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!