Mulo

Mulo literally means “a dead one” is believed to be a gypsy vampire.  They believed that any form of death is not normal and viewed as a deliberate attack from evil.  They think that anyone is in danger of turning into a vampire especially if the death is caused by an unexpected accident or a suicide.

People who became vampires would prey on those people that cause their death and do ill things toward them when they are still alive.  Mulo would come after those people close to them that didn’t destroy their belonging and also to those people who failed to commence a proper burial ritual.

Mulo usually appear like a normal human, but can be identified when one of their body parts is missing such as a finger.  But there are also Mulo that would take a vicious appearance making it easier for us to identify them.

Male Gypsies who turned into a vampire were known to have a very strong sexual appetite.  They will return to the land of the living to have a sexual relationship with their girlfriend, wife and other women.  Female on the other hand would come back and appear as a normal human being.  There were also instances were female Mulo would have the chance to get married but their husband would eventually die cause the female Mulo would exhaust his life force.

Only a dhampir, another type of vampire can detect a mulo. Upon revealing the true identity of the Mulo, one can perform the traditional way of exorcising vampires such as driving an iron stake to their chest, decapitating the corpse or in some cases burning their remains.  Some Gypsies also perform staking hawthorn to their head, stomach and heart.

In order to drive away the evil creature, one should puncture iron needles into the heart of the Mulo.  Steel should then be placed in its mouth, eyes, ears, and in between the fingers before the burial.  But most of the time Gypsies don’t think that it is necessary to kill a Mulo as it only has 40 days to live.