The Blau/Blow of Bohemia

The incident the happened during the 14^th Century involves an alleged vampire which they gave the nickname Blau or the Blow Vampire. Myslata works as a herdsman in a town near Kadam in Bohemia.  After Myslata died, people stated that he appeared before them, some people claimed that they saw him walking on daylight and calling those people that he recognized.  Those people will then die an unexplainable death.

After such incident, they decided to exhume the body of Myslata and stake his heart hoping that it will put an end to the haunting of the blow vampire.  But that night Myslata appeared as a more vicious vampire.  Attacking some villagers and even taunting them that those stakes that was placed in his heart would only work on dogs.

The next morning the villagers decided to unearth his corpse again and stake it, but this time they use a stake made with whitethorn, which they believe contains magical ability to repel vampiric manifestation.  The villagers declared that they heard the corpse scream and agonized.

Neplach recorded the event in his chronicle written in 1336.

“In Bohemia near Cadanus a league from a village calledBlau a certain shepherd called Myslata died. Rising everynight he made the rounds of the villages and spoke topeople, terrifying and killing them. And while he wasbeing impaled with a stake, he said, “They injured meseverely, when they gave me a stick with which to defendmyself from dogs.” And when he was being exhumed forcremation, he had swelled like an ox and bellowed in adreadful manner. And when he was placed in the fire,someone, seizing a stake, drove it in him and immediatelyblood burst forth as from a vessel. Moreover, when he wasexhumed and placed on a vehicle, he drew in his feet as ifalive, and when he was cremated, all the evil ceased, andbefore he was cremated, whomever he called by name atnight died within eight days.”

Charles Ferdinand de Schertz also documented it in his Magia Posthuma and also mentioned in the book of Dom Calmet entitled “Dissertation sur les Revenants en Corps, les Excommuniés, Les Oupirs ou Vampires, Brucolaques, etc.”

According to him:

"He (de Schertz) reports ... about a shepherd from the village of Blow, close to the town of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared several times (after his death) and who called at several persons, who all died within 8 days. The peasants of Blow disinterred the corpse of this shepherd and fixed it to the earth with a long stake that they had put through the corpse. That man, in that state, made fun of the people who treated him this way, and thanked them for providing him with a stick to keep away the dogs. That same night, he left his grave and frightened several people by his presence, and strangled them worse than he had done before. They called in the executioner, who put him on a wagon to transport him out of the village to be burned. This corpse cried out like a madman and moved his feet and hands as if alive; and when he was again pierced by stakes, he screamed out very loud and gave out very red blood in large quantities. Finally he was cremated, and this execution put an end to this spectre."