VAMPIRES. 3o5 



' A cure of the diocese of Constance/ he states, c named 

 Bayer, makes to me in writing the following relation. He 

 states that, in 1728, he (Bayer) having been appointed to 

 the cure of Rutheim, he was disturbed one morning by a 

 spectre, who came in the form of a peasant, badly made, ill- 

 dressed, and smelling abominably. He knocked at the door 

 in an insolent manner, and, being admitted, entered the 

 study. He then told the cure Bayer, that the prince-bishop 

 of Constance had sent him (the hobgoblin) upon a certain 

 business . . . but the statement was untrue. The hobgoblin 

 then asked for something to eat; whereupon meat, bread, 

 and wine were set before him. Taking up the meat with 

 both hands, he devoured it, bones and all, saying, " Observe 

 how I eat both flesh and bone : do the same !" Then taking 

 up the wine-cup, he swallowed the contents of it at a draught ; 

 asked for another, which, when supplied, he served the same. 

 Rising then, he withdrew, never so much as saying " Good- 

 bye" to the cure. The servant who saw him to the door, 

 having demanded his name, " I was born at Rutsingen, and 

 my name is George Raulin," he replied ; but he spoke falsely. 

 Then turning to the cure, whilst going down-stairs, the hob- 

 goblin said in German, " I'll show you who I am." 



'He passed all day in the village,' Calmet's cure's letter 

 of testimony goes on to state, 6 showing himself to everybody. 

 Towards midnight he returned to the cure's door, crying out 

 three times in a terrible voice, " Monsieur Bayer, 1 will let 

 you know who I am !" Day by day for three long years he 

 returned towards four P.M., and every night remaining till 

 day-dawn. He showed himself in different forms ; sometimes 

 like a water-spaniel, sometimes like a lion or other terrible 

 animal, sometimes as a man, but sometimes (and this must 

 have been the worst of all) in the guise of a pretty girl, 

 sitting at the cure's bedside ! Thus testifies Monsieur Bayer. 

 Sometimes the hobgoblin made an uproar in the house, like 

 a cooper hooping a cask. The cure, desiring to have wit- 



