Assignment VI

To begin with, I was rather pleasantly surprised to discover mention of the Varcolac in the beginning, and further on, even mention of the Penangglan, a bizarre creature which lives as a woman during the day and at night detaches her head and flys about, trailing her entrails and savaging people. Of course, if you've read the book, you'll already know this. I was disappointed by the lack of mention of the vampire cat of Kyoto.
It seems that all vampire myths have in common one element-- the ingestion of blood or flesh, generally by mouth, frequently by a reanimate dead human or some manner of monster involving the pieces of a dead human, or a noctournal animal. Occasionally, this blood is replaced by some other form of lifesource, generally energy, though there is a legend (not mentioned) of a vampire killer sucking away spinal fluid rather than energy, life, or blood.
Any culture which has a vampire mythos has a method of preventing vampirism in their dead, ranging from a nail through the skull, aerial burials, and stakes through the center of the sternum or the heart, to burning, the burial of suicides at a crossroads, and the prevention of animals stepping on the grave of the deceased. One even involved the rather archaic practice, usually said to pertain only to witches and demons, of crossing running water.
Thus far, I find the book utterly satisfactory. It covers very nicely the more obscure ends of the vampire spectrum, though with a notable lack of mention given to asian vampire myths (vampire cats, floating cannibal heads, etc), and with a considerable amount given to european vampires, though one supposes this is only fitting. Overall, a good choice for a class basis, likely to fill in blanks for anyone used to pansy modern vampires, and likely to satisfy lovers of the more obscure side.