Vryolakas
(Vree-oh-LAC-az)
In the Republic of Macedonia there is a vampiric REVENANT known as a vryolakas. Like many of the vampiric REVENANTs from that region of the world, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, it is created when an animal such as a cat or dog jumps over the body before it is buried, when a person dies by murder or suicide, if a person eats meat that came from an animal that was killed by a werewolf, or when an evil person who used magic dies.
The vryolakas is active only between the hours of 10 P. M. and the first cock crow of the morning, as it is susceptible to sunlight. It will use that time to seek out unsuspecting people to drain dry of their blood. Vryolakas have a most unusual behaviour, even for a vampire, as it has an unexplainable compulsion to pour wine over its face. Some sources claim this is because in life it was a sloppy wine drinker and now in its unlife it is incapable of drinking from a glass. Other sources claim that the vryolakas is created when a person accidentally pours or splashed wine over the face of the deceased which is what causes triggers its vampiric resurrection.
Source:
- Ronay, Truth about Dracula, 22;
- Stefoff, Vampires, Zombies, and Shape-Shifters, 17;
- Volta, The Vampire, 149
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology Written by :Theresa Bane ©2010 Theresa Bane. All rights reserved