“Yes, we opened a grave and by the light of the Easter and Three Mary candles made out that the deceased was whole and fresh as if he were just buried, and we impaled him several times with a thorn stake.” (Liepopili)
“… they asked me whether I had a thorn stake. I replied that I had one and they charged me to go home and bring it, which I did. All who were there are dead except Stjepan Ostojic. Petro Fulmis’ Stjepan, seeing the thorn stake, said to me, ‘It is as valuable to you as a sword, if you set it over a grave, it will not allow the devil (vragu) to emerge and can even thrash him.’ 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. We stabbed him with a pruning knife and we dismembered him with an axe… Then they said that the devil (vrag) cannot exist in a chopped up corpse.” (Liepopili)
“In it [the grave] they found Giure Grando intact. His face was very red. He laughed at them and opened his mouth. At first Radetich’s companions fled, but they soon came back again and set about driving a sharpened hawthorn stake through the belly of the corpse, which recoiled at each blow. Then the priest exorcised the spirit with a crucifix, ‘Behold you vampire (strigon), here is Jesus Christ who has delivered us from hell and has died for us; and you, vampire (strigon) can have no rest, etc.’ At these words tears flowed from the corpse’s eyes. Finally they cut off the dead man’s head with one blow, at which he let out a cry like a living person and the grave was filled with fresh blood.” (Valvasor)
“It is possible to guard oneself from the usual type of vampire in the following manner: into his coffin are placed his belongings and coins, symbolically buying him off. Into his nose, mouth, the coffin, along the road to the cemetery, near the grave, and into the grave they pour poppyseed or millet. Into the coffin they place herbs over which a spell has been said, and in more recent times they also put Christian cult objects. When taking a corpse suspected of being a vampire out of the house, they strike the coffin against the threshold, carry him out head first, place him into the grave in a special manner, etc… The body’s return from the dead can be averted by nailing its clothes, hair or limbs to the coffin. It is especially important to stab him in the head or heart with an iron wedge, a hat-pin, or a hawthorn, blackthorn or oak stake. This impalement takes place before burial. If, however, the deceased returns after burial, they exhume him, and perform the same rites on him. 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. After burial they again resort to precautionary measures: they wash their hands with water, hold on to the stove, etc. The funeral feast plays a similar role. Fire also functions as a precautionary measure against vampires, the so-called ‘new fire’ made by the rubbing together of two sticks.” (Mjartan)