Lampir

(LUM-peer)

Variations: LAMPIGER, Lampijer, LAMPI-JEROVIC, Lepir, Tenac, VUKODLAK

In Bosnia, Montenegro, and Serbia there is thebelief that the first person who dies from an epidemic or a plague will rise from the grave and become a vampiric REVENANT known as a lampir. It lies motionless in its grave by day, but at night it will return to those it knew in life and attack them, draining their blood through a small hole it bites in its victims' chests. The lampir looks exactly as it did in life, except that now its skin has a red cast to it and its body looks to be somewhat bloated, a condition that is more noticeable after it has fed. The only other change to its physical aspect is that it now has seven fangs in its mouth, four on the top row of teeth and three on the bottom. Anyone who survives an attack from a lampir will become this sort of vampire himself. If someone were inclined to become this sort of vampire, it is possible—by eating the flesh of a person who has been executed.

To destroy a lampir, its body must be exhumedduring the day and burned to ashes.

Source: Durham, Some Tribal Origins, 260; Mac Dermott, Bulgarian Folk Customs, 67; Perkowski, The Darkling, 37; Royal Anthropological Institute, Man, 1 89­90