Indeed, there were numerous mundane ways to become a werewolf, ranging from eating the brain of a wolf or the flesh of an animal killed by wolves, wearing a certain white flower that grew in the Balkans, or even drinking from certain streams in the Harz Mountains, although the results of such methods could be unpredictable and even uncontrollable. Unlike the victims of a vampire who inevitably became vampires in turn, those wounded by a werewolf generally did not become a werewolf as a result, despite that depicted in horror movies and the like. These vampires are living men who in a kind of somnambulistic trance are seized by a thirst for blood and prowl forth at night from their poor shepherd’s huts to scour the whole countryside, biting and fiercely tearing with their teeth all whom they meet, man or beast … are especially eager to quaff the hot blood of young girls … When a dead man is suspected of leaving his place of sepulchre thus, the corpse is solemnly exhumed if it be in a state of putrefaction and decay sufficient for the priest to sprinkle it with holy water if it be ruddy and fresh-complexioned it is exorcised, and placed in the earth again, where before it is covered a sharp stake is thrust through the carcass lest it stir forth once more … In Thessaly, in Epirus, and among the Vlachi of the Pindus district the country-folk believe in another kind of vampire, one which their fathers also well know in days of old.
Secrets of the lost tomb lycanthropy full#
When the moon is at her full he issues forth to run his course, to suck the blood of living men by biting deep into their dorsal vein.
The voukodlak (literally loup-garou, werewolf) sleeps in his grave with open staring eyes his nails and hair grow to an excessive length, the warm blood pulses in his veins. The people of Servia and Herzegovina have preserved more than one dark tradition of unhappy souls who after death are condemned to wander hither and thither over the earth to expiate their sins, or who live a horrid life in death in the tomb as voukodlaks or vampires. Furthermore, Romanian gypsies believed that cemeteries were often inhabited by white wolves, which fulfilled a similar function: kresnik ) would engage in nightly shamanic battles at certain times of the year, sending their spirit forth in the semi-corporeal form of wolves and other animals, in order to combat vampires, witches and other evil beings that threatened the fecundity of the crops and welfare of the community. By extension, werewolves were also antagonistic towards vampires, and in places like Istria and Slovenia, individuals born with a caul (s. Similarly, in Greece, once villagers had identified the grave of a vrykolakas, the image of a wolf would be traced on the outer wall of the local church, and then earth from the grave of that vrykolakas strewn all the way to the image of the wolf, so that a wolf might seek out and eat the vrykolakas. According to the Serbian Gypsies, for example, even though horses could sense a vampire and dogs warn of a vampire’s approach and thereby hamper its movement, only a wolf was strong enough to rip apart and devour a vampire, leaving nothing behind but a bloody mess, given that the Gypsy vampire ( mullo ) lacked a skeleton and was little more than a bag of blood and ‘jelly’. Wolves in particular took a special dislike to vampires. Inquiring into the matter the next morning, the young man was simply told that the deceased was so evil that nobody wanted to watch over the corpse before burial as per the usual custom, and that the events that transpired simply confirmed the evil nature of the deceased. At midnight, however, the dog departed and the revenant lay back upon the table. But at eleven o’clock, a huge dog rushed into the house and attacked the corpse, which rose up from the table and began to wrestle with its attacker. Nonetheless, he decided to stay for the night and climbed into the loft to sleep. But the house was empty, except for a table with a corpse lying upon it. In a Romanian folktale, for instance, a young man returning from military service entered a village one night and seeing a house with a light on, went inside to seek lodging. Similarly, Cuntius the sixteenth-century spectrum was always accompanied by the unusual barking and howling of the village dogs and would supposedly catch them in the street and bash their brains out. And after their unsuccessful attempt to stake the undead shepherd of fourteenth-century Blow, Bohemia, the revenant thanked the villagers for such a fine stick to drive away the dogs that continually harassed him.
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According to the historiographical sources, a pronounced antipathy existed between canines and revenants, the aforementioned revenant that roamed twelfth-century Berwick on the Scottish border, for example, was described as being constantly pursued by a pack of barking dogs.
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