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devoured its own corpse and burial clothes. Also rumored to become vampires were those born under inauspicious circumstances, such as the seventh son of a seventh son or the illegitimate child of illegitimate parents. Even being born on the wrong day was enough to do the trick in some regions. Christmas Day for one was said to be a bad time to be born, as it meant a person would become a vampire after death as divine punishment for the presumptuousness of his mother in daring to give birth on the same day as the holy Virgin Mary.
    Birth defects and other physical oddities that set one apart from the rest of the village also played a part in marking those fated to become such creatures. Early men often viewed physical defects as an expression of some deeper spiritual deficiency or curse. Probably the most common was the presence of the caul at the birth of an infant. The caul is a thin membranous sac that covers the baby’s face and body during birth, and if it remained intact it was thought to be an omen that the child would grow to acquire supernatural powers for good or evil. If, unfortunately, the thin, filmy membrane burst and the infant swallowed part of it, he was doomed to become a vampire.
    Among the Kashubians of Poland, the caul was saved until the child’s seventh birthday, when it was reduced to ashes and fed to the child as an antidote against vampirism. Numerous other traits existed that branded one as a future vampire, including physical deformities such as a hunchback or an unusual birthmark. In Greece, merely having eyebrows that grew too closely together meant you were singled out for the fate.
    The second method of becoming a vampire was reserved for those who lived what the early Christian church deemed an evil or unholy life. The offense was applied to anyone, from church heretics and priests who took mass in a “state of sin” to murderers and other criminals. In some regions, simple acts such as stealing the ropes used to lower a coffin into the grave or eating the meat of animals killed by wolves was enough to receive this punishment. The worst offenders, of course, were those who sold their soul to the devil or engaged in the practice of witchcraft. This included living vampires, werewolves, or the offspring of evil unions between witches and devils, all of whom continued on as undead revenants after death. In addition to the curse being a sort of divine retribution for living a life of wickedness, it also meant that the person would not be buried in consecrated ground. Instead of internment in a churchyard, such people suffered the ignoble fate of being buried in secret at lonely crossroads or in unmarked gravesites so that their spirits could not find their way back home. In such a state the corpse became more than just food for the worms, but a corrupted vessel that all manner of evil spirits and demons could possess to meet their own bloodthirsty needs.
    The third method revolved around one of early man’s misconceptions of sudden or unexplained death. Although the average life expectancy of the Eastern European peasant was much shorter than ours today, unexpected deaths were still a bit of a shock back then. In the thought process of our ancestors, death was an unnatural event that if transpired before its time could leave a spirit wandering aimlessly throughout the land looking for revenge. Being killed by wild animals in the forest, dying alone, drowning, murder, and suicide were all examples of an untimely death. Even passing away on the wrong day could be an accursed event, as in some Southern Slavic countries, where dying between Christmas and the celebration of the Epiphany meant one might return as a vampire. The Wallachians often equated the sudden occurrence of death to an attack by a vampire and took great precautions when burying those who had died mysteriously.
    Besides unexplained deaths, another obviously effective way was to die at the hands of a vampire. In most