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responds they will die soon after. The 'Brucolaco' is a nefarious Greek vampire. The 'Myertovjec' haunted the European Russians; he roamed about from midnight to early dawn and Russians peasants were on the lookout for creatures with purple swollen faces during those hours. Other tribes and civilizations through the years had their own hideous creatures of the vampire myth.

Recognition of a vampire differs from one culture to another - It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, Vampires in many European legends were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in color; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. There are many different characteristics of vampires i.e. In Transylvanian tales, the vampires were gaunt, pale, and had long fingernails, while those from Bulgaria the creature only had one nostril, and Bavarian vampires slept with thumbs crossed and one eye open. Some were reported to be able to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths. (And in the Tropics - we have the 'bloodsucker', a term for any animal that drinks blood.)
But the most notorious creature among the vampires was the Transylvania Countess Erzsebet Bathory, who lived from 1560 to 1614, who killed more that 650 young women, sipped their blood, and then bathed in the red liquid drained from their bodies. From the elixir of their blood she believed would keep her young forever. She had many of her own servant girls killed simply to obtain more blood to soak in. For this, she is historically referred to as the "Blood Countess. History records the downfall of this nefarious creature; Countess Erzsebet Bathory was found kneeling over the dead body of a townsperson, blood dripping from her exposed fangs. She was tried as a witch, convicted, and sentenced to death later commuted to life imprisonment in a windowless room. Fortunately for all concerned, she died three years later.
Now for some preventive measures against vampires:
1) You can keep a vampire in his grave by nailing his clothes to the coffin walls; this will also prevent him from eating the shroud.
2) You can by opening the grave of a kin and checking to see if the corpse has become one of the undead. A child's grave would be opened after three years, a young person would be given five years before the opening, and an adult would be checked after seven years.
3) Also one could try placing a headstone over the grave;

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