I think you might be referring a book that was collated in the Usborne Guide to the Supernatural world - if that's what it was called after all! It was a creepy thing that merged other books on ghosts, vampires, werewolves etc. I should still have mine somewhere, but that scared the crap out of me as a kid!LaurenChurchill said:I recall reading a few legends about vampires that were much older than Vlad the Impaler. I had a couple of books on vampires when I was little (I wanted to be one - no kidding). I can't remember any of them now, but I do recall that there were a few different kinds, depending on the culture, and that the one I found most disturbing didn't bite you and drink your blood, it stabbed you with it's pointy, hollow tongue and sucked the blood out of you. The image of that scared the crap out of me.
Yeah probably. I had a lot of the usborne books. This one was smaller than the other ones I had though. I remember it was specifically about vampires. And I recall in one of the books there was an image of a snake with a cat's head. That scared the carp out of me too.PlagueRider said:I think you might be referring a book that was collated in the Usborne Guide to the Supernatural world - if that's what it was called after all! It was a creepy thing that merged other books on ghosts, vampires, werewolves etc. I should still have mine somewhere, but that scared the crap out of me as a kid!
SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEno ... RU20090312"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave
Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:24pm EDT
By Daniel Flynn ROME (Reuters) - Italian researchers believe they have found the remains of a female "vampire" in Venice, buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century.
Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.
"This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire," Borrini told Reuters by telephone. "This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born."
The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 -- in which the artist Titian died -- on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around three km (2 miles) northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.
The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.
Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.
The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse's teeth, and vampires became known as "shroud-eaters."
According to medieval medical and religious texts, the "undead" were believed to spread pestilence in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.
"To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there," said Borrini. "It's possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognized." ...
ooh I could go dangerously off topic and tell you all about my memories of uni!! <<far away look in my eyes>> :lol:There was another lass on my course who'd just got her BA in painting with a dissertation about vampirism in surrealist art, and was moving on to representations of the werewolf for her MA. We had some verrrrry cool conversations. Werewolves are my favourite creatures, and I'm still trying to figure them out. (Mine was about the inability of photography to represent any minority as anything but a stereotype...
The tutor who was into Buffy's other pet subjects were the Alien films and Elvis. The other 2 tutors on the course were experts on (among other things) Frida Kahlo, religious and sexual symbolism in the gardens of English stately homes of the 16th-18th centuries, the map of the London Underground and miniaturised reconstructions of sea battles of the 2nd world war. I bloody loved that course!)
Police reward in 'vampire'-murder
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8325879.stm
Police say Mark Adrian Perry may have changed his name and appearance
Australian police have offered a reward of Aus$1m ( US $926,000, £567,000) to find a man suspected of ordering the killing of a self-proclaimed vampire.
Mark Adrian Perry allegedly ordered the 2003,murder of Shane Chartres-Abbot, a prostitute,who said he drank blood.
At the time of his death, Mr Chartres-Abbot was on trial for allegedly raping,Mr Perry's former girlfriend and biting off part of her tongue.
Police in Victoria state say they believe Mr Perry is in Australia.
A 'centuries-old vampire'
Mr Chartres-Abbot was shotin broad daylight in Melbourne, in front of his father and pregnant girlfriend.
A man has already been convicted for carrying out the shooting,but Mr Perry - who is believed to have ordered the killing - is still at large.
"There will be some people who know where Perry is and $1m is a lot of money," said Victoria state police Det Insp Steve Waddell.
Mr Chartres-Abbot had allegedly told Mr Perry's former girlfriend that he was a centuries-old vampire who drank blood to survive.
Mr Perry was last seen in Queensland in 2007. Police said they believed he had changed his name and appearance.
He must not have been hungry - or more likely, had a dislike of SUVs.Colorado woman blames vampire for car crash
FRUITA, Colo. - If a Western Slope woman is to be believed, vampires may be lurking in Colorado's Grand Valley.
The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.
She was not injured.
State Troopers say the woman's husband arrived at the scene and took her home. The vampire, which was not seen by anyone else, apparently let her get away.
Troopers do not suspect drugs or alcohol to be factors in the crash.
That's a very good question actually...OldTimeRadio said:Apologies in advance if I'm just being dense, but exactly how did the Colorado lady realize that the person she spied on the road was a vampire?
It's what they're doing at 3pm that'd make your eyes water. Filthy devils - who knew, eh?OldTimeRadio said:To demonstrate just how obsolete my world-view is, to me a "tea room" remains a quiet and secluded little restaurant over on the south side of Shady Street where spinster Miss Jessop and her life-long friend the Widow Abernathy share luncheon every Thursday at two p. m.![]()
Exactly my first thought - she didn't stop to talk, so what was the giveaway? A face that looked pale in her headlights? Hardly conclusive evidence, is it?OTR said:Apologies in advance if I'm just being dense, but exactly how did the Colorado lady realize that the person she spied on the road was a vampire?
Sounds like an interesting insurance claim! As excuses for driving into a canal go, though, it's a good 'un. As you say, there's nothing in the very brief account to say what evidence led the woman to believe that she's seen a supernatural being, and not just some poor soul wandering home from the local bar.The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.