National Geographic History - 09.10 201

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ENIGMAS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15

nails, as the skin around them retracts and
makes more of the nail bed visible.
Bloodstains on an unearthed corpse
was also a sign that someone had become
a vampire. As Calmet explained, “[Vam-
pires] suck the blood of living men or an-
imals in such abundance that sometimes
it flows from them at the nose, and some-
times the corpse swims in its own blood
oozed out in its coffin.”
Again, medical science can provide
an explanation. The length of time that
blood remains liquid depends on environ-
mental conditions. In cold temperatures
the blood can stay fluid for at least three to
four days. If bodies were unearthed during
that period on suspicion of vampirism,
blood could still be found in their veins.
Stories of corpses being stained with
blood or “swimming” in blood (the lat-
ter likely an exaggeration) may have been
derived from postmortem hemorrhages.


A blow to the body during transfer to its
resting place can result in a trauma suffi-
cient to make blood appear to flow from
the nose or mouth.

Hunting Vampires
As illustrated by the story of Arnold Paole,
popular belief held that to kill a vampire,
the corpse had to be disinterred and
pierced with a stake. Allegedly, when the
stake penetrated the body, the vampire
would let out a cry, further proof that the
vampire had been alive. But a natural ex-
planation pertains to this too.
Air enclosed in the thoracic cavity,
forced out when the body was struck,
was likely to produce sound as it passed
through the throat. Already believing
they were face-to-face with an undead
vampire, this noise could have sounded
like a cry of pain to witnesses. In a situ-
ation of great tension, the imagination

could amplify the slightest of noises to a
blood-chilling moan.
In 1762 philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau incredulously attacked
Calmet’s work. He noted: “If there is in
this world a well-attested account, it is
that of vampires. Nothing is lacking: of-
ficial reports, affidavits... of surgeons, of
priests, of magistrates. And with all that,
who is there who believes in vampires?”
Rousseau may have doubted, but the
supernatural belief that the dead could
rise to terrorize went beyond reason in
17th- and 18th-century eastern Europe.
Calmet’s collection of vampire stories
fed the imagination and inspired the
imaginations of several 19th-century
authors—John William Polidori, Joseph
Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker—who
all helped pioneer the vampire story as a
popular literary genre.
—Oscar Urbiola

ROYAL ARMOURIES MUSEUM/ALAMY/ACI

To Vanquish a Vampire


AS FEAR OF VAMPIRES GREW, people sought to protect themselves from a potential attack. To keep vam-
pires at bay, some people in eastern Europe would hang garlic around their necks and smear it on their
children and cattle. But the most effective protection, as Calmet advocated in his treatise, was to pierce
the heart of the vampire corpse with a stake, cut off its head, and burn the remains.

AN ANTI-VAMPIRE KIT,
MADE UP OF 19TH- AND
20TH-CENTURY ITEMS. ROYAL
ARMOURIES MUSEUM, LEEDS
Free download pdf