Throughout Bulgaria and Macedonia there is the prevailing belief in a vampiric spirit known as a vompir, or vompiras if it is a female spirit. The vompir is created when a person is improperly buried or mourned, dies in disgrace, or passes on in some unnatural way, such as in childbirth or by suicide. At night, the vompir enters into the body of a corpse and possesses it. Once in control of the physical body, the vampire animates it and seeks out its prey — a sleeping person. Then it suffocates him and drains the body of blood.

Should a person ever find himself under the assault of a vompir, he must pray to the god of darkness and night, Troyan, or the goddess of beauty and love, Lada, for deliverance.

Apart from its ability to possess and animate corpses, the vompir can also cause nightmares, create droughts, and divert rivers.

A vompir can only be destroyed once it has occupied a corpse. After it has been captured, the vampire must be decapitated followed by the severing of its feet and hands. The body is then to be tied up tightly and either stabbed through the heart with a stake made of aspen wood or have a raven’s claw driven into the skull from behind the right ear. Lastly, the body must be buried underneath a huge millstone.

Source: Indiana University, Journal, vol.14, 265; Mayer, Hungarian, 174; Perkowski, The Darkling, 168