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BASIC MYTHS:
All vampire legends
we’ve researched so far have the following in common:
Blood or body energy
is taken
Victims are generally
children or unwary travellers
Certain traits set
the vampire apart
.
You’re already familiar
with the typical European myths, which formed the basis for today’s cinematic
and literary vampires. If not, see our LINKS page to get to sites specializing
in this sort of vampire.
The Chiang-shih or Kiang-shi is made when the inferior, irrational part of a person’s soul (called the p’ai or p’o) possesses the body of another person. The chaing-shih appears as a normal person until its actions give it away as a vampire. In certain cases, the vampire develops serrated teeth, long talons, and a green phosphorent glow. The chaing-shi is very violent, ripping off limbs or heads in order to obtain blood. They also have an uncontrollable sexual drive, and often attack and rape women. These vampires cannot turn into mist or animals, but upon attaining a certain age, they do master the art of flying (they also grow a covering of long white hair). They are nocturnal, cannot cross running water, and are repelled by garlic, salt, and loud noises.
The Yara-ma-yha-who is a little red man (about 4 ft tall) with a large head and no teeth. This vampire simply swallows people whole, after draining the blood to make its victim weak and helpless. It lives in wild fig trees and leaps down upon unsuspecting travellers, holding them with suction-like fingers and toes. After swallowing the victim, the Yara-ma-yha-sho apparantly digests only nonessential portions, for it then regurgitates the body, which is able to go about a normal life (though the person is reputed to grow shorter).
The obayifo of West Africa is a witch who leaves its body as a glowing ball of light, and sucks the blood of people (especially children) and the juice from vegetables and fruit. The asasabonsam of Ghana is humanoid with hook-shaped feet, which it uses to snag its victims from its treetop hiding-place. It has iron teeth. Tribes along the Niger river believe that the vampire-witch sucks blood through mystical means, and that the victim often feels the pain without realizing its true cause. In Nigeria, ulcers are thought to be a symptom of such an attack. The obayifo is an Ashanti witch who sends its spirit out to suck blood from children. African vampire legends led to three virtually identical legends in the New World: the loogaroo of Haiti, the asema of Surinam, and the sukuyan of Trinidad.
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The Rakshasa are demons which come in a variety of forms (from humanoid to animal-like), live in cemetaries, and are reputed to drink blood (especially attacking pregnant women). They have long fangs and are nocturnal. The bhuta lives in abandoned ruins and in the desert It is always thirsty, and likes milk along with the traditional vampiric food (thus it often attacks infants). The Indians also have various myths of vampiric women, often associated with the goddess Kali, who became drunk on the blood of warriors on the battlefield. These various females typically lure a man into her embrace, then suck out his blood.
Kappas are small beings (they look like ugly children, with greenish-yellow skin and webbed toes and fingers) who frequently drag people into the water and suck out their blood through their anuses. Kappas also like to steal cucumbers, rape women, and attack people for their livers. They may be appeased by writing the names of your family members onto a cucumber and throwing it into a river where a kappa lives.
The lobishmen of Brazil are small, hunch-backed beings with black teeth and plush-covered feet. They attack women and cause them to become nymphomaniacs, but are fairly easy to catch when they are drunk on blood. Lobishmen are born vampires, but also show traits of the werewolf, changing form to one of several animals. Its nature appears at puberty.
The mullo returns from the dead, drinks the blood of its relatives, and generally wreaks havoc among its tribemates. They have strong sexual appetites, and mullo wives wear out their husbands with insatiable demands. Mullo men often sire half-breed children called dhampirs. These dhampirs are able to spot a mullo instantly, and to destroy it. These powers can be passed to a male offspring of the dhampir.
More information can be found in
The Vampire Book by J. Gordon Melton,
The Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons by Manfred Lurker, Vampires, Burial, and Death by Paul Barber,
The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters, and
The Vampire: His Kith and Kin by Montague Summers.
Melton’s book is especially interesting, with an appendix listing many vampire resources
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