The Making of a Vampire
Vampires are born and vampires are made; there are so many diverse ways of becoming a vampire that it seems a wonder that most bodies actually manage to stay just dead. Vampirism seems to be very contagious, but there are more ways to become a vampire than just to be bitten by one. Some are predestined to be vampires, some bring themselves about that horrible fate by their habits and their way of living. According to Dudley Wright in his 'Vampire and Vampirism', the Wallachians attributed all sudden deaths to vampires. And despite being a cursed soulless undead corpse roaming around for blood does not sound like very alluring, there are those who have actively striven for it. View source"; ?>
Born A Vampire - Always A Vampire
Vampires don't breed the way humans do. There have even been some child vampires, but there seems not to be any record of a baby born to vampire parents. Newborns destined to be vampires become vampires only after their death. There are many signs that marks a child as a potential vampire. In Roumania, an illegitimate child born to illegitimate parents could not escape the curse of vampirism, neither those unfortunate children who had blue eyes and red hair. The union of a werewolf and a witch produces vampires. A red caul was also a sure sign of vampirism, as was being bor with teeth. Any deformities and abnormalities might point to vampirism. Vampirism could obviously be inherited as in the tale of The French Viscount"; ?> whose vampirism was attributed to his Persian origins. In Greece, children born on Christmas Day became vampires, because their mother's had dared to concieve on the same day as Virgin Mary. View source"; ?>
Treacherous Barmaids
Eternal life as an undead seems to be the punishment for all kind of human weaknesses and transgressions. Don't lead an immoral life unless you want to wake up as a vampire in your coffin. Robbers, highwaymen, arsonists, prostitutes, all kind of dishonourable people, even treacherous barmaids get punished for their way of living. It is enough to be quarrelsome and unpopular, as the anonymous Mykonos vampire"; ?>, who proved himself as troublesome after death as during his lifetime. Even criminals who were not caught didn't escape a punishment. Northern Albanians held the belief that a wandering spirit could enter the body of an individual guilty of undetected crime, converting him to a vampire. In Russia drunkenness was a sure way to become a vampire, which makes one contemplate on the size of the vampire population in Russia. Heretics were also thought to become vampires after their death.
Excommunication resulted in vampirism. It was the ultimate punishment because it reached beyond the grave. The Greek Orthodox church maintained the belief that bodies of excommunicees would not decompose until the church granted absolution over the remains. It was believed that the soul was bound to the body, and as long as the body stayed intact, the soul was connected to it. The Serbians believed that vampirisation occurred 40 days after burial. The Greek knew that a soul was safe inly after all the flesh was dissolved from the bones. View source"; ?>
Shallow Burials
The way you end your life is also significanta as they way you live. Accidental deaths mean that people die before their allotted time and therefore become vampires. There is also a more scientific reason: sudden death slows the normal rate of decaying. Murder victims could turn to vampires for that reason. Also suicides were in the danger of transforming into vampires, because they committed the same crime of taking a life. Suicides were not buried in the sacred earth of cemeteries, and often they were buried face down and pinned with a stake to prevent them from coming back as revenants like the Shoemaker of Silesia"; ?>, whose widow caused a lot of trouble by concealing his suicide. Burials at crossroads was a way of preventing the dead from returning, since it was believed that revenants could not choose which way leads home. In Russia, suspected vampires were thrown in water, because it was believed that Mother Earth would not accept such unholy beings and would spew them up. Thus, also death by water could lead to vampirism. View source"; ?>
Conducting the expected rites and proper burial is important. First, it comforts the grieving, and secondly, it prevents the dead from returning. The dead may not rest in peace if the right rites are not performed, or they are neglected or disrespected. The worst misfortune to a dead body would be an animal jumping over it as happened to Johannes Cuntius"; ?> of Silesia. Cats and dogs were both to be kept an eye on. A dead body should not be left unattended – maybe that is why sudden deaths or murder victims become vampires, no one is there to look after them. The burial customs may also ahve contributed to the Legend of the Vampire: graves were sometimes very shallow, cemeteries were unguarded and unfenced. The soil on a grave was often disturbed for very natural reasons like the decomposition process where the body becomes bloated, and animals digging in graveyards. Sometimes the bodies seemed just to surface by themselves from the grave due to shifts in the earth. In some places, the death of a foreigner would cause great concern, it was believed that a body could not rest in peace in foreign soil far from home. You can never trust a foreigner... View source"; ?>
Sign Here, Please
Being a vampire was not regarded as curse by everyone. There were those who strived for it for different reason, mainly power and immortality. Werewolfs became vampires after their deaths, and the same fate waa destined for witches and sorcerers, and according to Summers, adepts in black magic, but they are a special breed who seem to choose their fate for themselves and become vampires of their own will. Summers himself was well versed in black arts and a firm believer in vampires. Who knows, where he roams today... Magnus, the vampire who made Lestat"; ?>, chained a vampire and stole his blood to become immortal. The most famous example is our good old Count Dracula"; ?>, who became a vampire because he wanted to be one. Bram Stoker hinted, that he was educated in Black Arts in the famous school Of Scholomanche, where the Devil claimed as his own a certain part of the pupils. Jeanne Kalogridis in her book 'Lord of the Vampires' suggests that vampirism is a reward or curse obtained by doing a pact with the Devil. View source"; ?>
How Vampires Make More Vampires
Vampirism seemed to appear in epidemics in the 18th century. One suspect death lead to a whole epidemic of vampirism with people dying one after another. When the grave of the first one to die was opened it was usually found out that he was the source of all other strange sudden deaths; and many opened graves showed the typical signs of vampirism. Vampirism could also spread from eating flesh from a cow killed by a vampire. The blood of the vampire was also a means of transferring vampirism. The vampire killers had to be careful not to be splattered by the vampire's blood, and at least the Herzegovinians used to drive the stake through a bull hide. View source";?>
In 1863 there was a local epidemy of vampirism in a village in Bulgaria. The place became so infested by vampires that the villagers assembled in a few houses abd took watch in turns to avoid the assaults. In 1854 in America an epidemic of consumption in a family was believed to be caused by family members who died of it earlier. The family held the belief that the dead fed upon the living for as long as the body was decomposed. The bodies were dug up and burned. View source"; ?>
And last, but not least, there is the famous vampire bite. Vampirism seems to be transmitted by blood. Dracula"; ?> made vampires by letting them drink his blood. We are not told if that was the case of Lucy Westenra, but we witnessed a scene where he forced Mina Harker to swallow his blood. Vampire bites were not always fatal immediately; Arnold Paole"; ?> suffered one but it did not transform him into a vampire at once, he became one after his sudden death years later when he fell off a wagon. Sometimes even one bite is enough to make a new vampire, but usually the vampire visits the same victim night after night until he/she wastes away. Anne Rice claims that vampires drain the victim almost to death and then lets him drink the blood from the vampire when they want to create a fledgling vampire of a human being. View source"; ?>