VampiresVampires have been seen and documented throughout history. The historyof vampires goes further back in time than most people realize. The chaldeans,who lived near the Euphrates river in the southwestern part of Asia more thanfive hundred years before the time of Christ , feared vampire or creaturessimilar to vampires enough so that they created charms to protect themselvesfrom being attacked by such creatures. The Assyrians and the Babylonians feareda creature similar to a vampire known as an Ekimmu. These creatures known asEkimmus were believed by the Assyrians to roam the planet searching for foodalthough it was not always a persons blood but rather a persons’ vitality orthat persons’ energy force.
It was believed that if such a creature would entersomeone’s house that person along with his or her family would slowly weaken,get sick and probably die. In the countries of Syria and Palestine referenceswere made to such blood sucking monsters on ancient carved tablets. In Irelandthe people believed in these creatures, which they affectionately came to call”red blood suckers” . Due to their belief in these mythical creatures they beganthe practice of placing stones on these vampires graves to kep them fromescaping. This then became standard practice and is still used to this day in theform of a tombstone.
Tombstones were used to control ghosts and other spiritsinstead of their original use in controlling vampires. Due to the fact that vampires seemed to be so commonplace around theglobe, there was a large variety of vampires that differed in shape, behaviorand method of becoming a vampire. All of these factors varied from region toregion. In the country of Bulgaria a vampire had only one nostril.
ThisBulgarian vampire would rise out of it’s grave nine days after death in the formof a shower of sparks and remained in this shape for a period of forty days. After the completion of these forty days the shower of sparks would regain it’shuman form. Once human-like the vampire goes from playing childish tricks, whichit did in it’s “spark” form , to more serious matters , such as the attacking ofhumans and drinking of their blood. Vampires are well known for their cravingfor blood but in many countries vampires were not limited to just thatsubstance as part of their diet, but would also consume foods that humans atesuch as eggs and rice. That, however, does not mean that their yearn for bloodwas any weaker than before. Most vampires would attack their victims and suckthe blood from puncture wounds made in the neck (The Russian vampire would suckthe blood directly from the victims heart).
Sometimes the vampire would gorgeitself until it had drained the victim completely while other times it wouldtake just enough to satisfy that night’s thirst and come back the followingnight and take a bit more. The method of drinking from the same victim nightafter night would cause the victim to get weaker and weaker . Due to the factthat the victim was indeed attacked by a vampire, that would mean that upon thevictims death they too would become “undead. ” (. Vampires p22)Certain cultures around the globe also had systems to recognize vampires. In some cultures vampires were distinguished due to the color of their hair.
Inmost Christian countries vampires could be recognized because they had red hairlike Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Christ in the bible, was said to havehad red hair. Eye color was another tell-tale sign used to identify vampires. InGreece ,where most people have dark colored eyes, vampires were said to haveblue eyes, Rumania they were said to have had gray eyes, and in Ireland they hadblack eyes. Vampires have been around for centuries , in some cases they have beenrecognized and feared by cultures that were around thousands of years before thetime of Christ, such as the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
Throughout the agesmany medical explanations that could explain the vampire phenomena have beenoverlooked. The first reason was the lack of education that many people, becauseschooling was not an important part of these societies. Their lack of medicalknowledge about diseases, some of which are quite rare and hard to explain evento this day was a large factor in the spread of vampire lore. Along with thefact that very uneducated people have always had a tendency of being overlysuperstitious also contributed to the vampire legend. In 1985 Dr.
David Dolphin,Ph. D. , a professor of chemistry at the University of British Columbia presentedhis theory that blood-drinking vampires were not vampires at all but rathervictims of a disease known as Porphyria. (Dresser, Norine. American Vampiresp171) ” Porphyria is an incurable genetic disease which affects at least 50,000patients in the U. S.
that causes sudden symptoms of severe pain , respiratoryproblems, Skin lesions and sometimes death. “(Dresser, Norine. American vampiresp171) “Porphyria may well have been responsible for many a vampire tale -especially since the disease is hereditary” (Garden, Nancy. Vampires p98) Aperson that is affected by Porphyria can seem very scary to the average personsince the disease causes the persons gums to tighten.
That causes their teeth tobe seen much more prominently as well as causing their teeth and nails to gain afluorescent glow. These traits could then go on to explain the fact that manyvampire stories described the vampires as giving off a greenish glow. Victims ofthis disease are likely to be deformed in other ways as well but usually in thefacial area. Because of the skin lesions suffered by victims of Porphyria theyare usually very sensitive to light which would cause them to not venture out oftheir homes until night. This aspect of the lifestyles of people sufferingPorphyria would fit in very well with vampire lore. Garlic was used as arepellent of vampires butmore likely victims of the disease known as Porphyriawould have a strange chemical reaction with garlic which would cause the personto have a severe porphyria attack.
This would then make that person veryreluctant to come close to the garlic since it contains large amounts of DialkylDisulfide which destroys Heme in the persons blood ( Heme is the pigmentedcomponent of Hemoglobin and related substances found in largest amounts in thebone marrow, red blood cells, and the liver ). The further destruction of Hemein a Porphyria victim would set off a severe allergic reaction. Since Porphyriais also a genetic disease several siblings in a family usually carry thedefective gene. While the siblings may share the same defective gene sometimesonly one of the siblings will display any of the symptoms . It is known that inmany vampire tales , vampires return to attack their sibling or other familymembers. This along with the fact that Porphyria could be triggered in a personwho is genetically predisposed to have the disease by a sudden loss of largeamounts of blood.
When these factor are taken into consideration, one could saythat when a vampire came back to attack a sibling and when the sibling alsobegan to show some vampire characteristics , it could be assumed that thePorphyria gene in the second sibling could have been triggered by the loss ofblood which was suffered during the attack by the first sibling or the”vampire. ” This would make it seem as though the vampire attack had caused thesecond sibling to turn into a vampire as well. Plague was another factor which could explain the growth of the vampirelegend. In the Stephen King book Salem’s Lot which is the story of a town thatis infested by Vampires and due to the infestation of vampires causes the townto become a ghost town. In the book it says” But a little over a year agosomething began to happen in Jerusalem’s Lot that was not unusual, people beganto drop out of sight.
” (King, Stephen. Salem’s Lot p15) This phenomenon which isfound in Stephen King’s book was not at all uncommon in ancient times especiallyin remote places. Villagers in these remote places would have believed thatblood was a Vital substance that gave life. Since they did not know much aboutdisease their lack of knowledge of diseases and their lack of medicalpractitioners in these remote areas would give the perfect opportunity for theirsuperstitious beliefs to come into play. If suddenly much of the town began tofall ill at the same time and they all displayed similar symptoms such as weightloss , weakness and paleness they would think that these people must have beendrained of the vital substance, blood. Searching for an explanation without anymedical knowledge the one thing that would make sense to them would be that avampire was on the loose while the fact that the town could be in the middle ofan epidemic such as the black plague during the Dark Ages.
In Stephen King’sbook a town would just seem to disappear for no reason and the only explanationwould be vampires. In the Dark ages the situation would be very similar to thatin the Stephen King book except that in Stephen King’s book the vampires arereal. Tuberculosis or consumption as it was often called is a disease thatalthough was not highly contagious was a very common disease up until the mid-1800’s . The beginning stages of this disease do not contain very recognizablesymptoms. By the time the symptoms showed up (such as weight loss and fatiguewhich is where the name consumption came from) the disease was already in it’slater stages.
Tuberculosis would have been very difficult to diagnose by peoplewith no medical knowledge especially when the most serious symptoms of thedisease such as coughing and spitting up blood were not present. Tuberculosiswas often openly confused with vampirism as was the case when in the mid- 1800’sthe corpses of many victims of Tuberculosis were treated as vampires and buriedface down or by being dug up and burned when members of their families suddenlycame down with Tuberculosis. (Garden,Nancy. Vampires p69)The mental aspect of vampires has always seemed to be that of someonewho was not in their right mind. In Anne Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat at onepoint one of the vampires in the book just looks at the other one and simplysays “You’re the mad one.
” ( Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat p73) not realizingthat madness plays a large part towards explaining the vampire legend as well asother mental conditions. One of these conditions which could explain the vampirelegend is the condition known as a cataleptic condition which many times isbrought
