The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 48

theEflVapire 0 tt 5 mm -v. ft; '1 I 4 -A Ilncianlan Peasants Raid Their Village Graveyard Seeking the "Undcad'9 They Think Has Been Killing Their Cattle, Find a Body That Bears "The Devil's Marks" and Dispose of It by the Dreadful Ancient Bites i USf.f JA "Vampires" Are Supposed to Find Their Way to Their Sleeping Victims, Sink Their Small Teeth Into Their Throats and Suck the Blood, and Upon Any Danger of Discovery Are Also Supposed, According to the Ancient Superstition, to Be Able to Change Themselves Into Whisps of iMst or Fog and Slip Out of Any Open Window or Crevice Back to Their Unhallowed Graves. If IF of more tooth marks on throats. The witch doctors threw up their hands for this was evidently not the type to be frightened away by magic. There was only one thing to do, tear the vampire out of his grave and fix him so there would be no more risings from it.

The peasants recoiled at the thought and the priests exhorted them not to commit such a desecration. The peasants, however, asked what the priests had done to help except utter prayers which seemed to have been of little avail. But they had done something, they had written to the Government and received a letter from Bucharest, promising that learned, scientific men would soon arrive to help them. The peasants waited, while more cattle died, until two learned men arrived. They also were puzzled at first, but finally determined that the animals were dying from anthrax but in a form they had never heard of.

They scoffed at the vampire tooth marks, explaining that a sick animal was likely to be bitten by various creatures, including owls, foxes and wolves. The peasants believed it about the wolves because one of the favorite ways in which vampires make their appearance is supposed to be in the form of werewolves. The learned men went away, saying that the disease would probably soon run its course and disappear. Disgusted at this seeming lack of helpfulness, the peasants faced the fact that the "cattle were now dying at a rate which promised soon to leave nothing but human blood powers of darkness are Invoked to remove the curse that seems to be upon him. To him this seems no more illogical than it does for a business man in a big city who pays taxes for police protection but also slips tribute money to the racketeer so he won't ruin his business.

The witch doctors are the outcast descendants of ancient priests whose pagan religions were displaced by Christianity but who are still supposed to retain some of their superstitious powers. All three were called and all agreed in the dreaded identification. A wave of terror swept this community what was to be done to save them? The witch doctors held out some reassurance at first. This was an unusually benign form of vampire, contenting itself so far with cattle victims, instead of human beings, but such considerate behavior might not last, especially if the supply of cattle should run low. Perhaps before this happened they might be able to drive it away to some other part of the country.

In the hope of accomplishing this -the witch doctors set up their incantations on certain selected nights at the crossroads Just below the cemetery. On the first night, they sacrificed nine sheaves of wheat, and on the second added nine bottles of the best wine in the village. The third time they did both things and added the blood of the biggest black tomcat within 50 But the cattle kepi on sickening and dying" faster than ever and every day come reports Ten, There Really Are Vampire. But They Are Small Bata and Not at All "Spooks." The Upper Picture Shows One of These Little Creatures (Called Desmodus) Crawling Toward a Bowl of Blood and Showing- the Teeth With Which it Cuts Its Victim's Skin Causing- The Second Photograph Shows the Pointed Tongue With Which Desmodus Laps the Blood From the Little Cuts. While It Drinks Only a Small Quantity, the Victim Does Die by Blood Loss Through the Wounds or From tofectlonj 4 the Slightest Pain.

that is, able to leave the grave and haunt the world of the living. It then becomes the most dangerous and dreadful "ghost" Imaginable because, In order to keep up this "undead" night life, it must frequently gorge. Itself on the blood of some living usually In his sleep. A vampire's victim is supposed to die slowly of a sort of anemia and though he knows he Is doomed, rarely tells anyone what has happened. The reason for the secrecy is that after death, according to the ancient legend, he too will Join the ranks of the vampires and, if the community knew it, a stake would be driven through his heart, the moment it stopped beating and other unpleasant precautions taken to make sure he would stay dead permanently.

Anyone who looks anemic, when vampires are supposed to be about. Is regarded with suspicion. Not in a couple of generations had there been a vampire scare in Sarmisegetuza, but last summer cattle in the vicinity began dying of a mysterious ailment For several weeks nobody could figure out what was the matter with the animals. Then, one morning a peasant found "tooth marks" on the throat of a dying calf, a discovery that brought people from far and near. A dreadful suspicion arose that It.

was a "vampire's mark" but nobody had seen one, even a 90-year-old recluse who came hobbling down from his mountain hut The most learned persons were the priests at the church, but would not even admit that vampires exist. The only wsy to find out was to call In one of the three witch doctors who lived In the vicinity. Throughout the Balkans, these strange characters are to be found, and they are feared, often hated, but respected by most of the population. The average Balkan peasant Is a devoutly religious person who goes to church. Is baptised and married in It and burled In the consecrated ground of the graveyard.

But when things go wrong and prayers remain unanswered, he sneaks around to the witch doctor's hut where, for a small fee, the 1931, i ir it The Infamous Baron Gille de Rate, Historic "Bluebeard, Who Was Supposed to Be Attended by a "Werewolf," ft Form of Vampire, for the vampire, an alternative so dreadful that they preferred the grisly work of digging up their own dead. There was no meeting or formal vote. Theleadingmen and women of the community decided it had to be done and nobody dared argue against It lest they Jbe, suspected haying a rejattve In the cemetery. The matter was placed in the hands of the witch doctors, who said it could not be done right until the next full moon. The task must be undertaken at night because during the day the corpse of a vampire looks so much like an ordinary one, that they might make a But at night the vampire would be and therefore able to rise from his coffin and do terrible things to those who were attempting to destroy him.

Only on full-moon nights would the vampire be forced to remain in his grave and yet be sufficiently "undead" so they could recognize him. There were tales, however, that sometimes a vampire had been known to defy a full moon. Ten peasants, their courage fortified by wrath at losing cattle, volunteered to perform the labor, with pick and shovel, while the three witch doctors attended to the rest The three wore black robes and hoods to say nothing of amulets and talismans. They had a dreadful chant with which they addressed the dead, in the language of the dead, sup- -posed to have been learned by listening carefully to the death-rattles of thousands of dying persons. The other ten had only crucifixes and a liberal sprinkling of holy water which might not help much because they were on an unholy errand.

In a city, were it known that a plan to raid a cemetery was afoot. It would be stopped by a cordon of police. In Sarmisegetuza there are no police. Soldiers could be sent to guard the graveyard but this would cause a mountaineers' rebellion that would take the entire army to suppress. The graveyard party had a list of suspects who, for one reason or another, were thought likeliest to be the vampire, but the remains In the first ten coffins opened were In such advanced state of decomposition that It required no witch doctor to know they were not guilty.

The -eleventh was a girl of about 20, who had taken her life with poison, when ber sweetheart deserted her. Her grave was in (Continued on fag 18) i tr; Unmi mi iii'immmniiii imii 1.1. in- iriinr 'nr iiiMii(iiiiinmi' nr iim urn in BUCHAREST, Rumania. IW HILE all the little village of Sarmi-XXsegetuza, in the Carpathian Mountains TT of Rumania, sat up to pray for them, ten peasants who had sprinkled themselves with holy water and three black-robed men who had not done so, marched up to the village cemetery, centuries old and, at the stroke of midnight, began opening its graves. The peasants were the ten bravest men in the community, yet it was not the warm sweat of labor, but the cold sweat of terror that ran -down their white faces, as they worked under the doubtful protection of a moon, exactly at its full.

And well they might tremble for they were violating graves of their own relatives and in search of the most dreadful creature ever invented by the mind of superstitious man a vampire. That night ten coffins were opened and ten successive times the three men in black, with the aid of pine-knot torches, peered down at the remains and shook their hooded heads. But in the eleventh, the grave of a young woman, they found, as they believed, what they sought and while the peasants crossed themselves and shielded themselves with crucifixes, the other three took the traditional steps for giving the second and final death to a vampire. When a stranger asks how they knew she was one of the dreadful "undead," the villagers reply that there are many signs but the proof that they found the right one and the only one, lies in the fact that the herds of cattle the vampire was supposed to be preying upon, immediately stopped sickening and dying. Government veterinarians sent from Bucharest have a scientific and quite different explanation, but the peasants smile at it and be-lind their backs, call them, "learned foots." Nowhere Is the old and widespread vamplrs superstition stronger than In the countries along the Danube River.

As the natives under stand It, a vampire Is a man, woman or even a child who has died like anyone else but during the hours from sunset to dawn, except on nights of the full moon, becomes "undead," The Famous Painting by Sir Edward Bume-Jonea, Whk-h Brought the Anrlent Idea Of the Vampire Into Modern Times and Around Which Kipling Wrote The Vampire," ICS Equally Famous "A Rag and a Bone and a Hank of Hair" Poem. br Amrrtcsn Wkly, Grt Brttala Rights Reserved.).