The Vampyrs in Kashubia

Even only a short time ago, it occurred in Kashubia that occasionally children were born with a very delicate cover on their head, like a thin little cap. These will become very dangerous people when they die and have been buried. Thus, their little caps must be taken off, and they must be dried and stored carefully. And before the mother goes to church after her six weeks have passed and she goes to church to the Eucharist, she must burn the cap so that it can be pulverized. She must then instill this powder into the child along with the mother’s milk.

For if such a person who had been born with a cap dies before they have eaten the cap themselves in this manner, the most terrible disaster will result. For they will rise up in the grave, and first consume all meat on their own hands and feet, including the funeral gown which they have been given into the coffin. Then they emerge from the grave and consume the living. First their closest kin will die, and then the more distant ones, one after the other. Once they no longer have any relatives, they will go to the church bells in their village. They will then ring them at night, and now everyone will die as far as the sound of the bells can be heard, young and old, tall and short.

Against this wretchedness, there is only one solution: The dead one needs to be dug up, and their head needs to be cut off with a graveyard spade. Then the gluttony will stop.

Pommersche Prov. Blätter von Haken, III. p. 421f.