In a Serbian village in the 18th century, officials personally opened coffins to verify "vampires"

The word "vampire" in English actually became widespread in the eighteenth century, starting in a few small villages in Serbia.

In 1725, a farmer named Peter died, and shortly after, several people in the village died one after another, with nine dead within just a few days. Some said Peter had returned at midnight and "sucked" them to death. The villagers demanded that the coffin be opened. Austrian officials stationed there were also present and saw the corpse in the coffin with their own eyes; they wrote down: "The complexion was ruddy, there was blood at the corners of the mouth, and the fingernails and hair had grown." Following their own methods, the villagers staked the corpse with a wooden stake and burned it.

In 1731, a similar incident occurred in a nearby village. A soldier named Arnold claimed while alive that he had been bitten by a vampire; after his death, people in the village fell ill one after another, and the villagers believed he had returned to suck people's blood. This time, a military doctor came, opened coffins for inspection in the graveyard, wrote down what he saw in a report, and sent it to Vienna. The report stated: some corpses had not decomposed, and there was fresh blood in their mouths. This report caused a sensation in Europe; soon after, it was translated into English and French, and the word "vampire" spread from there.

Modern forensics puts it more plainly: after death, a body bloats, the skin shrinks, making it look like the fingernails and hair have grown; blood from the stomach can flow out of the mouth, which are traces left by "blood-sucking." People at the time had never seen how a fresh corpse changes, so naturally they couldn't think of it.

This trend grew stronger, and within a few years, people in several places in Eastern Europe were digging up graves. Officials and priests gave conflicting accounts.

Later, when the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa heard about it, she sent her court physician to investigate. The court physician's conclusion was: these were all superstition, a misunderstanding of natural phenomena. In 1755, she issued an order prohibiting the opening of coffins because of "vampires."

Once the ban was issued, no one in those villages discovered vampires anymore.

#Paranormal #网络转载 #吸血鬼