Types of Vampires

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This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.

10 What types of vampires are in existence?

This is a sampler of vampire legends from around the world.

- Asasabonsam: W. African. Folklore of the Ashanti people. Asasabonsam
are human looking vampires except that they have hooks instead of feet
and iron teeth. The Asasabonsam are tree dwelling vampires that live
deep in the forest. They sit in the tops of trees with their legs
dangling down which enables them to catch their victims with their
hooked feet. They tend to bite their victims on the thumb.

- Baital: Indian. These vampires natural form is that of a half-man,
half-bat creature roughly four feet tall. They are otherwise
unremarkable.

- Bajang: Malaysian. The bajang normally take the form of polecats.
Sorcerers could enslave and force them to kill his enemies, and some
families were believed to be hereditarily stalked by the bajang.

- Baobhan Sith: Scottish. The baobhan sith (pronounced buh-van she) are
evil fairies who appear as beautiful young women and will dance with
men they find until the men are exhausted and then feed on them. The
baobhan sith can be harmed and destroyed by cold iron.

- Callicantzaros (also spelled as Kallikantzaros): Medieval and Modern
Greece. According to Christian Greek folk belief, a child born during
the time from the beginning of Christmas to New Year's Day (or, in
some versions, to Epiphany, Jan. 6) will become a callicantzaros. It
is also during this period of the year that the callicantzaroi become
a threat to normal humans. Then they roam the countryside, sleeping in
caves during the day and entering villages at night. They can appear
half-human, half-animal shapes. At the end of this period, they travel
down caverns or other tunnels to Hades where they remain until the
next Christmas. While on the world's surface, a male Callicantzaros is
apt to kidnap a mortal woman to return with him to the underworld as
his bride and to bear his children who also become callicantzaroi. To
To prevent an infant of two mortal parents born during the Yuletide
season from becoming a callicantzaros, the infant was sometimes held
feet down over a fire until the toenails were singed. It was said that
the first victims of a callicantzaros whose parents were both mortal
were often his own brothers and sisters, whom he was apt to bite and
devour. The callicantzoroi are actually closer to werewolves than to
vampires--there is no direct connection with blood drinking--but they
are frequently described in nonfictional books about vampires.
(s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Ch'ing Shih: Chinese. Ch'ing shih appear livid and may kill with
poisonous breath in addition to draining blood. If a Ch'ing Shih
encounters a pile of rice, it must count the grains before it can pass
the pile. They can be harmed and destroyed by normal weapons and by
sunlight. Their immaterial form is a glowing sphere of light, much
like a will-o'-the-wisp.

- Civateteo: Mexican. These vampire-witches held Sabbaths at
crossroads and were believed to attack young children and to mate with
human men, producing children who were also vampires. They were
believed to be linked to the god Tezcatlipoca.

- Dearg-due: Irish. The dearg-due is a standard European vampire,
except that it cannot shapeshift and may be defeated by building a
cairn of stones over its grave.

- Empusa: Ancient Greece and Rome. Empusas appear as either beautiful
women or ancient hags. They are strongly related to the incubi and
succubi (q.v).

- Ekimmu: Assyrian. Montague Summers described the ekimmu as vampires,
but recent re-interpretations of "The Gilgamesh Epic" seem to refute
this conclusion. The ekimmu are simply the souls of those who died
without proper burial and so they wander the Netherworld looking for
peace, not blood.

- Hanh Saburo: Indian. These creatures live in forests and can control
dogs. They will attempt to lure or drive travelers into the forest to
attack them.

- Incubus: European. Incubi (plural of incubus) are sexual vampires.
They are spirit vampires of a demonic nature. The general way they
feed is by having sexual relations with the victim, exhausting them,
and feeding on the energy released during sex. They may enter homes
uninvited and can take on the appearance of other persons. They will
often visit the same victim repeatedly. A victim of an incubus will
experience the visits as dreams. The female version of an incubus is a
succubus. Closely related to the incubi/sucubi are the Slavic mora,
the German mahr, and the Scandinavian mara, from which the word
"nightmare" is derived.

- Jararaca: Brazilian. Normally appearing as snakes, jararaca are said
to drink the milk, as well as the blood, of sleeping women.

- Krvopijac: Bulgarian. Krvopijacs (also known as obours) look like
normal vampires except that they have only one nostril. They can be
immobilized by placing wild roses around their graves. One way to
destroy a krvopijac is for a magician to order its spirit into a
bottle, which must then be thrown into a fire.

- Lamia: Ancient Greece and Rome. Lamias are exclusively female
vampires. They often appear in half-human, half-animal forms and eat
the flesh of their victims in addition to drinking their blood. Lamias
can be attacked and killed with normal weapons.

- Loogaro: West Indies. Appearing as old women, these vampires go
abroad at night as blobs of light, much like the will-o'-the-wisp.

- Mulo: Gypsy. Gypsies all over Europe generally believed that the mulo
was the spirit of a dead person which left its corpse in its grave at
night and returned to the corpse at dawn. The mulo was generally
invisible but could be visible to certain people, in which case it
usually appeared in the original form of the dead person.

Some Gypsy clans believed that their muli were too loyal to their clan
to trouble them. But in the cases of clans who believed otherwise, esp.
in Balkan countries such as Kosova, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia, the
mulo often played the role of the vampire. The vampiric mulo mostly
preyed on sheep and cattle, but there are tales of entire households
being victimized by a mulo. In the Balkan countries, the adult male
mulo typically came at night to visit his widow or perhaps a woman he
had loved during his lifetime. In some versions of the story, he acted
kindly towards her, helping her with household tasks and regaining her
favor. Or, he might make demands on her for good tasting food, always
rejecting what she offered. While visible to his wife, he might at the
same time be invisible to other family members, behaving much like a
poltergeist. In a third version, the mulo is invisible even to his
wife--but he lies upon her and rapes her while she feels paralyzed and
is unable to cry out for help. In these chases, the widow may become
sick with terror, refuse food and drink, and eventually die.

Some Gypsies in Kosova believed that twin brothers and sisters born on
a Saturday could see a vampiric mulo if they wore their underwear and
shirts inside out. The mulo would flee as soon as it was seen by the
twins. A Gypsy practice in Moravia, now the eastern province of the
Czech Republic, was to use a hen's egg to bait and ambush an invisible
mulo. When the egg suddenly disappeared, the men would fire their guns
at the spot. (s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Nachzerer: German. These are ghosts of the recently dead that return
to kill their families.

- Rakshasa: Indian. The Rakshasas are powerful vampires of the spirit
variety. They usually appear as humans with animal features (claws,
fangs, slitted eyes, etc.) or as animals with human features
(flattened noses, hands, etc.). They often appear as tigers. In any
form, rakshasas are powerful magicians. They eat the flesh of their
victims in addition to drinking blood. Burning, sunlight, or exorcism
may destroy Rakshasas.

- Shtriga: Medieval and Modern Albanian. The Albanian Shtriga, like
the ancient Roman Stryx, is a witch who preys upon infants by drinking
their blood at night. But instead of transforming into an owl when she
goes for her midnight snack, she is more apt to take the form of a
flying insect. As recently as the early 20th century, many Albanians
regarded the Shtriga to be the most common cause of infant deaths.
(See also Veshtitza.) (s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Strigoi: Medieval and Modern Romania, including Transylvania. The
feminine form of the name is Strigoiaca. The terms derive from the name
of the blood-sucking, shape-changing, ancient Roman 'Stryx' [which see].
They apply to either a person who is already an undead vampire (Strigoi
Mort) or to one who is still living (Strigoi Viu) but predestined to
become a Strigoi Mort. In most ways, the Strigoi Morti resemble the
undead vampires found in other Eastern European countries. They can be
destroyed by such typical means as impaling with a stake or by cremating
them. They were often blamed as the cause of death in cases of epidemics
--with the dead victims frequently becoming Strigoi Morti, too.

The Strigoi Vii are more unusual. According to old Romanian folklore,
a person who is born with a caul (a veil of fetal membrane still
attached to the head), a small tail, or other peculiar circumstances
is a Strigoi Viu. While living, the Strigoi Viu is not a blood drinker,
but his powers include what could be called psychic vampirism--he can
steal the vitality of his neighbors' crops and animals to enhance his
own. Also, he can leave his body at night and travel in the form of an
animal or a small spark of light. Sometimes it was said that a Strigoi
Viu took animal form by stealing the form from the animal. The Strigoi
Vii join together in covens and meet with the Strigoi Morti on special
nights such as the Eve of St. George (April 22)--the same auspicious
night when Jonathan Harker meets Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel.
(s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Stryx: Ancient Roman. Stryx [plur: striges] literally means "screech
"owl" but the ancient Romans also applied the term to witches who
transformed into owls at night in order to prey upon infants, drinking
their blood and sometimes eating their internal organs. In modern
Italian, "striga" has become a general word for "witch". Ovid, in his
book _Fasti_, tells a story about an infant who was attacked each night
by a flock of striges. The demigoddess Crane is called upon to ward away
the striges by sprinklng the doorway with "drugged" water and placing a
branch of hawthorn in the window. In later European lore, hawthorn is
often as effective as garlic for warding away or confining vampires and
is the best material for stakes to pound through their hearts. [See also
Shtriga, Strigoi, and Veshtitza] (s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Vampir: Serbian. The vampir is naturally invisible but can be seen by
animals or by a dhampir [q.v], the living offspring of a vampir. The
Serbian vampir cannot shapeshift.

- Veshtitza: Medieval and modern Montenegro and Serbia. A blood drinking
witch similar to the Roman Stryx and the Albanian Shtriga [q.v.]. The.
soul of a Veshtitza leaves her body at night and enters the body of a
hen or black moth. In this body, the veshtitza flies about until she
finds a home where there are infants or young children. She drinks their
blood and eats their hearts. Veshtitze may join together to form covens,
the members of which flock together in the branches of trees at midnight
on certain nights to hold a meeting while they snack upon what they have
gathered earlier. Since it was commonly believed that witches become
vampires after they die, it seems unlikely that the natural death of a
veshtitza ends her drinking habit. (s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Vrykolakas: 17th - early 20th Century Greece. The term derives from the
Southern Slavic name Vorkudlak which can either mean an undead vampire
or a werewolf. The name Vrykolakas (plur: Vrykolakes) has variants such
as Vourkalakas and Vrukolakas. On the isle of Crete, the name is often
replaced by 'Kathakano". In some moutain regions on the mainland, the
term Vrykolakis could also apply to a shepherd who is compelled by the
full moon to go about biting and eating both man and beast. But most
generally it was applied to dead people who return from their graves,
bringing death to the living. When a dead person was suspected of being
a Vrykolakas, his corpse was exhumed to see if it had resisted decay.
Also, there was a religious practice of exhuming all corpses after three
years from their original burial. Typically, an exhumed corpse appeared
bloated and ruddy. This was interpreted as evidence that the body had
become a Vrykolakas and had gorged itself on the blood of its victims.

A person could become a Vrykolakas after death by having been
excommunicated, by having committed a serious crime or by having led a
sinful life. Those conceived or born on a holy day were predestined to
become Vrykolakes. Even if a person died without these taints, he was
apt to become a Vrykolakas if a cat jumped over his corpse before burial.
Though Vrykolakes were most active at night, they could also go about
during daylight. They were only obliged to be in their graves on each
Saturday. According to one report from the 17th century, revenant
Vrykolakes prowl at night, knocking on doors and calling out the names
of the inhabitants. Anyone who answered was doomed, but those who
resisted were spared. Perhaps this is the origin of the modern literary
tradition that a vampire cannot enter a home unless invited? Vrykolakes
can be destroyed by exorcism or burning. Yet another recourse was to
rebury the corpse on a desert island. This was done in belief that a
Vrykolakas could not cross sea water (s/b Patrick Johnson)

- Wampir: Polish and Russian. Wampiri appear exactly as normal humans
and have a "sting" under their tongue rather than fangs. They are active
from noon until midnight. A vampir may only be destroyed by burning.
When burned, the wampir's body will burst, releasing hundreds of small,
disgusting maggots, rats, etc. If any of these escape, the wampir's
"spirit" will escape as well and will later return to seek revenge.
Wampiri may also be called vieszcy and upierczi.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive. Some other regional variants
on the vampire are: Austrian dracul, Amer. Indian kwakiytl, Bohemian
ogolgen, Brazilian lobishomen, African otgiruru, African owenga,
Romanian avarcolac, Babylonian sharabisu, Greek brucolacas, Tibetan
khadro, Singhalese kattakhanes, and Hindu kalika.

Obtained from THIS SITE

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