So...

[silverthorne]

Doing researchy type stuff for folkloric vampires.

It's interesting to note that Hawthorn, which is considered the correct wood for making pegs to hold a vampire into its grave is also good, medically speaking, for heart and blood/vein conditions. (That's the shorthand version of the notes I took).

The idea of using silver popped up around the time guns did, and people started shooting coffins to kill vampires (and it's actually usually a silver coin cut into quarters--not bullets made from a silver cross). Iron is actually used in older folklore for things like staking.

Wild rose thorns strewn over the grave are apparently good for snagging vampire clothing, thus keeping them contained in their coffins.

Any grain, including millet and poppy seeds, cna be strewn on the grave to keep the vampire busy counting instead of hunting.

Garlic features in a good portion of the eastern Europe legends.

...the Cucaburra (sp?) is actually the closest thing to a vampire the south americans have (not counting the gods).

Comments

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I also recall specifically from America during the colonial days, that people who died of tuberculosis were thought to become vampires, and to come back and steal the breath of their loved ones until the entire family was dead. (Thus explaining the phenomena of airborn disease vectors to people who didn't understand germs)

They dealt with this by cutting off the corpse's legs, taking the thigh bones, and laying them in the sign of the cross underneath the chin. Thus, the corpse would not be able to walk around anymore.

Several skeletons were found thus in a Massachusetts graveyard which had flooded during a river's spring thaw, and all of them showed tubercles, which the disease leaves on the bones in its advanced state.

Cool, huh?