The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

VJESCI WAS THE NAME GIVEN TO A TYPE OF VAMPIRE FOUND IN THE LOVE OF THE KASHUBIAN PEOPLE OF NORTHEASTERN POLAND. IT WAS A VARIETY OF THE SLAVIC VAMPIRE, AND RESEMBLED THE NACHZHER FOUND TO THE WEST IN NORTHERN GERMANY. ACCORDING TO THE MYTHOLOGY, A PERSON DESTINED TO BECOME A VJESCI COULD BE IDENTIFIED BY A CAUL, A LITTLE MEMBRANE CAP, ON HIS HEAD AT THE TIME OF BIRTH. WHEN A CHILD WAS BORN WITH SUCH A CAP, IT WAS REMOVED, DRIED, GROUND, AND FED TO THE PERSON ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTH BIRTHDAY. THOSE ACTIONS WOULD PREVENT THE CHILD FROM BECOMING A VAMPIRE. IN OTHER RESPECTS THE POTENTIAL VJESCI APPEARED TO BE COMPLETELY NORMAL AND GREW UP IN THE COMMUNITY UNDETECTED, ALTHOUGH IN SOME ACCOUNTS THE VJESCI HAD A RESTLESS AND EASILLY EXCITABLE NATURE AND A RUDDY COMPLEXTION. AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH, HE REFUSED TO TAKE SACREMENT. HIS BODY COOLED VERY SLOWLY, THE LIMBS REMAINED LIMBER, AND THE LIPS AND CHEEKS RETAINED THEIR REDNESS. SPOTS OF BLOOD OFTEN APPEARED UNDER HIS FINGERNAILS, AND ON HIS FACE.







THE VJESCI DID NOT REALLY DIE, HOWEVER. RATHER, AT MIDNIGHT, ATER HIS BURIAL, HE AWAKENED AND ATE HIS CLOTHING AND SOME OF HIS OWN FLESH. HE THEN LEFT THE GRAVE AND ATTACKED HIS FAMILY, SUCKING THEIR BLOOD TO THE POINT OF DEATH. NOT SATIATED, HE MIGHT ALSO ATTACK NEIGHBORS.





SEVERAL STEPS COULD BE TAKEN TO PROTECT ONESSELF FROM A VJRSCI LOOSE IN THE COMMUNITY. FIRST, DYING POEPLE SHOULD RECIEVE THE EUCHARIST. A LITTLE EARTH WAS PLACED IN THE COFFIN UNDER THE BODY TO PREVENT IT FROM RETURNING HOME. A CRUCIFIX OR COIN WAS PLACED UNDER THE TONGUE FOR THE VAMPIRE TO SUCK. A NET MIGHT BE PLACED IN THE COFFIN, WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE KNOTS MUST BE UNTIED BEFRE THE VAMPIRE COULD ARISE. A BAG OF SAND OR SEEDS COULD BE USED IN MUCH THE SAME MANNER. THE BODY MIGHT ALSO BE PLACED FACE DOWN SO AS WHEN IT CAME TO LIFE IT WOULD MERELY ONLY DIG ITSELF FURTHER INTO THE GROUND.





WHEN A VJESCI WAS DISIINTEFRERD IT MIGHT BE FOUND SITTING IN THE COFFIN WITH EYES OPEN. IT MIGHT MOVE IT'S HEAD AND MAKE SOME NOISES. IT'S SHIRT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EATEN. IF NONE OF THE PRECAUTONS TAKEN AT AT THE TIME OF BURIAL HAD NOT STOPPPED THE VAMPIRE, EITHER A NAIL WAS DRIVEN THROUGH THE FOREHEAD, OR THEY WERE BEHEADED AND THEIR HEAD PLACED BETWEEN THEIR FEET.









SOURCES:





perkowski, jan. vampires,dwarves, and witches among ontario kashubs. ottowa: national museum of canada, national museum of man, caandaian centre for folklore studies.1972

MYANMAR, KNOWN UNTIL 1989 AS BURMA, IS A SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRY BOUNDED BY INDIA AND BANGLADESH ON THE WEST, CHINA ON THE NORTH, AND LAOS AND CAMBODIA ON THE EAST. THE MYANMATS SETTLED THE LAND IN THE NINTH CENTURY AND OVER THE NEXT CENTURY ESTABLISHED AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY. IT HAS BEEN VARIOUSLY PART OF THE CHINESE, BRITISH, AND JAPANESE EMPIRES: IT EMERGED AS AN INDEPENDENT NATION FOLOOWING WORLD WAR II. THE MYANMARS ARE PRIMARILY BUDDHIST AND TEND TO CREMATE THEIR DEAD: THUS THEY DO NOT HAVE A STRONG TRADITION OF REVENANTS. THE CULTURE DOES HAVE A LARGE PANTHEON OF DEITIES AND SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES, HOWEVER, ALONG WITH A RICH TRADITION OF GHOSTS AND DEMONIC BEINGINGS/









THE MOST MALEVOLENT OF GHOSTS, THE THAYE AND TASEI, WERE BEINGS THAT BECAUSE OF THEIR EARTHLY LIFE, WERE CONDEMEND TO THEIR DISEMBODIES STATE UNTIL THEY HAD WORKED OUT THEIR KARMIC DIFFICULTIES AND WERE EVENTUALLY REBORN INTO ANOTHER BODY. THESE DISEMBODIED GHOSTS, AT TIMES TOOK ON A KIND OF VISABLE MATERIALITY. WHEN SEEN, THEY WERE TALL, DARK, AND POSSESSED BIG EARS, A LARGE TONGUE, AND TUSKLIKE TEETH. THEY RESIDED NEAR VILLAGES AND LOCAL CEMETARIES. ON OCCASION THEY ASSUMED CHARACTORISTICS OF VAMPIRES AND GHOULS, AND FED ON CORPSES OR WENT TO VILLAGES TO ATTACK LIVING PEOPLE.











SOURCES:





spiro, melford e. burmese supernaturalism. philidelphia: istitute for the study of human issue. 1978

THE PONTIANAK WAS A TYPE OF VAMPIRE FOUND IN MALAYSIA, JAVA, AND THROUGHOUT MUCH OF INDONESIA. IN MALAYSIA IT WAS PAIRED WITH THE LANGSUYAR, ANOTHER MALAYSIAN VAMPIRE, WHITH WHOME IT SHARED A COMMON ORIGIN. THE MALAYSIAN LANGSUYAR WAS ORIGANALLY A WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO A STILL BORN CHILD. THE PONTIANAK WAS THAT STILL BORN CHILD. AS A VAMPIRE, IT WAS TREATED IN A MANNER SIMIALAR TI A WOMAN WHO DIED IN CHILD BIRTH: NEEDLES WERE PLACED IN THE PALMS OF THE HANDS, EGGS WERE PLACED UNDER THE ARMS, AND BEADS WERE PLACED IN THE MOUTH.









IN JAVA AND THROUGH OUT THE REST OF INDONESIA, THE LANGSUYAR AND PONTIANAK CHANGED PLACES, AND THE PONTIANAK REFEERED TO THE FEMALE NIGHT FLYING VAMPIRE. RAYMOND KENNEDY FOUND THE JAVANESE SPEAKING OF THE PONTIANAK AS A BANSHEE WHO WAILED IN THE NIGHT BREEZE FOR THE CHILD SHE HAD LOST AT BIRTH. AUGUSTA DE WIT, ALSO IN JAVA FOUND THE PONTIANAK TO BE THOUGHT OF AS A SPIRIT OF A DEAD VIRGIN. SHE SEDUCED YOUNG MEN, BUT AS THEY EMBRACED, SHE REVEALED THE HOLE IN HER BACK. SHE WOULD BREAK THE EMBRACE AFTER A SINGLE KISS AND PRONOUNCE A DEATH SENTENCE ON THE MAN. HE WOULD DIE SOON AFTER WORD IF HE DID NOT GRAB HER LONG HAIR AND SUCCEED IN LOOSENING A SINGLE STRAND.







IN MALAYSIA, THE FOLLOWING CHARM MIGHT ALSO BE SAID: O PONTIANAK THE STILL BORN

MAY YOU BE STRUCK DEAD BY THE SOIL FROM THE GRAVE MOUND.

THUS CUT THE BAMBOO JOINTS, THE LONG AND SHORT, TO COOK THEREIN THE LIVER OF THE JIN PONTIANAK.

BY THE GRACE OF " THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD"













OF THE SEVERAL MALAYSIAN VAMPIRE SPIRIT BEINGS, THE PONTIANAK WAS ONLY SEEN AS A JIN OR GENIE, A SPIRIT IN ISLAMIC MYTHOLOGY. IN THE MID 1950"S CATAY-KERIA PRODUCTIONS BEGAN TO MAKE A SERIES OF MOVIES BASED UPON THE PONTIANAK AS THE BEAUTIFUL FEMALE OF INDONESIAN LORE.









SOURCES:



de wit, augusta. java: facts and fancies. the hague: w.p. van stockum, 1912 reprint singapore oxford university press 1984







windsted, richard. the malay magician being shaman, saiva, and suri. london: routledge and kegan paul. 1961