Kozlak: Poltergeist Vampire

Most vampires are born due to a curse, living a life of sin, or breaking a promise.  However, this is not the way you can turn into a Kozlak vampire.  Apparently, one turns into this beast if a mother fails to breastfeed her child correctly. In the Philippines, they also have a baby vampire called Tianak. Unlike the Kozlak, the Tianak is a fetus who died from abortion. According to the legends, the beast will return to enact vengeance on the people who caused its untimely death.

 

How to Turn into a Kozlak Vampire

If a baby dies after the mother forgot to nourish the kid with enough breast milk or died violently, then the baby is sure to return from the land of the living as a vampire. The baby would rise from its grave, terrorizing the whole town and sending disease to the livestock.  The Kozlak Vampire usually takes the form of an animal that can fly, such as a small bird or a bat.

 

Adult Vampire

 

There are some stories wherein an adult dies violently and becomes a Kozlak Vampire.  They said that this type of vampire has proved to be more troublesome compared to the baby Kozlak.  They will dig on their grave and torment their own family by tearing their throat.  The locals believed that only a Franciscan monk could help you in a battle against Kozlak.  They can lend you an amulet that is supposed to drive the evil spirit away; he also knows how to kill this creature.

 

How to Kill the Kozlak

 

The monk has to search for a hawthorn, not just any type of hawthorn; a hawthorn must grow into the mountain.  The Franciscan monk then has to create a stake out of the hawthorn and impale the corpse's heart.  They believe that by doing so, the dead body's contract with the demon will be revoked, and his link to the evil presence would break, freeing the soul of the dead body.  But it doesn't end there.  The monk then has to decapitate the corpse's head and stuff his mouth with cloves of garlic.  By that time, they can rebury the carcass, and the attack of the Kozlak Vampire should stop.

 

 

In some cases, a Kozlak Vampire would like to enter the house of a housewife and throw random stuff (most of the time kitchenwares).  In other instances where they spotted a Kozlak on the farm, the creature would pull the wagon and would make an annoying noise.  The people believed that one should not sweep on the room of the deceased for several days to prevent him from becoming a Kozlak.