The practice of burning the body of a suspected or proved vampire does not appear to have found general favour in Greece, doubtless by reason of the fact that the Greeks possessed a religious horror of burning a body on which holy oil had been poured by the priest when performing the last rites upon the dying man.
Leake, whose Travels in Northern Greece were published in 1835, says in the fourth volume of that work: “It would be difficult now to meet with an example of the most barbarous of all these superstitions, the Vrukólaka. The name being Illyric, seems to acquit the Greeks of the invention, which was probably introduced into the country by the barbarians of Sclavonic race. Tournefort’s description is admitted to be correct. The Devil is supposed to enter the Vrukólaka, who, rising from his grave, torments first his nearest relatives and then others, causing their death or loss of health. The remedy is to dig up the body and if, after it has been exorcised by the priest, the demon still persists in annoying the living, to cut it into small pieces, or, if that be not sufficient, to burn it.”
In Crete the belief in vampires—or katalkanás, as the Cretans call them—and their existence and ill-deeds forms a general article of popular belief throughout the island, but is particularly strong in the mountains, and if anyone ventures to doubt it, undeniable facts are brought forward to silence the incredulous.
One of the stories told by the Cretans is as follows: “Once upon a time the village of Kalikráti, in the district of Sfakia, was haunted by a Katakhanás, and the people did not know what man he was or from what part he came. This Katakhanás destroyed both children and full-grown men, and desolated both that village and many others. They had buried him at the church of St George at Kalikráti, and in those times he was regarded as a man of note, and they had built an arch over his grave. Now a certain shepherd, believed to be his mutual Sýnteknos,[1] was tending his sheep and goats near the church, and, on being caught in a shower, he went to the sepulchre that he might be protected from the rain. Afterwards he determined to sleep and pass the night there, and, after taking off his arms, he placed them by the stone which served him as his pillow, crosswise. And people might say that it was on this account that the Katakhanás was not permitted to leave his tomb. During the night, then, as he wished to go out again, that he might destroy men, he said to the shepherd: ‘Gossip, get up hence, for I have some business that requires me to come out.’ The shepherd answered him not, either the first time, or the second, or the third; further, he knew that the man had become a Katakhanás, and that it was he who had done all those evil deeds. On this account he said to him on the fourth time of his speaking: ‘I shall not get up hence, gossip, for I fear you are no better than you should be and may do me some mischief; but if I must get up, swear to me by your winding-sheet that you will not hurt me, and on that I will get up.’ And he did not pronounce the proposed words, but said other things; nevertheless, when the shepherd did not suffer him to get up, he swore to him as he wished. On this he got up, and, taking his arms, removed them away from the monument, and the Katakhanás came forth, and, after greeting the shepherd, said to him: ‘Gossip, you must not go away, but sit down here; for I have some business which I must go after; but I shall return within the hour, for I have something to say to you.’ So the shepherd waited for him.
“And the Katakhanás went a distance of about ten miles, where there was a couple recently married, and he destroyed them. On his return the gossip saw that he was carrying some liver, his hands being moistened with blood; and, as he carried it, he blew into it, just as the butcher does, to increase the size of the liver. And he showed his gossip that it was cooked, as if it had been done on the fire. After this he said: ‘Let us sit down, gossip, that we may eat.’ And the shepherd pretended to eat it, but only swallowed dry bread, and kept dropping the liver into his bosom. Therefore, when the hour for their separation arrived, the Katakhanás said to the shepherd: ‘Gossip, this which you have seen, you must not mention, for if you do, my twenty nails will be fixed in your children and yourself.’ Yet the shepherd lost no time, but gave information to the priests and others, and they went to the tomb, and there they found the Katakhanás, just as he had been buried. And all people became satisfied that it was he who had done all the evil deeds. On this account they collected a great deal of wood, and they cast him on it, and burnt him. His gossip was not present, but when the Katakhanás was already half-consumed, he, too, came forward in order that he might enjoy the ceremony. And the Katakhanás cast, as it were, a single spot of blood, and it fell on his foot, which wasted away, as if it had been roasted on a fire. On this account they sifted even the ashes, and found the little finger nail of the Katakhanás unburnt, and burnt it too.”
The 22nd formula of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, published by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr Edwin Norris in 1866, reads:—
The phantom, child of heaven,
which the gods remember,
the Innin (kind of hobgoblin) prince