and other pagan beliefs surviving in folklore.Causes of vampirism included: being born with a caul, teeth, or tail, being conceived oncertain days, irregular death, excommunication, improper burial rituals etc. Preventativemeasures included: placing a crucifix in the coffin, or blocks under the chin to prevent the body from eating the shroud, nailing clothes to coffin walls for the same reason, placingmillet or poppy seeds in the grave because vampires had a fascination with counting, or piercing the body with thorns or stakes.Evidence that a vampire was at work in the neighbourhood included: death of cattle,sheep, relatives, neighbours, exhumed bodies being in a lifelike state with new growth of the fingernails or hair, or if the body was swelled up like a drum, or there was blood onthe mouth and if the corpse had a ruddy complexion.Vampires could be destroyed by staking, decapitation (the Kashubs placed the head between the feet), burning, repeating the funeral service, holy water on the grave,exorcism.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------ROMANIA:Romania is surrounded by Slavic countries, so it isn't surprising that their vampires arevariants of the Slavic vampire. They are called Strigoi based on the Roman term strix for screech owl which also came to mean demon or witch.There are different types of strigoi: strigoi vii are live witches who will become vampiresafter death. They can send out their soul at night to meet with other witches or withStrigoi mort who are dead vampires. The strigoi mort are the reanimated bodies whichreturn to suck the blood of family, livestock, and neighbours.A person born with a caul, tail, born out of wedlock, or one who died an unnatural death,or died before baptism, was doomed to become a vampire. As was the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who didn't eat salt or was lookedat by a vampire, or a witch. And naturally, being bitten by vampire, meant certaincondemnation to a vampiric existence after death.The Vircolac which is sometimes mentioned in folklore was more closely related to amythological wolf that could devour the sun and moon and later became connected withwerewolves rather than vampires. The person afflicted with lycanthropy could turn into adog, pig, or wolf.The vampire was usually first noticed when it attacked family and livestock, or threwthings around in the house. Vampires, along with witches, were believed to be mostactive on the Eve of St George's Day (April 22 Julian, May 4 Gregorian calendar), thenight when all forms of evil were supposed to be abroad. St Georges Day is still
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