Vampire Books Online / An Old Superstition - Holmes County Republican (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]), February 26, 1874

Among the horrible superstitions which still exist in some parts of the world, that of the vampire is one of the worst. A recent lawsuit in Germany has shown that this weird belief still exists, notwithstanding the boasted enlightenment of this nineteenth century.

On the 5th of February, 1870, there died at Kantzyno, a village in Western Prussia, of consumption, a respectable gentleman named Francis Von Peblocki, sixty-three years of age. A few days after his funeral his eldest son, Anton, was taken sick and died on the 15th of the same month. According to the physician, his disease was known as "galloping consumption."

Almost at the same time this man's wife and a young daughter were taken sick; a second son and a brother-in-law felt very unwell, and all these persons complained of feeling indescribable anxiety and oppression.

The superstitious notion was now adopted by the family, that the dead father was a so-called vampire, and that they must all die if help were not at once obtained. A vampire is supposed to be a body which continues to live in the grave, rising therefrom by night to suck the precious life-blood from living persons, especially its own relatives, and thus to nourish itself and prevent the usual decay.

The persons attacked, it is said, sometimes feel themselves in a dream caught by the neck and almost strangled; or unable to keep off the fearful visitant who lies on their breast, they decline very rapidly. After their death they become themselves vampires, and so on without end, until, by some forcible measures, the fearful terror is dispelled.

According to this superstition, which prevails in Poland and Western Prussia, the ability to become a vampire is given with the noxious “vital instincts” which in all ages and among all people has been regarded as an emblem of prosperity. Such vampire candidates are said to be somewhat dictatorial and avaricious. The principal sign, it is believed, is to be found in the corpse. The face retains its color; the blood flows freely; the stiffness and offensiveness of dead bodies are entirely absent, as though the person were in a trance.

There are various methods adopted by these superstitious people for destroying the vampire; some mild, others more severe. One is to turn the dead body in the coffin with the face downwards. Another is to drive a wooden stake through the breast, and further, to cut off the head and lay it, face downwards, between the legs. While the body is thus horribly treated, the people allege that groans are heard and wild laughter from the mouth of the vampire. In some cases the dead body is burned to ashes.

After Anton Von Peblocki's death, and his mother and sister were taken sick, the family determined to resort to the severest measures of relief, the execution of which devolved on the second son, Joseph, who was now the head of the family. The same operation was to be performed on the father on the night before the son's funeral.

Joseph Von Peblocki, with this view, went the day before to the grave-digger of the place, and offered him a round sum of money if he would dig the grave for his brother so near to the father's, that they could, without much trouble, break through the separating earth and open the coffin of the supposed vampire.

The grave-digger consented to do this, but first consulted the pastor of the village church. The worthy clergyman forbade his taking any part in such a desecration and ordered him to dig the grave as usual. He also set a watch on the night before the funeral. The watchman was, however, careless, and the men were not disturbed until they had accomplished their purpose.

Joseph and his assistants were tried for their act of desecration and were found guilty by the district court. This sentence was reversed by the Court of Appeals, but the verdict was set aside by the Superior Court, and the case sent back to be tried again by the tribunal of the district. The trial was protracted through two years, but all the parties were finally acquitted on the insufficient ground that they meant no harm.

If we now ask for the origin of this strange and horrible superstition, we shall probably find it in the ancient doctrine that the souls of the dead pass into the bodies of other animals, a doctrine still held by the Hindoos. There is a bat in South America which sometimes sucks the blood of animals, and if this species once existed in Europe, it may have given rise to the belief that the dead sometimes rise from their graves and nourish themselves on the blood of the living. The wonder is that the superstition should still maintain its ground in this age of almost universal education and scientific inquiry.

Youth’s Companion. We heard an anecdote of a schoolboy the other day, which illustrates the honesty of youth. The little fellow had a dirty face, and his teacher told him to go and wash it. He went out and stayed for a few minutes, and then came back with the lower half of his countenance tolerably clean, and the upper half wet and dirty.

"Johnny," said the teacher, "why did you not wash your face?"

"I did wash it!" said Johnny. "Why, you did not wipe it all over."

"I did wipe it as far as my shirt-tail would reach!" was Johnny's conclusive reply.

During all their suffering by famine the last year, the American Hollanders in Sioux County, Iowa, have maintained a deep and abiding faith in the mercies of God. They greatly desired a house of worship but were unable to build it, and were not assisted in their effort although asking aid. They were, however, gladdened a few days ago by receiving a "note from a lady in the East, pledging four thousand dollars toward a house of worship for them. "Her name," says one of the church members, "is not known to us, but it would have done her soul good to have heard the prayers and thanks to God for her by many a Dutch true Christian farmer, who although dressed in rough garments, lived in daily communion with his Savior."

A German clergyman who was traveling stopped at a hotel much frequented by wags and jokers. The host, not being used to have a clergyman at his table, looked at him with surprise; the guests used all their artillery of wit upon him without eliciting a remark. The clergyman ate his dinner quietly, apparently without observing the gibes and sneers of his neighbors. One of them, at last in despair at his forbearance, said to him, "Well, I wonder at your patience! Have you not heard all that has been said to you?" "Oh, yes; but I am used to it. Do you know who I am?" "No, sir." "Well, I will inform you. I am chaplain of a lunatic asylum; such remarks have no effect upon me."

I once heard a minister say: "Suppose, some cold morning, you should go into a neighbor's house and find him busy at work on his windows scratching away, and should ask what he was up to, and he should reply, 'Why, I am trying to remove the frost; but as fast as I get it on one square it comes on another'—would you not say: 'Why man, let your windows alone and kindle a fire, and the frost will soon come off?' And have you not seen people who try to break off their bad habits, one after another, without avail? Well, they are like the man who tried to scratch the frost from his windows. Let the fire of love to God and mankind, fed at the altar of prayer, burn in their hearts, and the bad habits will soon melt away."