Vampire (Folklore)

A Vampire is a common creature in folklore and mythology. They appear mainly in horror movies and books. They have the ability to trasform into a group of bats.

Sunlight is fatal to Vampires sometimes.

If a vampire is strong enough, the sun isn't fatal but a force that weakens their powers to a minor degree.

Disease

Porphyric Hemophiliam, also known as the Vampire disease, is spread through a Vampire's bite. Most bites occur at night as the victim sleeps, but that is not always the case. It has been proved that it takes three days for you to become a Vampire after a bite, the only problem being that there is no known cure to intervene before the victim becomes a Vampire, and after that it is said to be uncureable.

Recognizing a vampire

Important traits of a vampire

Undead The vampire is an undead. He doesn't live and he isn't dead. He is a human who has returned from death. One could call him a resurrected corpse.
Coffin By day the vampire sleeps in his coffin, in which a little earth from his birthplace lies. Most vampires are very attached to their coffin and when they embark on a journey, will try to take it along, as well as the birthplace-earth. They'll probably have the feeling of being home on their own, sociable graveyard. Sometimes they send their coffin, or coffins ahead, per boat, plane or moving company.
Blood The vampire comes from his sepulchre at night and goes in search of the blood of the living. For the vampire blood means therefore life (just like for people). He can't live without it and his blood thirst is unquenchable. Always again he wants fresh blood. If he drinks much blood, he'll appear to look younger.
Biting The vampire creates new kindred himself, by biting his victims in the throat and sucking the blood from their common carotid artery. The victim of a vampire becomes a vampire himself afer his death. According to lore someone must be bitten three times, before he becomes a vampire. But in time pressed films and tales, it sometimes succeeds after already one bite. Everyone is able to become a vampire, vampire don't discriminate and know that everyone has red blood.
Reflection The vampire has no reflection in the mirror. The mirror's reflection was supposed to be a reflection of the soul and because a vampire doesn't have a soul anymore, he therefore sees nothing in the mirror.

Bram Stoker was the first who used this idea in a book. Of course there are always exceptions on rules: in the film Innocent Blood (1992) the vampire, a woman, sits surrounded by burning candles in front of the mirror and clearly has a reflection.

Shadow The vampire has no shadow and there is nothing to see when a photograph of him is made. The vampire in folklore ,however, did have a shadow. Bram Stoker invented the idea of the vampire without shadow in his book concerning Dracula. Stoker still had other ideas concerning the vampire. Thus he considered that a photograph of a vampire is seen as a röntgen scan: you only see some kind of vampire skeleton. He eventually didn't use this idea in the book.

In the film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992, Francis Ford Coppola) Dracula has, however, a shadow, that sometimes leads its own life. It makes other movements then its owner, which is very funny.

Canines The canine teeth of the vampire are highly developed and resemble those of a werewolf. In certain countries people even have the same name for vampire and werewolf. The Greek word vrykolakas for example is used both for a werewolf and for a vampire.
Shape shifting The vampire can change himself in an animal: bat, wolf, snake, rat, horse, or other so-called lower animal species (flies, for example). The bat is favorite because the vampire can move himself rapidly in this form. According to some lore the vampire can also adopt the form of someone he has killed, without changing him in a vampire.
Power over animals The vampire has a mysterious power concerning animals. Wolves lick his hands, rats kiss his feet and do goodly what he orders. A vampire would therefore be an enormous success as a lion tamer in a circus.
Weather influence He has influence on the weather. If he wants he can summon mist, but also thunder and lightning.
Mist A vampire can also adopt the form of mist himself and can enter and exit his closed coffin easily this way. An easy manner also to escape, when he is closed in.
Invitation But fortunately he can never enter a house, without first being invited.
Hypnosis The vampire has a hypnotic strength. By looking only looking at you, he can impose his will upon you. Therefore never look a vampire in his eyes.
Strength He is incredibly strong, especially if he just drank blood. Then he can beat a horse knock-out.
Flowing water The vampire can not cross flowing water.
Immortal A vampire is immortal. As long as nobody stabs a stake through his heart, or chops his head off, he lives forever and it is possible for him to become ten thousands of years old or more. He will always continue to look the way he was at the moment he became a vampire unless (s)he doesn't drink blood, then they'll age. That means he can be both a child and an adult. Or even a thousand years old baby.
Daylight Daylight is fatal for a vampire. He burns alive (or un-dead, in fact) and there remains nothing of him then a heap of ash. Hence that vampires always return to their sepulchre before dawn. If their sepulchre is not around, they hide themselves in another, dark shelter. You can find sleeping vampires in cellars, on attics and in old buildings with boarded up windows, as long as daylight can not penetrate. You see no difference between a vampire which is found by daylight and the ash remains of a burned newspaper.

Hollywood

In the old folklore daylight was not fatal always for vampires. They were a bit weakened by it, however, and for this reason generally stalked around by half-light, but they were not destroyed by daylight. In Dracula of Bram stoker the count even passes through London on a light day.

The deadly effect of daylight on vampires has been developed by scenario writers in Hollywood. The film Nosferatu (1922) was the first in which the vampire was killed by a jet of sunlight. As from then each vampire was deathly-frightened for daylight. (They probably have all seen that film.)

Camouflage

Treacherous about a vampire is that he looks so much like humans and is so difficult to recognise, except if you know what to look for. Vampires are not crazy and understand that nowadays you can't go on the street in a black cape with red sheathing too frequently. Throughout time they have learned to adapt themselves. Just like some animals they camouflage themselves and go up in the mass.

A sensible vampire looks around carefully, keeps track of the vogue and dresses himself, such as people of this time dress themselves.

Things to recognise a vampire

Cape Everyone with a black cape is of course suspected, but nowadays not so many people carry a cape. Vampires know that. They generally adapt (but not always) to the time in which they live. Therefore now even someone on inline-skates, with a track-suit and a walkman on his head can be a vampire.
Unnatural paleness Vampires do not come in the sun and only when have drunk blood, they get a bit temporary colour on their face. Watch out for pale people.
Long, sharp fangs Those are only visible if the vampire opens its mouth far enough.
Red eyes Those are definitely noticeable. But look out, red eyes can also arise by lack of sleep, or if someone has cried. Smart vampires carry coloured lenses or sunglasses.
Finger nails The nails of a vampire seem to be hard as iron.They are also pointed and have a reddish tint to them.
Aversion to light Vampires shun the daylight, they are frightened by it (although there are exceptions).
Treshold fear There are people who their foot concerning a threshold put, for them within in demand will never become. That is or very timid or it are vampire, because without invitation cannot enter a vampire a house.
Hairy hand palms When you give someone a hand and it tickles, then the odds is big that he has hair on his hand palms. Possibly you have shaken the hand of a vampire. Also if the handshake senses prickly you must watch out, because perhaps he has shaven his hand palm.
No reflection Occupants of houses without mirrors are suspicious. Everyone likes to see themselves from time to time. A vampire too, but his mirror remains empty, for this reason he has none, because the mirror would betray him.
Aversion to garlic Garlic has from way back a medicinal functioning. In the middle ages garlic was used to repel witches. The vampire also loathes garlic. It makes him sick.Plus if you put it in his mouth before he rises into a vampire in the first place (Day of being baried) he is doomed to stay a corpes and waste away.

Killing a vampire

Chopping off the head Exactly as sordid as the stake and frequently not even sufficient on long duration. It is recommended as dessert to use the wooden stake and also to shove garlic in the mouth of the vampire. It occured that to prevent that someone became a vampire, people chopped off the head of a corpse and boiled it in vinegar.
Day light Just open his coffin in the middle of the day. He disappears like snow in the sun.
Fire Burning is also effective. This is very well possible when he lies asleep in his coffin. You don't even need to stay up at night. First bind ropes or chains around the coffin, otherwise it won't succeed. When the vampire smells fire, he becomes awake and he will try to escape from the coffin. Therefore, don't be greedy with ropes and burn the whole place down afterwards.
Crucifix You can kill very young vampires in some regions in the Balkans with this. Old vampires only shy away from it. If you touch their skin, it causes that a scorch mark. Vampires who were not raised Christian are not frightened from crucifixes, but perhaps from religious symbols of other religions, for example the Jewish star of David.
A bath of holy water and garlic If he doesn't want to take a bath, just let it flow in his coffin when he lies asleep. A vampire is deathly-frightened for holy water, because it comes from the church. If his skin comes into contact with holy water, he gets burns.
Silver bullet Actually intended for werewolves, but also works against vampires. Perhaps especially against vampires who have first been a werewolf. The bullet must be sanctified by a priest. After the shot, keep the dead vampire from the moonlight, otherwise he turns back to life and you can start all over again.
Garlic Only in combination with a wooden stake and/or chopping off the head. Garlic is from way back considered as a defensive means against snakes, scorpions, witches and vampires. You must still be careful with garlic. In 1973, in Stoke-on-Trent in England the Polish immigrant Demetrious Myiciura was found dead. The man really believed in vampires and had put garlic in his mouth as protection, as to pass the night safely. Unfortunately for him a clove of garlic got stuck in his throat and he suffocated in his sleep. His fear for vampires came to be his death.
Injection with holy water Risky. For this, however, you must come very close near him and you'd better have experience as a doctor's assistant. If you have injected the vampire with holy water, he burns alive of from within.
Sealing in a bottle Very difficult art. Can be only carried out by Bulgarian, or Malaysian wizards. The wizard hides himself in an ambush with the image of some holy person at as protection. When the vampire appears, the wizard repels him using an amulet, a holy object, towards a bottle, filled with the favourite food of the vampire, blood. The vampire has no choice. He is irrisistibly attracted by the blood and escapes in the bottle. The wizard seals the bottle with a cork and throws it in a fire, so that the vampire is destroyed.
Dhampir Take the Yellow Pages, look under D and let a dhampir, the son of a vampire, the tidy up the job, if you rather leave it to a professional.
Left sock Steal the left sock of the vampire. A very uncommon way, which only works in some cases. Fill the sock with ground from the grave, or stones, and throw it far outside the cultivated area in a river. Condition is of course that the vampire wears socks.
Filp the coffin upside down If the vampire is buried under ground, during the day you can dig it out and flip the coffin so the opening is facing the center of the Earth. That way when the vampire wakes up it digs toward the center and it'll take forever for him to go back toward the surface. OR better yet, (s)he'll burn at the core.