Vampires of the World
/Okay, sorry it took us this long to do a vampire episode. As an apology, here’s ALL of the vampire stories you could possibly want from across the world - except for that classic European vampire. Because there’s way cooler ones across the globe!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, blood, pregnancy, stillbirth, child birth, miscarriage, colonization, sexual assault, and xenophobia.
Housekeeping
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Send in those urban legend emails!
- Submit Your Urban Legends Audio: Call us! 617-420-2344
Find Us Online
- Website & Transcripts: spiritspodcast.com
- Patreon: patreon.com/spiritspodcast
- Merch: spiritspodcast.com/merch
- Instagram: instagram.com/spiritspodcast
- Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/spiritspodcast.com
- Twitter: twitter.com/spiritspodcast
- Tumblr: spiritspodcast.tumblr.com
Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. And Amanda, I feel like I owe people an apology because I feel like...
AMANDA: Babe, you could never do anything wrong.
JULIA: Thank you, but I feel like I've missed something here—
AMANDA: Oh?
JULIA: Do you know what I mean? And it's that while we have technically talked about vampires in previous episodes, we've never done like a vampire episode.
AMANDA: Are you saying this is our bloody dive into mythology, legends, and folklore?
JULIA: Yes it is. Yes it is indeed. Incredible.
AMANDA: Yay!
JULIA: And I want to give a quick shout out to Kate from our Discord who was very kind to be like, hey, have you guys done a vampire episode?
AMANDA: Silly question seems like you would have, and have you?
JULIA: And the answer is we've done, like we talked about vampires when Isabelle was on promoting Vampires of El Norte. We talked about vampires when we did a Myth Movie Night a really long time ago about Only Two Lovers Left Alive.
AMANDA: Ugh! My fave!
JULIA: But we never did a real vampire episode.
AMANDA: The time is now, Julia. It is a Chex Watch less than six months till Halloween. I'm ready.
JULIA: I think when we hit that six months to Halloween, that's when I start going a little bit feral because usually that's when like Halloween Horror Nights tickets start going on sale and they start announcing houses and then I'm just like, ehhh! -start vibrating with excitement.
AMANDA: know the people who like when the calendar ticks over to November 1, they're just like suddenly waking up in a Santa hat? That's you on May 1st with Halloween. You wake up and your head is a jack-o-lantern.
JULIA: You're right. There is something wrong with me. You're absolutely correct.
AMANDA: Whatever method of wrong it is, babe, it's my kind of wrong.
JULIA: Thank you, thank you, I appreciate it. The thing is, when people talk about vampires, when they think about vampires, they tend to think about that sort of early 18th century European vampire, right? This is the Transylvanian vampire that was popularized, for better or for worse, by Bram Stoker's Dracula, right? But as you can probably imagine, Amanda, that is definitely not when vampire folklore started.
AMANDA: Of course. We've had bloodsuckers and fear of what that might look like for a very long time. But if pressed, I really couldn't tell you a lot of specific examples, so I'm stoked to learn about them.
JULIA: Amanda, that's not even where vampire folklore started. What is most interesting to me is that it isn't even that the vampire lore predates the Transylvanian vampire, but the fact that so many cultures have a variety of different vampires, right? At the end of the day, it's like this blood drinking entity or spirit is a surprisingly universal trope that can be found worldwide.
AMANDA: Sick.
JULIA: I would like you and the listeners to buckle up because we are going to do a good old fashioned Spirits roundup episode all about vampires.
AMANDA: I am pumping my fist. I am pumping my arm to get the veins all juicy and plump and we're ready to go.
JULIA: A caveat. Amanda.
AMANDA: What?
JULIA: For this episode, we are not going to be talking about any vampiric creatures from Europe.
AMANDA: Okay. Europe, I'm going to say, Julia has enough. They're fine.
JULIA: Because the rest of the world has really interesting vampires. And so much of what we think of as quote unquote vampire is defined by that 18th century European vampire, and we deserve to learn about the other ones.
AMANDA: I am salivating, you could say.
JULIA: First off, I'm going to ask the question which is why are we so scared of blood drinking or the consumption of human flesh in general?
AMANDA: Well, Julia, it's kind of just one of those taboos that like, you know, across cultures, across worlds, you don't, you know, eat and drink of this species. And there must be like a deep down biological and probably therefore spiritual sort of justifications for that.
JULIA: I would point out that historically human beings haven't necessarily feared it, but rather we've always sort of understood the intrinsic tie to our vitality, our life force, if you will, and the blood in our bodies. While in most cultures the drinking of blood nowadays is considered a taboo, it wasn't always considered a taboo.
Blood drinking was done for medicinal and magical value by plenty of cultures, ancient Greece, Rome, ancient China, et cetera. But we even have records, Amanda, this blew me out of the water when I found it, from late medieval periods and the Renaissance that mentioned the drinking of blood.
AMANDA: As a contemporaneous thing that people just do.
JULIA: There is a Franciscan friar who, for example, recorded a recipe for a medicinal jam that was made of human blood.
AMANDA: Huh? Jam is not the vehicle that I would have pictured, but rock on.
JULIA: Rock on, Franciscan monk, rock on. So this tie of blood to health and life totally makes sense. Like even early humans probably could figure out the connection between blood loss and human vitality just from observation. Lose too much blood and you die. Makes sense.
AMANDA: And absolutely makes sense that putting some of that back in, whether it's ingested or obviously much, much later injected, would make a ton of sense.
JULIA: Absolutely. So, for a lot of cultures, the next logical conclusion is you pointed out, ingest blood, you get stronger. Or in the case of some vampire lore, you live forever, right? All of this to say is that socially, we as normal mortal humans had been drinking blood for vitality purposes way later than you probably would imagine. And I'm also like not going to get into the more modern examples of like the whole Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox blood play thing that was in the news.
AMANDA: Yeah, all kinds of Silicon Valley billionaires also like ingest and get injected with like plasma and blood from young people. Peter Thiel is a great example. If that kind of thing is something you want to learn about so that you can laugh at them, listen to Multitude's newest member show, Dreaming Against the Machine.
JULIA: Hmm, absolutely. But in general, nowadays, drinking blood considered a taboo.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And the idea of a creature that therefore steals a person's vitality through stealing their blood, or in general unexplained illness that is somehow related to one's blood, that is where we get most of our vampire lore out of.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: Probably the first vampire that we should talk about is one that is often said to be the origin of the European vampire, but has her origins in both Jewish and Mesopotamian traditions.
AMANDA: Ugh! My girl.
JULIA: And that is Lilith.
AMANDA: Lilith.
JULIA: So, before we get into the Lilith stuff, because I think the Lilith stuff is really interesting and also a lot of the form in which most people think of her nowadays is a much later creation.
So starting with the Mesopotamian tradition, since this is kind of what would transform into the Jewish interpretation of Lilith that didn't come later, according to the Mesopotamians, the Lilu (lilû) were a group of demonic spirits that were turned demonic in death, having been humans that had died before they were able to bear children or in some cases, before they were able to be married.
AMANDA: So, kind of like a unresolved potential kind of situation.
JULIA: Yes, sort of like that. As these demonic spirits, they were said to be related to the night and to wind and were said to bring disease with them, typically. Now, we don't get a ton more about them in the Mesopotamian sources that have survived to this day. Some scholars believe that they are mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but if they are, it's sort of like as a fleeting reference and not specifically regarding a demon but rather like a supernatural bird.
AMANDA: I mean, we have bats and birds and stuff. I can see how that comes together.
JULIA: Ooh, Amanda, keep that in mind for later. You're already there. You're already there. Now, as for the Jewish version of Lilith, her story starts with a single reference in the Book of Isaiah in the Book of the Prophets. So, in that, she is mentioned sort of in a list of different animals. So, her name is typically translated in that context as either night monster, night hag or screech owl.
AMANDA: You know, Julia, some days I wake up and my gender is night hag. So, I think that's just like really nice to see representation of myself.
JULIA: I'm always a night monster actually when you think about it. So, in this context, she most likely was not this demonic creature that she either originally was intended to be by the Mesopotamians or would become later on. There would be a few other Jewish writing and sources that mention Lilith. So like, for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls mention her among a list of several different destructive spirits. I have a quote here for you.
And I, the Instructor, proclaim his glorious splendor so as to frighten and to terrify all of the spirits of the destroying angels; Spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and desert dwellers.
AMANDA: Ooh, intriguing.
JULIA: So, there are then further references to her specifically in the Babylonian Talmud, which were compiled documents from late antiquity. So think around the 3rd to 6th centuries. Now there are specifically five references to Lilith in this, and I will read you the two that I think are particularly interesting in reference to our sort of vampire lore here, right?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: The first is that, quote,
Rav Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion has the likeness to a Lilith, its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child except that it has wings.
AMANDA: Ha!
JULIA: So, this is sort of like we get sort of like demonic Lilith winged creature, et cetera, et cetera.
AMANDA: And some continuity among like a pregnancy not brought to term, for example.
JULIA: And that will become important later because I guess like context warning slash spoiler warning for the rest of this episode. A lot of vampire lore does surround pregnancy, stillbirth and like attacking of babies in particular. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that just in general, we don't know a ton about birth and we have like always been trying to explain unexplained deaths among infants, miscarriages, stillbirths, et cetera. So that is a topic that is going to come up repeatedly in this episode. But the fact that those things are tied together is definitely an interesting aspect of vampire lore.
AMANDA: Totally. And I have to point out, nothing wrong with abortion in Jewish tradition. We are, in fact, implored and instructed to do that if necessary for the health and safety of the pregnant person.
JULIA: Absolutely. The next quote that I want to use is really interesting because it gives us a sort of tie to these later succubus-like spirits that are associated with Lilith, which is the quote,
One may not sleep in a house alone and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith.
AMANDA: in like a sexy way? No, I know, know.
JULIA: Well, Amanda, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. So, we are starting to see this sort of shift into a demonic or evil spirit here, right? But I think when a lot of people think of Lilith, they think of a particular story. Do you know the one that I'm thinking of, Amanda?
AMANDA: I don't think so.
JULIA: So, this is the idea, and this is a much later edition. This is from medieval Jewish sources, specifically one that is called the Alphabet of Ben-Sira. This is the version of the story where we get Lilith being the first wife of Adam before God made Eve.
AMANDA: Fascinating, I have not heard of this.
JULIA: So, in that story, God made Lilith out of the same clay that he made Adam from. But the two begin to argue as Lilith does not think that she should have to submit to Adam as his wife. Basically, making the point of like, we're equal, we were made the same way. I shouldn't have to submit.
AMANDA: [13:21]
JULIA: Adam does not agree and seeing that they're not going to come to an agreement, Lilith quote, pronounced the ineffable name and flew away into the air.
AMANDA: Oh, she said God's true name.
JULIA: Mm-hmm. And then flew away. So, God ends up sending three angels to pursue her to bring her back. She's like, I'm not going to return to Adam. And they're like, OK, we're going to drown you in the sea. But she's like, no, I've discovered that I actually have the power to cause sickness in infants and I'm going to hold dominion over children. Specifically in this Jewish text, it says that Lilith holds dominion over children for eight days for boys and 20 days for girls. And as punishment, God said her children would be demons and that every day a hundred quote of Lilith's children would perish, aka the demons that she was giving birth to. This essentially sets her up to be this sort of mother of demons, according to the Alphabet of Ben-Sira. And as a result, medieval sources would transform her image into that of a she-devil, one that specifically preyed on infants and their blood.
AMANDA: Man, that is such a fascinating reflection of men's fears, right? Like, so much, I'm sure this is going to be a through line throughout the episode, but so much of, like, of Torah and of, you know, early Jewish writing, the Talmud is like, people writing about Torah and writing about Judaism and collecting it together, kind of like a collected fan fiction type anthology. We refer to it with love. And this is such an example of, man, what if my wife who, you know specifically, historically, and maybe still for some, is mostly a means to an end of carrying on one's own lineage, turns against me. And it really makes sense to me that Lilith being someone who is willful in charge of her own destiny would kind of be the worst-case scenario in a sort of value system like that.
JULIA: Absolutely. And so, this is why a lot of vampire fiction likes using Lilith as the like mother of vampires or the first vampire.
AMANDA: And in many circles, Julia, as I'm sure you know or will maybe get to, Lilith, being reclaimed, fascinating icon, a person we can talk about and speculate about and look to as examples of women with will in the past.
JULIA: Absolutely. However, Amanda, did you know that there is a more vampiric creature that is mentioned in Proverbs and was doing even more blood sucking than Lilith was?
AMANDA: Is this our weird like bloodletting worm situation
JULIA: Okay, so this is the alukah (עֲלוּקָה) or alukah its name means horse leech.
AMANDA: Ah.
JULIA: And it that sounds like a totally like normal thing. Like that could be a bug, right?
AMANDA: I mean, you say normal, but don't want any of those near me.
JULIA: Sure. No, but this is described in Proverbs as being a human being that could shape shift into a wolf among other abilities.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: For example, it could fly by letting its long hair loose and flowing in the breeze, essentially.
AMANDA: I mean, great.
JULIA: And it needed to feed on blood, otherwise it would grow weak and die. Now, if it did die, the creature would then turn into a demon unless it was buried with dirt stuffed in its mouth.
AMANDA:Fascinating
JULIA: Now, there are some scholars who have conflated the Aluka with Lilith. In later writing, the Aluka is considered a child or a descendant of Lilith, whereas other writers suggested that it's simply another title for her. But-
AMANDA: Huh
JULIA: -either way, we do start to see the formation of what might have inspired that sort of classic European vampire. For example, like in particular, the burying of a body with dirt in its mouth is one of the ways that it's said that a body will not come back as a vampire. But as I mentioned at the top of the episode, I don't really want to talk about European vampires because there are so many interesting vampire creatures from elsewhere in the world that don't get enough love or attention. So, we're going to head to India next.
AMANDA: Let’s go.
JULIA: So, in India, there are two types of creatures that sort of fall into the classic vampire territory, though not explicitly the sort of like undead blood sucking type, right? So, the first we have is the Vetal, which is a spirit that inhabits dead bodies. And then we have the Chedipe, which is a sort of blood sucking vampire slash witch.
AMANDA: OK.
JULIA: The Vetal I've actually mentioned in a previous episode before, even though it's been a while since that episode came out. But remember, we did an episode all about riddles and in that episode, I talked about this riddle solving king, right? In a story from India. Now, in that story, the spirit that ends up helping this king is a Vetal. So they are specifically creatures that will inhabit corpses, they will reanimate those and use them as vessels. And they have, because they sort of exist between this area of the living and the dead, a otherworldly knowledge. Usually, they have some sort of oracular or fortune telling ability in nature and they're like kind of complicated figures. Sometimes they are portrayed as being evil. They will drive people quote unquote to madness. They will kill humans. They will cause miscarriages. Again, the sort of like recurring theme here.
But other times they're seen as being protective spirits. They're been known to guard villages and provide assistance with their divinatory knowledge. What's interesting is a Vatal can be driven out of the body they are occupying through the religious chanting of Vetal mantras or by performing funerary rites in order to settle the spirit so that it's no longer occupying that space between life and the afterlife.
AMANDA: For sure.
JULIA: Now, the Chedipe, on the other hand, is probably closer to what we traditionally think of as vampires.They are usually women who die an unnatural death, so not of sickness or of old age, and are then transformed into a chedipe in death. Now, their name literally translates to prostitute because it was said that sex workers were particularly at risk of becoming chedipe. However, when I describe her to you, you're going to think she's an absolute badass.
AMANDA: Julia, generally, I am predisposed to believe and support sex workers at all times, so this does not surprise me.
JULIA: Absolutely, but historically we haven't felt that way.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: I think globally. So, I'm always worried about describing sex work in its time because they have not always been well respected, but this is a very cool figure. So, the most common description of the chedipe is that she is a naked woman who rides a tiger through villages on moonlit nights.
AMANDA: Say less.
JULIA: In the night, she will seek out houses and she will use magic to unlock all of the doors and windows, which allows her to enter unrestricted. Once there, she will cast a spell that puts the entire household to sleep, and then she will seek out the men of the house, usually going for their feet.
AMANDA: Oh?
JULIA: Because, surprise, surprise, she doesn't target necks like you would think, but rather will suck blood out through the toes.
AMANDA: I mean, I guess when I'm sleeping, the part of me most likely to be sticking out is like my little footsie for some air.
JULIA: That is true, that is true. She also only targets men and while her victims do not remember what happened to them because of the spell that was put upon them, they will often awaken having been sapped of their virility and strength and will even sometimes feel as if they have been intoxicated.
AMANDA: I'm hearing that this is a victimless crime and I support women's rights and wrongs and I sign up. I raise my hand.
JULIA: I will say there are some problematic things that happen here.
AMANDA: Damn.
JULIA: So if they do not seek out some sort of like medical or spiritual treatment, the victim, the Chedipe will continue to return until they are so weakened that they wither away and die.
AMANDA: Okay, that we can talk about.
JULIA: They also share some similarities to succubi. So they are said to sometimes sexually assault their victims while they're asleep.
AMANDA: Not okay.
JULIA: Or else plant thoughts of infidelity into men's heads.
AMANDA: Hmmm. Creepy.
JULIA: This will then lead to conflict within the household and the chedipe will feed on that negative energy that is the result.
AMANDA: Hmm, dastardly.
JULIA: If she does not want to draw out the feeding, she can also sometimes pluck out the tongue of her victim, which will kill him instantly.
AMANDA: Okay, perhaps we skip, but you gotta admire efficiency?
JULIA: Sure.
AMANDA: Trying really hard to be a girl's girl here, Julia.
JULIA: It's okay, sometimes figures are complicated.
AMANDA: You know, a little harmless toe sucking in the night never hurt anybody, but stealing their tongue to kill them immediately sure did.
JULIA: A bit of a problem, a bit of a problem. We're going to move on next to the Ewe people of Togo and Ghana who tell a story about a vampiric creature known as the Adze. So, while we've discussed some of these vampiric creatures being able to take other forms, know, like classically vampires are said to transform into bats and wolves and whatnot, the Adze is interesting because the non-human form that it takes is a firefly.
AMANDA: What? The single bug that I see and I think that's never gonna be a problem for me.
JULIA: So, while it is in firefly form, it can travel into homes through keyholes or cracks in the walls or even under doors. And once it gets into the home, it can suck the blood of people while they sleep, making them ill and eventually leading to their death.
AMANDA: Wait, that’s dastardly.
JULIA: I know, right? So interestingly, where usually there is folklore on like how to avoid the effects of a vampire creature, there's really nothing you can do to avoid adze attacks.
AMANDA: Damn
JULIA: Now, a lot of scholars believe that in this form, this is a way of sort of explaining the impact of malaria spreading mosquitoes.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: However, they can also take human form. And while in that form, they are known to possess humans. And what's really interesting is that when possessed by the adze, the host is not necessarily the one being negatively impacted, but rather the people around them are. AMANDA: Interesting.
JULIA: So like, for example, if an older person happens to be possessed, the indicator would be that a bunch of younger people around them would start getting sick or dying, but the older person is fine.
AMANDA: Wow. That's gotta be very scary. And I'm sure there's a scientific term for like the kind of, know, not like a parasite, but an organism where it doesn't hurt the host, but it does have other ripple effects.
JULIA: It's like a symbiote, right?
AMANDA: Something like that.
JULIA: So, like an example of this is like the quote unquote victim possessed by the adze, the impacts of people around them more than it does the person themselves. However, often these possessed victims are viewed as like potentially witches. I couldn't really find anything on how one gets un-possessed by an adze, but I kind of imagine it's not a good time.
AMANDA: No, it doesn't seem like there is an easy off-ramp for this.
JULIA: No, absolutely not. Moving away from Africa but across to the Caribbean to talk a little bit about African diaspora stories, I wanted to talk about the soucouyant, which is a shape-shifting, blood-sucking hag.
AMANDA: Ooh, I sense some Haitian influence. I sense some French. I sense some French for succubus. Let's go.
JULIA: So, by day, they will appear as a sort of like reclusive person, often living in isolation or at the edge of villages. Now, a soucouyant can appear as a woman or a man, and you'll see some tides to the adze that we just spoke about. So, at night, they strip off their skin, they place it in a mortar, and they expose their true form, which is that of a fireball that flies across the night in search of victims. So not like a big fireball, like think of Will the Wisp style.
AMANDA: I'm still stuck on keeping your skin in a mortar for safekeeping. Ingenious!
JULIA: That is an important aspect of their mythology and folklore. So much like the adze, they can enter into homes through keyholes and cracks in doors and walls in order to feed. And as they feed, they suck blood from the soft regions of the body while the victim sleeps. So, think like arms, necks, legs, et cetera, like any sort of, I didn't want to say dangly bit, but where your joints meet.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So, if you wake up in the morning with, for example, black and blue bruises. It might be because you were visited by a soucouyant at the night. If it feasts too greedily, the victim may die. And if that happens, they themselves are at risk of becoming a soucouyant or they are sucked so dry that the soucouyant can then assume their skin taking on a new disguise.
AMANDA: Like a dried pepper, Julia, just laying there waiting for you.
JULIA: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So, unlike the adze though, there are ways that you can either out the creature as being supernatural or destroying it.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: One of the ways is sort of reminiscent of some of the other malicious creatures that we've talked about in previous episodes. For example, heaping rice at a threshold or at the village crossroads. Because as you can imagine, the creature sees the pile and then is compelled to gather it up grain by grain.
AMANDA: Mm-hmm, we gotta count.
JULIA: Exactly. So, if they're caught, are outed to the villages as being a soucouyant.
AMANDA: I hope that there is nobody with a hyper fixation about counting items in that village because that would be very inconvenient.
JULIA: Hey, listen, a lot of times we assume people are monstrous and it's just, you know, neurodivergence.
AMANDA: Touch of the tism.
JULIA: You can also destroy the creature. So, when they shed their skin at night to go and find victims, as you mentioned, putting it in the mortar, you can place coarse salt beneath the skin that they left in the mortar. And when they attempt to put the stripped skin back on, they're then unable to do so, which causes them to perish when the sun rises.
AMANDA: Incredible. And I'm gonna go ahead and say, if you are wandering through the outskirts of your village at night and you see a mortar big enough to have crumbled up human skin in it, go ahead and sprinkle some salt on that baby.
JULIA: I think that's fair.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: It's probably OK.
AMANDA: Yeah
JULIA: It's probably fine.
AMANDA: Full on intervention way of making sure that there are not bad spirits.
JULIA: What's interesting is the African diaspora most likely also melded some of their vampiric stories with existing native traditions, especially in South America. So, one that I find particularly interesting are these stories that come from the Mapuche people who are native to what is now modern-day Chile and Argentina.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: They specifically have two flying vampiric creatures that I would love to talk about. The first is the Piuchén whose name translates to, quote unquote, to dry people, as in to dry them of all of their blood.
AMANDA: Yikes.
JULIA: It often appears as a flying snake or a large lizard with bat wings. Now, according to traditional lore, it will fly in the night, sucking on the blood of both animals that it finds and also humans that are sleeping in the forest.
Now, this is particularly interesting because there are also many stories of it feeding on livestock and that rural farmers have many tales in which they are able to kill or run the Piuchén off when they find it attacking their livestock. Usually, it's sheep that they're trying to protect, right? And it is said that when they would sleep during the day, it's by clinging to the bark of specific types of trees because it super like blends in well with the bark of that tree.
AMANDA: Sounds very similar to some little puppies of the sky.
JULIA: Oh, Amanda, you're so right. You're so right. We'll get there one second, I promise. So, while it is sleeping and blending in with this bark of the tree, it will sometimes give away its location because you can find blood dribbled on the ground beneath where it is resting.
AMANDA: No, a little spill!
JULIA: It is also said to make a strange whistling sound, often in groups of three. Both its hiss and its gaze are said to paralyze its prey, which allows them to leisurely feast on the blood of their victim. And there is also a version of the tale where the Piuchén doesn't even have to make contact with its victim in order to feast on its blood. Rather, they can just sort of hover above the victim and then suck the blood from a distance.
AMANDA: Whoa, next level.
JULIA: So, Amanda, what's fascinating and you've already sort of pointed out here is that based on the description and contemporary sources at the time, it is most likely that the Piuchén is the common vampire bat.
AMANDA: Very cool, but makes all the sense in the world why the inexplicable impact of something like this, of losing your livelihood, of your flock being decimated, is something that you pay a of attention to and that folklore would grow out of.
JULIA: Absolutely. I love that you were like, that's just a vampire bat. I was like, hold on, we'll get there! We’ll get there. Similarly to the Piuchén is another creature from the Mapuche people, which is the Chonchon.
AMANDA: Great name.
JULIA: This will sound like another creature that we'll talk about later in the episode, at least a little bit. Keep an ear out for that, right? But the Chonchon isn't a snake or a lizard like the Piuchén, rather is said to be a flying woman's head
AMANDA: Ohhhh!
JULIA: So, picture a woman's head cut off at the neck, and then a pair of wings sort of sprouting out where the ears are.
AMANDA: I was wondering what the mechanics of the flight were and I gotta say, it's pretty cute. It's like you have a headband on with little wings coming out of the sides.
JULIA: It's kind of adorable. It's kind of really cute. It's kind of giving Final Fantasy character design.
AMANDA: It's kinda creepy, kinda cool, Julia. It's right up our wheelhouse.
JULIA: What's interesting is the Chongchong aren't bit or born, but rather they are said to be a result of a deal that someone would make with a sorcerer or a brujo, which would then turn her into a type of witch herself. At night, her head will detach from her body and will sprout wings, like I said.
AMANDA: Oh! So, she walks by day as a typical body and then by night the head goes boop and then she gets to have a little adventure.
JULIA: Uh-huh, absolutely. So usually, her little adventure is to go meet up with the other members of her coven who are meeting in a sort of like underground meeting place that is called a reni where they are said to practice their craft. But when they remove their heads from their bodies, they gain not only the ability to fly, but also the desire to drink the blood of humans.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Usually, people who are sick or sleeping.
AMANDA: Well, I mean, Julia, just like as I get older, one of the very enticing parts of stories like this is the idea that my body could sleep and my mind could keep doing stuff. Like, I don't have time during my week to hang out with my friends, my coven, nearly as much as I want to. And so, if my body could sleep and me and my coven could frolic, Ideal.
JULIA: That would be nice. That would be nice. So, interestingly, Amanda, the chonchon appears invisible to most people. So, one has to be sort of like touched by magic or otherwise initiated into a magical practice in order to see them.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: But you can be clued into the fact that if it is close by, it will make a distinctive cry, is, tue, tue, tue.
AMANDA: Hahaha
JULIA: To the Mapuche people, this cry is an omen of death, and if you hear it on moonless nights, it means that your loved one might be targeted by the chonchon.
AMANDA: Scary. I'll give you that. Unless you yourself are a chonchon and then you're like, yeah, girl, I'm right here!
JULIA: My people!
AMANDA and JULIA: Yey!
JULIA: I love that. That's so cute. Alright, Amanda, I want to tell you so many more vampire stories, but before we do, we got to grab our refill.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
The Refill
JULIA: Hey, it's Julia and welcome to the refill. Shout out first things first to our newest patrons Helen and Anne. They join the supporting producer level patrons like Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Scott, Anne, Matthew, Lily, and Wil and of course our legend level patrons, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Audra, Sarah, Bea Me Up Scotty, Morgan, Rikoelike, Chibi Yokai, and Michael.
And hey, if you want recipe cards for every episode, bonus Urban Legends episodes each and every month and so much more, go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast.
I also want to tell you about another show here at Multitude. Wow, If True is your one stop internet culture shop explaining what's happening online and how that shapes the real world. They are the internet experts and real-life besties to unravel it. tech culture journalist, Amanda Silberling. and science fiction author slash attorney, Isabel J Kim, Esq. More importantly, they are the only podcast that will mention Neopets and horizontal mergers in the same episode. They are asking and answering your burning questions about the internet. Like why are the edgelord tech bros literally everywhere, even in the White House? And are the AI overlords coming to take our jobs? And if so, why are these AIs so bad at playing Pokemon?
Check out Wow If True wherever online you find your podcasts. New episodes every other Wednesday. I just want to tell you about another show that we love here at Spirits and that is Birds of a Feather Talk Together. It is a super fun podcast about birds that blend science, animal behavior, and real-world birding experiences. Hosted by both professional ornithologists and also new birders.
You get to learn alongside the new birders while getting some high-level insight about the wonderful world of birds. Listen, I was making a joke that you turn 30 and suddenly you get really into birding and that is 100 % true and how I feel listening to Birds of a Feather Talk Together. They talk about the amazing birds in your backyard, some wild stories from birding trips in other countries and exotic places, as well as scientific studies that they've participated in. They have a lot of fun and laugh the whole time, but also offer a glimpse into the world of owls and eagles and crows and hummingbirds alike. So, if you love birds or you just want to start learning about them, this podcast has just what you're looking for both beginners and science lovers alike. And they have over a hundred episodes available and can be found wherever you get your podcasts. So, add them to your weekly listen now. Search Birds of a Feather Talk Together in your podcast app and give them a listen.
They told us it was a weather blip, just a glitch. It was a drone. Now it’s just AI, I guess. The explanation keeps changing. But the stories don’t go away. “The video we are currently showing you is ___ are flying through the air are real.” My name is Payne Lindsey and this is High Strange, an investigative podcast about real encounters. “Images of that rotating thing captured by US Navy aircraft.” Credible people, “We have clear things that we do not understand how they work.” And talk to scientist, military witnesses, pilots and people who saw something they can’t unsee. “There was no other explanation for what we saw that day.” “I remember those faces and they weren’t human.” This isn’t a show about belief, it’s about curiosity, skepticism, an investigation into the unknown. High Strange is available now wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen for free on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
JULIA: And now let's get back to the show.
End of Refill
JULIA: Amanda, we are back and it's a vampire episode, so of course we have to do a bloody good cocktail.
AMANDA: Julia, if my tongue weren't stained a little bit red by the end of this refill, I'm gonna be honest, I'd be a touch disappointed.
JULIA: Exactly. So, I have chosen a sort of twist on a Cosmopolitan. Definitely more on the bloodier side than the classic pink of the Cosmopolitan cocktail. So, this is going to be vodka. Get the best vodka you can get. When you're doing something like a Cosmopolitan, you want like nice high-quality vodka. You don't want to like be masking it necessarily. So do that. It's going to be also pomegranate juice and pomegranate liqueur.
AMANDA: So good, man. Pomegranate juice should be in everybody's pantry.
JULIA: That's just true. And then you want some Cointreau if you've got it. Triple Sec, if not, is also fine. And then of course, lime juice, which ties it all together.
AMANDA: So good, man, like lime and pomegranate might be up there with my very favorite flavor combinations.
JULIA: They're a great combo. love the traditional cranberry and lime, but there's something about the pomegranate that's just much like deeper. I really
AMANDA: That being said, I got a sort of grocery store brand pomegranate cherry seltzer recently and I was like, this could be cute. Fucking bad, Julia. No, it tastes like Dr. Pepper, which is not my particular flavor combo.
JULIA: Yeah, you're always taking a gamble with the grocery store brands because you're like, is this going to be incredibly sweet-
AMANDA: Yeah
JULIA: -or no flavor whatsoever?
AMANDA: Yeah
JULIA: There's no in between.
AMANDA: This is like chemical tasting and strong and somehow not sweet. So, I put it in my fridge, which my brother and mother sometimes raid when they stop by with a note that says, Amanda hates these, please drink them. So, we'll see if the rest of that 12 pack disappears anytime soon.
JULIA: I love that. I think you have to be like, I bought this for you instead of being like, I hated this.
AMANDA: I'm a little bit too honest and my family's a little too masochistic. I think this will work for me.
JULIA: Okay, good, good, good, good. Alright, Amanda. So, it should be no surprise to long time conspirators that the Philippines are ripe with various different vampire figures.
AMANDA: All the way from the beginning, Julia, when the aswang opened up our creepy cool podcast.
JULIA: Our second ever episode, truly.
AMANDA: You did such a good one with that.
JULIA: Well, what's interesting, Amanda, is the Aswang is actually an umbrella term and is a name that is used for various different types of vampires and ghouls that are said to haunt the night in the Philippines.
AMANDA: let's get a little deeper in this bloody umbrella.
JULIA: Absolutely. So, the general vampiric form of the aswang is normally a beautiful woman who loves to just suck a little blood. Where the differences begin to emerge is that, as we've talked about previously, they do not bite their victims and then drain them of their blood that way via like teeth and mouth, but rather they have a proboscis-like tongue that they use to suck blood instead.
AMANDA: They sure do, Julia.
JULIA: Now, there is, however, a more traditional and by that I mean Western European style of vampire in the Philippines, which is known as the amalanhig or the amaranhit. So, this one is super interesting because it is tied to a mortal being attacked and either infected or cursed by an aswang.
AMANDA: Okay
JULIA: So, if they are unable to then pass that curse or infection to another person before they die, they are reborn as this vampiric figure and rise from the grave. Sort of like a it follows situation.
AMANDA: Among my very favorite movies and I highly recommend any conspirators who have not seen that movie and even who maybe are not super into horror to give it a try, I promise you're really gonna like it. But Julia, I love this kind of departure and consideration of anatomy because you can't just sprout an aswang-style proboscis, you know, because someone bites you on the neck. Like it's just, it's not possible.
JULIA: Can't do it.
AMANDA: And so, the fact that they are reincarnated in the same body and kind of adapt to their blood sucking needs is something I find strangely adorable.
JULIA: Yeah, and you know what? Once they are risen from the grave, they do the traditional vampire thing. They bite humans on the neck and kill them.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Now, there is also a version of this story that has been passed down through oral tradition that says they will chase down humans and instead tickle them to death.
AMANDA: Oh my gosh.
JULIA: Which is extremely funny
AMANDA: That's so funny.
JULIA: However, it is said that you can escape them if you run zigzag.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Kind of like with alligators.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: That's the advice they give you if you're trying to escape an alligator is run zigzag because they can't turn.
AMANDA: Now I know.
JULIA: Because their dead bodies are too stiff to be able to make those turns much like an alligator.
AMANDA: That makes all the sense in the world and reminds me of another show I love. What was that? The British twink who became a vampire and I mean a zombie and lived.
JULIA: The British twink who became a zombie and lived. Are you thinking of the Nicholas Holt zombie movie that's also a romance?
AMANDA: No, it's a series, zombies become zombies for like 90 days and then become human again and they have to kind of like live with their somewhat decaying body. It's called like Beyond or With Death? There's also someone's gay. It's like a gay zombie teen.
JULIA: In the flesh?
AMANDA: In the flesh!
JULIA: I never watched this but this sounds fascinating.
AMANDA: Oh, Julia. OK, homework for you.
JULIA: Okay, sounds good. You still owe me a Knight's Tale, so we'll figure it out one of these days to watch both.
AMANDA: Yeah, we'll trade.
JULIA: Also, in regards to these, much like a traditional western vampire, they appear nearly identical to humans except for, you guessed it, enlarged upper canine teeth.
AMANDA: Hey!
JULIA: So classic. Similarly, there is the mandurugo, which is a young and beautiful woman by day, but will develop wings and sharp long tongues at night.
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: Then when her lover sleeps, she will use her tongue to cut his throat in order to feast, or else will kiss him and prick the inside of his mouth in order to get her share of blood without him even noticing, like it's such a small cut he doesn't even notice.
AMANDA: Uhm. Bummer. And I'm sure you could find somebody to satisfy those needs consensually if you wanted to, girlfriend.
JULIA: Well, listen, what's interesting is in these stories, she will sometimes marry a man in order to be the cover for her blood drinking activities—
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: Like a vampiric beard almost, only to grow wings and fly to other nearby villages at night in order to feed while her lover is asleep.
AMANDA: Listen, Julia, we've talked about this. It's so important to have your own hobbies and life in a partnership of any kind.
JULIA: I agree.
AMANDA: Sometimes, if, you know, if I'm literally the cover of night, you want to sprout some wings and fly to neighboring villages, like, that might be what you need for you.
JULIA: 100%. That's absolutely right. So those are the sort of like average human looking vampires. But as we know from experience, the Philippines have some incredibly fucked up looking vampires as well, like the manananggal.
AMANDA: Yes!
JULIA: So, the manananggal has fangs and bat-like wings, which they use to fly around at night and search for victims. Except it doesn't fly around all of the manananggal because if you can remember this from our aswang episode 10 years ago, the name translates to remover or separator. And what they do is they quite literally detach their upper torso from their lower half with just entrails dangling out, and then they take off into the night sky.
AMANDA: My brain did kind of partition off that fact like a hard drive to protect me, but now it's with me again.
JULIA: There you go. These ones also have that proboscis-like tongue, which they use to suck blood from people, though they are also known to suck out fetuses from mothers' wombs while they sleep.
AMANDA: Yes. This is something that whenever I meet folks in the wild and talk about folklore, if they bring up anything that is sort of like not the typical Hollywood cryptids, it'll be the manananggal for this particular reason.
JULIA: Exactly. They also love targeting newlyweds as their victims for some reason, we're not entirely sure why. Now what's wild though is when they're not like this, not separated halfway bodily and with wings and whatnot, they actually can disguise themselves as just regular people. And there are several stories in which they will marry into a community and then use that as cover while they hunt at night. There's also several stories in which a husband will wake up only to find the bottom half of his wife in bed with him—
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: -and discovers that she is a manananggal who has yet to return from her hunt.
AMANDA: That is a tremendous amount of trust in your partner being a heavy sleeper.
JULIA: Yeah, that's exactly right. Jake and I are watching a very odd horror series on Netflix right now, which is called Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen.
AMANDA: Okay
JULIA: And there is one episode where the girl gets straight up kidnapped and then manages to escape with the help of someone else and then comes back to the house that they're staying at that night. Her fiance slept through the entire night of her being kidnapped. And I looked at Jake, I'm like this would never simply would never happen. Jake's a heavy sleeper, but he would notice if I wasn't in bed for six hours.
AMANDA: Yeah, or there was the sounds of struggle as you left.
JULIA: Exactly, exactly. Finally, Amanda, two that might seem familiar to listeners is the wakwak and the ekek.
AMANDA: of the better onomatopoetic names we have had on the show.
JULIA: Absolutely. So, this is a vampiric bird rather than taking the form of a human, which will snatch up humans in the night in order to devour them and rip their victims up. Now, the name for the wakwak comes from the noise that its wings make when it flies. And it is said to have very long, sharp talons or claws which are used to rip at the hearts of their victims.
AMANDA: Oh, wow.
JULIA: Now, the ekek differs slightly in that it is a winged human creature. though it does not separate its body in half like the manananggal does. The ekek has a bird-like bill which hides its proboscis-like tongue. Kind of like a giant hummingbird is how I would describe it.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Now when it feeds on a person, the sound gives the creature its name. So, while it's feasting, it makes a noise like ek ek ek. Interestingly, both the ekek and the wakwak are defined by its sound, but both are said that if you hear the sound sort of quiet in the distance, it's actually the ekek and the wakwak trying to trick you and that they're actually very close by and about to strike. yeah, I know. Isn't that spooky?
AMANDA: Oh, fuck, that's scary. I'm sure there are plenty of creatures in the jungles of the Philippines that make noises similar to that.
JULIA: Mm-hmm. And I like this idea of like, I hear the wakwak noise, but it sounds so far away. I'm safe.
AMANDA: Someone else's problem, don't worry about that one.
JULIA: No, it's your problem now, baby.
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: Now, Amanda, as we head over to China, we come across an interesting vampire, which is the Jiangshi (僵屍 or 殭屍) or the hopping vampire.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: Now, while I will say that the name is often translated to hopping vampire, the original lore actually resembles more of a zombie situation than a blood sucking vampire.
AMANDA: OK.
JULIA: But a lot of more modern interpretations give us more of that stronger vampire. So, it feels right to kind of include them in this roundup.
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: So, while Jiangshi is often referred to as the hopping vampire, its name literally translates to stiff corpse. And that is because it is a undead creature or a reanimated corpse. And as the name suggests, it probably comes from the rigor mortis that a body goes through after death. Now, unlike Western vampires, the Jiangshi looks more distinctly undead. So, they usually have a very white skin with a greenish tint to it which is theorized to be like a fungus or a mold that is growing on the corpse. They also lack the intelligence of the modern western vampire. They tend to be more brutal, more animalistic, they have incredible strength and are often described as having like a quote-unquote clumsy violence—
AMANDA: Wow
JULIA: -which is very zombie-like as well.
AMANDA: Yeah, and almost scarier. Like you can't predict it.
JULIA: Yes. They are said to attack humans, but their favorite food is, which is often the case with vampires, infants.
AMANDA: Yep, it always is, isn't it?
JULIA: It sure is. Now the origin of the Jiangshi is super interesting to me. So scholars believe that it had something to do with this practice that was called corpse driving.
AMANDA: I don't know what that is.
JULIA: So essentially, people would be recruited as laborers for the imperial court in China and would then have to travel great distances to work. If they happened to die while they were on the job and away from home, their bodies would be repatriated back to their hometown so that they could be buried in their family graves because family ancestor worship, extremely important in China.
Supposedly how they would go about doing this is by tying the bodies to bamboo poles, which were then carried by men hired by the empire, which were referred to as corpse drivers. Now these corpse drivers would transport the bodies thousands of miles and usually at night in order to avoid crowds that might not want to see a dead body being paraded through town, right?
AMANDA: Sure, and presumably, obviously, this takes many, many, many weeks.
JULIA: Exactly. However, this nighttime traveling, as well as the way that they are being transported, gave rise to this image of a hopping corpse. And so, the Jiangshi was born.
AMANDA: Wow, that's powerful.
JULIA: Isn’t that cool?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yeah. So, it is worth noting that not all corpses can become Jiangshi. And in fact, there are two different types of Jiangshi according to folklore. So the first is a recently deceased body that returns to life, very classic. The other is a corpse that has been buried for a long time, but for whatever reason is not decomposing as a normal body should. And there are a couple of ways in which they can come into that being of the like not decomposing the way that it's supposed to, right? So, spirit possession of a dead body is pretty classic, but also when a dead person is not buried even after a funeral service has been held, which like improper burial is a classic one across vampires as a whole.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: So, there's also this idea that a person who is injured by a Jiangshi can become infected and turn into one over time. but that seems like it's more of a modern influence of vampire lore and zombie lore from the West sort of fusing with the classic Chinese folklore.
AMANDA: Gotcha
JULIA: What I really like is that these origins are distinctly tied to Chinese traditional medicine. So, for example, when a corpse absorbs Yang Chi (陽氣), which is basically positive life energy, they can then return back to life as a Jiangshi.
Or when a person's Hun (魂) leaves their body, but the Po (魄) remains, which is sort of like the hun is the Chinese folk medicine version of an ego and the po is the version of an id, essentially. So, when that sort of base id energy takes over the dead body, that's when it can become a Jiangshi.
AMANDA: Makes sense to me. I also, something that's been on my mind recently is like the, you know, the death industry and the ways that, you know, death in a sort of like chemically altered and preserved sense, the way that we'll typically, you know, embalm buried bodies, at least in our tradition in North America, is so decoupled from the way that humans have treated each other after death for all of human history. And I appreciate that decomposition is part of the process and actually getting in the way of that process and not letting nature take its course in the way that's intended is what leads to consequences here.
JULIA: Yeah, and there are so many examples of vampire lore across the world where, like, the fact that a body is in doing the natural decomposition is a sign that something is very, very wrong and tied to vampires.
AMANDA: You're right. Yeah, that's the whole thing. It's unnatural life. It's sustained in a way that's not ethical.
JULIA: Nailing it as always, Amanda. So, in more modern iterations of the Jiangshi, they have taken on more Western qualities. So, in particular, they have been sort of combined with hungry ghosts, which we've talked about in previous episodes, where they will feed on the chi of a living person rather than specifically their blood or their flesh. But it's still the life energy, right?
AMANDA: Mm-hmm.
JULIA: And interestingly as well, modern portrayals almost always have them dressing in the clothing style of the Xing dynasty. So, like a uniform robe, a sort of like round top, tall-rimmed hat, which is known as a guanmao. And you can usually recognize them in art because they will have a paper talisman that is attached to their forehead, which is supposed to be a sealing spell that is written out on it, which I think is like really interesting, if you Google Jiangshi that is the look for almost all of them.
AMANDA: Love a unified look in art.
JULIA: Yeah, but overall, the Jiangshi has had a very lasting presence in Chinese folklore and is still a very classic figure when it comes to not only movies, but also like TV shows and toys and video games in China as well.
AMANDA: And as always, would love to hear if any listeners who grew up with the Jiangshi as part of your folklore and stories. Tell us how this shows up in your life. If there are YouTube videos we should watch or video games we should try, we'd love to hear it.
JULIA: Hell yeah. Now, fascinatingly, Amanda, Japan doesn't really have a lot of native vampire legends. There are of course Yōkai (妖怪) that feast on human flesh. example, the Nure-onna (濡女), who is a snake-like woman who haunts coasts and riverbanks and drains the blood from fishermen and sailors.
AMANDA: What a dream.
JULIA: Like, that's pretty much where the resemblance to vampires as we know them ends. However, I did want to touch on a yokai who is vampiric, but is different from a lot of the other vampires that we've talked about in this episode so far, which is the Jubokko (樹木子) or the tree child.
AMANDA: Now, Julia, the more adorable the yokai sounds on the tin, the more afraid I have to be. So, I'm a little bit worried right now. Yes.
JULIA: Yes, so, this is specifically a tree yokai, which appears in former battlefields after many people have died.
AMANDA: Ah, yeah.
JULIA: At first, it kind of resembles your average tree, but over time it becomes a yokai tree as its roots begin to suck up large quantities of blood from the blood that's been shed there until it can quite literally only subsist on human blood.
AMANDA: Yikes.
JULIA: Yikes. Kind of like Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors.
AMANDA: Yeah, you're right.
JULIA: So, in order for it to maintain its diet, when a human being passes by, it will reach out its branches and capture the person. Then it will change one of its branches into a tube, somewhat like, you know, the sucker on a mosquito, and simply drain the victim of their blood.
AMANDA: I mean, nature adapts, nature overcomes, and that is an elegant solution.
JULIA: Amanda goes, da-rararaaa. it is said that when you cut the bark of the jubokko, it will bleed human blood rather than sap. And if you were to cut the limb off of the tree, you can use it to heal a person.
AMANDA: Okay, maybe though don't get close to the tree that has adapted to be able to suck your blood out like a dehydrator.
JULIA: Okay, but imagine, you know, someone in your life is sick or dying and you manage to sneak up—
AMANDA: Yeah
JULIA: -to the tree and cut off a branch and then you can heal them.
AMANDA: And then run away real quick. That would be tempting.
JULIA: But this also really ties to the beginning of the episode where I was saying like, humans had this idea that other people's blood could be used to heal a person.
AMANDA: True.
JULIA: Now, mainly I wanted to bring up the jubokko. One, because we all know that I love a Yokai and I think they're fun. But two, this is a great transition for me to talk about our last vampire. And the only vampire I'm going to specifically talk about that is from Europe, though it is from the Romani people. And this is the vampire pumpkin and watermelons.
AMANDA: Oh, my God, tell me more.
JULIA: I can't wait. So, these guys are from the Balkans. Like I said, it's specifically associated with the Romani people from this region. So, what you have to understand first off is that this is an evolution of a belief that if you leave any inanimate object outside under the full moon, it will transform into a vampire. But for whatever reason, this only works on two specific fruits.
AMANDA: Whoa. Okay
JULIA: Now, I will say the records that we have of this are a little bit more modern. are from the early 1900s and they are described by an ethnologist named Tatomir Vukanović. I also changed some language because it was originally pretty problematic, but I am going to save us all the trouble of having to listen to a man from the early 1900s describing the Romani people.
AMANDA: No one needs that Julia
JULIA: So, he says, according to the Romani people, there are only two plants which are regarded as likely to turn into vampires, pumpkins of every kind and watermelons. And the change takes place when they are quote, fighting one another. They consider this transformation occurs if the ground fruit have been kept for more than 10 days. Then the gathered pumpkins stir all by themselves and make a sound like, blr! blr! blr!
AMANDA: Oh!
JULIA: -and begin to shake themselves. It is also believed that sometimes a trace of blood can be seen on the pumpkin and the Romani people then say that it has become a vampire. These pumpkins and melons go around the houses, stables, and rooms at night all by themselves and do harm to people. But it is thought that they cannot do great damage to folk so people are not very afraid of this kind of vampire.
AMANDA: We have other kinds to worry about y'all, including most of the Christians.
JULIA: It is believed that if pumpkins are kept after Christmas, they will turn into vampires, while others think that this phenomenon occurs if a pumpkin is used as a siphon when ripe and dry stays unopened for three years.
AMANDA: Whoa
JULIA: The Romani people destroy pumpkins and melons, which have become vampires, by plunging them into a pot of boiling water, which is then poured away, the ground fruit being afterwards scrubbed by a broom and then thrown away and the broom burned.
AMANDA: Very thorough, you gotta respect it.
JULIA: Very thorough, very thorough. Now, Amanda, I did want to end on that one solely because I know you're starting your gardening season right now.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And as you are gardening the season and you happen to be growing pumpkins or watermelons or any kind of squash, really, apparently, I want you to keep these things in mind so that you don't accidentally let loose a horde of vampiric squashes on your neighborhood.
AMANDA: I do think it is a good practice generally where if I see a smear of blood on something I have grown, I sure am going to boil it clean, yeet it away, and probably rip out the whole plant. So, Romani folk, I tip my hat to you.
JULIA: So, you gotta be careful. No watermelons, no pumpkins left out during a full moon. Don't let them stay in the field for longer than 10 days.
AMANDA: Heard.
JULIA: And then your neighborhood should be safe from vampire watermelons and pumpkins.
AMANDA: Alright, Julia, well, as I go to start my heavy feeder fruits for the season, I'll keep that in mind. Everybody, remember,
JULIA: Stay creepy!
AMANDA: Stay cool.
JULIA: Later, satyrs!