PIJAVICA

Lore

In Croatia and the former Yugoslavia, the pijavica, in South-Slavic mythology, is considered one of the most aggressive and dangerous varieties of vampiric revenant. The word pijavica comes from the verb piti-"to drink"-and in folk botany and medicine it also names the blood-sucking medicinal leech, subtly linking the pijavica to all things that feed on blood. People could become pijavice because of extreme cruelty, sadism or greed during life, through the abuse of witchcraft, or by committing especially vile deeds.

After such a person dies, the transformation lasts forty days-the same span the Orthodox faith assigns to a soul's final departure from the earthly world. At first the creature exists only as a shadow, invisible or barely seen, yet already able to trouble the living. Gradually, by drinking the blood of its own relatives, the shadow thickens into an amorphous, boneless mass. By the end of the forty days this mass turns into a complete body, almost indistinguishable from the person as he looked in life. The vampire then leaves the grave and can even interact with neighbors in everyday ways. Once transformed, the pijavica is extraordinarily fast and strong, can read minds, and wields a powerful hypnotic influence.