Kharisiri’, also known as a ‘pishtaco’, this, in the Andean culture of Bolivia and Peru, is a bogey-man with superhuman powers, able to steal his victim’s fat, which he sells for industrial or pharmaceutical purposes. As a figure used to explain mysterious deaths or disease, the kharisiri is very similar to the European witch or vampire. The belief is still a living one as I write. Although Ficino proposes this, rather than recording actual occurrences, he also makes it quite clear that blood was indeed used as a She said upon completion of this treatment he would remove the “cataract” from his mouth. (I think he must have placed it there before the treatment) and show it to the audience and, of course, the “patient” would declare that his eyesight had been restored.’ the papal states; that he banned the theses of the celebrated philosopher, Pico della Mirandola; and that, ‘irresolute [and] lax’, he oversaw a reign in which there ‘could be no question of church reform’ Choose the carcass of a red man, whole, clear without blemish, of the age of twenty four years, that hath been hanged, broke upon a wheel, or thrust-through, having been for one day and night exposed to the open air, in a serene time. Cut into small pieces or slices, and sprinkle with powder of myrrh and aloes, before repeatedly macerating in spirit of wine. It should then be hung up to dry in the air’, after which ‘it will be like flesh hardened in smoke’ and ‘without stink’.

Richard Sugg’s excellent book opens up a lost world of magic and medicine. This rich and authoritative account of beliefs about the medical efficacy of dead bodies is a fascinating, if gruesome, eye-opener." Book of Secrets. This work would become immensely popular, running through innumerable editions and at least seven languages.66

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Chill stone floors; cloaked and hooded figures; faint bubbling murmur of red liquid, distilling through tubes and vessels on a table where Baker and his fellow surgeon, Clowes, played a particularly important role in mediating between these street mountebanks and the or marmalade.56 Almost a hundred years after the supposed transfusion described by Infessura, we find that human blood has a status

of this history. Life in such times was hard, not just because relatively little science and technology stood between you and nature, but broad types of ‘mummy’ (excepting, for now, the outrightly counterfeit forms to be examined in chapter three). One is mineral pitch; stage. Lit by the uncanny glow of a lamp filled with human blood, this second edition includes new material on exo-cannibalism, skull medicine, the blood-drinking

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the astrologer Simon Forman. As Lauren Kassell points out, a casebook of 1607–10 lists various human ingredients, including ‘urine, an attempt to revive his failing powers. The attempt was not successful. Innocent himself also died soon after, on 25 July.38 For many readers, the idea of medicinal cannibalism now seems not just hypocritical, but disgusting. Chapter five explores the possibility that, when so much of ordinary life was so disgusting, it was not really possible to be disgusted. Elizabeth I, notably much cleaner than her successor James, took a bath once a month, ‘whether she needed it or not’. James urinated in the saddle whilst hunting, to save the trouble of dismounting, had head lice, and never changed his clothes until they wore out. Those who were more fastidious than their king or queen were themselves constantly assailed with the sight or stench of urine, excrement, and rotting or slaughtered animals.

The Secret History of the Soul: Physiology, Religion and Spirit Forces from Homer to St Paul (Cambridge Scholars, 2013) after it was written. There seem, then, to have been medically authorised vampires abroad in Germany and Spain (and perhaps England) the Queen’s sometime Secretary of State) for gout, and was accordingly made a ‘denizen’ of the country by Elizabeth in winter 1574. manage to live down to the standards of Alexander or Sixtus. But various historians have noted that he made a pretty commendable effort.Some years later, Brophy and St Clair gained an update on this saga. (Brace yourselves here.) Not very wisely, Theodore had switched his attentions to the girl’s sister, Marynka, and eloped with her. They also produced a child. As a result, Marynka’s house was burned, she was thrown in prison, and her vampire child put to death. If anyone can think of a good title for a film in which Romeo and Juliet stray into the plot of Twilight, many thanks… [10] 1 The vampires of New England

Graveyards Supposedly Haunted By Vampires 10 The real vampires could not give a damn about fictional stereotypes even chewing their own nails, this was a significant act of autocannibalism.11 Blood, as I have said, is not so obviously disposable as

sorts was used chiefly against internal or external bruising and bleeding. It was usually powdered, and applied externally in the form of