ch Grettir had
so much difficulty in overcoming. To all who appreciate a shudder may
be recommended chap. xxxv. of "The Story of Grettir the Strong,"
translated from the Icelandic by E. Magnusson and W. Morris, 1869.

[416] The ordinary Modern-Greek word for a vampire, +vourkolakas+, he
says, "is undoubtedly of Slavonic origin, being identical with the
Slavonic name of the werwolf, which is called in Bohemian _vlkodlak_,
in Bulgarian and Slovak, _vrkolak_, &c.," the vampire and the werwolf
having many points in common. Moreover, the Regular name for a vampire
in Servian, he remarks, is _vukodlak_. This proves the Slavonian
nature (_die Slavicitaet_) of the name beyond all doubt.--"Volksleben
der Neugriechen," 1871, p. 159.

[417] In Crete and Rhodes, +katachanas+; in Cyprus, +sarkomenos+; in
Tenos, +anaikathoumenos+. The Turks, according to Mr. Tozer, give the
name of _vurkolak_, and some of the Albanians, says Hahn, give that of
+vourvolak-ou+ to the restless dead. Ibid, p. 160.

[418] Russian _vampir_, South-Russian _upuir_, anciently _upir_;
Polish _upior_, Polish and Bohemian _upir_. Supposed by some
philologists to be from _pit'_ = drink, whence the Croatian name for a
vampire _pijawica_. See "Songs of the Russian People," p. 410.

[419] Afanasief, _P.V.S._ iii. 558. The story is translated in full in
"Songs of the Russian People," pp. 411, 412

[420] In a most valuable article on "Vampirism" in the "Zeitschrift
fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde," Bd. iv. 1859, pp. 259-82.

[421] How superior our intelligence is to that of Slavonian peasants
is proved by the fact that they still drive stakes through supposed
vampires, whereas our law no longer demands that a suicide shall have
a stake driven through his corpse. That rite was abolished by 4 Geo.
iv. c. 52.

[422] Compare with this belief the Scotch superstition mentioned by
Pennant, that if a dog or cat pass over a corpse the animal must be
killed at once. As illustrative of this idea, Mr. Henderson states, on
the authority of "an old Northumbrian hind," that "in one case, just
as a funeral was about to leave the house, the cat jumped over the
coffin, and no one would move till the cat was destroyed." In another,
a colly dog jumped over a coffin which a funeral party had set on the
ground while they rested. "It was felt by all that the dog must be
killed, without hesitation, before they proceeded farther, and killed
it was." With us the custom survive