Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-05-17

reign of Charles the First and may be here re-
peated as a curious instance of the hold which
the most puerile superstition maintained in En-
gland at a comparatively recent period, and the
influence which they were allowed to exercise
even in so grave a matter as trial for murder.
In the year 1929, somewhere in Hertfordshire,
married woman, named Joan Norcot, was
found in bed with her throat cut and, although
the inquest which was held upon her body ter
minated of felo-de-se, rumor got aAoat that
the deceased had been murdered. The body was
accordingly taken out of the grave thirty days
after its death, in the presence of the jury and
and many other persons; and the jury then
changed their verdict (which had not been
drawn into form by the coroner,) and accused
certain parties of wilful murder They were
tried at the Hertford Assizes, and acquitted
but, says the Sergeant SO much against
the evidence, that the Judge (Harsxlet fall his-
opinion that il we're better an appeal we're
brought than SO foul murder should go unpun-
lshed." In consequence of this, they were
tried on the appeal, which was brought by the
young child against his father, grandfather, and
aunt, and her husband, Okeman and, because
the evidence was 80 strange took exact and
particular notice of it, 1t was as followeth, viz.
After the matters above mentioned and related,
an ancient and grave person, minister of the pa
rish where the fact was committed, being sworn
to give evidence, according to the custom, depos
ed, that the body being taken out of the grave,
thirty days after the party's death, and lying on
the grass, and the four defendants present, they
were required, each of them, to touch the dead
body. Okeman's wife fell on her knees, and
prayed God to show token of their innocency,
or to some such purpose; but her very Il. e.,
precse) words forgot. The eappellers did touch
the dead body; whereupon, the brow of the
dead, which was of a livid or carron color (that
was the verbal expression in the terms of the
witness) began to have dew or gentle sweat,
which ran down in drops on the face, and the
brow turned and changed to lively and fresh
color, and the dead opened one of her eyes, and
shut it again. and this opening the eye was
done three several times. She likewise thrust
out the ring or marriage-Gnger three times and
pulled it in again and the finger dropped blood
from it on the grass This being confirmed
by the Witnesses brother, also clergyman, and
other evidence (of more human character,
but, it appears to us, very insuficient) having
been adduced; Okeman was acquitted, and the
three other prisoners were found guilty result
which there can be but little question was main
ly brought by tho monstrous story of the scene
at the exhumation. That the details of that
story Interchangeable according to the surper-
stitious habit Of the tines seems obvious but
the query arises, whether the body of the wo-
I man might not realty yebeenaiise. IL true
thirty days had elapsed since her apparent death;
but some of the alleged Vampires supposed by
Dr. Mayo to have been buried alive had been in
their graves three months when their condition
was inspected. Not being possessed of the re-
quisite u'cdical knowledge, we will forbear to
pronounce whether or not life could be sustained /,
under such circumstances, for SO great a length
of time but what seems fatal to the supposition,
in the last instance, is the fact of the woman
having had her throat cut.
Vampires have often been introduced into ro-
nance. There is an old Anglo-Saxon poem on
the subject of the Vampire of the Fens; and
the Baron Won Haxtbausen, in his work on
Transcausia, has told story of one Of these
gentry, which may be here appended, as a sort
of pleasant burlesque after the foregoing trag-
edies ;-'' There once dwelt in cavern in Ar
menia a Vampire, called Dakhanavar, who
could not endure any one to penetrate into the
mountains of Ulmish Altotem, or count their
valleys. Every one who attempted this had, in
the night, his blood sucked by the monster from
the sole of his feet until he died. The Vampire
was, however, at last outwitted by two cunning
fellows They began to count the valleys, and
when night came on they lay down to Sleep
taking care to place themselves with the feet of
the one under tho head of the other" How
beth could have managed to do this, VIC leave to
the readers ingenuity to explan.) In the
night, the monster came, felt as usual, and
found a head then he felt at the other end,
and found head there also. Well, he cried,
I Il have gone through the whole three hundred
and sixty-six valleys Of these mountains, and
have sucked the blood of people without end =;
but never yet did find any one with two heads
and no feet" So saying, he ran away, and
was never more seen in that country but ever
after the people have known that the mountain
has three hundred and sixty-six valleys"
In South America, a species of bat is found
which sucks the blood of people while asleep
(lulling them with the tanning of its wingl
during the operation,) and which is called thu
Vampire bat, from that circumstance. If thi
creature belonged to Europe we should be in
clined to regard it us the origin of the Vampyr'
fable.
*The bleeding Of the dead body murdered person upo
the approach of the murderer is old opinion which
con- in his Natural History inclined to give sOm
/, weight.
The notes from which this story derived, made b.
the Sergeant from what he himself heard the trial Use
Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1885.
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HOW BOSTON TREATED THE TEA
SHIFTS.
. The first chapter of the sixth volume of Ban
3 eroft's History of the United STATES, details th'
proceedings abroad tho despatch by the East
India Company of cargoes the political feeling