|| A Russian folktale ||
A soldier was driving along one night to his native place. His horse grew tired, and all of a sudden it came to a stand-still alongside of a graveyard. The soldier unharnessed his horse and set it free to graze; meanwhile he laid himself down on one of the graves. But somehow he didn’t go to sleep.
He remained lying there some time. Suddenly the grave began to open beneath him: he felt the movement and sprang to his feet. The grave opened, and out of it came a corpse — wrapped in a white cloak, and holding a coffin lid — came out and ran to the church, laid the coffin-lid at the door, and then set off for the village.
The soldier was a daring fellow. He picked up the coffin-lid and remained standing beside his cart, waiting to see what would happen. After a short delay the dead man came back, and was going to snatch up his coffin-lid — but it was not to be seen. Then the corpse saw the soldier and said:
“Give me my lid: if you don’t, I’ll tear you to bits!”
“Before you do, it’s I who’ll be chopping you into small pieces with my hatchet ” answers the soldier.
The corpse, which was a vampire, calms down. “Do give it back to me, my good man!”, he begs.
“I’ll give it when you tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve done.”
“Well, I’ve been in the village, and there I’ve killed a couple of youngsters. I have a taste for young blood.”
“Well then, now tell me how they can be brought back to life.”
The corpse reluctantly answered:
“Cut off a piece of my cloak, and take it with you. When you come into the house where the youngsters were killed, pour some live coals into a pot and put the piece of the cloak in with them, and then lock the door. The lads will be revived by the smoke immediately.”
The soldier cut off a bit of cloth from the vampire’s cloak, and gave up the coffin-lid.
The corpse went to its grave — the grave opened. But just as the dead man was descending into it, all of a sudden the rosters began to crow. It was almost dawn and he couldn’t face the sun. So the dead man hurried and in his haste he hadn’t enough time to get properly covered over. One end of the coffin-lid remained sticking out of the ground.
The soldier saw all this and made a note of it. The sun began to rise; he harnessed his horse and drove into the village.
In one of the houses he heard cries and wailing. In he went — there lay two dead lads.
“Don’t cry,” said the soldier, “I can bring them to life!”
“Do bring them to life, kinsman,” say their relatives. “We’ll give you half of all we possess.”
The soldier did exactly as the corpse had instructed him, and the lads came back to life. Their relatives were delighted, but they immediately seized the soldier and bound him with ropes, saying:
“No, no, trickster! We’ll hand you over to the authorities. Since you knew how to bring them back to life, maybe it was you who killed them!”
“What are you even saying! Believe me! Have the fear of God before your eyes!”, the soldier tried to convince.
Then he told them everything that had happened during the night.
The news of the vampire spread quickly through the village; the whole population assembled and swarmed into the graveyard. They found out the grave from which the dead man had come out, they tore it open, and they drove an aspen silver stake right into the heart of the corpse, so that it might no more rise up and kill.
For the villagers, the mystery behind the unexplained disease that claimed the lives of many youngsters over the years was finally solved. They rewarded the brave soldier richly, and sent him away home with great honor.
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