CHAPTER IV
THE VAMPIRE IN ASSYRIA, THE EAST, AND SOME ANCIENT COUNTRIES
AMONG the elaborate and extensive demonology of Babylonia and Assyria the Vampire had a very prominent place. From the very earliest times Eastern races have always held that belief in the existence of dark and malignant powers, evil spirits and ghosts which is, we cannot doubt it, naturally implanted in the heart of man and which it remains for the ignorance and agnosticism of a later day to deny. The first inhabitants of Babylonia, the Sumerians, recognized three distinct classes of evil spirits, any one of whom was always ready to attack those who by any accident or negligence laid themselves open to these invasions. In particular was a man who had wandered far from his fellows into some haunted spot liable to these onsets, and Dr. R. Campbell Thompson tells us that this "is the interpretation of the word muttaliku, wanderer, which occurs so often in the magical text to indicate the patient."[1] Of the Babylonian evil spirits the first were those ghosts who were unable to rest in their graves and so perpetually walked up and down the face of the earth; the second class was composed of those horrible entities who were half human and half demon; whilst the third class were the devils, pure spirits of the same nature as the gods, fiends, who bestrode the whirlwind and the sand-storm, who afflicted mankind with plagues and pestilence. There were many subdivisions, and in fact there are few evil hierarchies so detailed and so fasciculated as the Assyrian cosmorama of the spiritual world.
The evil spirit who was known as Utukku was a phantom or ghost, generally but perhaps not invariably of a wicked and malevolent kind, since it was he whom the necromancers raised from the dead, and in an ancient Epic when the hero, Gilgamish, prays to the god, Nergal to restore his friend p. 218 Ea-bani, the request is granted, for the ground gapes open and the Utukku of Ea-bani appears "like the wind,"[2] that is, says Dr. Campbell Thompson, "probably a transparent spectre in the human shape of Ea-bani, who converses with Gilgamish." The Ekimmu or Departed Spirit, was the soul of the dead person which for some reason could find no rest, and wandered over the earth lying wait to seize upon man. Especially did it lark in deserted and ill-omened places. Dr. Thompson tells us that it is difficult to say exactly in what respect the Ekimmu differed from the Utukku,[3] but it is extremely interesting to inquire into the causes owing to which a person became a Ekimmu, and here we shall find many parallels with the old Greek beliefs concerning those duties to the dead which are paramount and for which a man must risk his life and more. It was ordinarily believed among the Assyrians that after death the soul entered the Underworld, "the House of Darkness, the seat of the god, Irkalla, the House from which none that enter come forth again." Here they seem to have passed a miserable existence, enduring the pangs of hunger and thirst, and if their friends and relatives on earth were too niggardly to offer rich meats and pour forth bountiful libations upon their tombs they were compelled to satisfy their craving with dust and mud. But there were certain persons who were yet in worse case, for their souls could not even enter the Underworld. This is clear from the description given by the phantom of Ea-bani to his friend, the hero Gilgamish:
The man whose corpse lieth in the desert--
Thou and I have often seen such an one--
His spirit resteth not in the earth;
The man whose spirit hath none to care for it--
Thou and I have often seen such an one,
The dregs of the vessel--the leavings of the feast,
And that which is cast out into the street are his food.[4]
The Ekimmu-spirit of an unburied corpse could find no rest and remained prowling about the earth so long as its body was above ground."[5] This is exactly one phase of the Vampire, and in the various magical texts and incantations are given lists of those who are liable to return in this manner. As well as the ghosts of those whose bodies were uncared for or unburied, that is to say those who were lost or forgotten, there
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were the spirits of men and women who died violent or premature deaths, or who had left certain duties undone, and even youths or maidens who had loved but who had been snatched away before they had known happiness. In an exorcism various spirits are addressed individually:
Whether thou art a ghost unburied,
Or a ghost that none careth for,
Or a ghost with none to make offerings to it.
Or a ghost that hath none to pour libations to it,
Or a ghost that hath no prosperity.
Other phantoms who can obtain no rest are:
He that lieth in a ditch . . .
He that no grave covereth . . .
He that lieth uncovered,
Whose head is uncovered with dust,
The king's son that lieth in the desert,
Or in the ruins,
The hero whom they have slain with the sword.
And again:
He that hath died of hunger in prison,
He that hath died of thirst in prison,
The hungry man who in his hunger hath not smelt the smell of food,
He whom the bank of a river hath made to perish,
He that hath died in the desert or marshes,
He that a storm hath overwhelmed in the desert,
The Night-wraith that hath no husband,
The Night-fiend that hath no wife,[6]
He that hath posterity and he that hath none.
If the spirit of the dead man be forgotten and no offerings were made at the tomb, hunger and thirst would compel it to come forth from its abode in the Underworld to seek the nourishment of which A has been deprived, and, according to the old proverb, since a hungry man is an angry man it roams furiously to and fro and greedily devours whatsoever it may. "If it found a luckless man who had wandered far from his fellows into haunted places, it fastened upon him, plaguing and tormenting him until such time as a priest should drive it away with excorcism." This is clear from two tablets which have been translated as follows:
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The gods which seize (upon man)
Have come forth from the grave
The evil wind-gusts
Have come forth from the grave
To demand the payment of rites and the pouring out of libations,
They have come forth from the grave;
All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind
Hath come forth from their graves.
Or again:
The evil Spirit, the evil Demon, the evil Ghost, the evil Devil,
From the earth have come forth
From the Underworld unto the land they have come forth;
In heaven they are unknown,
On earth they are not understood,
They neither stand nor sit,
Nor eat nor drink."
Even as the Vampire of Eastern Europe to-day, the Babylonian Ekimmu was the most persistent of haunters and the most difficult to dislodge. If he could find no rest in the Underworld he would speedily return and attach himself to anyone who during life had held the least communication with him. Man's life was certainly surrounded with dangers when the mere act of sharing just once food, oil, or garments with another person gave the spirit of this individual a claim to consort with his friend, or it might be even the casual acquaintance, who had shown him some slight kindness. The link could be slighter yet than that since in a long and elaborate formula of priestly conjuration, a particularly solemn and ritual incantation for the exorcizing of evil spirits, especially Vampires, it is plainly said that merely to have eaten, to have drunk, to have anointed oneself, or dressed oneself in the society of another was enough to forge an extraordinary spiritual copula. In this imprecatory orison, which assumes a strictly liturgical character, various kinds of vampirish spectres are banned:
Whether thou are a ghost that has come from the earth,
Or a phantom of night that hath no couch,
Or a woman (that hath died) a virgin,
Or a man (that hath died) unmarried,
Or one that lieth dead in the desert, p. 221
Or one that lieth dead in the desert, uncovered with earth,
Or one that in the desert . . .
(hiatus)
Or one that hath been torn from a date palm,
Or one that cometh through the waters in a boat,
Or a ghost unburied,
Or a ghost that none careth for,
Or a ghost with none to make offerings,
Or a ghost with none to pour libations,
Or a ghost that hath no posterity,
Or a hag-demon,
Or a ghoul,
Or a robber-sprite,
Or a harlot (that hath died) whose body is sick,
Or a woman (that hath died) in travail,
Or a woman (that hath died) with a babe at her breast,
Or a weeping woman (that hath died) with a babe at her breast,
Or an evil man (that hath died),
Or an (evil) spirit,
Or one that haunteth (the neighbourhood),
Or one that haunteth (the vicinity),
Or whether thou be one with whom on a day (I have eaten),
Or whether thou be one with whom on a day (I have drunk),
Or with whom on a day I have anointed myself,
Or with whom on a day I have clothed myself,
Or whether thou be one with whom I have entered and eaten,
Or with whom I have entered and drunk,
Or with whom I have entered and anointed myself,
Or with whom I have entered and clothed myself,
Or whether thou be one with whom I have eaten food when I was hungry,
Or with whom I have drunk water when I was thirsty,
Or with whom I have anointed myself with oil when I was sore,
Or with whom when I was cold I have clothed his nakedness with a garment,
(Whatever thou be) until thou art removed,
Until thou departest from the body of the man, the son of his god,
Thou shalt have no food to eat,
Thou shalt have no water to drink,
. . . . .
If thou wouldst fly up to heaven
Thou shalt have no wings,
If thou wouldst lurk in ambush on earth,
Thou shalt secure no resting-place.
Unto the man, the son of his god--come not nigh, p. 222
Get thee hence!
Place not thy head upon his head,
Place not thy (hand) upon his hand,
Place not thy foot upon his foot,
With thy hand touch him not,
Turn (not) thy back upon him,
Lift not thine eyes (against him),
Look not behind thee,
Gibber not against him,
Into the house enter thou not,
Through the fence break thou not,
Into the chamber enter thou not,
In the midst of the city encircle him not,
Near him make no circuit;
By the Word of Ea,[7]
May the man, the son of his god,
Become pure, become clean, become bright!
. . . . .
May his welfare be secured at the kindly hands of the gods.[8]
This incantation is extremely important as here we see many of the ideas which have persisted through the ages. The Vampire, or restless spirit might be a man whose lay body dead in the desert, uncovered with earth, "a ghost unburied," and it is readily remembered that among the ancient Greeks there was no more reverent duty than to bury the dead. Again, to-day, the Slavs consider that brigands and highwaymen whose lives are passed in deeds of violence and rapine after death will probably in another mode continue their predatory habits as Vampires; so the Assyrian Vampire might be "a robber-sprite." It will be remarked that the threat which drives away the Ekimmu is that until he has departed no libation shall be poured over his grave, no baked meats offered there, and no saving rites performed.
It was even held that if a man but looked upon a corpse he established that mysterious psychic connexion which would render him liable to be attacked by the spirit of the deceased. Among the Ibo people in the district of Awka, Southern Nigeria, one of the most important taboos which has to be preserved by the priest of the Earth is that be may not see a corpse, so terrible is held to be the spiritual contagion. Should he by an unlucky chance meet one upon the road he must at once veil his eyes with his wristlet.[9] This wrist-band or bracelet is a most important periapt or charm since it is
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regarded as a spiritual fetter keeping the soul in the body, and to bind such a talisman upon the wrist is particularly appropriate, since many peoples believe that a soul resides wherever a pulse is felt beating. Moreover, not only does this amulet guard the soul securely within the body but it also keeps evil spirits and demons out of it, and therefore at the ceremonies of the cutting of hair of Siamese children, which is an extremely important and symbolical rite, a magic cord is tied round the wrist of the child to protect him from malignant and foul spectres who would invade him.[10] Accordingly by shrouding his eyes with his wristlet the Ibo priest protects himself against any molestation by the spirit of the corpse. Very similar protective powers are also ascribed to finger rings, and among the Lapps the person whose business it is to shroud a corpse receives from some relative of the departed a brass ring which he must wear fastened to his right arm until the funeral rites are over. This ring is believed to shield him from any onset on the part of the ghost.[12] In the Tyrol a woman--particularly if she be pregnant or in travail--must never take off her wedding-ring, or else witches and vampires will have power over her.[13] In England it is considered to be courting disaster if a woman takes off her wedding-ring, whilst actually to lose the wedding-ring is one of the worst possible misfortunes. It may be mentioned that to-day the Greeks of the Isle of Karpathos (Scarpanto) never bury a body which has rings upon it; "for the spirit, they say, can even be detained in the little finger, and cannot rest."[14] It is not suggested that anything so horrible might happen as that the spirit should become evil or a Vampire, but certainly it would not be in the full enjoyment of happiness and peace.
Among the Assyrians the Ekimmu might appear in a house. Just as the Vampire, it would pass through walls or doors, and whether it merely glided about as a silent phantom, or whether it gibbered uttering unintelligible and mocking words with hideous mop and mow, or whether it seemed to ask some question that required a response, in any case such an apparition was terribly unlucky. The direst misfortunes followed, certainly involving the destruction of the house, and it was seldom that the owner, if not many of his family as well would not die within very short space of time. It seems, indeed, that the Ekimmu would drain the life out of a household,
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which is purely a vampirish qualitty, although perhaps it does not appear that this was always a physical operation, the actual sucking of blood, as is believed to be the case with the vrykolokas. But Dr. Campbell-Thompson tells us that there were few superstitions which had obtained such a hold over the Assyrians as the belief in the Ekimmu-spirit.
One incantation speaks of the meat and drink of the evil spirit:
Thy food is the food of ghosts,
Thy drink is the drink of ghosts.
In another "Prayer against the Evil Spirits" the Vampires are spoken of in the plainest terms. This incantation is as follows:
Spirits that minish heaven and earth,
That minish the land,
Spirits that minish the land, Of giant strength,
Of giant strength and giant tread,
Demons (like) raging bulls, great ghosts,
Ghosts that break through all houses,
Demons that have no shame,
Seven are they!
Knowing no care,
They grind the land like corn
Knowing no mercy.
They rage against mankind:
They spill their blood like rain,
Devouring their flesh (and) sucking their veins.
Where the images of the gods are, there they quake
In the Temple of Nabû, who fertilises the shoots of wheat.
They are demons full of violence
Ceaselessly devouring blood.
Invoke the ban against them,
That they no more return to this neighbourhood.
By heaven be ye exorcised! By Earth be ye exorcised!"[15]
These Seven Spirits re-appear both in Syriac and in Palestinian magic. In his exhaustive and authoritative work Semitic Magic (p. 52) Dr. Campbell Thompson says: "Their predilection for human blood, as described in the cuneiform incantation, is in keeping with all the traditions of the grisly mediaeval Vampires." An Ethiopic charm prescribes the following invocation: "Thus make perish, O p. 225 Lord, all demons and evil spirits who eat flesh and drink blood: who crush the bones and seduce the children of men; drive them away, O Lord, by the power of these thy names and by the prayer of thy holy Disciples, from thy servant." In an even more curious Syriac exorcism the Seven Spirits are described in detail almost exactly as they were pictured by the earlier inhabitants of Mesopotamia. The charm is to protect the flocks and herds, and it may be noted that there has come down to us an Assyrian protective incantation which is almost exactly similar. The Syriac runes go thus: "For the fold of cattle. 'Seven accursed brothers accursed sons! destructive ones, sons of men of destruction! Why do you creep along on your knees and more upon your hands?' And they replied, 'We go on our hands, so that we may eat flesh, and we crawl along upon our hands, so that we may drink blood.' As soon as I saw it, I prevented them from devouring, and I cursed and bound them in the name of thy Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, saying: 'May you not proceed on your way, nor finish your journey, and may, God break your teeth, and cut the veins of your neck, and the sinews thereof, that you approach not the sheep nor the oxen of the person who carries (sc. these writs)! I bind you in the name of Gabriel and Michael, I bind you by that Angel who judged the woman that combed (the hair of) her head on the eve of Holy Sunday. May they vanish as smoke from before the wind for ever and ever, Amen'"
The twenty-second formula of the Cuneiform Inscription of Western Asia, which was published by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. Edwin Morris in 1866 contains the following curse against a Vampire:
The phantom, child of heaven,
Which the gods remember,
The Innin (hobgoblin) prince
Of the lords
The . . .
Which produces painful fever,
The vampire which attacks man,
The Uruku multifold
Upon humanity,
May they never seize him!
The earliest Vampire known is that depicted upon a prehistoric bowl, an engraving of which has been published in
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the Délégation en Perse[16] where a man copulates with a vampire whose head has been severed from the body. Here the threat of cutting off her head is supposed to frighten her away from the act represented and Dr. R. Campbell-Thompson suggests" that "quite probably the man may have drunk from this bowl as helping the magic (although this is a doubtful point)." A vampire is depicted among the Babylonian cylinder seals in the Revue d'Assyriologie, 1909,[61] concerning which the same great authority has given me the following note: "The idea is, I presume, to keep off the nocturnal visits of Lilith and her sisters. Just as the prehistoric or early people showed pictures of enemies with their heads cut off (in order that what they were there showing might by sympathetic magic actually happen), so will the man troubled by nightly emissions attributed to Lilith, depict on his amulet the terrors which are in store for these malignants."
The Hebrew Lilith is undoubtedly borrowed from the Babylonian demon Lilîtu, a night spirit, although it is not probable that the Lilith has any connexion with the Hebrew Laîlah, "night." It was perhaps inevitable that the Rabbis should assume some such derivation, and it must be allowed that the comparison seemed plausible enough, although it has been shown, on the evidence of the Assyrian word Lilû, that the old theory must no longer be maintained, and Lilith is almost certainly to be referred to lalû, "luxuriousness," and lulti, "lasciviousness, lechery." This night ghost is mentioned in Isaias xxxiv, 14, where the Vulgate has: "Et occurrent daemonia, onocentauris, et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum: ibi cubauit lamia, et inuenit sibi requiem." Which Douay translates: "And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself." The Authorised Version has: "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest." Upon screech owl there is a marginal note: "Or, night monster." The Revised Version prefers: "And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest." There are marginal notes; satyr, "or, he-goat"; the
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night-monster, "Heb. Lilith." In classical Latin, lamia is defined by Lewis and Short as "a witch who was said to suck children's blood, a sorceress, enchantress." I doubt whether this is a very accurate definition, although possibly it will cover the meaning in Horace, Ars Poetica, 340:
Ne quodcumque uelit poscat sibi fabula credi,
Neu pransae lamiae puerum uiuum extrahat aluo.
Which Francis translates:
The probable maintain,
Nor force us to believe the monstrous scene,
Which shows a child, by a fell witch devour'd,
Dragg'd from her entrails, and to life restor'd.
Apuleius, Metamorphoses, I, has: "Quo (odore spurcissimi humoris) me lamiae illae infecerunt." Here lamia is hardly the equivalent of anything more than "witch." So the meaning of Vampire had been to a large extent lost or submerged. This idea, however, seems to have remained in Aristophanes, when in the Wasps (1177) Philocreon boasts what tales he can tell:
πρῶτον μὲν ὡς ἡ Λάμὶ ἁλοῦς᾽ ἐπέρδετο.
Liddell and Scott define Λάμια as: "a fabulous monster said to feed on man's flesh, a bugbear to frighten children with," referring to this passage in Aristophanes, which does not seem a very satisfactory or scholarly explanation. Tertullian, Aduersus Ualentinianos, which de Labriolle dates at 208-211, uses the phrase lamiae turres as nursery tales, Contes de nourrice, contes bleus. Theil in his Grand Dictionnaire de la Langue Latine terms lamia by "lamie, sorcière, qui suçait, disait-on, le sang des enfants; magicienne." These lexicographers for some extraordinary reason do not appear to have remarked the use of the word in the Vulgate. Gervase of Tilbury in his Otia Imperialia has some account of lamias, so called, he states, because they lacerate children: "lamiae uel laniae, quia laniant infantes." In country places even yet many an old nurse dares not trust a child in a cradle without a candle or lamp in the room for fear of the night-hag.
Rabbinical literature is full of legends concerning Lilith. According to tradition she was the first wife of Adam and, the
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mother of devils, spirits, and lilin, which is the same word as the Assyrian Lilu. From Jewish lore she passed to mediæval demonology, and Johann Weyer says that she was the princess who presided over the Succubi. It is true that the LXX translates in this passage of the prophet Isaias the Hebrew Lilith by Lamia, but it has been suggested that the nearest Latin equivalent might be strix, for although strix may be properly a screech owl, yet the Latins believed that these drained the blood of young children, and Ovid, Fasti, VI, 131-140 has:
Sunt auidæ uolucres; non quæ Phineia mensis
Guttura fraudabant: sed genus inde trahunt.
Grande caput: stantes oculi: rostra apta rapinæ
Canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest.
Nocte uolant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes
Et uitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.
Carpere dicuntur lactentia uiscera rostris;
Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent
Est illis strigibus nomen: sed nominis huius
Causa; quod horrenda stridere nocte solent.
But it is clear that the Strix was not always a bird, for in the Lombard Code we find the expression "Strix uel masca." Thiel has: "masca (mascha), sorcière, ML. De là le français: masque." In fact masca has the same meaning as Larua which signifies a ghost, or as in the well-known line of Horace, a mask:
Nil illi larua et tragicis opus esse cothurnis.[18]
In the Breuiarium Romanum, pars aestiua, die 30 Augusti, ad Matutinum, in 11 Nocturno, lectio V, it is said of S. Rose of Lima, "laruas daemonum, frequenti certamine uictrix, impauide protriuit ac superauit."
Moreover, the Strix was a vampire, and it may not be superfluous again to quote the well-known Saxon Capitulary of Charlemagne, 781, Liber I, 6: "Siquis a diabolo deceptus crediderit secundum morem Paganorum, uirum aliquem aut feminam Strigem esse, et homines comedere, et propter hoc ipsum incenderit, uel carnem eius ad comedendum dederit, uel ipsam comederit, capitis sententia puniatur."
As has been remarked the earliest known representation of a vampire shows her in the act of copulation with a man and we have just observed that Weyer regards the Hebrew Lilith
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as queen of the Succubi, The connexion here is very plain, for Martin Delrio, 5, 7, in his Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex, I, 178, (Louvain, 1599), definitely states: "Axioma I sit, solent Malefici et Lamiae cum daemonibus, illi quidem succubis, hae uero incubis, actum Uenerium exercere. . . . Axioma II potest etiam ex huiusmodi concubitu daemonis incubi proles nasci." Michael Psellus (Μιχαὴλ ὁ Πσελλός), the famous Byzantine scholar of the tenth century, in his treatise, De Operatione daemonum dialogus (graece et latine cum notis Gaulmini, Paris, 1615), says that a monk of Mesopotamia, named Marcus, informed him that demons here capable of sensual passions, "Quemadmodum et sperma nonnulli eorum emittunt et uermes quosdam spermate procreant. At incredibile est, inquam, excrementi quicquam daemonibus inesse, uasaue spermatica et uitalia. Uasa quidem eis, inquit ille, huiusmodi nulla insunt, superflui autem seu excrementi nescio quid emittunt hoc mihi asserenti credito." The learned authors of the Malleus Maleficarum discuss, "Whether Children can be Generated by Incubi and Succubi" (Part I, Question iii), and "By which Devils are the Functions of Incubus and Succubus Practised" (Part I, Question iv). Appeal is made to the authority of S. Augustine, who, De Trinitate, III, says "That devils do indeed collect human semen, by means of which they are able to produce bodily effects: but this cannot be done without some local movement, therefore demons can transfer the semen which they have collected and inject it into the bodies of others." Moreover, Sprenger and Kramer inquire: "Is it Catholic to affirm that the functions of Incubi and Succubi belong indifferently and equally to all unclean spirits?" They reply: "It seems that it is so; for to affirm the opposite would be to maintain that there is some good order among them." Now the vampire is certainly an unclean spirit, whether it be that the body is animated by some demon, or whether it be the man himself who is permitted to enter his corpse and energize it and accordingly it is Catholic to believe that a vampire can copulate with human beings. Nor are there lacking instances of this. We have the well-known history related by Phlegon of Tralles where Machates enjoys Philinnion, who has returned (albeit he knows it not) from her tomb; and in modern Greece it is quite commonly held that the vrykolakas will revisit
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his widow and know her, or he even seduces other women whilst their husbands are away, or what is more striking still he will betake himself to some town where he is not recognized, and he will even wed, children being born of such unions. Mr. Lawson (Modern Greek Folklore) informs us that in Thessaly he was actually told of a family in the neighbourhood of Domoko, who reckoned a vrykolakas among their ancestors of some two or three generations ago, and by virtue of such lineage they inherited a certain skill which enables them to deal most efficaciously with the vrykolakas who at intervals haunt the country-side, indeed so widely was their power esteemed that they had been on occasion summoned as specialists for consultation when quite remote districts were troubled in this manner.
Alardus Gazaeus in his Commentary on Cassian's Collationes, VIII, 21, (Migne, Patrologia Latina, xlix) plainly teaches: "Devils, although incorporeal and spiritual, can take to themselves the bodies of dead men, and in such bodies can copulate with women, as commonly with striges and witches, and by such intercourse can even beget children." The Strix we have just considered, and in the passage quoted from Gazaeus it would not, I think, be far amiss simply to translate striges as "vampires." If it be asked how an incubus or succubus, or a vampire, can fornicate with human beings we may refer to the famous treatise by the learned Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, the De Daemonialitate where that great Franciscan theologian has in detail discussed and admirably resolved these difficulties.
It has been said that "there is no trace of vampires in Jewish literature," but this would not appear to be strictly accurate for, Proverbs XXX, 15, we have: "Sanguisugae duae sunt filiae, dicentes: Affer, Affer." The LXX has βδέλλη for the equivalent of the Hebrew ### which the Vulgate renders sanguisuga. Douay translates: "The horseleach hath two daughters that say: Bring, bring." The Authorised Version renders: "The horse-leach hath two daughters, crying: Give, give." The Revised Version prefers: "The horse-leach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give." There are marginal notes, upon horseleach, "Or, vampire." Upon crying; "Or, called." This sanguisuga is probably a vampire or blood-sucking demon, and thus the passage is explained by p. 231 Mühlau, De Prouerbiis Aguri et Lemuelis (42 sqq.), Leipzig, 1849; and Wellhausen, Rede arabische Heiderstums, p. 149; (2te Auflage), Berlin, 1897.
In ancient Egypt we can trace certain parallels to the Assyrian beliefs, for the ancient Egyptians held that every man had his ka, his double, which when he died lived in the tomb with the body and was there visited by the khu, the spiritual body or soul which at death departed from the body, and although it might visit the body, could only be brought back from its habitation in heaven by the ceremonial performance of certain mystic rites. Yet from one point of view the soul was sufficiently material to partake of the funeral offerings which were brought to the tomb for the refreshment of the ka. One of the chief objects of these sepulchral oblations was to maintain the double in the tomb so that it should not be compelled to wander abroad in search of food. But, as in Assyria, unless the ka were bountifully supplied with food it would issue forth from the tomb and be driven to eat any offal or drink any brackish water it might find. The ka occupied a special part of the tomb, "the house of the ka," and a priest called "the priest of the ka" was appointed specially to minister to it therein. The ka snuffed up the sweet smell of incense which was very agreeable to it when this was burned on certain days each year with the offerings of flowers, herbs, meat and drink in all of which it took great delight. The ka also viewed with pleasure the various scenes which were sculptured or richly painted on the walls of the tomb. In fact it was not merely capable, but desirous of material consolations. It would appear even that in later times the khu was identified with the ka.
In Arabic the word for horse-leach is ###, while ###, formed from the same root "to hang," means the kind of Jinn called Ghoul (###). The Ghoul appears as a female demon who feeds upon dead bodies and infests the cemeteries at night to dig open the grave for her horrid repasts. Some times she would seem to be a woman, half-human, half-fiend, for in story she is often represented as wedded to a husband who discovers her loathsome necrophagy. She can bear children, and is represented as luring travellers out of the way to lonely and remote ruins when she falls upon them suddenly and devours them, greedily sucking the warm blood
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from their veins. The Ghoul is familiar from The Thousand and One Nights as is the story of the Prince who having pursued a strange beast whilst hunting was carried to a great distance, and chanced to see by the wayside a lovely maiden who sat and wept. She told him that she was the daughter of an Indian king who had been lost in this desert spot by her caravan. The chivalrous youth takes her upon his horse, and a little later pleading a certain necessity she descends--latrines are particularly considered to be haunts of evil spirits and malignant entities, and Jean de Thévenot in his Travels into the Levant ("Newly done out of French, folio, London, 1687), says: "The Kerim Kiatib, merciful scribes wait upon him [the Turk] in all places, except when he does his needs, when they let him go alone, staying for him at the door till he comes out, and then they take him into possession again wherefore when the Turks go to the house of office they put the left foot foremost, to the end the Angel who registers their sins may leave them first; and when they come out they set the right foot before, that the Angel who writes down their good works may have them first under his protection."
The young man hears voices in the haunted latrine, the feigned Indian lady cries: "Children, to-day I have brought you a fat and comely juvenal." And several answer: "Bring him along, Mother, bring him along for our bellies cry for food." At these words he trembled exceedingly for he saw he had to do with a ghoul and when she returned he lifted up his voice in prayer: "O thou who art ever ready to hearken to the oppressed who calls upon Thee and Who dost unveil all deceit, grant me to triumph over mine enemy, and keep all evil far from me, for Thou canst all that Thou dost desire." When the ghoul heard these words she vanished from sight, and the prince is able to make his way back home. (The Fifth Night. Les Mille Nuits et Une Nuit. trs. Dr. J. C. Mardrus, Vol. I, 1899, pp. 57-59, "Histoire du Prince et de la Goule.")
In the story of Sidi Nouman a young man marries a wife named Amine, who to his surprise when they are set at dinner only eats a dish of rice grain by grain, taking up each single grain with a bodkin, and "instead of partaking of the other dishes she only carried to her mouth, in the most deliberate manner, small crumbs of bread, scarcely enough to satisfy
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a sparrow. The husband discovers that Amine steals out at nights and on one occasion he follows her. Sidi Nouman is relating these adventures to the Caliph Haroun Alraschid and he continues: "I saw her go into a burying place near our house; I then gained the end of a wall, which reached the burying place, and after having taken proper care not to be seen, I perceived Amine with a female Ghoul. Your Majesty know that Ghouls of either sex are demons, which wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings, whence they issue suddenly and surprise passengers, whom they kill and devour. If they fail in meeting with travellers, they go by night into burying places, to dig up dead bodies, and feed upon them. I was both surprised and terrified, when I saw my wife with this Ghoul. They dug up together a dead body, which had been buried that very day, and the Ghoul several times cut off pieces of the flesh, which they both ate, as they sat upon the edge of the grave. They conversed together with great composure, during their savage and inhuman repast; but I was so far off that it was impossible for me to hear what they said, which, no doubt, was as extraordinary as their food, at the recollection of which I still shudder. When they had finished their horrid meal, they threw the remains of the carcase into the grave, which they filled again with the earth they had taken from it." (Arabian Nights Entertainments, translated by the Rev. Edward Forster. New Edition. London, 1850, p. 399.)
When they are next at dinner Sidi Nouman remonstrating with his wife asks if the dishes before them are not as palatable as the flesh of a dead man. In a fury she dashes a cup of cold water into his face and bids him assume the form of a dog. After various adventures as a mongrel cur, he is restored to his original shape by a young maiden skilled in white magic, and this lady also provides him with a liquid which when thrown upon Amine with the words: "Receive the punishment of thy wickedness" transforms this dark sorceress into a mare. This animal is promptly led away to the stable.
This tale is not dissimilar to a history which is related by the Dominican, Mathias do Giraldo, who was an exorcist of the Inquisition, in his Histoire curieuse et pittoresque des sorciers, devins, magiciens, astrologues, voyants, revenants
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âmes en peine, vampires, spectres, esprits malins, sorts jetes exorcismes, etc., depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'à nos jours. (Ed. Fornari Paris, 1846.)
It may be taken as an example of many Oriental fictions which are significant since they show the popular belief in vampires. About the beginning of the fifteenth century there lived in a pleasant suburb of Bagdad an elderly merchant who by his diligence throughout the years amassed a very considerable fortune, and who had no heir to his wealth save a son whom he tenderly loved. Wishing to see the young man happily married, he decided that he would arrange a match with the daughter of another merchant, a friend of old standing, who like himself had prospered exceedingly in commerce. Unfortunately the lady was far from comely, and upon being shown her portrait the youth, Abdul-Hassan by name, asked for a certain delay that he might consider the proposed union.
One evening when, according to his wont, he was rambling alone in the light of the moon through the country near his father's house, he heard a voice of enchanting sweetness which rendered with great skill and tenderness certain love lyrics to the accompaniment of a lute. The youth, leaping a garden wall, found that the singer was a maiden of extraordinary beauty, who was seated in the balcony of a small but elegant house and who, unconscious of her audience, continued to fascinate him by her enchanting voice almost as much as by her dazzling charms. On the following morning, after his devotions, Abdul-Hassan proceeded to make inquiries concerning the lady. But so retired a life did she lead that it was not for some while he was able to ascertain that she was unmarried and the only daughter of a philosopher, whose learning was said to be of the most profound, although he could bestow scant dowry upon his child, a paragon instructed in every art and science. From this moment the marriage which had been suggested became impossible to the young man, and realizing that concealment would be useless he boldly approached his father, confessed his love and besought that Ito might be allowed to choose his own wife. As until that time he had in every way obeyed his doting parent and the father found it impossible to deny a first request in so important a particular. Accordingly he determined to put
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no obstacle in the way of his son's happiness, and paying a visit to the house of the philosopher he formally demanded for his son the hand of this sage's daughter. After a brief courtship the marriage was celebrated with much splendour, and several weeks passed in an extreme of happiness. Abdul-Hassan presently noted that his wife, Nadilla, would never partake of an evening meal, for which singularity she excused herself on account of the somewhat frugal and severe regimen she had always followed under her father's roof. One night, however, after but a few weeks had passed, Abdul-Hassan, awakening from a deep sleep found that he was alone in the bed. At first he took no heed, but he grew anxious as the hours wore away, and his bride did not return until shortly before dawn. Resolved to fathom the mystery he still feigned to be fast in slumber, but on the following night when he had pretended to close his eyes he carefully watched the actions of his wife. After a little while, no sooner did she deem herself unobserved than throwing over her a long dark cloak she silently slipped away. He rose, hastily dressed himself, and followed her at some little distance. To his surprise she soon left the main streets of the town and made her way to a remote cemetery which had a very ill repute as being darkly haunted. Tracking her very carefully he perceived that she entered a large vault, into which with the utmost caution he ventured to steal a glance. It was dimly lighted by three funerary lamps, and what was his horror to behold his young and beautiful wife seated with a party of hideous ghouls, about to partake of their loathsome feast. One of these monsters brought in a corpse which had been buried that day, and which was quickly torn to pieces by the company, who devoured the reeking gobbets with every evidence of satisfaction, recreating themselves meanwhile with mutual embraces and the drone of a mocking dirge. Fearing that he might be caught and even destroyed, as soon as possible the youth escaped back to his home, and when his wife returned he appeared deep in unbroken sleep until the morning. Throughout the whole of that day he gave no sign of what he had discovered, but in the evening as Nadilla was excusing herself from joining him at supper, according to her custom, he insisted that she should eat with him. None the less she steadfastly declined, and at last filled with anger and
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disgust he cried: "So then you prefer to keep your appetite for your supper with the ghouls." Nadilla turned pale, her eyes blazed, and she shook with fury, but she vouchsafed no reply and retired in silence. However, about midnight when she thought that her husband was fast asleep she exclaimed: "Now wretch receive the punishment for thy curiosity." At the same time she set her knee firmly on his chest, seized him by the throat, with her sharp nails tore open a vein and began greedily to suck his blood. Slipping from beneath her he sprung to his feet, and dealt her a blow with a sharp poniard wherewith he had been careful to arm himself, so that she sank down dying at the side of the bed. He called for help, the wound in his throat was dressed and on the following day the remains of this vampire were duly interred.
However, three nights afterwards, although the doors were locked, Nadilla appeared exactly at twelve o'clock in her husband's room and attacked him with superhuman strength and ferocity, tearing at his throat. His weapon proved useless now and the one chance of safety lay in speedy flight. On the following day they caused her tomb to be opened, and the body was discovered apparently asleep since it seemed to breathe, the eyes were open and glared horribly, the lips were blub and red, but the whole grave was swimming in newly-spilled blood. After this they repaired to the house of the old philosopher and he, when pressed revealed a most remarkable history. He said that his daughter, who, as be suspected, had devoted herself to the study of black magic, had been married some few years previously to an officer of high rank at the court of the Caliph. She forthwith, however, gave herself over to the most abominable debauchery and had been killed by her outraged husband, but coming to life again in the grave she returned to her father's house and dwelt there. Upon hearing this tale it was determined that the body must be exhumed and cremated. A great pyre of dry wood was built with frankincense, aloes, and costly spices, the corpse, writhing and foaming at the mouth, was placed thereon and reduced to ashes, which were collected and scattered in the Tigris to be borne away and dispersed amid the waves of the Persian Sea.
This is an extremely typical legend of an Oriental vampire, and we find the same details repeated again and again both
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in Eastern stories, and in those imitations which were so popular throughout Europe when once Antoine Galland had given France his adaptation of The Arabian Nights. Thus in Les Contes Orientaux of the Comte de Caylus, which are related to a King of Persia, afflicted with insomnia, in order to lull him to sleep, there is the story of a vampire who is only able to prolong this existence by devouring from time to time the heart of a comely young man. It would not be difficult to quote similar fictions but they are often derived at second, or even third hand, and accordingly are of little evidential value merely being devised for the entertainment of the reader.
Throughout the ancient Empire of China and from the earliest times the belief in vampires is very widely spread, and sinologists have collected many examples, some of which occur in myth and legend and some of which were related as facts, showing us that the Chinese Vampire lacks few, if any of the horrible traits he exhibits in Greek and Slavonic superstition.[19]
The Chinese Vampire, Ch'ing Shih, is regarded as a demon who by taking possession of a dead body preserves it from corruption owing to his power of preying upon other corpses or upon the living. The Chinese believe that a man has two souls: the Hun, or superior soul, which partakes of the quality of good spirits; and the P'o, or inferior soul which is generally malignant and may be classed among the Kuei, or evil spirits. It is thought that whilst any portion of a body, even if it be a small bone, remained whole and entire the lower soul can utilize this to become a vampire, and particularly should the sun or the moon be allowed to shine fully upon an unburied body the P'o will thence acquire strength to issue forth and obtain human blood to build up the vitality of the vampire. The belief,--which has some natural foundation,--that the sun can convey strength and vitality, is to be found, in one form or another, in very many lands.
Thus among the Chacu Indians of South America a newly married couple must sleep the first night on a mare's or bullock's skin with their heads towards the west, for the marriage was not fully ratified, nor would the wife conceive until the rays of the sun had touched their feet the following morn.[20] During the Impregnation-rite (Garbhâdhâna) which was a part of old p. 238 Hindoo marriages, the bride was required to look towards the sun or to be exposed to its rays so that she might become fruitful, and bear her husband stout boys.[21] In parts of Siberia it was the custom for a young couple to be led forth with some ceremony and rejoicing on the morning after the nuptials to greet the sun and bask in. his rays. This is still observed in Iran and Central Asia where it is believed that the clear beams of the sun will impregnate the bride.[22]
There is an old myth amongst the Indians of Guacheta that the daughter of a certain chief having climbed a hill top when she was touched by the first rays of the sun conceived and gave birth to an emerald, which in a day or two became a child who grew to be a mighty hero, Garanchacha, the Son of the Sun.[23] In Samoan legend a damsel named Mangamangai finds herself pregnant through gazing at the Sun at dawn, and bears a male baby, the Child of the Sun.[24]
The Phrygians thought of the Moon as a Man,[25] and the same idea prevails or formerly prevailed among the Greenlanders who imagined that the Moon was a brisk youth and he "now and then comes down to give their wives a visit and caress them; for which reason no woman dare sleep lying upon her back without she first spits upon her fingers and rubs her belly with it. For the same reason the young maids are afraid to stare long at the moon, imagining they may get a child by the bargain."[26] It is said that in some parts of Brittany it was once supposed by the peasants that a girl who exposed herself naked in the moonlight might find herself pregnant by it and give birth to a monster.[27] In England the same belief existed, and the old term "moon-calf," partus lunaris, signified a false conception--mola carnea, or foetus imperfectly formed, being supposed to be occasioned by the influence of the moon.[28]
In appearance the Chinese monster is very like the European vampire, for he has red staring eyes, huge sharp talons or crooked nails, but he is also often represented as having his body covered with white or greenish white hair. In his standard work on The Religious System of China, Dr. de Groot suggests that this last characteristic may be due to the fungi which grow so profusely on the cotton grave-clothes used by the Chinese. In some cases, if he be particularly potent for ill, the Vampire is able to fly with speed through the air, which
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may be compared with the faculty ascribed to vampires by Serbian legend, that of penetrating a house or vanishing away in a swiftly floating mist or vapour.
A few anecdotes, which I owe to Mr. G. Willoughby-Meade's Chinese Ghouls and Goblins,[29] will show the close similarity of vampirish activities in China to those which are recorded in the tales of other lands. In the South-West of China a man added to his other villainies the study of black magic which enabled him to perpetrate the most abominable crimes. Having been caught in the very act of murder he was executed but within three days he had returned to earth and was terrorizing the whole neighbourhood. With infinite difficulty he was yet again made a prisoner, and this time he was drowned in a mighty river, which, it was hoped, would bear his body away on its foaming stream. Yet the third day had hardly come when it was reported that he was scouring the countryside and committing fresh deeds of violence and blood. Once more was he taken and put to death, only to re-appear and infest both hamlets and villages. At last when he had been seized and his head struck from his body, this was buried on the spot where he had fallen, whilst the severed head was conveyed to a great distance. Within forty-eight hours he was again seen, apparently as powerful and savage as ever, but it was noted that his neck was marked around by a thin streak of red. At last his mother, whom he had beaten, resorted to a mandarin of great honour and worship and gave him a mysterious vase, which was hermetically sealed. She explained that she had reason to believe that this through enchantment contained the superior soul of her son, whilst the inferior soul continued to animate and would persist in re-energizing his body, influencing him to commit these atrocities. "If you but break this little vase," said she, "you can dissipate both souls, and then you may execute him once and for all." The vessel, tied fast and painted with cabalistic signs, was forthwith shattered into a thousand pieces. The offender was caught with far less difficulty than had been supposed possible, he was put to death, and in a few days the body crumbled to dust, nor did he ever again re-visit the earth.
Although this story may be held strictly not to be a Vampire legend it is certainly closely analogous, and the following
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narrative contains details which we meet in a thousand traditions of Hungary and Moldavia. A tutor named Liu, who was resident in a family that lived at some distance from his native place, was granted a holiday in order that he might perform his devotions at the tomb of his ancestors. On the morning when he was to resume his duties his wife entered his chamber very early to call him so that he might set forth in good time on his journey, but to her horror when she approached the bed she saw stretched thereon a headless body, although there was no spot or stain of blood. Half mad with fear she at once gave the alarm, yet the circumstances were so surprising that the Magistrate gave orders for her arrest upon the suspicion of having murdered her husband, and in spite of the fact that she vehemently protested her innocence she was detained in custody until the fullest inquiries had been made. However, nothing immediately transpired to throw light upon the mystery, and it was not until two or three days later that a neighbour who was gathering firewood on a hillside hard by perceived a great coffin with the lid partly raised, that seemed to have been curiously placed near an old and neglected grave. His utmost apprehensions being aroused he called a number of persons together from the village before he dared investigate the cause of this unusual circumstance. They approached the coffin and quickly removed the cover. Within reposed a corpse which had the face of a living man, unspeakably brutish and horrible. Its angry red eyes glared fiercely upon them, long white teeth champed the full red lips into a foam of blood and spittle, and within its lean bony hands, armed with long nails like the claws of a vulture it held the missing head of the unfortunate Liu. Some at once ran to the authorities, who upon hearing the report hastened to the hill with an armed guard, reaching the place well before sunset. It was found impossible to detach the head without severing the arms of the corpse, and when this was done the crimson gore gushed out in a great flood swilling the coffin. The head of Liu was found to be desiccated, sucked dry, and bloodless. Command was forthwith given that the coffin and its contents should at once be burned to ashes on a mighty pyre, whilst the tutor's widow was immediately released from custody.
Another story, which for its macabre details might have
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come from the pages of Apuleius and indeed something reminds us of the adventures of Aristomenes in the hostelry at Hypata, is that of four travellers who, late one night, when very weary and almost fainting for want of food, knocked at the door of an inn at Ts'ai Tien, Shan Tung. There was no accommodation to be had, every room was full, the place was crowded from cock-loft to cellar. However, our travellers were so wayworn that they refused to budge, and they pressed Boniface to find them at least some nook or corner, they were not nice and they did not mind what or where. At last after being persuaded with many words and well-nigh as many coins he very reluctantly led them to a lonely house at a little distance where, so he curtly muttered, his daughter-in-law had recently died. The room was only lighted by the flicker of one poor lamp which was all he could allow them and behind a heavy curtain was laid the uncoffined body of the girl. Four pallets, not altogether uncomfortable, with blankets and a rug or two had been provided, and in a very few minutes three of the travellers were fast asleep. A strange sense of evil seemed to oppress the fourth, and in spite of his fatigue fear prevented him from shutting his eyes for some little while. Yet the leaden weight that lay heavy on his lids could not be resisted long and he had already fallen into a doze when he heard what seemed to be an ominous rustling sound behind the curtain as though somebody was stirring very softly. Cold with horror, he peered out from half-closed eyes and he distinctly saw a horrible stealthy hand thrust itself from behind the curtain which was noiselessly drawn aside. There stood the livid corpse gazing into the room with a baleful glare. It approached softly and stooping over the three sleepers seemed to breathe thence upon their faces. The man who was awake horror-struck buried his head under the quilt. He felt that the corpse was bending over him, but after a few moments as he lay in an agony of terror there was the same gentle rustle as before, and anon cautiously peeping he noticed that it had returned to its bier and was stretched out stark and still.
He crept from his place and not daring to whisper shook each one of his comrades, but could not make them move. He then reached for his clothes, but the gentle rustling sounded once more and he realized that he had been observed. p. 242 In a moment he flung himself back on the bed and drew the coverlet tightly over his face. A few moments later, he felt that the awful creature was standing by his side. However, after a scrutiny it seemed to retire again, and at length half-mad with fright he put out his hand, grasped some clothes which he huddled on and rushed bare-foot from the house, the door of which he was able to bolt and bar just as the corpse leaped at him with demoniacal fury. As he ran at full speed under the light of a waning moon to put as great a distance between himself and the haunted house as possible, he chanced to glance back and shrieked aloud with fear to find that the corpse was not only hard at his heels but gaining upon him rapidly. In desperation he fled behind a large willow-tree which grew at the side of the road, and as the corpse rushed in one direction he darted rapidly in the other. Fire seemed to glint from its red eyes, and as it swooped upon him with hideous violence he fell senseless to the ground, so that missing its aim it clasped the tree in a rigid gripe. At daybreak they were found, and when the corpse was pulled away it was seen that its fingers had impaled and riddled the tree with the force of a sharp wimble. The traveller after many months recovered his health, but his companions were all found to be lying dead, poisoned by the fetid breath of the Vampire. It should be remarked that here we have a detail, repulsive enough but altogether in keeping, which we also find in Hungary, namely the carrion stink of a vampire's breath. This certainly seems to be one of the most horrible, as it is one of the most significant stories in the whole library of Chinese vampire legend.
It hardly seems necessary to give in detail the history of Lu, who whilst watching one night in his orchard saw a terrible spectre, a hideous hag clothed in red. (It may be remarked that among certain tribes, such as the Borâna Gallas and the Masai, warriors who have slain a foe in fight are painted with vermilion,[30] but it is curious to find that in China this evil apparition should have worn red since this is the lucky Yang, or solar colour, and considered to be of efficacy against the darker powers.) A thief who entered Ws garden to rob the fruit was discovered mad with terror since in one of the alleys he had encountered a man without a head. That part of the ground whence these phantoms seemed to spring was
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dug up, and they soon came across a red coffin containing the body of a woman, together with a black coffin in which was the corpse of a man who had been decapitated. Both bodies wore as perfectly preserved as though they had been buried that very day. The coffins and bodies were burned to ashes, whereupon the hauntings ceased.
This story might be paralleled from ghost tales the whole wide world over, but the following seems more particularly to belong to the Vampire legends. In the year 1751, a courier called Chang Kuei was sent express from Peking with a most urgent government dispatch. Late one night after he had passed through Liang Hsiang a fierce storm arose, and the gusts of wind completely extinguished his lantern. Fortunately he perceived at some little distance a humble khan whither he made his way as it was absolutely impossible to proceed in the darkness. The door was opened by a young girl who ushered him in and led his horse to a little stable. That night she admitted him to her bed promising to set him well on his way at dawn, but he did not wake in fact until many hours after, when he was not only benumbed with cold but to his surprise found himself lying stretched upon a tomb in a dense thicket, while his horse was tied to a neighbouring tree. His dispatch was not delivered until twelve hours after the time when it was due, and accordingly, being questioned and asked what accident had delayed him, he related the whole circumstance. The magistrate ordered that inquiries should be made locally, and they discovered that a girl, named Chang, a common strumpet, had hanged herself in the wood some years before, and that several persons had been led aside to enjoy her favours, and so been detained in the same way as the imperial courier. It was presently ordered that her tomb should be opened, and when this had been done the body was found therein perfectly preserved, plump and of a rosy complexion, as though she were but in a soft slumber. It was burned under the direction of the authorities, and from that time the spot ceased to be so terribly haunted.
These particulars are in some respects not altogether unlike a legend which is related of a certain S. Hilary,[31] who was one of the earliest missionaries in the Alpine districts of North Italy. The story goes that after they had journeyed for many days into the heart of a most desolate country
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they came one eve of S. John[32] to a remote village of some size as it appeared where the people were holding a midsummer festival, but with strange pagan rites. Here at eventide they were greeted by a grave man saluting them most courteously and saying that he was the steward of the Lady Pelagia, who wished to give them entertainment in her palace. The missionaries, grateful of this kindness, were received with gracious welcome, and the mistress of the house, a patrician who was of the most surpassing beauty, led them to a banquet which had been made ready. Here Hilary sat beside her and she talked of many things, so that the good Bishop was moved with a great tenderness at her youth and her beauty. She thanked them in all humility for the honour they had done her villa, pressed them to sojourn long as her guests, and asked them many questions which the learned man was delighted to answer, whilst his companions sat as it were spell-bound by her charms. Presently, however, the conversation took a deeper turn and the lady poised shrewd problems in science and in theology, difficulties which S. Hilary was well-nigh hard put to it to solve neatly and in simple words. Yet she spake with such modesty and with such an air of seeking to know more of divine things that the holy Hilary was glad to expound these matters, albeit he thought the argument savoured somewhat of sophistry and wordy skill. At length she said in honeyed phrase, "I pray thee, good father, rede me this question aright: What is the distance between heaven and earth?" The Saint gazed in some wonder, when suddenly a voice, menacing and loud, was heard to thunder through the hall: "Who can tell us that more certainly than Lucifer who fell from heaven?" The Lady Pelagia arose and flung up her lovely white arms with an exceeding bitter cry, but the voice continued: "Breathe on her, Hilary, breathe upon her the breath of the Name of Christ!" And the Bishop, rising, fortified himself with the sign of redemption and breathed upon the beautiful woman in the name of the Lord. Instantly the light died from her eyes and the life left her limbs, and there was no longer the Lady Pelagia but a statue of marble which glistened exceeding white and fair. And Hilary knew it to be a statue of the goddess whom men worshipped in Greece as Aphrodite, but in Rome as Venus, who is also Pelagia, born of the sea, At
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that moment the statue fell prone in a thousand pieces, the lamps were extinguished, and they saw in the east the grey of dawn. As the sun rose they beheld they were in the midst of the ruins of an ancient Roman city, and their feet stood in the courts of a marble temple, broken and decayed, o'ergrown with high grass and rankest weeds. This had been the fair hall where they feasted,[35] and all around were scattered the fragments of the statue of the Lady Pelagia. So they bent the knee in prayer and in thanksgiving that they had been delivered from the wiles of the Temptress, and anon they passed on their way lauding Christ in sweet hymns and melody of many canticles.
A Chinese story which is referred to the eighteenth century tells us of a Tartar family living at Peking, a house of the highest importance, whose son was betrothed to a lady of lineage equally aristocratic and equally ancient. Upon the wedding day, as is the Chinese custom, the bride was brought home in the ceremonial sedan-chair and this according to wont was carefully curtained and closed. It so happened that just as they were passing an old tomb there sprung up for a moment a sharp breeze which raised a cloud of thickest dust. When the cortège reached the bridegroom's house there stepped out of the sedan two brides identical in every detail both of feature and dress. It was impossible at that point to interrupt the nuptials, but later in the evening the most piercing screams were heard from the bridal chamber. When the door of the room had been quickly broken open the husband was stretched unconscious on the ground, while one of the brides lay with her eyes torn out and her face covered with blood. No trace of the second bride could be seen. But upon search being made with lanterns and torches a huge and hideous bird, mottled black and grey, armed with formidable claws and a beak like a vulture was discovered clinging to a beam of the roof. Before they could fetch weapons to attack it, the monstrous thing disappeared with exceeding swiftness through the door. When the husband recovered his senses he related that one of the brides bad suddenly struck him across the face with her heavily embroidered sleeve and that the jewels and passementerie stunned him for the moment. A second afterwards a huge bird swooped upon him and pecked out his eyes with its beak. So this horrible Vampire blinded
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the newly married pair. The circumstance of the
