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engaged in the dark arts. In Romania one of the more feared living vampires was known as strigoi vii , which was a type of hag that had two hearts or souls. While they slept, one of their souls left the body and ranged the countryside, drinking the blood of the humans and livestock they came across or reanimating corpses at crossroads to waylay passersby.
    Similar to the strigoi vii is an entity of Slavic origin known as the mora , which issued forth from the body of a sleeping girl not properly baptized to cause nightmares, suffocation, and a type of wasting illness that sucked the life force from its victim. If the mora then happened to fall in love with her victim, she drank his blood as well.
    In addition, living vampires were said to have the unique power to take the “essence” from an object, which interfered with its normal ability to function properly. Therefore hens ceased to lay eggs or cows to give milk; they could even steal the “taste” from bread or the milk from a nursing mother’s breast. Living vampires were also blamed for spreading infectious diseases, such as the cholera epidemics that swept through Ukraine in the 1800s, where people were burned to death by their neighbors after being accused of being living vampires responsible for contagion. Another of the usual suspects to mark the list of living vampires were those who suffered from unexplained trances or sleepwalking. In Greece it was believed that those prone to somnambulist wanderings would be seized by an uncontrollable bloodlust and go forth biting and tearing at every man or beast they came across.
    In most cases, the powers or traits of the living vampire were considered hereditary and could be passed from one generation to the next. In certain southern Slavic folklore, this first began with the vampire starting off as an invisible shadow that gained strength as it sucked the lifeblood of the living. It then formed into a jelly-like mass that grew more defined, until at the end of forty days it had shaped itself into a human-like body identical to the one it had while it was alive. These vampires then, usually male, but in some rare stories female as well, traveled to another village where they were unknown to the inhabitants and married, producing offspring. The children in turn became living vampires who not only had the power to see invisible vampires but also to destroy them. Legend states that when these vampires finally died, they returned again to haunt the living as revenants.
    The final category of vampire is a catch-all, really, for some of the most obscure and unusual blood-drinking creatures to grace the early folklore of Europe. One of the more colorful such vampires was a murderous dwarf with a Scottish accent found in the border tales that circulated between Scotland and England. Known by the name redcap , this red-eyed, long-toothed, bloodthirsty fairy inhabited ruined castles and ambushed unsuspecting travelers. After lopping off their heads with heavy iron pikes, the redcaps dyed their hats in the blood of their victims—hence the name they were known by.
    This vile practice was more than a bad fashion statement, however, because if the blood were ever allowed to dry, the redcap would die. Despite wearing iron-shod boots, they were also renowned for their speed, and it was said to be impossible to outrun one. The only defense, therefore, was to recite biblical scripture aloud and make the sign of the cross, which was guaranteed to drive them away. In one popular legend, Lord William de Soulis, a Scottish border noble during the Wars of Scottish Independence, was rumored to have kept such a creature named Robin Redcap as a familiar. Unfortunately for Lord William, this particular redcap could not be contained very long even through the most powerful of dark arts, and it was soon wreaking havoc in the lands surrounding its master’s dwelling at Hermitage Castle. Eventually, Lord William was able to