| What is a Vampire? | |||||||||||||||||
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Legends of vampires and similar bloodsuckibg creatures come from all parts of thw world. According to these legends, vampires were living corpes who returned from the dead to hautr people. It was believed that vampires left their graves ast sunset in search of victims and drank their blood. The victims were often people the vampire knew in his/her lifetime. Human blood was supposed to be the food that vampires needed to stay alive. In the past, thousands of corpes have been dug up by peopel searching for signs of these evil creatures. | ||||||||||||||||
| The undead | |||||||||||||||||
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Vampires were often thought to be violent criminals or people who had died suddenly.A nyone who commited sucide, or who was the victim of a vampire's attack, was also thought to become a vampire. Often such a person had not had a proper burial and it was believed that the spirit, unable to go to heaven or hell, remained active in the corpes. this is why vampires were know as the 'the undead'. The most terrifying stories of vampires coem from Eastern Europe where Polish vampires, for instance, were said to float in blood-filled coffins. Their Russian relatives were supposed ti take the blood from a victim's heart. Most vampires, however, preferred to attack at the next, puncturing the skin with razor-sharp fangs until the blood flowed. The blood perserved the vampire's body so it did not rot in the grave like an ordinary corpse. If a vampire's coffin was dug up the body looked as if it was asleep, rather than dead. Vampires worked at night, under cover of darkeness, often creeping into a bedroom while an innocent victim lay sleeping. if the victim was not completely drained of blood in an attack, the vampire would return the following eveing. | ||||||||||||||||
| The ways of the vampire | |||||||||||||||||
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People in countries as far apart as Hungary and China have believed in the existence of bloodsucking vampires. Not all vampires behaved in the same way. Many were thought to be able to fly or change their shape. Most were accused of attacking animals as well as humans, for blood to drink. In some areas the vampire was a bodyless ghost. In others there were arguments about what animated the vampire corpse: an evil spirit or the return of its original soul, unable to rest in death. Back to the Beginning Vlad The Impaler & Elizabeth of Bathory Preventing Vampires, Gaurding the house/coffin from Vampires & Introduction of the Werewolf, European Werewolves & A French wolf-boy Werewolf in Large Depth Werewolf in America, The Nootka wolf cults & The Navaho wolf-men Introducing Demons, Medieval Demons & Supernatural Guide | ||||||||||||||||
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