Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. During the nineteenth century, generations of rural New Englanders sought relief from a dread disease that slowly killed their loved ones, often in the prime of their lives, and often taking years to do its work. Just as they would treat wounds and allergic reactions with poultices and herbs, they would treat this mysterious threat with a remedy of their own sensibilities - destroying the bodies of the recently departed, whom they believed were feeding on the living. According to folklorist Michael Bell's book "Food for the Dead" (and most other analyses of New England's vampire hunters), what was this mysterious wasting sickness?
2. As is normal with vampire narratives the world over, the local authorities were fully in favor of most of the New England vampire hunts, and these rituals were widely praised by local newspapers.
3. Like Bela Lugosi in the classic films, most New England vampires were usually sighted stalking fashionable districts in formalwear and opera capes.
4. According to Bell, which of these was not a sign that the deceased was a vampire?
5. Another widely-held Rhode Island superstition holds that one can tell if a cemetery is haunted by evil spirits by a special sign, an indication that the devil flies out of the graves. What sign is this?
6. Though the bulk of New England's vampires came from Rhode Island, the belief was also practiced in Vermont. How was Vermont's vampire practice distinct from Rhode Island's?
7. It is interesting to note that almost all of the known New England vampire accounts come from solidly Calvinist areas (either Puritan or Presbyterian) where religious orthodoxy was as prevalent as anywhere in the United States.
8. As most students of vampire lore know, there are accounts similar to these from several regions around the world. The belief in vampires of various types is so ubiquitous that it may well be hard-wired in the human brain. That being said, the belief that cremating bodies might restore the sick to health may have stemmed from the front-page story on vampires that ran on the first issue ever of the longest-running continually-published newspaper in the United States. What New England newspaper is this?
9. One of the most evocative tales of New England vampirism is the case of Snuffy Stuke, an Exeter, Rhode Island vampire hunter in the aftermath of the US Revolutionary War. Snuffy lost half his family to a supposed "vampire", his daughter Sarah, after his other daughters and wife began having dreams of the departed girl visiting them at night, often crushing her surviving kin by sitting on their chests. A gathering led by Snuffy exhumed Sarah and the others who had died, finding all to be decomposed but Sarah, whose hair and nails had grown and who still had fresh red blood. Snuffy and his companions burned Sarah's heart, which, after the loss of one daughter who had grown too ill to survive, seemed to end the vampire's reign after the deaths of half of Snuffy's family. All of this had seemingly been presaged by a prophetic dream of Snuffy's. What was this dream?
10. What great American essayist documented a Vermont vampire hunt in his Journal of September 29, 1859?
11. Another well-known vampire hunter of the region was William Rose, who exhumed Ruth Ellen Rose in 1874 and burned her heart to stop a string of deaths in the family. What relation to William was Ruth Ellen?
12. The last known "vampire" to be hunted in New England was exhumed in 1892, ostensibly to save the failing health of her brother Edwin. What was her name?
13. In addition to numerous printed reports of New England vampire hunts, archeology has also contributed to our knowledge of these practices. In 1990, three boys playing in a quarry discovered a previously unknown antebellum cemetery. Most of the bones therein were in their original positions, but one, identified as "JB-45" from the inscription (in the form of arranged tacks) on his coffin lid, had been grievously disturbed, and the condition of his bones suggested that he had been hunted as a vampire. What had been done to the bones?
14. Disinterring bodies is almost extinct among the vampire believers in New England these days (though instances of cemetery vandalism are, unfortunately, far from unknown), but vampire folk practice persists in the region in the form of visitations to the graves of reputed undead, often at night with the stated purpose of "scaring the girls". What is the term that folklorists use for this practice?
15. Though not nearly as influential as its Eastern European counterpart, New England vampire lore has inspired some remarkable works of creative writing. Which of the following has not been explicitly influenced by Yankee vampire tales and traditions?
Source: Author
stuthehistoryguy
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
agony before going online.
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