y as opposed to klephtic Greek.]
[110] {123} The freshness of the face [? "_The paleness of the face_,"
MS.] and the wetness of the lip with blood, are the never-failing signs
of a Vampire. The stories told in Hungary and Greece of these foul
feeders are singular, and some of them most _incredibly_ attested.
[Vampires were the reanimated corpses of persons newly buried, which
were supposed to suck the blood and suck out the life of their selected
victims. The marks by which a vampire corpse was recognized were the
apparent non-putrefaction of the body and effusion of blood from the
lips. A suspected vampire was exhumed, and if the marks were perceived
or imagined to be present, a stake was driven through the heart, and the
body was burned. This, if Southey's authorities (J. B. Boyer, Marquis
d'Argens, in _Lettres Juives_) may be believed, "laid" the vampire, and
the community might sleep in peace. (See, too, _Dissertations sur les
Apparitions_, par Augustine Calmet, 1746, p. 395, _sq_., and _Russian
Folk-Tales_, by W. R. S. Ralston, 1873, pp. 318-324.)]
[111] [For "Caloyer," see _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza xlix. line
6, and note 21, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 130, 181. It is a hard
matter to piece together the "fragments" which make up the rest of the
poem. Apparently the question, "How name ye?" is put by the fisherman,
the narrator of the first part of the _Fragment_, and answered by a monk
of the fraternity, with whom the Giaour has been pleased to "abide"
during the past six years, under conditions and after a fashion of which
the monk disapproves. Hereupon the fisherman disappears, and a kind of
dialogue between the author and the protesting monk ensues. The poem
concludes with the Giaour's confession, which is addressed to the monk,
or perhaps to the interested and more tolerant Prior of the community.]
[du] {124} _As Time were wasted on his brow_.--[MS.]
[dv] {125} _Of foreign maiden lost at sea_.--[MS.]
[dw] {127}
_Behold--as turns he from the--wall_
_His cowl fly back, his dark hair fall_.--[ms]
[A variant of the copy sent for insertion in the Seventh Edition differs
alike from the MS. and the text--]
_Behold as turns him from the wall_--
_His Cowl flies back--his tresses fall_--
_That pallid aspect wreathing round_.
[dx] _Lo! mark him as the harmony_.--[MS.]
[dy] _Thank heaven--he stands without the shrine_.--[MS. erased.]
[dz] {128}
_Must burn before it
|