5 Deadly Vampires From Legends Around The World

1.      The Brahmaparusha

The Brahmaparusha vampire is the brain-eating vampire from India and it is creepier than many other vampires. The Brahmaparusha is a male vampire who has a strange habit of collecting its victim’s intestines as trophies and wearing them around its head like a turban, as a sign of power to show off how powerful he is. Pretty messed up right? This vampire’s ego doesn’t stop there because it would also pour its victims blood into a skull cup which it carries about for drinking blood.  Once the vampire had drunk its victim’s blood, it would proceed to crack the victim’s skull open, then feast on the brain, which happens to be its favourite part. Finally after the vampire would be done eating, it would tear open the victim and rip out their intestines which he would then wrap around his head and neck and wear them as a trophy. The vampire also has a big appetite and it would take more than a few victims before it got its fill.

It is unknown how these vampires were created. Some believe that it’s a demon who possesses a corpse or living person in order to keep feeding, and it begins to eventually destroy the host body from the inside. Unfortunately they are very fearsome and the only way to prevent being eaten is to run away and hide somewhere and hope that it doesn’t get you.

2.      The Aufhocker

The aufhocker is a German shapeshifting, vampire-like creature which doesn’t have an identifiable form.  The creature is known to take on a human shape, the form of animals, and at other times it can appear to be like a grotesque beast.  The aufhocker is said to most commonly take the form of a monstrously large dog, a little old woman, or a businessman.  The aufhocker is considered to be extremely dangerous and it is classed as a vampire because its preferred method of killing its victims is by ripping their throats out and sucking their blood.  The vampire is known to lurk in any place which you may think of being “cliche” for an evil entity to reside, such as graveyards, dark forests, a crossing at a road, and anywhere that someone has been murdered.

The vampire stalks lonely people whilst its hidden under the cover of night, then when its prey’s backs are turned, it proceeds to jump on top of their back, paralysing them as they try to escape.  There are two main ways in which the vampire’s unlucky victims are overpowered and brought down to the ground.  One method is that the victims are too frightened by the attack, that they lose consciousness and collapse, while others state that when the creature jumps on its victim’s backs, it continues to grow in size and weight, and for every step that the victim takes, the creature grows even larger, resulting in the victim collapsing under all of the weight.  The vampire can then enjoy its blood meal, as its victim lies helpless.

The aufhocker cannot be killed, but it can be frightened away by the sound or church bells, sunlight, and by the victim praying (Good luck to them!).  This is one more reason for some of us not to walk outside alone at night!

3.      The Azeman Vampire

The azeman is a vampire in folklore from Surinam, which is situated north of Brazil, and it is in South America.  This vampire can be male or female, and it has the ability to shape-shift into different animals which it uses to search for pray during the night, and it is not classified as “undead” because the vampire is a living person who chooses to transform at night, and who cannot be easily identified as a vampire when they are in their human form. 

Similar to many European vampires, the azeman has a very bad habit or obligation to count things, and people can use this as a way to distract the vampire during an attack and run to safety, defend their home from the threat of attack, or even distract the vampire until daylight.  A good way to protect yourself from this vampire is to put a pile of seeds in front of your house entrances and windows, so that the vampire will have to count them all before they are able to enter the premises.  Protecting yourself from a vampire and farming at the same time is like killing two birds with one stone right?

A way to discover who the vampire is, is to get a big pile of seeds and scatter them when you see the azeman, so that it will take a very long time to count them all, resulting in the process taking until morning, then the azeman turns into their human form, and it can be identified.  This type of vampire does not die when the sun shines on it, but if someone sees it transforming back into a human, they can use other “methods” to get rid of the vampire, before it gets rid of you.

4.      The Vampire from Berwik

In Berwik, England, there was once a vampire known as the Berwik vampire.  There once lived a religious man who everyone looked up to, but when he died, it was discovered that he had lived a life full of sin, and everyone disliked him afterwards.  The man died, possibly as a result of a plague, and since no one was too fond of the sins that he committed, he was denied to be buried in a normal graveyard, therefore his grave stood alone on unconsecrated grounds.

Soon after the man was buried, a pale apparition which resembled the man, was seen roaming the streets at night and attracting the attention of many dogs who followed him around, and barked endlessly all night long.  Residents were too afraid to walk outside at night, in case they crossed paths with the wicked creature and its hellhounds.  Disease began to spread around and some people thought that it was caused by the vile man getting revenge and spreading a plague.  A group of people eventually decided to try and fix the problem, therefore they went to the man’s grave during the day, dug him out, chopped his body into numerous pieces, then finally burned the body, in hope that this would destroy the undead phantom for good.  After all of this took place, the man ceased to wander the streets at night, and the loud barking of dogs also stopped, thus assuring the residents that evil had been vanquished and once again, they were free to walk the streets at night.  All did not go to well afterwards, because the plague returned to Berwik and many of its population perished, but many believed that it was caused by the previous presence of the vampire.

5.      The Jaracaca

The jaracaca is a vampire from Brazil, and isn’t quite like your everyday vampire.  The jaracaca usually appears in the shape of a snake, and it loves to drink blood and a woman’s breast milk!  The vampire slithers its way between a nursing mother and her child while the mother sleeps, and then it puts the end of its tail into the baby’s mouth in order to keep it quiet, so that it can then drink the mother’s breast milk undetected. 

This vampire prefers milk to blood, and will only drink blood from anyone if there is not enough milk available for it to drink until it is satisfied.  The jaracaca doesn’t only pose as a danger by drinking your blood, but it can also secret venom into its victims, which then results in the victim going crazy.  Waking up crazy isn’t something that most of us plan every night before we go to bed!

Top 10 Wartime Urban Legends That You Probably Didn't Know About

1.      The Angels of Mons 

The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British Army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I.

During the 22-23 August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force had their first big engagement in World War I against the Germans.  British troops were cornered and greatly outnumbered, but the advancing Germans fled from the battle.  Many British soldiers recalled seeing mysterious angel-like entities protecting them from the Germans, and this is believed to have caused the superior German army to flee the battlefield, and it also allowed the British troops to retreat.

2.      The Templar Knights and Robert the Bruce

There is an urban legend in which the Templar Knights helped Robert the Bruce battle against the English and win the Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314.

A small group of Templar Knights travelled to Scotland during the time that Robert the Bruce was fighting against the English.  The Knights joined the battle and helped Robert the Bruce destroy the enemy.  It’s unclear how Robert the Bruce won the battle, but historians argue that the Knights Templar were never there.

3.      Germany’s Factory for Corpses 

The Times released a story in 1917 about how Germany was recycling the dead bodies of soldiers in strange “Corpse Factories”.  The bodies were supposed to have been put into a big cauldron where they would be broken down, and fats, oils, and glycerine were used to make soap, and their bones were then ground down in order to make pig feed.

The rumours were purposely made by the British, and they continued to say that they were true, even when the Germans denied the allegations, and the rumours lasted until 1925.

The German public were very angry when they first thought that the rumours were true, but they were then upset when they later found out that they were untrue.  

Germany did have factories in which it would do this to animals, but they never did it to dead soldiers.

4.      The Wild Soldiers of World War I 

There were rumours during World War 1, that soldiers from the opposing sides had become crazy and deserted their posts, and that they would run wild and live in caves, villages, and abandoned trenches.  These soldiers were believed to only come out at night in order to collect food and clothing from the bodies of dead and drying soldiers.  It was also believed that the number of these soldiers had gotten so large that the military eventually had to kill them all with gas.

5.      Pippo, the Night Terror Plane of WWII 

One of the myths that came out during the Second World War was about a terrifying yet mysterious plane called Pippo.

Stories regarding Pippo were widespread throughout Italy.  The eerie plane’s origins seem to be a mystery, and many people felt as if the plane had always been about at night.  The plane wasn’t as innocent as it may sound, and it was said to always drop bombs onto buildings and villages which happened to be in its path.  The noise made from its engines also seemed to be unique, and this allowed it to be easily identified.

There are not any accepted sources to show that this plane was really in the war, and historians believe that the legend of the plane was created by people confusing it with real night fighter planes at night in the countryside.

6.      Prague’s Spring-Man, Perak 

A legend of a Spring-man was created during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia during WW2.  Perak was a mysterious man who supposedly waked the streets at night, hiding within the shadows, and able to accomplish impressive leaps, jumping over buildings and rivers in order to spread anti-German graffiti, and cause panic within the citizens, resulting in a decrease in the production of munitions and other materials which the Germans had the public producing for their armies.

There were rumours that Perak was an American or British secret agent, while others believed that he was a ghostly entity, while others believed that he was just an acrobat.

7.      Pigeons Collecting Iraqi Ransoms 

There was a strange urban legend during the war in Iraq involving kidnaps and homing pigeons.  Police in Iraq reported cases in which kidnappers had left homing pigeons in cages on the doorsteps of houses where someone had recently been kidnapped.  There would be a note stating that if they wanted to see the victim alive again, they would need to tie bank notes to the feet of the pigeons and release them at a certain time.  Kidnappers had supposedly begun to use this new tactic as a way of avoiding being caught by police when they would try and collect ransom money, since it would be pretty hard for the police to follow the pigeons to their location.

8.      The Amputee’s Letter/Phone Call 

There have been various versions of this sad urban legend throughout the years.  Many of them involve a soldier who calls his parents, and he tells them that he is coming home and if he can bring a friend to come live with them, who saved his life, but is missing an arm and a leg.  The parents refuse this, and tell their son that it would be a burden on them, then the son ends the call.  A few days later, the parents receive a call from the police telling them that their son had committed suicide and had fallen from a building.  When the parents go to the morgue to identify the body, they discovered that their son was missing an arm and a leg.

9.      Hitler the Carpet Eater 

There was an urban legend that Hitler liked to chew on carpets.  "Chewing the carpet" is a German idiom for somebody acting nervously.  William Shirer first wrote about this in his 1941 book Berlin Diary that Hitler was on the verge on a nervous breakdown, then lost control and leapt to the floor and began to chew on a carpet. 

It is believed that Shirer purposely misinterpreted the idiom as a way for Hitler’s enemies to joke about him.

10.   The Philadelphia Experiment 

There was a rumour during WWII, involving the United States conducting strange experiments and figuring out how to successfully time travel, how to make their Navy Destroyer, the USS Eldridge invisible, and even teleport it to other docks throughout the country. 

There were also rumours that the ship had reappeared in Philadelphia, and the crew were all mangled and screaming in agony.  Unsurprisingly, these rumours turned out to be untrue.