Fifteen years before, a soldier was quartered in a peasant's house in Haidamack, Hungary. While he was seated at the table with his host, a stranger came in and sat down with them. The soldier noticed the family acted terrified. The next day, his host died. When he asked about the incident, he was told that the stranger was the ghost of the host's father who had died over ten years before and came to give him notice of his impending death.
The soldier shared his experience with members of his regiment and the officers were made aware of this. The count was commissioned to investigate. He went to the peasant's house, accompanied by several officers, a notary and a surgeon and took depositions. They and other inhabitants of the village swore what the soldier had told him was true. The count ordered the body to be dug up and decapitated when it was found to be as if it had just died and the blood like a living person.
There was another vampyre that the count investigated. This man was dead for over thirty years and had visited his house during mealtime upon several occasions. The first time, he bit his brother in the neck and sucked his blood and the next two times, he did the same to one of his children and a servant. All three died instantly.
The count ordered the body dug up and the corpse was found in the same condition as the first. A large nail was driven through his temples. There was a third vampyre and his body was burned because he murdered two of his children by sucking their blood.
In 1732, Gleaner, a Dutch journal, put together a list of vampyre epidemics in Hungary, Moravia and Turkish Serbia. Many cases had been published in Germany between 1728 and 1734, indicating the interest in the Hungarian vampire epidemics.
But, Hungary was not alone in having vampyres. The belief was nearly universal throughout Europe. For easier reading, the beliefs are in the form of a table. Country: vampires' names, how "killed," how they become vampires:
Albania: Sampiro, Stake through the heart, Natural, by birth
Bavaria: Nachtzeher, Coin in mouth, Axe decapitation, Born with a second skin
