The story was originally published in N.I. Dumitrascu‘s “Strigoi – din credintele, datinile si povestirile poporului roman, cap. XXXVIII” [The undead – from the beliefs, customs and tales of the Romanian people, chapter 38], published in Bucharest in 1927.
We aren`t given an exact date so the only thing we can be sure of is the fact that it happened before 1927 and based on the events I can guarantee that we are not talking about the ~cripple of Cujmir~ – in fact there is nothing that links the two stories, other than the fact that both happened in Cujmir [in the modern day region of Mehedinti, Romania].
In Cujmir, another family began to show very frequent deaths, and suspicion fell on a certain old man, dead long ago.
When they dug him up, they found him sitting up like a Turk, and as red as red, just like fire; for had he eaten up nearly the whole of a family of strong, young men.
When they tried to get him out he resisted, unclean and horrible.
They gave him some blows with an axe, they got him out, but they could not cut him with a knife. They took a scythe and an axe, cut out his heart and liver, burnt them, and gave them to the sick folk to drink.
They drank, and regained their health.
The old man was reburied, and the deaths ceased.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this case is the fact that the vampire isn`t immobile during the vanquishing ritual. Rather than that he seams to be putting up quite a fight since the villagers need to bring in axes and even a scythe to open him up.
Also, the state that he is in [“red as red, just like fire”] is different than the usual found with no signs of decay.
You will find this case mentioned in books such as Montague Summers`s “The Vampire in Europe” and Adrien Cremene`s “Mythology of the vampire in Romania”
๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Vampire Accounts
† Legends
