Greece Modern
Although superstition is rife in the Hellenic archipelago it partakes more of the nature of Slavonic tradition than that of the ancient inhabitants of the country, and is more or less petty and ill-defined. But the most notable circumstance in modern Greek superstition is that which relates to Vampirism. The Vampire is called Broucolack by the modern Hellenes, and appears to date from mediæval times. Says Calmet, "It is asserted by the modern Greeks, in defence of their schism, and as a proof that the gift of miracles, and the episcopal power of the keys, subsists in their church more visibly and evidently than in the church of Rome, that, with them, the bodies of excommunicated persons never rot, but swell up to an uncommon size, and are stretched like drums, nor ever corrupt or fall to dust, till they have received absolution from some bishop or priest. And they produce many instances of carcasses which have been in their graves uncorrupted, and which have afterwards putrefied as soon as the excommunication was taken off."
We "They do not, however, deny that a body's not corrupting is sometimes a proof of sanctity, but in this case they expect it to send forth an agreeable smell, to be white or ruddy, and not black, stinking, and swelled like a drum, as the bodies of excommunicated persons generally are. are told, that in the time of Manuel, or Maximus, patriarch of Constantinople, the Turkish emperor having the mind to know the truth of the Greek notion concerning the incorruption of excommunicated bodies, the patriarch ordered the grave of a woman, who had lived in a criminal commerce with an archbishop of Constantinople, to be opened. Her body being found entire, black and much swelled, the Turks put it into a chest, under the emperor's seal, and the patriarch having repeated a prayer, and given absolution to the deceased, the chest was opened three days after and the body was found reduced to ashes. It is also a notion which prevails among the Greeks, that the bodies of these excommunicated persons frequently appear to the living, both day and night, and speak to them, call upon them, and disturb them several other ways. "
Leo Allatius is very particular upon this head, and says, that in the isle of Chio, the inhabitants never answer the first time they are called, for fear of its being a spectre; but if they are called twice, they are sure it is not a Broucolack (this is the name they give these spirits). If any one appears at the first call, the spectre disappears, but the person certainly dies. "
They have no way to get rid of these evil genii, but to dig up the body of the person that has appeared, and burn it after having repeated over it certain prayers. By this means the body being reduced to ashes, appears no more. And they look upon it as a clear case, that either these mischievous and spiteful carcasses come out of their graves of their own accord, and occasion the death of the persons that see or speakto them; or that the devil himself makes use of these bodies to frighten and destroy mankind. They have hitherto discovered no remedy which more infallibly rids them of these plagues, than to burn or, mangle the bodies which were made use of for these cursed purposes. Sometimes the end is answered by tearing out the heart and letting the bodies rot above ground before they burn them again, or by cutting off the head, or driving a large nail through the temples.
Sir Paul Rycaut, in his History of the Present State of the Greek Church, observes, that the opinion that, excommunicated bodies are preserved from putrefaction, prevails, generally, not only among the Greeks, but also among the Turks, and he gives us a fact which he had from a Caloyer of Candia, who confirmed it to him upon oath. The caloyer's name was Sophronius, a man well known and respected in Smyrna.
There died in the island of Milo, a man, who was excommunicated for a fault which he had committed in the Morea, and he was buried in a private place, without any ceremonies, and in unconsecrated ground. His relations and friends expressed great dissatisfaction at his being treated in this manner, and very soon after the inhabitants of the island were tormented every night by frightful apparitions, which they attributed to this unhappy man. Upon opening the grave his body was found entire, and his veins swelled with blood, and a consultation being held upon the subject, the caloyers dismembering his body, cutting it in pieces, and boiling it in wine, which, it seems, is the usual manner of proceeding there in those cases. However, the friends of the deceased prevailed upon them, by dint of entreaty, to delay the execution, and in the meantime sent to Constantinople to get absolution for him from the patriarch. Till the messenger could return the body was laid in the church, and prayers and masses were said daily for the repose of his soul. One day while Sophronius, the caloyer above mentioned, was performing the service, there was heard on a sudden a great noise in the coffin, and upon examination the body was found reduced to ashes, as if it had been dead seven years. Particular notice was taken of the time when the noise was heard, and it was found to be the very morning when the absolution was signed by the patriarch. Sir Paul Rycaut, who has recorded this event, was neither a Greek nor Roman Catholic, but a staunch Protestant of the Church of England.
He observes upon this occasion, that the notion among the Greeks is, that an evil spirit enters into the excommunicated carcass and preserves it from corruption by performing the usual functions of the human soul in a living body. They fancy, moreover, that these corpses eat by night, and actually digest and are nourished by their food; that several have been found of a fresh, ruddy colour, with their veins ready to burst with blood, full forty days after their death, and that upon being opened there has issued from them as large a quantity of warm fresh blood as would come from a young person of the most sanguine constitution. And this opinion prevails so universally, that every one is furnished with a story to this purpose. Father Theophilus Raynard, author of a particular treatise upon this subject, asserts that this coming again of deceased Greece persons is an undoubted truth, and supported by unquestionable facts. But to pretend that these spectres are always excommunicated persons, and that the schismatical Church of Greece has a privilege of preserving from putrefaction the bodies of those that die under her sentence, is what cannot be maintained, since it is certain that excommunicated bodies rot as well as others, and that several who have died in the communion of the church, Greek as well as Roman, have continued uncorrupted. There have even been instances of this nature among the heathens, and frequently among other animals, whose carcasses have been found unputrefied in the ground, and among the ruins of old buildings. Whoever will examine more accurately into this matter, may consult father Goard's Rituel des Grecs, p. 687, 688. Matthew Paris's History of England, t. ii. p. 687. Adam of Bremen, c. ixxv. Albert of Stade, under the year 1050; and M. Ducange, Glossar. Latinit, at the word "Imblocatus."
M. De Tournefort has given, in his travels, an account of the digging up an imaginary Broucolack in the island of Mycone, where he was on the 1st of January, 1701. His words are as follow:-" We were present at a very different scene in the same island, upon occasion of one of those dead corpses, which they suppose to come to life again after their burial. The man, whose story I am going to relate, was a peasant in Mycone, naturally ill-natured and quarrelsome (a circumstance of consequence in such cases); he was murdered in the fields, nobody knew how, or by whom. "
Two days after his being buried in a chapel in the town it was noised about that he was seen in the night walking about in a great hurry; that he came into houses and tumbled about their goods, griped people behind, and played a thousand little monkey tricks. At first it was only laughed at, but it soon grew to be a very serious affair when the better sort of people joined in the complaint. The Papas themselves gave credit to it, and no doubt had their reasons for so doing. Masses, to be sure, we said, but the peasant was incorrigible, and continued his old trade. After several meetings of the chief people of the town, and of the priests and monks, it was concluded to be necessary, in obedience to some old ceremonial, to wait till nine days after the burial. "
On the tenth day, a mass was said in the chapel where the body lay, in order to drive out the devil, which was imagined to have taken possession of it. When the mass was over the body was taken up, and preparations were made for pulling out its heart. The butcher of the town, an old clumsy fellow, began with opening the belly instead of the breast. He groped a long while among the entrails without finding what he looked for, till at last somebody said he should cut up the diaphragm, and then the heart was pulled out, to the admiration of the spectators. In the meantime the carcass stunk so abominably that they were obliged to burn frankincense but the smoke mixing with the fumes of the corpse, increased the stink and began to heat the poor people's brains. Their imagination, already affected with the spectacle before them, grew full of whimsies, and they took it into their heads that a thick smoke came from the body; nor durst we say that it was only the smoke of the incense. "
In the chapel and the square before it they were incessantly bawling out Broucolack, which is the name they give to these pretended redivivi. From hence the bellowing was communicated to the streets and seemed to be invented on purpose to split the roof of the chapel. Several there present averred that the blood of the offender was red, and the butcher swore that the body was still warm, whence they concluded that the deceased was guilty of a heavy crime for not being thoroughly dead, or rather for suffering himself to be re-animated by the devil, which is the notion they have of a Broucolack. They then roared out that word in a stupendous manner. Just at this time there came in a flock of people, who loudly protested that they plainly saw the body was not grown stiff when it was carried from the fields to the church to be buried, and that consequently it was a true Broucolack, which word continued to be the burden of the song. "
I question not but they would have sworn it did not stink if we had not been there so thoroughly were their heads turned upon this occasion, and so strongly were they infatuated with the notion of these spectres. As for us, we got as close to the body as we could, that we might observe what passed more exactly, and were almost poisoned with the stink. When they asked us what we thought of the corpse we told them we believed it to be completely dead, and having a mind to cure, or, at least, not to exasperate their prejudices, we presented to them that it was no wonder the butcher should feel some warmth, by groping in the entrails, which were then putrefying, that it was no extraordinary thing for it to emit fumes since the same will happen upon turning up a dunghill, and that as for the pretended redness of the blood, it was still visible by the butcher's hands, that it was a mere stinking nasty smear. "
After all our reasoning they resolved upon going to the sea-shore, and there burning the dead man's heart. But, notwithstanding this execution, he did not grow more peaceable, but made more noise than ever. He was accused of beating people in the night, breaking down doors, and even roofs of houses, shattering windows, tearing clothes, and emptying casks and bottles. It was a ghost of a very thrifty constitution; nor do I believe that he spared any house but the consul's, where we lodged. In the meantime nothing could be more deplorable than the condition of this island. Not a head in it but was turned ; the wisest among them were seized like the rest. In short, it was a real disorder of the brain, as dangerous as lunacy or madness. Whole families quitted their houses, and brought their beds from the remotest parts of the town into the great square, there to spend the night. Every one complained of some fresh insult, and nothing could be heard but groans at the approach of night. The most sensible people among them thought proper to retire into the country. "
When the prepossesion was so general, we thought it our best way to hold our tongues. Had we opposed it we should have been treated not only as fools, but as infidels. Indeed, how was it possible to bring a whole nation to its senses? Those who believed in their hearts that we doubted the truth of the fact, came and reproached us with our incredulity, and endeavoured to prove that there were such things as Broucolacks, by quotations out of the Buckler of Faith, written by father Richard, a Jesuit missionary. Their argument was this: He was a Latin, and therefore you ought to believe him, nor should we have got anything by denying the consequence. We were entertained every morning with a recital of the new pranks of this night-bird, who was even charged with being guilty of the most abominable sins. "
Some of the citizens, who were most zealous for the public good, took it into their heads that there had been a defect in the most essential part of the ceremony. They were of opinion that mass ought not to have been said, till after the heart had been pulled out. With this precaution they insisted that the devil must needs have been worsted, and would not have ventured to come again; whereas, by mass being said first, he had time enough given him to make off, and return to his post when the danger was over. "After all these wise reflections, they were as much perplexed as at first setting out. They meet night and Gregory morning, debate, and make processions for three days and three nights. The Papas are obliged to fast, and run from house to house with sprinklers on their hands. Holy water is plentifully scattered about, even to the washing of the doors, and filling the mouth of the poor Broucolack. "We repeated it so often to the magistrates, that we should not fail in Christendom to appoint a watch by night upon such an occasion, in order to observe what passed in the town, that at last they apprehended some vagabonds who had certainly a hand in these disorders; but either they were not the principal agents, or they were dismissed too soon. For two days after, to make themselves amends for the fast they had kept in prison, they begun to empty the wine casks of such as had been silly enough to leave their houses in the night, so that nothing was left but to have recourse again to prayers. "One day, as they were repeating a certain form, after having stuck a number of naked swords in the grave where the carcass lay (which they dug up three or four times a day to gratify the whim of whoever came by), an Albanian, who happened to be at Mycone, took upon him to pronounce with an air of great wisdom, that it was ridiculous to make use of the swords of Christians in such a case as this. "Are you so blind," says he, "as not to see that the hilt of these swords, being made in the form of a cross, hinders the devil from coming out of the carcass? I am surprised that you do not take the Turkish sabres." But the expedient of this wise personage had no effect: the Broucolack was still unruly; the whole island continued in a strange consternation, and they were utterly at a loss what saint to invoke, when all of a sudden, as if they had given one another the word, they begun to bawl all over the city that they had waited too long, that the Broucolack should be burned to ashes, and then they defied the devil to harbour there any longer, and that it was better to have recourse to this extremity, than to have the island totally deserted. For, in fact, several whole families had begun to pack up in order to retire to Syra or Tinos. "The magistrates, therefore, gave orders to carry the Broucolack to the point of St. George's Island, where they got ready a great pile, with pitch and tar, for fear the wood should not burn fast enough of itself. The remnant of this miserable carcass was thrown into it and soon consumed. It was the 1st of January, 1701, and we saw the flame as we returned from Delos. It might properly be called a rejoicing bonfire, as no more complaints were heard of the Broucolack. They only said that the devil had at last met with his match, and some ballads were made to turn him into ridicule. 66
It is a notion which prevails all over the Archipelago that the devil re-animates no carcasses but those of the Greek communion. The inhabitants of Santorini are terribly afraid of these bug-bears: those of Mycone, after their whims were dissipated, were equally afraid of a prosecution from the Turks, and from the bishop of Tinos. Not a single Papas would venture to be at St. George's when the body was burnt, for fear the bishop should insist upon a fee for their taking up and burning a body without his leave. As for the Turks, they did not fail, at their next visit, to make the Myconians pay heavily for their treatment of this poor devil, who became in every respect an object of abomination and horror to all the country." Greeley, Horace : (See Spiritualism.)