The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-26
THEY FEAR VAMPIRES.
STRANGE SURVIVAL OF 4 GRIsLY
SUPERSTITION.

hers of Their own Families, Doom
ing Them 10 Like Fate.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Recent chronological research has dis
closed something very extraordinary in
Rhode Island 1t appears that the ancient
vampire. superstition, still survives in
that state, and within the last few years
many people have been digging up the
bodies of defunct relatives for the pur-
pose of burning their hearts. In one dis
trct comprising half a dozen towns
in the immediate vicinity of Newport.
scores Of such exhumatons have been
made, the purpose being to prevent the
dead from preying upon the living. The
belief entertained is that a person who
has died of consumption is likely to arise
from the grave at night and suck the
blood of surviving members of his or her
own family. thus booming them to a
similar fate.
The discovery of the survival in high
ly-cultivated New England of a superstI-
ton dating back TO the days of Sardan-
apalus and Nebuchadnezzar has been
made 10y George r. Stetson, an ethnologist
Of repute He has found it rampant in
a district which includes the towns of
Exeter, Foster, Kingston, East Green
witch and many scattered hamlets. This
region. where abandoned farms are nu-
merous, is the tramping ground of the
book agent. the chrome peddler and the
patent medicine man. The social isOla-
tion away from the larger villages is as
complete as it was two centuries ago.
Here Cotton Mather and the host of med
ical clerical and lay believers in the
uncanny ideas of bygOne centuries could
still hold high carnival. Not merely the
out-of-the-way agricultural folk, but the
more intelligent people of the urban COM
munities are strong in their belief in YAM
prism. One case noted was that of an
intelligent and well-to-do head of a fam
! lily, who some years ago lost several of
his children by consumption. After they
We're buried he dug them up ana burned
them in order to save the lives OF their
surviving brothers and sisters.
There is one small village distant f1f-
| teen miles from Newport, where within
/ the last few years there have been at
/ least half a dozen resuTrectiOns on this
| account. The most recent was made two
years ago in family where the mother
/ and four children had already succumb-
| ed to consumption. The last of these
children was eXhumed and the heart was
| burned. Another instance was noted in
/ a seashore town not far from Newport,
| possessing a summer hotel and few cot
| tageS of hot weather residents. An intel
/ ligent man, by trade mason, informed
Mr. Stetson that he had lost two br0therS
/ by consumption. on the death of his sec
ond brother his father was advised to
| take up the body and burn its heart. He
| refused to do so, and, consequently, he was
| attacked by the disease. Finally he died
/ of it. His heart was burned, and in this
way the rest of the family escaped.
| This frightful superstition is said to pre-
vail in all of the isolated districts of
| Southern Rhode Island, and it survives to
/ some extent in the large centers of popu-
| lation. Sometimes, the body is burned,
and not merely the heart the ashes being
/ scattered. In some parts of Europe the
| belief still has a hold on the popular mind.
/ On the continent, from 1877 to 1875, there
| prevailed an epidemic of vampires. Thou
| sands of people died, was supposed,
| from having their blood sucked by crea-
lures that came to their bedsides at night
! with goggling eyes and lips eager for the
| life fluid of the victim. In Servia II was
| understood that the demon might be de-
stroyed by digging up the body and pierre
| ing it through with sharp instrument,
/ after which it was decapitated and burn
| ed Relief was found in eating the earth
/ of the vampires grave In the Levant
/ the corpse was cut TO pieces and boiled
| in wine
There was no hope for a person once
| chosen as a. prey by vampire. Slowly but
| surely he or she was destined to fade and
/ sicken, receiving meanwhile nightly visits
| from the monster. Even death was no
relief for-and here came in the most hor-
! rible part of the superstitiOn-the victim,
once dead and laid in the grave, was COM
! PEELED to become a vampire and in his turn
! to take up the business of preying on the
| living. mus NdUnDlTlSHl Mas luutllllNely
| propagated. Realize, if you please. that at
! that period when science was hardly born
as yet and knowledge had been spread
| among the people to fight off superstition,
! belief in the reality of this fearful thing
was absolute. Its existence was officially
| recognized, and military commissions
were appointed for the purpose of opening
the graves of suspected vampires and taxi
| ing such measures as were necessary for
| destroying the latter.
NampiriSm became a plague, more
dreaded than any form of disease. Every
where people were dying from the attacks
of the blood-suckinS monsters, each vic
tim becoming in turn night prowler in
pursuit of human prey. Terror of the
mysterious and unearthy peril filled all
hearts. Evidence enough as to the preva-
lence of the mischief was afforded by the
condition of many of the bodies that were
dug up by the commission appointed for
the purpose. In many instances corpses
which had been buried for weeks and even
months, were found fresh and life-Iike
Sometimes fresh blood was actually dis
covered on their lips. What proof could
be more convincing, inasmuch, as was
well known, the body of a vampire is
preserved and nourished by it's nightly
repasts. The blood on the lips, of course,
was that of the victim of the night before
The faith in Vampirism entertained by
the public at large was as complete as
that which is felt in discovery of mod
ern science. 1t was an actual epidemic that
threatened the people, spreading RAPIDLY
and only to be checked by the most dras-
tic measures. The contents of every sus-
=
corpse found in such a condition as that
described was promptly subjected to
treatment" This meant that a stake was
driven through the chest and the heart
being taken out was either burned or
chopped into small pieces. For in this way
only could a vampire be deprived of power
to do mischief. In one case a man who
was unburied sat up in his coffin, fresh
blood on his lips. The official in charge of
the ceremonies held a cruciix before his
face and saying. do you recognize your
Saviour" chopped the unfortunate's head
off. This person presumably had been bu-
ried alive in a cataleptic trance
The records of the measures adopted
during that period for the suppression of
vampirism are official and perfectly au-
thentic There is no doubt that the ac-
counts which they give of the finding OF
bodies fresh and undecayed are true How
is the phenomenon to be accounted for?
Nobody can say with certainty, but it may
be that the fright into which people were
thrown by the epidemic had the effect of
predisposing nervous persons to catalep-
sy In word, people were buried alive in
a condition where, the vital functions be-
ing suspended, they remained as If dead
for awhile. 1t is a common thing for a
cateleptic to bleed at the mouth Just be-
fore returning to consciousness.
According to the popular superstition
the vampire left his or her body in the
4 10, 4