Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology This page intentionally left blank Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology THERESA BANE McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Bane, Theresa, ¡969– Encyclopedia of vampire mythology / Theresa Bane. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4452-6 illustrated case binding : 50# alkaline paper ¡. Vampires—Encyclopedias. I. Title. GR830.V3B34 2010 398.21'003—dc22 2010015576 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2010 Theresa Bane. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover illustration by Joseph Maclise, from his Surgical Anatomy, 1859 Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To my father, Amedeo C. Falcone, Noli nothi permittere te terere. This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Preface 1 Introduction 7 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA 13 Bibliography 155 Index 183 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface I am a vampirologist—a mythologist who specializes in cross- cultural vampire studies. There are many people who claim to be experts on vampire lore and legend who will say that they know all about Vlad Tepes and Count Dracula or that they can name several different types of vampiric species. I can do that, too, but that is not how I came to be a known vam- pirologist. Knowing the “who, what and where” is one thing, but knowing and more impor- tantly understanding the “why” is another. Throughout history, every culture of man has had an incarnation of the vampire, a being responsible for causing plagues and death. A hobbyist or enthusiast may know that the hili is a vampiric creature who hunts the Xhosa people of Lesotho, South Africa, and to be certain it is a rather obscure bit of trivia. But knowing the “why” of the hili is what a vampirologist does. Why did the Xhosa people of that region of South Africa develop their vampire the way they did? Why does the hili look the way it does? Why is it an indiscriminate killer, attacking anyone at any time of the day or night? Why are the vampires that live due west completely different in every way? Why do they not cross into each other’s territories? I know the answers to all these questions because I have delved into the history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and religious studies of just about every culture I could get my hands on. One of the questions I am frequently asked is how I ever came to be interested in vam- pires. I am always hesitant to answer because as simple a question as it may seem, the answer, like the vampire itself, is complex. For me, there was no single event that sparked a sudden interest, no chance meeting with someone who inspired me. As best as I can trace it back, my parents were people who encouraged learning and valued education in their children. At least once a week we would go to the library, returning home with a hodgepodge of books on var- ious subjects. Each night around the dinner table we discussed what we learned that day and it seems to me that nothing brought my parents greater joy than when the whole family became deeply involved in a conversation where all of our cumulative knowledge was pooled, com- pared, and debated. Obviously at some point in my youth I discovered the mythology of the vampire went beyond Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although I cannot honestly say when it happened. I had always wanted to be an author, and some years ago I set out to write a trilogy of vampire novels. I knew then that I did not want my vampires to be just like all the fictional vampires that were already out there; I wanted my vampires to be less like Ann Rice’s vampires and more like the original mythology. What started out as what was going to be just a little bit of looking into the subject mat- ter quickly became a full- time endeavor lasting five years. At the end of my research what I had written was not a trilogy of books about a fictional vampire but rather a compendium of vampire lore. Through self-examination, I can say that I love the vampire because there is always some- thing new to discover, that its mystery still exists. Every time an ancient piece of parchment is found or newly translated there is the potential for an undiscovered species of vampire to be named or for a new story to be told about a type we already know to exist. In the past there 1 Preface 2 have been books both rare and expensive that have been kept out of the reach of most researchers either because the researchers lacked the clout to have access to them or because the books were locked up tight in a distant library. However, with today’s technology these books are being transcribed and scanned into electronic documents so that everyone, no matter his rea- son, income level, or academic credentials, can have access to them. What was once forbid- den or lost knowledge is now posted in PDF format on the Internet. I love the idea that there will always be one more book to read and a new discovery to be made. As a researcher this excites me—this is why I love the vampire. To take on the task of writing an encyclopedia, on any subject, is tremendously exciting and daunting. My very first order of business had to be how I intended to establish what specific information it was going to contain as well as how inclusive it was going to be. My intent was to make a reference book that pulled together the disseminated knowledge from all over the world, from all cultures of people, from our ancient ancestors to our modern kinsmen. Additionally, I wanted my book to not only be useful to the serious- minded academics that would need my book for their own varied research but also something that could appeal to fans. To achieve this goal I committed myself to not exclude any culture, religion, or people from any historical time period and to report the facts for each entry without any personalization, dramatization, emphasis, or hyperbole. In doing so, I could ensure that each entry would be treated equally with a measured level of professional dégagé. My next task was perhaps more difficult, for to write an encyclopedia about vampires one has to have a clear definition of what a vampire is. Most interesting, there is not a pre-exist- ing or commonly accepted idea, let alone a singular, all- encompassing definition that clearly says what a vampire is, specifically. That being the case, I would have to create one and apply it even- handedly against all potential entries for the book. This was more difficult than it sounds as what is considered a vampire in modern- day Brazil would not in side- by- side com- parison be considered a vampire by the ancient Celts of Ireland—and yet, each of these myth- ical beings are by their people’s standards every bit a vampire. For starters, not all vampires are undead, that is, the animated corpse of a human being, such as the brykolakas of Greece. There are mythologies where a living person is a vampire, such as with the bruja of Spain. Not all vampires are considered evil; the talamaur of Australian lore is not only a living person but may choose to be a force of “good.” Not all vampires survive on human blood; the grobnik of Bulgarian lore feeds strictly on cattle and animal carcasses. Not even blood is a requirement; the algul of Arabic lore consumes rice while the gaki from Japan can feed off either samurai topknots or the thoughts generated while one meditates. It is a popular misconception that vampires can only come out at night as the light of day is said to be most deadly; however, this is hardly the case for the sixty- some species of vampire that are said to originate on the Greek isles. There it seems that many of their vampires are particularly deadly at noon, when the sun is at its apex. The Aztecs of ancient Meso- America had vampiric gods as well as vampiric demons in their pantheon, and so do the Hindus, whose religion is just as old but still practiced today through- out the world. Nor is the vampire a stagnant creature, as the pishtaco of Peru has been evolving in appearance and hunting tactics throughout the written history of the Andean peo- ple. What, then, do all these different species of vampires, from all around the world, have in common? The answer is simple: basic human fear. No matter when or where, how it hunts or what it hunts, the vampire attacks that which man considers most precious. The reason that there is no single definition of a vampire is because each culture of people, from their various 3 Preface time periods and from their various locations, has feared different things. The vampire has become man’s fear manifest; as man has evolved, so too has the vampire. What is culturally important to one people is not necessarily so to another. Because of this, I used the definition that each unique and diverse culture throughout history used; I let the people who lived with their fears dictate to me what a vampire is.