The shapeshifting Vampire from Germany - 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 “cliché” 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!

The Azeman Vampire from South America

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 is similar to the Caribbean vampire, the loogaoo.  The two vampires share several traits such as the ability to shapeshift 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 the loogaoo and 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.  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 into the vampire, they can use other “methods” to get rid of the vampire, before it gets rid of you. 

Protecting yourself from a vampire and farming at the same time is like killing two birds with one stone right?  Not many things are worse than an OCD bat flying into your house to suck your blood.