Lampir

Lampir is a Bosnian Vampire.  It is different to other types of vampire creatures since when it was still alive, a lampir is a werewolf and when it dies it is resurrected into a vampire.  The Lampir also took the blame for a massive death caused by an unknown contagious disease that happened in Bosnia.

In 1906 a young male who lived in the village close to Vlasenitza died on typhus but the villagers claimed that a lampir was responsible for his death.  After his death, his wife soon felt sick.  She told the villagers that her husband became a lampir and was visiting her every night to feast on her blood.  The villagers were alarmed about their news that they quickly sent a resolution allowing them to exhume the body of her husband.  As expected on that time, the permission was denied and the vampire scare grew stronger.  All in all there were an estimated 15 number of deaths on the said place that was blamed on the lampir.  The people on the town testified that they saw the lampir and in some case heard them.

But before these incidents, in 1878, when the Austrian government took control of the Bosnian Empire, they were stunned to see so many signs of suspected lampir being burned into a stake.  The belief of the Bosnian on Lampir is too strong that they leave a knife on the casket of the deceased to prevent it from rising up or in some cases they would struck a knife on the dead man’s head.

There were a lot of people suspected to be a lampir.  Paja Tomic, Meho of Glamoc and a man named Korkut of Nevesinje were only some of the most popular cases of lampir hysteria.   The case of Paja Tomic was even reported in the local news paper:

“…an old peasant Paja Tomic…died…the 9^th of April this year.  Shortly after his death, his wife Cvija began to complain that her dead husband had begun to return nights as a ghost and that he ran throughout the house scaring the inhabitants…”