Wanted Undead or Alive:. Джонатан Мэйберри
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Название: Wanted Undead or Alive:
Автор: Джонатан Мэйберри
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Эзотерика
isbn: 9780806534336
isbn:
Marked for damnation
Being born with a caul—an amniotic membrane covering the face—in some cases indicates the presence of evil within the newborn. Vampire species created through this means3 include the Wume of Togo, the Nachtzehrer of Germany, the Strigoi of Romania, the Upier and Ohyn of Poland; while in other cultures it’s a sign of great positive spiritual power.
On the peninsula of Istria, both the Croats and Slavs believe that a caul is a sure sign that the child will either become a good-natured and heroic kresnik, or a foul and vampiric kudlak.4
Some cultures believed that a child born with teeth was destined to become a bloodsucker. This includes the Neuntoter of Germany, Viesczy in Russia, the Upier and Ohyn of Poland.
Red hair was seldom viewed as anything but a sign of trouble in days gone by. This idea got kick-started when some genius decided that Judas was red haired. As a result, a cult of red-haired vampires called the Children of Judas was purported to terrorize parts of Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
You’d think that being born with a physical deformity was enough of a burden, but in many cultures such people were reviled as having been marked by evil. This is one of the most common prejudices associated with the belief in vampires, and it occurs all throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The Caul of David Copperfield
“I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether seagoing people were short of money about that time, or were short of faith and preferred cork jackets, I don’t know; all I know is, that there was but one solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney connected with the bill-broking business, who offered two pounds in cash, and the balance in sherry, but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higher bargain. Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a dead loss…and ten years afterwards, the caul was put up in a raffle down in our part of the country, to fifty members at half-a-crown a head, the winner to spend five shillings. I was present myself, and I remember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused, at a part of myself being disposed of in that way. The caul was won, I recollect, by an old lady with a hand-basket…. It is a fact which will be long remembered as remarkable down there, that she was never drowned, but died triumphantly in bed, at ninety-two.”
—from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Good days, bad days
The day on which a child is born impacts everything from astrology to damnation. In a number of countries being born on a holy day was seen as an insult to God. (As if the child or the mother had a choice!)
Being born on a Saturday—the biblically dictated day of rest—was also viewed as an insult. The Ustrel of Bulgaria, for example, is a person damned to an unlife of vampirism for daring to be born on the Sabbath. Conversely, in Greece, a person born on that day is destined to fight evil. (See the entry on the Sabbatarian in chapter 4.)
Oh, baby
This one is really disturbing. In India, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and a few other places, a stillborn child is believed to linger on Earth as a vampire—either a bloodsucker or some kind of essential vampire. The Pontianak of Java and Malaysia is one such tragic monster; others include the Bajang and Langsuir of Malaysia, the Ekimmu of Assyrian and Mesopotamian belief, the Ohyn of Poland, and the Pret of India.
In many of the same countries the mother of the dead child is likewise doomed, particularly if she dies during childbirth.
Repent, sinners!
One of the most reliable ways for a person to become a vampire is to die unrepentant. Many cultures hold this to be the case, and it’s particularly true if the sinner dies while engaged in a violent act, or dies as a result of violence.
Suicides are also damned souls, according to Western beliefs. A suicide is doomed to return as a ghost or a vampire, or some unpleasant combination of the two.
Murder victims are also in trouble. Dying by any kind of violence apparently tethers the soul to this world as a pernicious spirit of one kind or another.
Christa Campbell, Vampire and Hunter
“As an actress I love exploring both dark and light characters because it’s part of our human nature. Though…at the end of the day I prefer to see good win over evil.”
—Christa Campbell has appeared in 2001 Maniacs, The Wicker Man, and Blood: A Butcher’s Tale.
A person who dies craving revenge sometimes gets the chance by rising from the grave.
If you have to do it over, you have time to do it right the first time
Improper burial rites are tied to the creation of many species of vampires, such as the Callicantzaro of Greece, the Mrart of Australia, the Chindi of the Navajo, the Doppelsauger of Germany, the Langsuir of Malaysia, the Nelapsi of Czechoslovakia, the Tenatz of Bosnia, the Kathakano of Crete, and the Pret, Churel, and Gayal of India.
Burial customs take two forms: those that honor the dead and those that protect the living against the dead. Most folks are familiar with the former, but the latter procedures are even more crucial, especially in areas where vampirism has been known to flourish. Preventative steps include:
• binding the limbs of a corpse so that it cannot move.
• burying a corpse upside-down so that it faced hell rather than heaven. (Very likely this came about when it was generally viewed that the world was flat and that heaven and hell were physical places. Otherwise we’d have vampires tunneling through the earth to the other side. Jules Verne could have had fun with that.)
• chopping the body into pieces and wrapping each piece in a separate shroud. (Granted this seems excessive, but there are no reports of pieces rising from the grave, so take that for what it’s worth.)
• cremating the body. Fire not only purifies, it simplifies.
• driving long nails through the limbs of the dead to further immobilize it.
• filling the coffin with splinters of hawthorn or other rosewood.
• laying a sprig of holly on the throat of the corpse.
• placing sickles or scythes near the grave to frighten off the evil spirits that sought to possess the corpse. Though…how an edged farm tool was supposed to harm a noncorporeal spirit is anyone’s guess.
• placing a block of wood between the teeth to prevent the newly awakened vampire from chewing his way out…or chewing on his own flesh in order to gain enough strength to burst free from the coffin.
• placing a coin in the mouth to pay the toll across the River Styx. A СКАЧАТЬ