With the mass proliferation of Dracula, Blade, and the Twilight books and movies, most people's ideas about vampires overlap a fair amount. There may be some debate over whether or not they glitter but you show someone a photo of a pale, fanged man in cape with a widow's peak and they'll call him a vampire. Like many monsters and boogeymen, vampire myths are actually found in many different cultures. Bloodsucking is a consistent characteristic of vamps the world round, but, beyond that, each ancient Cullen predecessor has their own unique lore.
RELATED: How the Vampire Myth Started
RELATED: How the Vampire Myth Started
The Chiang Shih is a vampiric myth from China. It's a vampire created when a corpse (of someone who died a violent death and was buried improperly) is possessed by a demon. The Chiang Shih has long claws and teeth, glowing red eyes, and is covered with white or green hair. It's breath is toxic and, if it reaches maturity, it can fly and change into a wolf. Vampire stories like this from China, Tibet, and India traveled with goods to Eastern Europe. Once there, the stories grew and changed. Just about anything that made someone different could also make them a likely undead bloodsucker. Illegitimate children, the seventh son of the seventh son, and nuns who stepped over an unburied body were all potential vamps. Pregnant women who were looked at were at risk of giving birth to a vampire, especially if the gaze fell after month six.
This isn't true in all cases but common evidence for the existence of vampires came from misunderstanding of disease. When someone fell ill and died, family members and others close to them often also got sick, sometimes leading to further death. Without knowledge about germ theory, many people came to blame the cursed or troubled spirit of the deceased for the suffering of the living.
Watch more Seeker:
The Bizarre History of Blood Transfusions
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Smithsonian: Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Abroad