Excerpt eleven: “On October 14, 1737 there came
to the Archbishop’s Court in Dubrovnik the Chief Fiscal Councellor Lord
Peter Sori and he related the following to the Most Illustrious and Most Honorable
Lord Archbishop Fra Andjel Franchi:
“‘In Dubrovnik they are openly discussing how some graves of believers
on the island of Lastovo were desecrated by several islanders, who were seeking
a certain type of corpse in those graves, which, according to these islanders,
come back to life, dwell in the grave and at night emerge, to kill people
until they are again killed and impaled with a special pointed stake. Because
such an outrage and abominable superstition offends the purity of the Christian
faith and Holy Church, I seek to instigate a court of inquiry according to
the criminal code’ etc…
“‘Same day. Summoned, Antun, son of Mato Mikuš of Lastovo,
50 years of age, came forward; the witness admonished to tell the truth, the
oath, etc. [He said that]… One night last August when I was one of the
two guards stationed next to the Church of Saint Rok and performing my duty,
there came Luka, son of Lovro Fulmis, Chief Guard, and with him… others.
Greatly excited, they were all saying that it was necessary to search through
the graves to see if in one of them there was a vampire (prikosac),
otherwise called ‘kosak’, ‘tenjac’,
and ‘vukodlak’: because they held that diarrhoea, which
was then laying waste to the island, emanated from these vampires. And then
Chief Luko Fulmis said, ‘Let’s go to the seacoast to see if we
can find something in a grave of the Church of Sumihajlo. There, as we well
know, last year a certain Mlecic was buried, who had drowned.’ …
When we reached the cemetery of Sumihajlo… [they] opened a grave, looked
in with the help of a torch, and said, ‘There are only bare bones here.’
And then they filled in the grave and left… Then we all went towards
Gospa called Of the Fields… to see if Jerko Vickovic, who had passed
away about eight months earlier, were a vampire (kosac)… After
removing the board and looking with a torch, they looked and said that it
was not a vampire (tenjac)… they opened a third grave and found
only bones.’
“October 15th. Questioned: Baro Celefa, 57 years… ‘They
ascribed the sickness to vampires (vukodlacima, koscima, kosicama),
both male and female… By this name they designate the dead who have
revived and who, residing in their graves, especially people who drowned during
their lives, kill and destroy people and all too frequently go to their homes
and have sexual intercourse with their wives when they are men, as they did
before death.’
“Same day. Lovro Lucenta, about 57 years old. ‘Many people died
on the island at that time… Vampires (kosci) would enter houses
at night, and they would chew on people’s hearts, because they feed
on the hearts and innards of the living and drink their blood, above all of
those with whom they had had a quarrel.’
“October 28th. Before me, Dean in Lastovo, appeared Lovro Fulmis’
son Frano. He confessed his crime, because he had desecrated graves…
‘Ivo Vicelic said, ‘Last night I was with Marin Lode and two others
were on Mount Lucija and we heard the ‘vresket’ (as found
in the original) of vampires (kosaca). Let’s go to the coast
to see if Captain Maruffa is a vampire (kosac). He drowned when his
shep wrecked on a reef near Lastovo.’… [We] went to Maruffa’s
grave at the very wall of the cemetery… someone said that it was certain
that Jerko Vickovic has become a vampire (povukodlacio), but no one
in the group knew for certain where his grave was… Borovincic said that
he was buried in front of the big door of Gospia of the Fields… However,
Stjepan Ostojic told me that he and his group forced the relatives of a young
boy to open his grave in front of St Joseph to see if he were a vampire (kosac).’