she, according to appearance, ever so served afterwards, since doubtless she was not left alone during any part of the other nights she survived, or at least had the Vampire attempted it, on any such occasion, her crying out again would have alarmed those within call, already apprised of his former visit.
However, on the third day from her fright, she dies; and her dispiritedness, her melancholy and her languishment, most evidently denote how deeply her imagination was wounded.
They who have lived in towns afflicted with the pestilence, know by experience how frequently people have lost their lives purely thro' fear. When a person is seized with the least ailing, he immediately fancies himself stricken with the epidemical disease, and that causes in him such a revolution, that it is in a manner impossible for him to surmount the disorder.
At Paris, a friend of mine assured me, that, being at Marseilles when the plaque raged there, he saw a gentlewoman actually die of the fear she conceived at a slight indisposition of her maid's, which she thought to be the pestilence.
This woman's daughter was also at death's door, on the same account. Two other persons, living in the same house, took likewise to their beds, sent for a physician, and affirmed to him, that they were seized by the plaque. He presently made a visitation of the maid, and all the other patients, and found that not one of them had the least tincture of contagion, and thereupon strove to calm their minds, ordering them to get up and live just as they used to do before; but all his care had no effect upon the Mistress of the house, who died in two days after having frightened herself.
Now consider, in the other passage, touching the death of a passive Vampire, wherein are most evident proofs of the terrible effects of dread and prepossession - on the third night after his burial, he appeared to his son, ect. - Who can be so blind as not to perceive in those words, the most evident marks of fear and prejudice? The first time the imagination of this pretended martyr of Vampirism was attacked, the attack wrought not it's whole effect, but only disposed his mind to be more susceptible of a stronger shock.
Accordingly that did not fail to happen, or to produce the very effect which might therefrom be naturally expected. Take notice that the walking corpse did not return that night which succeeded the day whereon the son had related the vision, or dream, to his neighbours, because, very seemingly, they watched with him, and kept him from giving way to his fear.
I come next to those dead bodies found full of fluid blood, with their hair, beards and nails growing. We may, I believe, abate at least a third of these prodigies, and yet it will be a compliance to abate only so small a portion.
All men of any discernment know how greatly common report, and even several historians, do stretch and enlarge things which seem ever so little supernatural, however, it is no impossibility to explain the causes thereof physically.
Experience teaches us, that there are certain earths proper to receive human bodies in their whole freshness. The reasons thereof have often enough been explained, without my being at the needless trouble of making recitals. At Toulouse, in a church, is a vault, wherein bodies remain so perfectly entire, that there are some of more than two centuries standing which feel actually alive.
They are ranged upright along the wall, and dressed in their usual apparel. But what is the most peculiar, is, that the bodies which are placed on the contrary side of this vault, do, in two or three days, become full of worms.
As to the growth of hair and nails, the very same is observed frequently in dead bodies. While a carcase has any quantity of moisture remaining in it, there can be nothing surprising in the case, if we see, for some time, a visible augmentation in such parts as require not vital spirits.
The fluid blood, flowing thro' the natural conduits, do indeed seem to advance a greater difficulty; yet we may be able to produce some physical reasons for such flowings. It may very well happen, that the heat of the sun, affording a strong degree of warmth to the nitrous and sulphurous parts of the earth, which is proper to keep fleshy bodies from consuming, these parts, being incorporated with the newly interred bodies, occasion their fermenting; and so, uncoagulating and unfixing the curdled or clotted blood, render it liquid, enabling it to distil gradually thro' the canals.
This is the more probable, as it is confirmed by a known experiment. If we boil in a vessel of glass, or earth, one portion of chyle, or of milk, mixed with two portions of oil of tartar, made by decantation, the liquor, from white as it was, will become red; because the salt of the tartar will have entirely rarified and dissolved the most oily part of the milk, and have converted it into a sort of blood.
That which is formed in the corporeal vessel is somewhat redder, but not at all thicker. It is not therefore impossible, that heat causes fermentation which produces near a like effect with this experiment; and this will be found the more feasible when we consider, that the juices of the flesh and of bones bear a great resemblance with chyle, and that fat and marrow are the most oily parts of the chyle.
Now all these parts, being in a ferment, must, by the rules of experience, be changed into a sort of blood; so, besides that which is uncoagulated and unfixed, the pretended Vampires will also void that which is formed from the melting of the fat and marrow.
This is what may be advanced by such as are disposed not absolutely to give the lie to those formal certificates which are given concerning false prodigies. Indeed, it would be more than absurd to imagine that there can be in them any tincture of reality.
For, the bodies of these imaginary Vampires either do quit their graves to come and suck people, or they do not. If they do suck, they ought to be visible. Now they are not seen; for, whenever the complainants call out for assistance, they who run in at the out cry never see any such matter. They therefore do not come abroad.
If the bodies come not out, it must then be the soul, and spirit. Now, can the soul, or spirit, composed of so subtle a matter, can it, I say, gather up and contain, as in a vessel, a quantity of such a liquid as blood is, and convey it into the body?
Really this spirit is sent on a very pleasant errand. But it would make me blush to employ any more time or pains about proving the impossibility of Vampirism.
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