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feeding off blood. All these signs would be interpreted as evidence of the fact that the individual had, after death, turned into a vampire.
    If it was decided that the body must have a stake run through it, to kill the vampire, there might be more signs that would confirm its status in the eye of the ignorant onlooker. Sometimes, a groan would escape from the body, causing onlookers to think that it was alive, and was now in its final death throes. The truth of the matter was that, as the body was pierced, the gases would escape, causing a noise as they passed by the vocal folds, much as gas comes out of the body with a noise when a person breaks wind. There might also be corpses whose hair, nails, and teeth appeared to have grown longer while buried. This, again, had a rational explanation. As skin begins to decompose, it often falls off, leaving more hair, teeth, and nails exposed, and what looks like fresh skin beneath – but, of course, this is only visible because the main part of the skin has died.

     
Buried alive?
     
    Some commentators have suggested that the myth of the vampire arose in part from the fact that, in certain cases, bodies were buried alive. In an age where people died and were buried without certificates from a doctor, and often without any medical intervention at all, it sometimes happened that a person would show signs of being dead and so be buried, only to revive once underground. In such cases, that person would of course try to raise the alarm, so that sounds of shouting or knocking would be heard emanating from the grave. If this happened, they would perhaps be exhumed, only to be the victim of various gruesome rituals designed to kill off a vampire.
    It seems unlikely that this happened very often, if only because it is almost impossible for any human being to survive being buried for any length of time. What appears to be a more credible explanation is that sounds might have been heard coming from a grave, and that these could have been the noise of gas escaping from the cadaver. At this period, with vampire panic at its height, such sounds would have been interpreted as signs of the corpse’s life, and thus the body would have been exhumed and dealt with accordingly.

     
Arnold Paole
     
    A famous vampire case of the eighteenth century was that of Arnold Paole. Paole, also called Paule or Pavle, was a Serbian militiaman who moved to the village of Medveda after living in the part of Serbia controlled at the time by Turkey. He reported having been persecuted by a vampire, and having managed to shake the vampire off by smearing himself with blood from a vampire’s grave, and eating the earth around it. In 1726, he died violently in an accident, falling off a haywagon and breaking his neck. About a month after he was buried, several people reported that they were being persecuted by him, and they too died. These deaths were reported to the authorities, who duly investigated, opening up Paole’s grave. They found that the body had not decomposed in the normal way, and that there was fresh blood coming out of the corpse’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The shroud was also covered in blood. As well as this, his nails appeared to have continued growing. Concluding Paole’s corpse to be a vampire, a stake was driven through his heart, and as this happened, a groan was heard to emanate from the body, further terrifying the villagers. Not only was Paole’s corpse disinterred and a stake driven through it, but the alleged victims were also dug up and mutilated in the same way.
    These incidents were officially reported and carefully recorded, which is why they are so well documented today. In hindsight, it seems clear that the appearance of Paole’s exhumed corpse was nothing to do with the supernatural, but was due entirely to natural causes, and the particular way his body had decomposed.

     
Peter Plogojowitz
     
    Peter Plogojowitz was another renowned vampire case of the period. He was a