Jedogonja

(YA-dog-in-ya)

Variations: LAMPIR, LAPIR, Upir, VUKODLAK

In Slavic regions, Serbia in particular, there is a species of vampire known as a jedogonja. It has a hairy body, red eyes, and sharp teeth (see HAIR). It feeds on animals and the blood of the people it knew in life through a hole that it bites into their chests. It spreads an epidemic wherever it goes and anyone who is killed by a jedogonja or died because of the disease it carries may come back to unlife as this type of vampire. Horses and oxen are particularly sensitive to this vampire and become nervous when one is near. If someone leads one of these animals around a cemetery, it will balk and refuse to pass over the grave of a vampire. Once the resting place of the vampire has been found, the body can be exhumed during the day and burned to ash.

Source: Georgieva, Bulgarian Mythology, 100; Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion, 624; Khanam, Demonology, 251; Pócs, Fairies and Witches, 56