Scarlett Memories

Yet another strange mix of traditions is the story of the Tirnova vampires, based on a letter written by Ahmet Sukru Effendi, that was sent in 1833 to Istanbul.
They have elements of ghost stories intertwined since it was reported that they would roam the village at night spoiling the food, messing up people’s belongings and throwing stones at people. Note that there was no blood sucking involved!
The hysteria became to widely spread that some families even started to relocate to other regions.
In an effort to save the community an exorcist called Nikola was brought in and paid [supposedly with 800 Kurus – currency at that time] to rid the people of their plague.
He used a stick and a Saint icon to locate the graves that needed to be opened, and, with the aid of the village elders proceeded to the examination.
They only found 2 suspicious graves, those of soldiers who`s corpses were found to be bloated, with grown hair and nails.
Nikola decided that a stake should be driven through the stomach, the heart should be cut out and boiled, while the rest of body was to be cremated.

๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Vampire Accounts
† Legends