Vampire folklore by region

Despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century Central Europe,[1] particularly Transylvania as verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published.

Belief in such legends became so rife that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.

The Persians were one of the first civilizations thought to have tales of such monsters; creatures attempting to drink blood from men are depicted on excavated pottery sherds.

[9] An alternate version states the legend of Lilith/Lilitu (and a type of spirit of the same name) originally arose from Sumer, where she was described as an infertile "beautiful maiden" and was believed to be a harlot and vampire who, after having chosen a lover, would never let him go.

[13] Many incantations invoke her as a malicious "Daughter of Heaven" or of Anu, and she is often depicted as a terrifying blood-sucking creature with a lion's head and the body of a donkey.

Although most vetala legends have been compiled in the Betal Panchabingshati, a prominent story in the Kathasaritsagara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.

A few lines in Yiddish are shown as dialog between the prophet Elijah and Lilith, in which she has come with a host of demons to kill the mother, take her newborn and "to drink her blood, suck her bones and eat her flesh".

[28] These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Southeastern Europe and Transylvania in the 18th century, which were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularised.

The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.

[31] In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote:[32] These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries.

A cross made of pig bone could be placed at the entrance of a church on Easter Sunday, rendering any shtriga inside unable to leave.

The deceased were often exhumed from their graves after three years of death and the remains placed in a box by relatives; wine was poured over them while a priest would read from scriptures.

[36] In Greek folklore, vampirism could occur through various means: being excommunicated, desecrating a religious day, committing a great crime, or dying alone.

To prevent vampires from rising from the dead, their hearts were pierced with iron nails while resting in their graves, or their bodies burned and the ashes scattered.

The second category are tilberadraugar (a tilberi is a type of undead in Icelandic folklore, a human rib given life by drinking the blood of a witch and then sent out to steal milk and money), parasitic ghosts who roam the earth and harass the living and try to drive them mad or even kill them, often by dragging them into their graves, and thereby turn their victims into more draugar.

The same fate applied to the seventh child in any family if all of his or her previous siblings were of the same sex, as well as someone born too early or someone whose mother had encountered a black cat crossing her path.

[44][45] The malign and succubus-like Baobhan sith from the Scottish Highlands[46] and the Lhiannan Shee of the Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland, are two fairy spirits with decidedly vampiric tendencies.

[57] Both of these cases were later mentioned in the book Magia posthuma by Karl Ferdinand Schertz (1704) that intended to denounce the widespread folk belief in vampires.

[54] In the Dalmatian region of Croatia, there is a female vampire called a Mora or Morana, who drinks the blood of men, and also the kuzlac/kozlak who are the recent-dead "who have not lived piously.

In Bulgaria from the Middle Ages through to the beginning of the 20th century, it was a common practice to pin corpses through the heart with an iron stake to prevent their return as a vampire.

Incest, especially between mother and son, is one of the ways in which a pijavica can be created, and then it usually comes back to victimize its former family, who can only protect their homes by placing mashed garlic and wine at their windows and thresholds to keep it from entering.

[66] If a noise was heard at night and suspected to be made by a vampire sneaking around someone's house, one would shout "Come tomorrow, and I will give you some salt," or "Go, pal, get some fish, and come back.

[69] A former peasant, Guire died in 1656; however, local villagers claimed he returned from the dead and began drinking blood from the people and sexually harassing his widow.

[73] Dogs, cats, plants or even agricultural tools could become vampires; pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood.

[80] The Eastern Cape region of South Africa has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.

[81] Female vampire-like monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.

[83] Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.

A cross between what current fiction/legends portray as zombies and vampires, the Hooh-Strah-Dooh was an evil spirit that inhabited recently dead bodies and caused the corpse to rise and devour the living.

The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night.

The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes.