Vampires (14 page)

Whether or not we accept this explanation, it does seem likely that the figure of the vampire embodies some of our darkest fears and desires: firstly, our anxieties about our possible hostile feelings to those who have gone before us, especially parents and family relatives; and secondly, our primitive urge to return to the oral stage, in which sucking and biting are a childish source of pleasure.

These intellectual adventures into the primitive world of ancient folklore, pointing out recurring cross-cultural images, were exciting developments in several fields, from psychology to anthropology. While psychoanalysts studied the meaning of folkloric figures in terms of individual psychology, cultural anthropologists began to see links between the myths and legends of many different cultures around the world. And none appeared to recur more frequently than the figure of the bloodsucking revenant or vampire.

Today, many of these myths and legends continue to persist, particularly in parts of the world where folklore still plays a major part in people’s lives. In the Philippines today, the female figure of the Aswang, a shapeshifting vampire, continues to be feared. This mythical creature is an old woman who takes the form of an animal at night – sometimes a bat, sometimes a creature with a long nose – and hunts down victims to eat. The Aswang is able to suck a foetus out of its mother’s womb, steal a baby from its cradle, and take it home to eat. The Aswang is said to be particularly partial to hearts and livers. In some cases, the Aswang may replace its victim with a phoney baby or child, which will become ill and die. By day, the Aswang can be recognized by its bloodshot eyes, which are caused by having to stay up all night, searching for victims.

As in so many cultures, this female demon is blamed for causing all sorts of ills, particularly miscarriage and early death in infants. It is known across the Philippines by several different names, including the ‘tik-tik’ and ‘wak wak’. Other related revenant figures from the region include the Manananggal, a bat-like witch who is able to split its body in half, and which devours human beings. Interestingly, both the Aswang and the Manananggal are said to dislike garlic. There are also thought to be particular ways of telling whether a person is an Aswang or Manananggal, such as by bending over and looking at it with the head between the legs, or by seeing a reflection of oneself in their eyes. In addition, there are said to be specific ways of warding off such creatures, for example throwing salt at them, which burns their skin. Significantly, the Manananggal, like the European vampire, is believed to hate sunlight and to be afraid of silver weapons. Whether this idea was introduced from Europe, or whether Europeans took it over from the East, remains a mystery.

Similar to the Filipino Aswang is the Soucouyant of Trinidadian folklore, an old hag who can change shape, shedding her skin to become a fireball that flies through the air at night. The Soucouyant sucks blood from her victims, who may die and become Soucoyants as well. As with the European vampire, the Soucouyant can be repelled by scattering grains of rice on the ground, so that she must count them all; alternatively, salt can be sprinkled on the place where she left her skin, so that she will burn to death when she puts it back on.

From Hindu mythology comes the Vetala, also known as the Baital. This is an evil spirit that haunts cemeteries and enters corpses. It may continue to inhabit the corpse or leave it to cause trouble for the human world. Its specialities are causing miscarriages, sending people mad, or killing children. However, it may also be a force for good on certain occasions, since it can guard villages from attack.

The Vetala inhabits a mysterious world somewhere between the living and the dead, and has lived for many centuries. Its vast store of knowledge, experience, and insight make it attractive to witches and sorcerers, who often try to capture and enslave it. However, it is a clever spirit, and knows how to escape capture. In one legend, King Vikramaditya, who lived in the first century bc, tried to capture a Vetala that lived in a tree in a graveyard. The only way to catch the Vetala was to remain silent, come what may. Once caught, the Vetala responded by telling the king stories, which so interested the king that he asked questions, whereupon the spell was broken and the Vetala returned to his tree home. The stories that the Vetala told the king are collected in a book, the
Baital Pachisi
, a set of tales comparable to the
Arabian Nights
.

Also from Hindu mythology comes the Churel, an ugly old woman with a long, thick, black tongue which she uses to suck the blood from living mortals. The Churel is said to be the wandering spirit of a woman who has died in childbirth. She begins her spirit life by sucking the blood from her former husband, and continues to seek out young men as victims, living by streams and rivers, and lying in wait for them.

Jiang Shi are Chinese vampires. According to legend, they come into being when a dead person’s soul refuses to leave its body, and go on to cause trouble to the living. They have the appearance of decomposing corpses, with a horrible, furry green skin and long white hair. In ancient mythology, they sucked the essence of life from human beings, but in more recent times – possibly because of the influence of western stories about vampires – they are believed to suck blood from the living. A defining feature of the Jiang Shi is its curious hopping gait. This feature is said to come from the ancient Chinese custom of transporting corpses of people who had died back to their hometowns. The corpses would be put on long bamboo sticks, which would bend up and down, making them look as though they were hopping. The list of vampire-like creatures from myths and legends in different countries and cultures is a long one, and it is not possible to mention them all here. However, what continues to fascinate those with an interest in folklore is that the figure of the vampire, or bloodsucking revenant, is a perennial one that occurs across many cultures, both ancient and modern.

In most people’s minds, the vampire is a mythical entity, a figure that combines elements of ancient pagan beliefs and superstitions with playful modern-day romance and horror narratives. However, there are some who take the legend more seriously, to the extent of pursuing a vampiric lifestyle. This may simply involve looking the part, that is, wearing black clothes and ghoulish make-up, and identifying with what has become known as the ‘goth’ subculture. In some cases the fascination may be deeper, indicating serious psychological disturbance, and involving gruesome rituals such as the drinking of blood, or even necrophilia. In this chapter we look at real-life vampires, beginning with an in-depth account of those infamous, bloodthirsty characters from history on whom the vampire myth is based: Vlad the Impaler, Elizabeth Bàthory, and Gilles de Rais. We then move on to discuss some of the early serial killers who were dubbed vampires in their time: in particular, Fritz Haarman and Peter Kürten, who were at large in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. During this period, the term ‘serial killer’ was not in common use; thus, the senseless, repeated murders perpetrated by these bloodthirsty individuals were attributed to vampirism, showing how even in the twentieth century, superstition and pagan belief were still rife.

The fear of crazed murderers who kill from bloodlust goes back centuries, and is a recurring theme in the history and culture of many northern European countries. One of the earliest serial killers said to be a vampire was the legend of Serbian Sava Savanovic¥, who was said to have lived in an old watermill on the River Rogagica near a village called Zarozje. According to local legend, he preyed on millers who came to the watermill to grind their grain. Little more is known about him, except that the watermill, owned by the Jagodic family, continued to function until the 1950s, when it closed. Apparently, tourists today still come to see ‘the vampire’s mill’.

A so-called vampire who received a great deal of notoriety was Peter Plogojowitz, also known by his Serbian name Petar Blagojevic. Plogojowitz was a Serbian peasant who would have lived out his life in obscurity except that when he died, in 1725, there was an outbreak of disease and death in his village, Kisilova. Within a matter of days, nine more people had died, after falling ill and rapidly deteriorating. Some of the victims told stories on their deathbeds that Plogojowitz had returned from the grave to try to strangle them. Plogojowitz’s wife complained that his ghost visited her at night, demanding that she give him his shoes. She was so frightened by this that she moved to another village, but there was worse to come.

One night, according to the villagers, Peter Plogojowitz appeared to his son, asking for food. When the son demurred, his father promptly killed him, brutally and in cold blood. At this, the villagers decided it was time to dig up the errant vampire, and set out to the churchyard with the local priest, armed with spades, garlic, and a wooden stake. Also among the party was an official from the Austrian government, then ruling that part of Serbia, who went by the name of Imperial Provisor Frombald.

When the body was dug up, Frombald was surprised to see that it looked strangely alive, as though it had been thriving underground. Its hair and beard had grown long, together with its fingernails, which looked new and young. Its cheeks were ruddy, and there appeared to be fresh blood emanating from its mouth. In a great state of agitation, the priest and villagers ran a wooden stake through the corpse’s heart, at which point more rich, dark blood flowed from its ears and mouth. Taking this to be fresh blood, the assembled company panicked, and burned the body to ashes.

In great distress, Frombald submitted a report of these doings to his superiors, hoping that he would not be castigated for taking part in such godless rituals. He was not, but the report was widely circulated and published in a national newspaper in Austria, fuelling a ‘vampire panic’ that spread to Germany, France and England. (For more information on this, see Chapter 1.)

At the time, there were various scientific refutations of the phenomenon, including explanations of what we know today.

There were also theories about communicable diseases playing a part in the quick succession of sudden deaths within a village or small town. One commentator, Michael Ranft, put the deaths down to anxiety provoked by the situation. He wrote: ‘Sudden death gives rise to inquietude in the familiar circle. Inquietude has sorrow as a companion. Sorrow brings melancholy. Melancholy engenders restless nights and tormenting dreams. These dreams enfeeble body and spirit until illness overcomes, and eventually, death.’ However, these arguments were dismissed by the superstitious villagers, and even today in the region the belief in vampires still persists.

Another instance of vampire panic came with the death of an outlaw called Arnold Paole, who died after falling off a haywagon in 1726. Not long afterwards, several people in the vicinity died suddenly, having complained that Paole had visited them at night. (Paole himself, during his life, had also mentioned that he had been plagued by a vampire, but had resolved the situation by eating earth from the vampire’s grave and drinking his blood.)

Once again, the villagers decided to open up his grave, in the company of the local priest and government official, and were horrified to find the corpse looking healthy and swollen with blood. Paole and his four victims received the wooden stake treatment, and the episode contributed to the terror panic already sweeping across Europe by this time. Five years later, there was another outbreak of hysteria following the deaths of dozens of people from the same area in a matter of months, and the corpses were subjected to a number of anti-vampire rituals, including having their heads cut off and being burned to ashes.

At various times in history, there have been vampire panics occasioned by sudden deaths within a small community, following the burial of a local person. In the late nineteenth century, a family in Exeter, Rhode Island, suffered an outbreak of tuberculosis. The first to die was the mother of the family, Mary Brown, followed by her eldest daughter, also called Mary. Next came Mercy, a younger daughter, who died in 1892. The spate of deaths raised suspicions that a vampire was at work, so the father, George Brown, had the bodies exhumed. While the corpses of the mother and eldest daughter had decomposed, Mercy appeared unchanged. In accordance with local superstitions, Mercy’s heart was taken from her body, burned, and the ashes mixed with water. The solution was given to her brother Edwin to drink. Edwin, who was already ill, died two months afterwards.

Today, urban myths and legends about vampires stalking graveyards still exist. One such instance was the media sensation surrounding the alleged Highgate Vampire, a revenant that supposedly inhabited the north London cemetery where Karl Marx and other well-known figures are buried. The story was promoted by a group of young occultists who roamed the cemetery in the 1960s, when it had been left untended for many years. They reported seeing a ‘grey figure’ and several ghosts, variously described as a cyclist, a woman wearing a white gown, and a tall man in a hat. There were also reports of bells ringing, and soft voices calling.