in Eastern stories, and in those imitations which were so popular throughout Europe when once Antoine Galland had given France his adaptation of The Arabian Nights. Thus in Les Contes Orientaux of the Comte de Caylus, which are related to a King of Persia, afflicted with insomnia, in order to lull him to sleep, there is the story of a vampire who is only able to prolong this existence by devouring from time to time the heart of a comely young man. It would not be difficult to quote similar fictions but they are often derived at second, or even third hand, and accordingly are of little evidential value merely being devised for the entertainment of the reader.
Throughout the ancient Empire of China and from the earliest times the belief in vampires is very widely spread, and sinologists have collected many examples, some of which occur in myth and legend and some of which were related as facts, showing us that the Chinese Vampire lacks few, if any of the horrible traits he exhibits in Greek and Slavonic superstition.[19]
The Chinese Vampire, Ch’ing Shih, is regarded as a demon who by taking possession of a dead body preserves it from corruption owing to his power of preying upon other corpses or upon the living. The Chinese believe that a man has two souls: the Hun, or superior soul, which partakes of the quality of good spirits; and the P’o, or inferior soul which is generally malignant and may be classed among the Kuei, or evil spirits. It is thought that whilst any portion of a body, even if it be a small bone, remained whole and entire the lower soul can ulilize this to become a vampire, and particularly should the sun or the moon be allowed to shine fully upon an unburied body the P’o will thence acquire strength to issue forth and obtain human blood to build up the vitality of the vampire. The belief,—which has some natural foundation,—that the sun can convey strength and vitality, is to be found, in one form or another, in very many lands.
Thus among the Chacu Indians of South America a newly married couple must sleep the first night on a mare’s or bullock’s skin with their heads towards the west, for the marriage was not fully ratified, nor would the wife conceive until the rays of the sun had touched their feet the following morn.[20] During the Impregnation-rite (Garbhādhāna) which was a part of old
