“December 3rd. Dom Marin Pavlovic, priest, of Lastovo, aged 63 years. ‘I too was sick with diarrhoea. Some said that illness comes when a person catches a chill, others that the air is infected with the plague, others that it is God’s punishment, and others that vampires (kosci) cause it. One day my niece Slava’s son called Antun Lodu to clean a barrel. He called me over, because he had something to show me. I declined, because that day I had devoted to prayer and wanted to avoid idle conversation. He told members of the family that guards in Gornja Luka and Luža heard that Stjepan the bastard’s dog, called Franzin, was moaning. – Fifty years ago, in order to convince me that there are vampires (kosci), Dom Baro Anticevic related to me how he was in quest of a vampire (kosaca) with a group of men. When they opened a grave, a vampire (kosac) jumped out and fled. Afterwards the late Kuzma Šudre fired a small rifle at him and the vampire (kosac) went back to his grave.’
“January 5, 1738. Antun Škrulje… about 70 years old. ‘…We opened the grave of the late Marin Burluk and found bones. We also opened Šudra’s grave and he was whole and very much distended…’”³⁴

These eyewitness testimonies show that the only proof required of a vampire was a) that there be some unexplained illness, or even a dog moaning without any apparent reason, and b) that there be a corpse in the middle stages of human decomposition.

Identifying Marks

It seems clear that the Slavic peasants were unfamiliar with the normal stages of decomposition. By the description of what they expected for vampire identification, it seems obvious that the only dead they were accustomed to seeing were either the recently dead (whose limbs were still frozen in rigor mortis, and whose skin bore the pallor of death), or the long dead (the bare bones).

The following are descriptions from Slavic testimonies, of what to look for in order to identify a vampire:

“The peasants knew that Velin (such was his name) would become a vampire, because, as soon as they dressed him (his corpse), he became excessively bloated, and during the course of the night became a full-blown drum.” (“Zhakariev”)

“We also opened Šudra’s grave and he was whole and very much distended.” (Liepopili)

“In [the grave] they found Giure Grando intact. His face was very red. He laughed at them and opened his mouth.” (Liepopili)

“If the body of the deceased has not become stiff, if it has two curls in its hair, if its face has not become pale, if its eyes are open, then it means that he has two hearts and consequently two souls. The body’s return from the dead can be averted… They hold that a newly exhumed corpse appears ruddy, cries out, opens its eyes, and when the head or heart is pierced the blood flows.” (Mjartan)