The vampire is truly a global archetype, with myths related to the dead which rise to drink the blood of the living coming out of cultures all around the world. From Africa to Korea to Russia and France, humans have paid tribute to vampires for centuries. Nowhere, however, do we see more vampire folklore than in the stories of the Slavic people.

Some argue that these beliefs have been introduced by the many gypsies who migrated from northern India where certain bloodthirsty deities (such as Kali) are worshipped.

In Serbia, the most common names for an undead vampire are vampir and vorkudlak. In Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro, the names include not only these but also lampir. In documented testimony from a trial that began in October 1737 and ended in 1738 in the then independent Croation city-state of Durovnik, not far north from Montenegro, the names given for "vampire" include kosak, pricosak, tenjac, and vukodlak. (The defendants in the trial were vampire hunters and their accomplices from the Croation island of Lastova in the Adriatic Sea. They were accused of desecrating graves.) In the part of Croatia on the Adriatic penninsula of Istria and in neighboring Slovenia, the name kudlak, an abbreviation of vorkudlak is sometimes used.

Most generally, these names applied to undead vampires who closely resemble the Russian upir and the Greek vrykolakas except that there is not much mention of demonic possession to be found here. The means for destroying them include exhuming the corpse the corpse and then driving a stake a stake into the heart, decaptitating it, or cremating it. In regions on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, the corpse was sometimes hamstrung; i.e., the tendons of the knee were cut before re-burial to prevent the corpse from walking again.

In some parts of Serbia, there is or was a belief that, unless they are destroyed first, vampires reach a stage in their unlife after thirty years from their death and burial where they no longer need to periodically return to the grave but can in fact pass as ordinary mortal human beings even in the day time. They then travel far away to some country where they will not be recognized and then they often marry a mortal human, and have children.

As is described in my web page containing Part II of Vampires of the World, under "The Kudlak of Istria", on the penninsula of Istria the term kudlak, an abbreviation of vorkudlak, can mean either an undead vampire or a person born with a caul who has certain supernatural powers and uses them to the detriment of his community even before he dies. And when such a person dies he continues his career as a full fledged undead vampire.

There are other eccentric beliefs found in these countries. Here are three:

* Some Serbs at least believed that an undead vampire could take the form of a butterfly.

* A tribe in Montenegro believed that the undead spent part of their unlife in wolf-form.

* The Gypsies and some Serbs believed that the undead were often invisible to most people.

Even today, Roma aee frequently feature in vampire fiction and film, no doubt influenced by Bram Stoker's book, Dracula, in which the Szgany Roma served Dracula, carrying his boxes of earth and guarding him.

Traditional Romani beliefs include the idea that the dead soul enters a world similar to ours except that there is no death. The soul stays around the body and sometimes wants to come back. The Roma legends of the living dead added to and enriched the vampire legends of Hungary, Romania, and Slavic lands.

The most famous Indian deity associated with blood drinking is Kali, who has fangs, wears a garland of corpses or skulls and has four arms. Her temples are near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.

Sara, or the Black Goddess, is the form in which Kali survived among Roma. Some Roma have a belief that the three Marys from the New Testament went to France and baptised a gypsy called Sara. They still hold a ceremony each May 24 in the French village where this is supposed to have occurred. Some refer to their Black Goddess as "Black Cally" or "Black Kali".

One form of vampire in Romani folklore is called a mullo (one who is dead). This vampire is believed to return and do malicious things and/or suck the blood of a person (usually a relative who had caused their death, or hadn't properly observed the burial ceremonies, or who kept the deceased's possessions instead of destroying them as was proper).

Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would exhaust the husband.

Anyone who had a hideous appearance, was missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal, etc., was believed to be a vampire. If a person died unseen, he would become a vampire; likewise if a corpse swelled before burial. Plants or dogs, cats, or even agricultural tools could become vampires. Pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood.

To get rid of a vampire people would hire a Dhampir (the son of a vampire and his widow) or a Moroi to detect the vampire. To ward off vampires, Gypsies drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. Further measures included driving stakes into the grave, pouring boiling water over it, decapitating the corpse, or burning it.

According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people. However, they could be seen "by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wear their drawers and shirts inside out." Likewise, a settlement could be protected from a vampire "by finding a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday and making them wear their shirts and drawers inside out (cf previous section). This pair could see the vampire out of doors at night, but immediately after it saw them it would have to flee, head over heels."

Macedonian Vampires

Macedonian names for an unead vampire include:

* Vompiras

* Vampiros

* Vrykolakas

* Vorkolakas

* Vroukolakas

The Macedonian undead is sometimes reported as being virtually identical to the undead of southern Greece and the Greek islands. It was often thought to be a corpse animated by a demon. But, while in southern Greece the ways to destroy a vampire were limited to excorcism and cremation, in Macedonia there were other means as well. These include scalding the corpse with boiling oil and then driving a long nail through its navel.

Also, there are vampire hunters who can destroy the vampire when he is outside his grave. This goes along with the belief that undead vampires are sometimes invisible. These vampire hunters claim the power to see the undead even when they are invisible to most people. These include Moslem dervishes and Sabbatarians. Moslem dervishes who posed as professional vampire hunters went from village to village carrying an iron rod with a sharp point at the tope end or a staff with a small axe at the top.

People born on a Saturday were called Sabbatarians. It was believed that Sabbatarians could see vampires invisible to most other people and to have power over them. And so they too sometimes acted as vampire hunters. In one report, a Sabbatarian lured a vampire into a barn where there was a pile of millet. The vampire, by his nature, was compelled to count all the grains. The Sabbatarian then took advantage of the vampire's pre-occupation by nailing him to a wall.

Some Macedonian vampires preferred the blood of sheep above that of humans. They were said to gleefully ride upon the backs of sheep at night while drinking the animals' blood.

A prime source of information regarding Macedonian vampires is Macedonian Folklore by G.F. Abbott (Cambridge University Press, 1903) which caqn be found in many college libraries today. The full excerpt from that is given in The Darkling by Jan Petrowski (Slavica Press, 1989).

Veshtitza

Origin: Montenegro and Serbia

Description: a blood drinking witch who has similarities to the ancient Roman Stryx and the Albanian Shtriga. The soul of a Veshtitza leaves her body at night and enters the body of a hen or a black moth. In the body of such a creature, she flies about until she finds a home where there are infants or young children then she drank their blood and ate their hearts. The veshtitze would join together to form covens. The members of a coven flock together in the branches of some tree at midnight on certain nights to hold a meeting while they snack upon what they had gathered earlier in the dark. Since it was a common Eastern European belief that witches in general became undead vampires after their death, it seems likely that the natural death of a Veshtitza does not end her drinking habit.

Krvopijac

Origin: Bulgaria

Description: Krvopijacs (also known as obours) look like normal vampires except that they have only one nostril.

Weaknesses: they can be immobilized by placing wild roses around their graves. One way to destroy a krvopijac is for a magician to order its spirit into a bottle, which must then be thrown into a fire.

Mulo

Origin: Eastern Europe (Gypsy)

Description: The mulo is the spirit of a dead person who leaves his corpse in his grave at night and returned at dawn. The mulo was generally invisible but was often believed to be visible to certain people, in which case it usually appeared in the original form of the dead person.

Powers: The vampiric mulo most often preyed upon sheep and cattle. In the Balkan countries, the adult male mulo would typically come to visit his widow at night to resume his relationship with her. If the deceased was an adult male who had died unwed, his mulo might visit a woman whom he had loved during his lifetime. In some versions of the belief, he would be visible to his widow and act kindly towards her, helping with household tasks and regaining her favor. In another version, the mulo is invisible even to his wife but he liesupon her and rapes her while she feels paralyzed and is unable to cry out to others; the widow becomes sick with terror, refuses food and drink, and eventually dies.

Weaknesses: Some Gypsies in Kosovo once believed that a brother and sister born together as twins on a Saturday could see a vampiric mulo if they wore their underwear and shirts inside out. The mulo would flee as soon as the twins saw it. A Gypsy practice in Moravia, now the eastern province of the Czech Republic, was to use a hen's egg to bait and ambush an invisible vampiric mulo. When the egg suddenly disappeared, the men would fire their guns at the spot.

Shtriga

Origin: Albania

Description: a witch who preys upon infants by drinking their blood at night. But instead of transforming into an owl when she goes for her midnight snack, she is more apt to take the form of a flying insect. As recently as the early 20th century, many Albanians regarded the Shtriga to be the most common cause of infant deaths.