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Vampire Hunter Kit Gallery
Regarding Ernst Blomberg...
Romanian Vampire Killing Kit, ca 1880
European Souvenir Kit, ca 1910
Probable German Kit, ca 1880
Early Romanian (?) Vampire Killing Kit, ca 1830
eBay Vampire Killing Kit, August 2006
eBay Vampire Killing Kit, November 2006
Gunbroker.com Vampire Killing Kit, 2003
Mercer Museum Vampire Killing Kit
Undocumented American Vampire Killing Kit
Kit from Garth Auction, 2006
Surnateum Museum Kit
The Ripley Collection
From an eBay description of kit 1 -
Some vampire experts claim that kits such as the present lot were very common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries among travelers to Eastern Europe, particularly the Carpathians, and could be requested from the concierge desk of their hotels. Others claim that the kits originated in twentieth century America and are nothing more than romantic curiosities.
Vampire legends go back thousands of years and occur in great variety in almost every culture around the world. The vampires we are most familiar with today are largely based on Eastern European legends, which originated in the far East and were transported with trade caravans that traveled along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Who is doomed to become a vampire? A person born with a caul or tail, the illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons or anyone who died an unnatural death or before being baptized. Also doomed were witches, the seventh child of the same sex in a family, the child of a pregnant woman who was looked at by a vampire or who did not eat salt, those bitten by vampires and those not properly buried. Precautions to prevent vampirism included burying the body face down, placing a wild, thorny rose on the grave to repel unholy spirits or piling stones to obstruct the demon from rising from the earth. Spreading millet, grains or poppy seeds at the gravesite would distract the vampire, and the smell of garlic buried with the corpse would repel it. Eucharistic symbols of purity or holiness, such as the host wafer and salt, also repelled the demons, and holy water could sear its flesh and, if sprinkled in the grave, sterilized the vampire’s tomb. Holes that appeared in the earth at the gravesite might signal the presence of a vampire, and graves were often opened seven years after death to ensure against vampirism. A corpse that had not decomposed or whose eyes were open was often deemed to be a vampire. Other telltale signs included a ruddy complexion with the mouth and nails clotted with blood, or the corpse floating on a reservoir of blood. If the flesh was punctured with a pin, blood would gush from the body.