Written with research assistance by Lucy Lejeune.
Are There Vampires in the Felicianas? If so, at least one local is ready.
The lovable Count Von Count (modeled after Bela Lugosi’s interpretation of Count Dracula) on Sesame Street teaches simple mathematical concepts; he is never at a loss for something to count, from the spiders on the wall and the bats in the hall to himself: “When I’m alone, I count myself: ONE!” His arithmomania is entirely appropriate, given the historically accepted practice of distracting vampires by tossing out handfuls of seeds or grain on the ground, irresistibly activating their fixation with counting small objects.
Today’s children love the creepy cartoon Count. And a current wave of literature, cinema and television—the Twilight Saga series of films, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anne Rice’s extremely popular Vampire Chronicles, Bram Stoker’s Dracula which in 1992 was the then-highest grossing vampire film ever—has turned vampiric characters into Hollywood-handsome romantics, fangs and cloaks and all.
But in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, vampires were no laughing matter. Bram Stoker’s 1897 archetypal novel Dracula, voicing Victorian anxieties, drew on mythologies from cultures dating back to the earliest civilizations, most of which had folkloric characters—vampires, demons, werewolves, relevants, loup garous, the undead—that subsisted by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, mostly in the form of blood. From the medieval Balkans and eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, an influx of vampire superstition swept into Western Europe and led to mass hysteria, angry mobs with flaming torches and pitchforks, public executions of suspects, disinterment and dismemberment of corpses. Even in this country, as recently as 1892 when 19-year-old Mercy Brown died in Rhode Island, the family doctor assisted her father in removing her from her grave, cutting out her heart, and burning it to ashes because she was suspected of being a vampire responsible for family misfortune.
In folklore and in literature as well as in real life, apotropaics were used to ward off vampires—garlic, sacred items like crucifixes or holy water, mirrors for identification (lacking souls, vampires had no reflection, nor did they cast a shadow). Each culture had its favored method of slaying suspected vampires. Staking was most commonly used, especially through the heart which turned the vampire to dust, although in Russia it was done through the mouth and in Serbia the stomach. Piercing of the skin was a way to deflate the vampire, whose incriminatingly bloated corpse might just as accurately have been attributed to normal post mortem decay; sharp objects such as sickles were often buried with the suspect, the sickle encircling the neck so that if the corpse tried to rise from the grave, it would be punctured or beheaded. In Germany and some Slavic regions, decapitation was common, the head buried between the feet, beneath the buttocks or separate from the body, perhaps even spiked to the earth to keep it from rising. Steel or iron needles were driven into a corpse’s heart by the gypsies. In the Balkans vampires were shot or drowned and then sprinkled with holy water, and in Romania a bullet was shot through the coffin as an extra precaution to ensure that the corpse would stay put. Sometimes the body was dismembered, burned, mixed with water and drunk as a curative.
Special anti-vampire kits were mass-produced in the 1800s for use by wary travelers to Eastern European countries, and the clergy had their own chests of instruments. These cases came in various sizes, from small writing desk-size to portable suitcases; they were hardly inexpensive, but rather were intended for the more affluent travelers of the day. Fancier versions were adorned with jeweled or ivory crosses on the lids, and the tools inside were also inlaid with fine gemstones or ivory. Basic equipment included wooden stakes and a mallet, a pistol and silver bullets, silver daggers, a Bible, mirror, rosary beads and holy water and crosses blessed by priests. The silver bullets and dagger tips were often dipped in holy water or garlic for maximum effect. Vials contained powdered or liquid garlic, flour of brimstone, Romanian millet, sulphur powders, and there could also be consecrated earth and powdered rose petals to sprinkle around the vampire’s lair to prevent his return or replacement by another. There might even be so-called anti-vampire serum for those recently bitten.
Some of these chests have survived with contents intact, and they are greatly coveted by antiques collectors and enthusiasts of the occult. While there have been bogus boxes hawked on e-bay and other online sites, the respectable auction houses like Sotheby’s or Christie’s have offered well-documented ornate antique chests that have sold for upwards of $15,000; simpler and less complete ones sell for considerably less.
One fine wooden chest of Latin American origin, said to have been owned by author Anne Rice, is now in the St. Francisville area, fully equipped with dogwood stakes and mallet, silver dagger, small double-barrel pistol made in Buenos Aries with two silver bullets, holy water, two Bibles, two crucifixes, a rosary, mirror and other tools for dealing with vampires.
Details. Details. Details.
Country Roads readers requiring assistance in warding off vampire attacks, or perhaps just interested in acquiring a unique collectible, may contact TWK Klein at (225) 719-2161.
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