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59-518: Paole's case, similar to that of Petar Blagojevich , became famous because of the direct involvement of the Austrian authorities and the documentation by Austrian physicians and officers, who confirmed the reality of vampires. Their report of the case was distributed in Western Europe and contributed to the spread of vampire belief among educated Europeans. The report and its significance for

118-525: A Viennese newspaper, today known as Die Wiener Zeitung . Along with the report of the very similar Arnold Paole case of 1726–1732, it was widely translated West and North, contributing to the vampire craze of the eighteenth century in Germany , France and England . The strange phenomena or appearances that the Austrian officials witnessed have since been interpreted as forms of the natural process of

177-465: A 69-year-old woman, died after a three-month illness); an unnamed 8 year-old child; Milloe ( Miloje , a 16-year-old boy, died after a three-day illness); Stana (a 20-year-old woman, died in childbirth after a three-day illness, reportedly said that she had smeared herself with vampire blood) as well as her stillborn child (as Flückinger observes, "half-eaten by the dogs due to a slovenly burial"); an unnamed 10-year-old girl; Joachim (a 17-year-old, died after

236-439: A frenetic delirium caused by the panic of merely seeing the corpse. These dying people would say that the dead man had appeared to them and tortured them in many ways. The other people in the village would exhume the corpse to see what it had been doing. He gives the following explanation when talking about the case of Petar Blagojević: This brave man perished by a sudden or violent death. This death, whatever it is, can provoke in

295-788: A report to the Jagodina commandant's office, recommending that the authorities should pacify the population by fulfilling its request to "execute" the vampires. Schnezzer furthered Glaser's report to the Supreme Command in Belgrade (the city was then held by Austrian forces). The vice-commandant, Botta Adorno , sent a second commission to investigate the case. The new commission included a military surgeon, Johann Flückinger, two officers, lieutenant colonel Büttner and J. H. von Lindenfels, along with two other military surgeons, Siegele and Johann Friedrich Baumgarten. On 7 January, together with

354-531: A result of the devastation brought about by previous Austrian-Ottoman wars, these areas were in poor condition, with a scarce and partly nomadic population, little agriculture and an emphasis on cattle-breeding. The Austrian authorities sought to further economic development and to attract German-speaking Serbian settlers to the new territories. Many of the Serbs, especially those who had immigrated from Ottoman-held areas, were recruited as militiamen ( hajduks ) for

413-494: A three-day illness); the hadnack ' s unnamed wife; Ruscha ( Ruža – variant of Ružica – a woman, died after a ten-day illness); Staniko ( Stanjko , a 60-year-old man); Miloe ( Miloje , the second victim of that name; a 25-year-old man); Ruža's child (18 days old); Rhade ( Rade , a 21-year-old servant of the local hajduk corporal , died after a three-month-long illness); the local standard-bearer's ( barjaktar ' s) unnamed wife, apparently identical to Milosava in

472-507: A vampire: he was exhumed and found to be such. The principle people of the place, with the doctors and surgeons, examined how vampirism could have sprung up again after the precautions they had taken years before." The villagers complained of the new deaths to oberstleutnant Schnezzer, the Austrian military commander in charge of the administration. The latter, fearing an epidemic of pestilence , sent for Imperial Contagions-Medicus (roughly, Infectious Disease Specialist) Glaser stationed in

531-417: Is said that Blagojević came back to his house demanding food from his son and, when the son refused, Blagojević brutally murdered him, probably via biting and drinking his blood. The villagers decided to disinter the body and examine it for signs of vampirism, such as growing hair, beard and nails, and the absence of decomposition. The inhabitants of Kisilova demanded that Kameralprovisor Frombald, along with

590-516: Is that hajduk was derived from the Turkish word haidut or haydut 'bandit', which was originally used by the Ottomans to refer to Hungarian and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth infantry soldiers. Another theory suggests that the word comes from Hungarian hajtó or hajdó (plural hajtók or hajdók ) '(cattle) drover '. These two theories do not necessarily contradict each other because

649-586: The Habsburg Emperor , whose army had recently occupied Transylvania and begun a reign of terror. The bulk of Bocskay's army was composed of serfs who had either fled from the war and the Habsburg drive toward Catholic conversion, or been discharged from the Imperial Army. These peasants , freelance soldiers, were known as the hajduks . As a reward for their service, Bocskay emancipated

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708-787: The Treaty of Passarowitz ( Požarevac , 1718), the Habsburg Monarchy annexed most of Serbia and the northern part of Bosnia , territories which had been part of the Ottoman Empire . These remained in Austrian control until the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), when the Austrians were forced to cede them back to the Turks. During this 20-year period, these newly conquered boundary districts were subject to direct military rule from Vienna for strategic, fiscal and other reasons. As

767-399: The decomposition of the body. In De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis (1725), Michaël Ranft attempted to explain folk beliefs in vampires. He writes that, in the event of the death of every villager, some other person or people—most likely a person related to the first dead—who saw or touched the corpse, would eventually die either of some disease related to exposure to the corpse or of

826-637: The 18th century wealthy members of the szlachta hired liveried domestic servants whom they called hajduks, thereby creating the meaning of the term 'hajduk' as it is generally understood in modern Polish. The Serbs established a Hajduk army that supported the Austrians. The army was divided into 18 companies, in four groups. In this period, the most notable obor-kapetans were Vuk Isaković from Crna Bara , Mlatišuma from Kragujevac and Kosta Dimitrijević from Paraćin . The Croatian football team HNK Hajduk Split ; Serbian football teams Hajduk Kula , FK Hajduk Beograd , FK Hajduk Veljko and Hajduk Lion ;

885-809: The European lands of the Ottoman Empire, the term hajduk was used to describe bandits and brigands of the Balkans , while in Central Europe for the West Slavs , Hungarians , and Germans , and Eastern Europe for the Ukrainians , it was used to refer to outlaws who protected Christians against provocative actions by the Ottomans. By the 17th century they were firmly established in

944-629: The Macedonian football team FK Hajduk - Vratnica ; Czech amateur football team Hajduk Lipník ; the pop-music project Haiducii , and Romanian Roma musical troupe Taraful Haiducilor are all named after the hajduci. The surnames of the fictional character George Washington Hayduke , invented by Edward Abbey , actress Stacy Haiduk , US national soccer team defender Frankie Hejduk , Czech Republic national ice hockey team forward Milan Hejduk and Montenegrin theoretical physicist Dragan Hajduković, are likewise derived from this word. The term "haiduci"

1003-480: The Ottoman Balkans, owing to increased taxes, Christian victories against the Ottomans, and a general decline in security. Hajduk bands predominantly numbered one hundred men each, with a firm hierarchy under one leader. They targeted Ottoman representatives and rich people, mainly rich Turks, for plunder or punishment to oppressive Ottomans, or revenge or a combination of all. In Balkan folkloric tradition,

1062-606: The Turkish word haidut or haydut is adapted from the Hungarian hajtó or hajdó just as many slavic words were adapted from Turkish in what is known as Turcizam or Turkification . Other spellings in English include ajduk , haydut , haiduk , haiduc , hayduck , and hayduk . Forms of the word in various languages, in singular form, include: In 1604-1606, István Bocskay , Lord of Bihar , led an insurrection against

1121-606: The bodies were in "vampiric condition" ( Vampyrenstand ). After the examination had been completed, the Gypsies cut off the heads of the supposed vampires and burned both their heads and their bodies, the ashes being thrown in the West Morava river. The decomposed bodies were laid back into their graves. The report is dated 26 January 1732, Belgrade, and bears the signatures of the five officers involved. On 13 February, Glaser's father, Viennese doctor Johann Friedrich Glaser, who

1180-414: The case states that by 12 December, 13 people had died in the course of six weeks. Glaser names the following victims (here rearranged chronologically): Miliza (Serbian Milica , a 50-year-old woman); Milloi (Serbian Miloje , a 14-year-old boy); Joachim (a 15-year-old boy); Peter (Serbian Petar , a 15-day-old boy); Stanno (Serbian Stana , a 20-year-old woman) as well as her newborn child, which Glaser notes

1239-487: The case with the request that, in case these actions were found to be wrong, he should not be blamed for them, as the villagers were "beside themselves with fear". The authorities apparently did not consider it necessary to take any measures regarding the incident. The report on this event was among the first documented testimonies about vampire beliefs in Eastern Europe. It was published by Wienerisches Diarium ,

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1298-508: The case, "a girl named Stanoska, daughter of the Heyducq Jotiutzo, who went to bed in perfect health, awoke in the middle of the night in a tremble, uttering terrible shrieks, and saying that the son of Heyducq Millo who had been dead nine weeks, had nearly strangled her in her sleep. She fell into a languid state from that moment, and at the end of three days she died. What this girl had said of Millo's son made him known at once to be

1357-452: The defunct Arnold Paul had killed not only the four persons of whom we have spoken, but also several oxen, of which the new vampires had eaten, and amongst others the son of Millo. Upon these indications they resolved to disinter all those who had died within a certain time, etc. Amongst forty, seventeen were found with all the most evident signs of vampirism; so they transfixed their hearts and cut off their heads also, then cast their ashes into

1416-444: The hajduk from the jurisdiction of their lords, granted them land, and guaranteed them rights to own property and to personal freedom. The emancipated hajduk constituted a new "warrior estate" within Hungarian feudal society. Many of the settlements created at this time still bear the prefix Hajdú such as Hajdúbagos, Hajdúböszörmény , Hajdúdorog, Hajdúhadház, Hajdúnánás, Hajdúsámson, Hajdúszoboszló , Hajdúszovát, Hajdúvid etc., and

1475-654: The hajduk is a romanticised hero figure who steals from, and leads his fighters into battle against, the Ottoman authorities . They are comparable to the English legendary Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (who as in the case of the hajduk happened to also be foreign occupiers ) and gave to the poor, while defying seemingly unjust laws and authority. People that helped hajduks were called jataks. Jataks lived in villages and towns and provided food and shelter for hajduks. In return, hajduks would give them part of

1534-490: The historical context). Blagojević died in 1725, and his death was followed by a spate of other sudden deaths (after very short maladies, reportedly of about 24 hours each). Within eight days, nine people perished. On their death-beds, the victims allegedly claimed to have been throttled by Blagojević at night. Furthermore, Blagojević's wife stated that he had visited her and asked her for his opanci (shoes); she then moved to another village for safety reasons. In other legends, it

1593-530: The influence of Blagojević's case upon the development of the image of the modern vampire in Western popular culture. Petar Blagojević lived in a village named Kisilova (possibly the modern-day town of Kisiljevo ), in the part of Serbia that temporarily passed from Ottoman into Austrian hands after the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) and was ceded back to the Ottomans with the Treaty of Belgrade (1739) (see Arnold Paole - Background for more details on

1652-595: The limbs. Glaser reports that the locals considered Milica and Stana to have started the vampirism epidemic. According to his retelling, Milica had come to the village from Ottoman-controlled territories six years before. The locals' testimony indicated that she had always been a good neighbour and that, to the best of their knowledge, she had never "believed or practiced something diabolic". However, she had once mentioned to them that, while still in Ottoman lands, she had eaten two sheep that had been killed by vampires. Stana, on

1711-417: The local priest, should be present at the procedure as a representative of the administration. Frombald tried to convince them that permission from the Austrian authorities in Belgrade should be sought first. The locals declined because they feared that by the time the permission came, the whole community could be exterminated by the vampire, which they claimed had already happened "in Turkish times" (i.e. when

1770-517: The locals explain the new epidemic with the fact that Milica, the first to die, had eaten the meat of sheep that the "previous vampires" (i.e. Paole and his victims from five years prior) had killed. He also mentions, in passing, the claims that Stana, before her death, had admitted having smeared herself with blood to protect herself from vampires and would therefore become a vampire herself, as would her child. According to Augustin Calmet 's analysis of

1829-420: The loot. The hajduk of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries commonly were as much guerrilla fighters against the Ottoman rule as they were bandits and highwaymen who preyed not only on Ottomans and their local representatives, but also on local merchants and travellers. As such, the term could also refer to any robber and carry a negative connotation. The etymology of the word hajduk is unclear. One theory

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1888-471: The nearby town of Paraćin . On 12 December 1731, Glaser examined the villagers and their houses. He failed to find any signs of a contagious malady and blamed the deaths on the malnutrition common in the region as well as the unhealthy effects of the severe Eastern Orthodox fasting . However, the villagers insisted that the illnesses were caused by vampires. At the moment, two or three households were gathering together at night, with some asleep and others on

1947-414: The other hand completely new nails were evident, along with a fresh and vivid skin". In the case of Milica, the hajduks who witnessed the dissection were very surprised at her plumpness, stating that they had known her well, from her youth, and that she had always been very "lean and dried-up"; it was only in the grave she had attained this plumpness. The surgeons summarized all these phenomena by stating that

2006-540: The other hand, had admitted that when she was in Ottoman-controlled lands, she had smeared herself with vampire blood as a protection against vampires (as these had been very active there). According to local belief, both things would cause the women to become vampires after death. According to Flückinger's report, by 7 January, 17 people had died within a period of three months (the last two of these apparently after Glaser's visit). He mentions Miliza ( Milica ,

2065-408: The other report along with her child; the eight-week-old child of the hadnack ; Stanoicka ( Stanojka , a 20-year-old woman, the wife of a hajduk, died after a three-day illness). According to her father-in-law Joviza ( Jovica ), Stanojka had gone to bed healthy 15 days previous, but had woken up at midnight in terrible fear and cried that she had been throttled by the late Miloje. Flückinger states that

2124-450: The peacetime protection of the borders and for regular military service at war, in exchange for unalienable lots of land. It was in these communities that the earliest well-documented alleged vampire attacks are reported. This outbreak is only known from Flückinger's report about the second epidemic and its prehistory. According to the account of the Medveđa locals as retold there, Arnold Paole

2183-495: The river. All the information and executions we have just mentioned were made judicial, in proper form, and attested by several officers who were garrisoned in the country, by the chief surgeons of the regiments, and by the principal inhabitants of the place. The verbal process of it was sent towards the end of last January to the Imperial Counsel of War at Vienna, which had established a military commission to examine into

2242-463: The ruler and became quasi-nobility. The word hajduk was initially a colloquial term for a style of footsoldier, Hungarian or Turco- Balkan in inspiration, that formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s until about the 1630s. Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wore uniforms , typically of grey-blue woolen cloth, with red collar and cuffs. Their principal weapon

2301-408: The same procedure, to prevent them from becoming vampires as well. About five years later, in the winter of 1731, a new epidemic occurred, with more than ten people dying within several weeks, some of them in just two or three days without any previous illness and others after 3 days of languishing. The numbers and the age of the deceased vary somewhat between the two main sources. Glaser's report on

2360-442: The skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown". Further, "his body was red, his hair, nails and beard had all grown again. Concluding that Paole was indeed a vampire, they drove a stake through his heart, to which he reacted by frightful shriek as if he were alive, groaning and bleeding, and burned the body. That done, they cut off his head and burnt the whole body. They then disinterred Paole's four supposed victims and performed

2419-428: The subsequent 18th-century vampire controversy are now sometimes explained by a then-poor understanding of the process of corpse decomposition . Knowledge of the case is based mostly on the reports of two Austrian military doctors, Glaser and Flückinger, who were successively sent to investigate the case. Scholars have suggested that Paole's case has influenced the depiction of vampires in popular culture texts. With

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2478-576: The surface of the Danube , but it is unknown whether she was ever staked. Hajduk A hajduk ( Hungarian : hajdúk , plural of hajdú ' foot-soldier ' ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central , Eastern , and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries, especially from Hajdú-Bihar county . They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, place, and their enemies. In

2537-517: The survivors the visions they had after his death. Sudden death gives rise to inquietude in the familiar circle. Inquietude has sorrow as a companion. Sorrow brings melancholy. Melancholy engenders restless nights and tormenting dreams. These dreams enfeeble body and spirit until illness overcomes and, eventually, death. Recently, the story has sparked some interest in the village of Kisiljevo among some Serbian journalists. According to Belgrade newspaper Glas javnosti , which cites local official Bogičić,

2596-416: The traits that were commonly associated with vampirism. Their chests and in some cases other organs were filled with fresh (rather than coagulated ) blood; the viscera were estimated to be "in good condition"; various corpses looked plump and their skin had a "red and vivid" (rather than pale) colour; and in several cases, "the skin on ... hands and feet, along with the old nails, fell away on their own, but on

2655-545: The truth of all these circumstances. Such was the declaration of the Hadnagi Barriarar and the ancient Heyducqs; and it was signed by Battuer, first lieutenant of the regiment of Alexander of Wurtemburg , Clickstenger, surgeon-in-chief of the regiment of Frustemburch, three other surgeons of the company and Guoichitz, captain at Stallach." Petar Blagojevich Petar Blagojević ( Serbian Cyrillic : Петар Благојевић , German : Peter Plogojowitz ; died 1725)

2714-428: The turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we know of tens of thousands of hajdú, who were also the first to fight in wars in the first half of the 17th century. Their activities were significant both as mercenaries and as Defence Forces. Hajdú life provided social mobility, as their success was illustrated by the fact that, although they were born as peasant or petty nobles, they often received substantial land donations from

2773-421: The village elders and some local Gypsies , they opened the graves of the deceased. Their findings were similar to Glaser's, although their report contains much more anatomical detail. The commission established that, while five of the corpses (the hadnack ' s wife and child, Rade, and the standard-bearer's wife and child) were decomposed, the remaining twelve were "quite complete and undecayed" and exhibited

2832-495: The village was still in the Ottoman -controlled part of Serbia). They demanded that Frombald himself should immediately permit the procedure or else they would abandon the village to save their lives. Frombald was forced to consent. Together with the Veliko Gradište priest, he viewed the already exhumed body and was astonished to find that the characteristics associated with vampires in local belief were indeed present. The body

2891-410: The villagers are unable to identify Blagojević's grave and don't know whether the local family that bears that surname is related to him. One person recalled stories of a certain female vampire by the name of Ruža Vlajna, who was believed to haunt the village in more recent times, in the lifetime of her grandfather. She would make her presence felt by hitting pots hanging from roofs and was seen walking on

2950-446: The villagers, advised by their hadnack (a military/administrative title) who had witnessed such events before, opened his grave. They saw that the corpse was undecomposed, with all the indications of vampirism. His veins were replete with fluid-blood "and that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with

3009-526: The watch. They were convinced that the deaths wouldn't stop unless the vampires were executed by the authorities, and threatened to abandon the village in order to save their lives if that wasn't done. Glaser then consented to the exhumation of some of the deceased. To his surprise, he found that most of them were not decomposed and many were swollen and had blood in their mouths, while several others who had died more recently (namely Vučica, Milosava, and Rade) were rather decomposed. Glaser outlined his findings in

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3068-648: The whole area is called Hajdúság (Land of the Hajduk) (see Hajdú County ). The Hajdú have always been an important pillar of Hungarian society and its defence. During the great Turkish attack of 1551/52, it was possible to recruit several hundred or even several thousand Hajdú troops from the Nyírség-Debrecen region for an action against the Turks. Among the Hungarians, the Hajdú lifestyle was significant. At

3127-411: Was a Serbian peasant who was believed to have become a vampire after his death and to have killed nine of his fellow villagers. The case was the earliest, one of the most sensational and most well documented cases of vampire hysteria. It was described in the report of Imperial Provisor Ernst Frombald, an official of the Austrian monarchy , who witnessed the staking of Blagojević. Scholars have noted

3186-564: Was a hajduk who had moved to the village from the Turkish -controlled part of Serbia. He reportedly often mentioned that he had been plagued by a vampire at a location named Gossowa (perhaps Kosovo ), but that he had cured himself by eating soil from the vampire's grave and smearing himself with its blood. About 1725, he broke his neck in a fall from a haywagon. Within 20 or 30 days after Paole's death, four people complained that they had been plagued by him. These people all died shortly thereafter. Ten days later, and forty days after Arnold's death,

3245-412: Was a small calibre matchlock firearm, known as an arquebus . For close combat they also carried a heavy variety of sabre , capable of hacking off the heads of enemy pikes and polearms . Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wore tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped berdysz axe, which was seldom carried by hajduks) was not a combat weapon, but rather

3304-490: Was also a correspondent of the Nuremberg journal Commercium Litterarium , sent its editors a letter describing the entire case as his son had written to him about it already on 18 January. The story aroused great interest. After that, both reports (especially Flückinger's more detailed version) and the letter were reprinted in a number of articles and treatises. Calmet notes: "They discovered at last, after much search, that

3363-417: Was buried "behind a fence, where the mother had lived" due to not having lived long enough to be baptized; Wutschiza (Serbian Vučica , a nine-year-old boy), Milosova (Serbian Milosava , a 30-year-old wife of a hajduk ), Radi (Serbian Rade , a 24-year-old man), and Ruschiza (Serbian Ružica , a 40-year-old woman). The sick had complained of stabs in the sides and pain in the chest, prolonged fever and jerks of

3422-626: Was intended for cutting wood. In the mid-17th century hajduk-style infantry largely fell out of fashion in Poland-Lithuania, and were replaced by musket -armed infantry of Western style. However, commanders or hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to maintain their own liveried bodyguards of hajduks, well into the 18th century as something of a throwback to the past, even though they were now rarely used as field troops. In imitation of these bodyguards, in

3481-439: Was undecomposed, the hair and beard were grown, there were "new skin and nails" (while the old ones had peeled away), and blood could be seen in the mouth. After that, the people, who "grew more outraged than distressed", proceeded to stake the body through the heart, which caused a great amount of "completely fresh" blood to flow through the ears and mouth of the corpse. Finally, the body was burned. Frombald concludes his report on

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