The caul was also thought to have special powers, for example to protect against black magic, to defend the harvest, and to ensure fertility. Cauls were also thought to protect the bearer from drowning: in medieval times, women would sell cauls to sailors for this reason. There was also a belief that a caulbearer could prophesy the future, especially through dreams. Twins born with a caul would be believed to be protected by a guardian angel throughout life. In Iceland, the baby born with a caul was said to have a fairy companion, known as a ‘fylgiar’, who would serve it throughout life, even foretelling its death and travelling with it to Valhallah, the home of the dead.
All this changed, however, when the vampire myth came to be popularized. If a baby was born with a caul, it was feared that it might become a vampire. The caul would be removed immediately in case the baby tried to eat it, which was highly unlikely, and instead of being kept as a valuable talisman, the caul would be destroyed as quickly as possible.
Babies with teeth
Another disturbing sign of possible vampirism was the baby born with teeth. In most cases, babies are born with the tooth buds, as they are called, inside the gums. However, in some cases (about one in every 2,000), babies are born with what are called ‘natal teeth’. These are the infant’s primary teeth that have come through the gums early. It is extremely rare for a baby to have a full set of these teeth, but up to seven or eight teeth have been observed. In most instances, the natal teeth pose no real problems, although they may be removed if they are loose, to prevent the baby swallowing one and choking on it. The teeth may also cause feeding problems, as the baby may bite the mother’s nipple. Today, it is generally considered best to leave the teeth to grow naturally, as early removal can lead to difficulties later on, when all the teeth push through the gums.
It is not difficult to see why a baby born with such teeth might be feared as a vampire. In many cases, only the two incisors at either side of the top gum are present, giving the baby the distinct appearance of a small vampire. When the baby started to feed, and accidentally bit the mother’s nipple, this would have been seen as further evidence that a vampire child had been born.
The extra nipple
Any kind of birth defect or abnormality would also, in medieval times, be taken as a sign that the child might be a vampire: for example, a third nipple, which occurs in about one in 18 people (though many of these extra nipples look like moles, and are never noticed). The nipple is usually found along either of two ‘milk lines’ on the stomach, running from under the armpit, through the nipples on the chest, and down into the groin. These ‘milk lines’ mimic the arrangement of nipples on the underbelly of female animals such as wolves. They may vary in degree from a simple patch of hair to a miniature milk-bearing mammary gland. In some cases, nipples appear on the arms, on the legs, and even, very rarely, on the feet.
Once again, one can imagine why such extra nipples might be taken as a sign that a newborn might not be fully human, but could be a witch, a vampire, or a werewolf. There are instances of this belief in history. For example, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of the English monarch Henry VIII, was rumoured to have a third nipple. There were even stories that she had a third breast, which is another known, but rarer, condition. However, we do not know whether this story is true, since in those days, such abnormalities were considered to be the mark of a witch, and since Anne Boleyn was such a controversial figure (King Henry had divorced his first wife to marry her), these rumours may well have been entirely without basis.
Hair and birthmarks
Other traits in babies were also considered to be signs that they were or might become vampires. In Slavic folklore, children born with red hair and blue eyes were suspect, as were babies born with a lot of hair on their bodies. Birthmarks were also thought of as unlucky and a possible sign of future depravity. Sadly, such babies might be rejected by their mothers, or if not, the nursing pair might be shunned by the rest of the community. This is one of the more negative aspects of the vampire cult, in that it was used to persecute individuals and families who suffered from physical abnormalities, or who looked unusual in any way. Thus, traits that might at one time have been seen as distinctive, conferring high status, took on a darker significance as signs that an evil vampire had come into the world.
Warding off evil
In order to ward off evil, peasant families would employ a number of superstitious rituals. For example, when a family member died, the clocks in the house would be stopped, and mirrors covered. There was a strong belief that the spirit of a corpse could become trapped in a mirror, or that if a living person was reflected in a mirror with the corpse, they would die soon after. Underlying this taboo was the idea that the image of a person in a mirror is the image of their soul. (When vampires look in the mirror, there is no reflection, because they have lost their souls.) Mourners would also be warned not to let their shadows fall over the corpse, because this, too, might have the unfortunate effect of sparking an evil spirit into life.
In addition, families used many ‘apotropaics’ (items designed to turn away evil spirits). Holy water would be sprinkled over the threshold of the house, and strings of garlic hung up around the kitchen. The crucifix and rosary were considered to be powerful deterrents to vampires. Wild roses were also thought to have magical properties that could help to ward off evil spirits.
In the graveyard, poppy seeds were often sprinkled around the grave after a burial. Legend had it that when a vampire woke up and decided go on the prowl, it would first have to pick up all the poppy seeds around the grave, so this was a way of slowing down its progress. It was also believed that if a body was buried at a crossroads instead of a graveyard, this might confuse the vampire, who would head off in the wrong direction should it decide to go looking for victims.
Other rather obscure beliefs were commonly held, such as the idea that pregnant women should eat salt so as to prevent giving birth to a vampire. Burying a body with a piece of iron in its hand, or placing a sprig of hawthorn in the coffin, were also trusted remedies for vampirism.
As people went about their daily routines, they would be careful to observe certain practices designed to keep vampires away. Children might be warned to take a long route home rather than pass a graveyard where vampires might lurk. In some cases, if people had to travel into areas that might be haunted by vampires, they would disguise themselves so that the vampire would not recognize them.
Vampire Detection
As the vampire myth developed, more and more signs of vampirism found their way into popular culture. Ancient superstitions were remembered, and became part of the vampire cult, beginning with the timing of the baby’s birth.
According to Southern Slavic folklore, a child born between Christmas and Epiphany had a high chance of becoming a vampire. In Romania, the seventh child in a family was also suspect, especially if his or her older siblings were all the same sex. Moreover, illegitimate babies, and premature babies, even those born in wedlock, were regarded with suspicion as potential vampires.
Once born, the child continued to be under intense scrutiny for signs of evil intent. If a baby was weaned early, or was suckled after it had already been weaned, it could suddenly turn into a vampire. And a baby who died before being baptized was almost certain to become a vampire and haunt the family after it was buried.
Vampire signs
If the child survived into adulthood – and many did not – its path continued to be fraught with danger. A person who happened to eat the remains of a sheep killed by a wolf, either by accident or on purpose, could turn into a vampire; thus ‘wolf kill’ was generally avoided by villagers and townspeople alike. It was also believed that a person who had been attacked seven times without dying must have supernatural powers, and therefore was a vampire. If a person sustained an open wound, it had to be treated with boiling water immediately, otherwise this could lead to becoming a vampire. Being excommunicated from the established church could also be a trigger t
o vampirism, since people who rebelled against religion were greatly feared. And a pregnant woman who was attacked by a vampire would be bound to give birth to a vampire baby.
The superstitions did not end there. People who had small and insignificant physical abnormalities, such as sharp, pointed tongues and long incisors, were routinely classed as vampires, and at best, given a wide berth; at worst, they were mercilessly persecuted, and in some cases, even killed. Low-life members of society such as prostitutes, alcoholics, murderers and rapists were also shunned, not only for the way they had decided to live their lives, but also because it was believed that they would become vampires after they had been buried. This was also true of people that committed suicide or had died a violent death. Not surprisingly, the offspring of a supposed witch and a werewolf was also to be avoided, since he or she would almost certainly be a vampire.
Eternal damnation
If living people were a target for superstitions about vampirism, the dead were even more so. Once a person died, it seemed that the vampire myth went into overdrive.
As mentioned above, the Slavic ‘old religion’ was full of beliefs about the spirits of the dead, who were considered to thrive, side by side, with the living, watching to see how their former families, friends, and neighbours behaved now that they had gone. Underlying these beliefs was a sense that the dead were jealous of the living, and might take their revenge in any way. The Christian church’s teaching on immortality was twisted so that, instead of life after death being a reward for having lived a decent, honest life, it became a form of eternal damnation, with the vampire emerging from its lonely grave to wreak its evil revenge on the living.
Horrific mutilations
For this reason, a number of quite horrific mutilations were performed on the dead body before it was buried. As we all know, piercing the heart of the body with a wooden stake was thought to kill a vampire, preventing it from rising up from the grave and stalking its prey at night. If the stake was made of rosewood or ash, it was considered to be doubly effective.
But there were many other ‘precautions’ taken, too. For example, the head might be cut off, and the feet, so as to stop the vampire from walking into the village from the churchyard. The head would then be buried under the buttocks, so that it would not be able to get out from underneath the body when it came to life. In other cases, the heart might be taken out and put on top of the head. Bodies were often mutilated, and the body parts tied together in a bundle before being placed in the grave. Occasionally, nails would be driven into the head.
Virgins and stallions
Other, slightly less gruesome, but equally superstitious ‘precautions’ were taken to prevent dead bodies from becoming vampires. The eyes might be weighted down with coins, to prevent the vampire from seeing when it woke up. The mouth might be tied closed, so that it could not go on to bite its victims, or stuffed with garlic, which was considered a powerful apotropaic, or deterrent. There is a parallel with this among the Ancient Greeks, who used to place a silver coin in the deceased’s mouth. In the past, historians believed this was done so that the dead person could pay the toll to the ferryman on the River Styx and pass through to the underworld, but more recently, it has been interpreted as a means of preventing evil spirits entering the body. This would accord with the Greek folkloric figure of the ‘vrykolas’, a harmful undead creature very similar, and possibly related to, the Slavic vampire.
Sometimes, a thorn might be placed under the dead body’s tongue. The corpse might be buried with a sickle around its neck, or a needle inserted into the navel. It was also common practice to break the legs of the corpse and to cut the knee ligaments. Further precautions included burying the corpse face down, or burning it to ashes, and then scattering the ashes over a nearby river.
Once the body was safely in the grave, the anxiety still did not cease. Any number of elaborate rituals were performed to keep it there, and to determine whether or not the burial rites had succeeded in stopping the body from transforming into a vampire. One rather bizarre method was to lead a virgin boy sitting on a virgin stallion through the churchyard. In Albania, the stallion in question had to be black, while in other countries it had to be white. If a vampire was lurking in one of the graves, the stallion would refuse to walk past it. Needless to say, this method did not prove foolproof, and often bodies would be disinterred only to find that they were peacefully rotting away with no sign of vampirism upon them.
Again, connected to the Slavic ‘old religion’ was the belief that the corpse must be carefully guarded in case it suddenly came alive after death. Until it was buried, a corpse could never be left alone. The guardian also had to keep a sharp eye out for dogs and cats, because if one jumped over the corpse, it might become a vampire. This is a superstition that, strangely enough, occurs in China as well as the Slavic countries.
Vampire exorcism
Much of what we know today about medieval superstitions concerning vampires comes from archaeologists, who have found remains of mutilated skeletons buried for hundreds of years. For example, in 2009, the body of a woman was unearthed from a mass grave on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nouvo, Italy. Her skull had a large brick shoved into its mouth, leading archaeologists to believe that she had been suspected of being a vampire. The brick was there to weigh her down and prevent her from leaving the grave. It was particularly important that she remained where she was because, along with the others in the grave, she was a victim of the bubonic plague that swept through Venice in 1576, killing up to 50,000 people.
The archaeologists thought that the corpse of the woman had been seen by gravediggers, who noticed that she had decomposed in an alarming way, and therefore decided to put the brick into her skull. At that time, it was uncommon for a grave to be opened soon after burial; graves were only opened after hundreds of years, by which time all that would have remained of the body was the skeleton, or parts of it. Thus, most ordinary people did not know what a recently decomposing body looked like. The gravediggers, who during the plague, had to frequently open the graves to add further corpses, may have mistaken the ‘purge fluid’ of the woman’s body – that is, a dark fluid from the gastrointestinal tract that can flow out of the nose and mouth after death – for fresh blood, and assumed that she had been eating live flesh.
Not only this, but there was a hole in the shroud around the skeleton’s mouth, which made it look as though she had been biting through it in an effort to escape. The archaeologists argued that the woman’s bodily fluids would have wet the shroud, causing it to sink into the cavity of the mouth and dissolve there. Putting the stone into the corpse’s mouth, it seems, was an act of exorcism designed to stop her rising from the grave and spreading her disease.
Interestingly, the archaeologists in this case also argued that, during times of plague, vampire legends spread more widely. This was because tombs, sepulchres, and mass graves were opened so frequently, gravediggers had the opportunity to see recently decomposing bodies, which normally did not happen – and it was also a good answer to why people were dying at such a rapid rate. Naturally enough, the discovery of the so-called ‘vampire corpses’ only spread further alarm at such times of pestilence.
Vampire ‘Lifestyles’
Just as the myths about vampires’ appearance and character developed through the centuries, so too did stories about their behaviour. The habits attributed to them differed according to the region or country where the variant of the legend arose.
In Bavaria, for example, vampires were said to sleep in their coffins with their thumbs crossed and one eye open. In other European countries, vampires were thought to stalk the streets wearing their shrouds, or the clothes they had been buried in. In Moravia, vampires were alleged to be naked when they made their attacks. Albanian vampires were always described as wearing high-heeled shoes, and legend had it that inside the heels of their shoes, they carried the soil of their native land.
Vampires were essentially undead spi
rits, and like other poltergeists, they might misbehave from time to time; throwing stones at roofs or windows, breaking or moving household objects, and pulling people’s legs or arms as they slept. There were also stories that they pressed on sleeping individuals, perhaps trying to suffocate them. In some cultures, it was believed that a vampire could not enter a house unless it was invited in by the householder. However, once the vampire was let in, it might come and go as it pleased. For this reason, it was thought dangerous to let strangers into the house.
The plague bringer
A widely held belief about vampires was that they brought plagues to cattle, sheep, and other livestock. When a communicable disease broke out in a community, it was often attributed to vampires. The fact that these mythical creatures came to life at night, and that people were often too frightened to go out and find out what they were doing, contributed to all sorts of fearful fantasies about what they got up to on their nightly wanderings. Thus the vampire myth gained credibility, and as late as the nineteenth century, communities in New England still believed vampires to be responsible for outbreaks of tuberculosis. In 1892 in Rhode Island, a 19-year-old girl called Mercy Brown, died and was buried. Two months later, suspected of being a vampire, she was dug up by her father, and the family doctor cut out her heart, and burned her to ashes.
Vampires Page 5