Vampires - Haunting Hooves of Darkness

Lurking in the shadows and wrapped in shrouds, their un-dead body gets rejuvenated in coffins. Though they can’t walk on consecrated ground or cross running water, yet when they enter a house, they leave only on being pleased. When such mythological beings who live on sucking the blood of living creatures met European villagers’ fear and belief, they were called Vrykolakas in Greece, Strigoi in Romania and Vampires in England.

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula provided the basis of modern vampire fiction. The success of book spawned an individual vampire genre, still alive in the 21st century, with books, motion pictures, and television shows. When a phenomenon like this creeps into mass consciousness, a question pops up - ‘are vampires for real?’ If not, then why increased the level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

The notion of vampirism existed for millennia. Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Persian, Ancient Greek, and Roman Cultures, all, told tales of blood-sucking demons. In Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by a dog or a cat was feared to become a vampire. A body with a wound, not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In India, tales of such ghoul-like beings have been compiled in the Baital Pacisi, a story of King Vikramaditya’s nightly quests to capture Vetalas.

With the arrival of Christianity in Europe, the vampire began to take on Christian characteristics. In Russian folklore, vampires were once witches or people who rebelled against Russian Orthodox Church. Although vampire entities have been recorded throughout human existence, the term vampire was not popularized until early 18th century. There was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe. The tales formed the basis of the vampire legend before entering Germany and England.

The panic began with two famous vampire cases of Serbia. In the first case, a farmer, Plogojowitz returned after his death asking his son for food. When son refused, he was found dead the next day. Plogojowitz supposedly returned and attacked neighbors who died from loss of blood. In the second case, Paole, an ex-soldier, allegedly was attacked by a vampire. After his death, people began to die in the area nearby as believed Paole returned to prey on the neighbors.

At one point in time, even government officials were engaged in the hunting and staking of such vampires. Potential vampires were staked through the heart in Russia and north-eastern Serbia. In Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires. In Bulgaria, over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered, which implies how belief in vampires terrorised local farmers.

If you try to find logic in the whole scenario, then Vampires can be linked with, disease Rabies. The vulnerability to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of this disease. Rabies can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to hypersexuality and disturbance of normal sleep patterns, leaving one nocturnal. Wolves and bats, which are often allied with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also gift one a tendency to bite to a bloody frothing at the mouth.

Today conscious minds won’t believe if any vampire exists today, but what about those serial killers who drink the blood of the victims or Chupacabra, a rumoured creature of Puerto Rico and Mexico who has the habit of drinking the blood of livestock. If drinking blood makes one Vampire, then yes they do exist ... and many deserve the label.