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🟡 Vampire (Full Audiobook) | Luigi Capuana · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: A Vampire by Luigi Capuana. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Aaron O'Rourke.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: A Vampire by Luigi Capuana. Translated by Aaron O'Rourke. No,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: don't laugh, exclaimed Lelio Georgi, interrupting himself. What do you mean,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: don't laugh? replied Mongeti. I don't believe in ghosts. I
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: didn't used to believe in them, and I didn't want
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to believe in them either, Georgi responded. I've come to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: you precisely to get an explanation of certain facts which
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: could destroy my happiness, facts that have already troubled my
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: reason extraordinarily. Facts? You mean hallucinations. It means you're sick
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and you need to take care of yourself. Hallucinations, yes,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: are facts too, but what they represent can't be found
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: outside of ourselves in reality. They are, to explain myself better,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: sensations that move from inside to the outside, a kind
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of projection from our organism. And so the eye sees
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that which it really does not see, the ear hears
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: that which it really does not hear. Previous sensations, often
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: accumulated unknowingly, reawaken inside us and organize themselves as in dreams. Why? How?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: We still don't know. And we dream, that is the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: correct expression, with our eyes open. You must distinguish. There
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: are momentary, rapid hallucinations, which don't imply any kind of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: organic or psychic disorder. Then there are persistent ones, and then...
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: But this isn't the case with you. Yes, mine and
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: my wife's. You're not understanding. The hallucinations that lunatics have
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: are what we scientists call persistent. I don't believe it's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: necessary to explain myself with examples. The fact, then, that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: both of you are suffering from the same hallucination and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: at the same time is a simple case of induction.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It's probably you that are influencing your wife's nervous system. No,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: first it was her. Then that means that your nervous
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: system is weaker or has greater receptiveness. Don't make such
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a face, my dear poet, at the sound of such
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: horrible vocabulary, which perhaps does not exist in your dictionaries.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We find it comfortable, and it serves us well. If
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you had let me speak... It's better not to stir
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: certain things up. You wanted a scientific explanation? Well then,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: in the name of science, I tell you that for
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: now there isn't any sort of explanation to give you.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: We're in the hypothesis stage. We make one each day.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Today's isn't the same as yesterday's. Tomorrow's won't be the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: same as today's. You artists are so curious. When it
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: benefits you, you deride science. You don't give due value
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to the trials, the studies... the hypotheses that allow science
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to progress. Then, if you have a case that interests
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you personally, you're expected to give you clear, precise, categorical answers.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: There are, unfortunately, scientists who lend themselves to this game,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: either through conviction or vanity. I am not one of these.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Do you want me to tell you loud and clear?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Science is the greatest proof of our ignorance. To calm you,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I've spoken to you about hallucinations, inductions, receptiveness. Words, my dear.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: The more I study, the more I despair of ever
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: knowing anything for sure. It seems intentional. We scientists are
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: still congratulating ourselves for having verified a law when slap,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a fact, shows up, a discovery that disproves it with
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: a backhanded slap. You must resign yourself and just let
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it go, what's happening to you and your wife and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: has happened to many others. It will pass. Is it
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that you care to know why and how it could
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: have happened? Perhaps your dreams were you. If you would
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: allow me to speak— Please, speak, since you want to
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: unburden yourself. But I tell you in advance that you'll
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: make it worse. The only way to overcome certain impressions
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: is to distract yourself, to impose stronger impressions over them,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: distancing yourself from the places that likely contributed to producing them.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: One devil drives out another. It's a very wise proverb.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: We've tried that. It was useless. The first phenomenon, the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: initial manifestations, happened in the country, at our villa in Foscolara.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: We ran away. BUT THE SAME NIGHT THAT WE ARRIVED
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: IN THE CITY. IT'S NATURAL. WHAT KIND OF DISTRACTION COULD
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: YOUR HOUSE HAVE GIVEN YOU? YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED AWAY,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: STAYED IN HOTELS, A DAY HERE, A DAY THERE, RUN
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: AROUND ALL DAY GOING TO CHURCHES, MONUMENTS, MUSEUMS, THEATERS, AND
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: RETURNED TO THE HOTEL AT NIGHT TIRED, DEAD TIRED. WE
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: DID THAT TOO, BUT... THE TWO OF YOU ALONE, I IMAGINE.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUND SOME FRIENDS TO KEEP YOU COMPANY,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: A PARTY. WE DID THAT. IT WAS USELESS. WHO KNOWS
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: WHAT KIND OF PARTY. Happy people. Egotists, you mean, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you found yourselves isolated among them. I understand. We took
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: part in their happiness. Sincerely, we were carefree. But as
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: soon as we were alone, we couldn't get them to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: sleep with us. But where did you sleep, then? Now
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I don't understand whether you speak of hallucinations or just dreams.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Enough with the hallucinations, with the dreams. We were awake,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: with our eyes wide open, with our senses and our
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: spirits clear. like I am right now, trying to reason
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: with you, and you insist on not allowing me. As
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you wish. I at least want to tell you the facts.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I know them. I can imagine them. All of the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: scientific books are chock full of them. There might be
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: insignificant differences in the smallest details. They don't count. The
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: essential nature of the phenomenon doesn't change. You don't even
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: want to give me the satisfaction? A hundred times if
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: it will make you happy. You're the type that loves
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to wallow in your misery. You almost want to drink it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: It's stupid, excuse me. But if it makes you happy. Frankly,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you seem as though you're afraid. Afraid of what? Wouldn't
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that be something? Afraid of having to change your opinion.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I've told you, I don't believe in ghosts. And what if, afterward,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you were forced to believe in them? Okay, yes, that
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: would annoy me. What do you want? This is what
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: we scientists are. We are men, my dear. WHEN OUR
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: WAY OF SEEING, OF JUDGING, HAS TAKEN A TURN, THE
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: INTELLECT REFUSES TO REMAIN FAITHFUL TO THE SENSES. INTELLIGENCE IS
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: A MATTER OF HABIT, TOO. YOU'RE PUTTING MY BACK AGAINST
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: THE WALL. GO AHEAD. LET'S HEAR THESE FAMOUS FACTS. OH!
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: exclaimed Lelio Georgi, with a huge sigh. YOU WERE ALREADY
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: AWARE OF THE UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT FORCED ME TO SEEK
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: MY FORTUNE IN AMERICA. LOUISE'S FAMILY OPPOSED OUR MARRIAGE, LIKE
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: ALL FAMILIES, AND I'M NOT SAYING THEY WERE WRONG. They
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: too watched over the financial situation of he who hoped
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: to become their daughter's husband. They didn't have faith in
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: my talent. They even doubted that I was a poet.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: The one little volume of juvenile verses then published was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: my biggest disgrace. Not that I have published or written
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: anything since then, but you yourself just now called me
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: my dear poet. The label has been stuck to me
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: ever since, almost as if it were written in indelible ink. Enough!
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: They say there's a god for drunks and for children.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: They need to add, and one for poets too, since
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I have to pass for a poet. Just look at
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: how literary the lot of you are. We always begin
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: with the egg. Don't get impatient. Listen. During the three
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: years that I lived in Buenos Aires, I never heard
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: from Luisa. An inheritance from an uncle I had never
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: met dropped out of the sky. I returned to Europe,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: ran to London, and with 200,000 lira from the Bank
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: of England, flew here. where the saddest disappointment awaited me.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Louisa had been married for six months, and I had
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: loved her first. The poor thing had had to give
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: in to the pressures of her family. I swear I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't far from doing something crazy. These details, you see,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: are not superfluous. I made the foolish mistake of writing
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: her a hot-headed letter of reproach and mailed it to her.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I hadn't foreseen that it might end up in her
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: husband's hands. The next day he presented himself at my house.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I understood immediately the enormity of my act, and told
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: myself to be calm. He was calm, too.' I' ve come
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: to return your letter,' he said.' I opened the envelope
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: by mistake, not in discretion, and it's good that it
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: happened this way.' I' ve been assured that you are a gentleman.'
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I respect your pain, but I hope you don't wish
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: to uselessly disturb my family's peace.' If you can find
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the strength to reflect on it, you will see that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: no one meant to cause you harm on purpose.' We
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: can't escape certain destinies in life. You understand by now
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: what your fate is. I tell you then, without arrogance,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that I will defend my domestic happiness at any cost.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: He had gone pale while speaking, and his voice shook.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Please forgive my imprudence, I answered, and to reassure you,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I tell you that I will leave for Paris tomorrow.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I must have been even paler than him. The words
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: left my mouth with difficulty. He held out his hand
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to me, I shook it, and I kept my word.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Six months later, I received a telegram from Louisa. I
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: am a widow. I still love you. And you? Her
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: husband had been dead for two months. That's how the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: world is. One man's misfortune is another man's happiness. That's
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: what I selfishly thought too, but it's not always true.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I felt like I touched the sky on the night
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of my wedding and during the first few months of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: our marriage. We avoided by tacit agreement speaking of him.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: louisa had destroyed all traces of him not out of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: ingratitude since he fooling himself that he was loved would
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: have done anything to make her happy but because she
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: feared that even a shadow of a memory however insignificant
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: might upset me she guessed right at certain times the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: thought that the body of my darling had been in
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: full possession, however legitimate, of another, wrung my heart so
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that I shuddered from head to toe. I forced myself
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: to hide it from her. Feminine intuition, however, often clouded
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Louise's beautiful eyes with melancholy. And so I saw her
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: beaming with joy when she was sure of being able
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to announce— that the fruit of our love was beating
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: within her breast. I remember it perfectly. We were drinking coffee.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I was standing. She was sitting with a posture of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: sweet weariness. It was the first time a nod to
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the past escaped her lips. I'm so happy, she exclaimed,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: that this has only now happened. I heard a loud
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: knock at the door, as if someone were beating at
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it with his fist. We were startled. I ran to see,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: suspecting the heedlessness of a maid or servant, There was
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: no one in the room next door. A crash, perhaps
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: produced by the loss of heat in the wood, due
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: to the season, would have sounded like the knock of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a fist. I gave such an explanation, seeing that Louisa
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: was very troubled, but I wasn't convinced. A strong sense
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: of embarrassment, I don't know how else to define it,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: had gotten a hold of me, and I couldn't succeed
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: in hiding it. We waited for a few minutes. Nothing.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: From then on, however, I noticed that Louisa avoided being alone.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: The disturbance persisted in her, although she didn't dare confess
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it to me, nor did I to ask her. And so,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: now I understand, you influenced each other, unknowingly. Not at all.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: A few days later I laughed at the foolish impression,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and I attributed Louise's interesting state to the excess of
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: nervous excitement in her actions. Then she seemed to calm down, too.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: She gave birth. After a few months, however, I realized
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that that sense of fear, even terror, had returned. One night,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, she clutched at me, icy, trembling.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: What's wrong? Are you feeling sick? I asked her anxiously.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I'm scared. Didn't you hear that? No. You didn't hear that?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: She asked the following night. No. Instead, this time, I
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: heard the faint sound of footsteps in the room, up
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and down, around the bed. I said no, so as
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: not to frighten her further. I lifted my head, looked.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: A mouse must have gotten into the room. I'm scared.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I'm scared. I'm scared. for many nights at exactly midnight
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the same shuffling, that inexplicable coming and going, up and down,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: of an invisible person around the bed. We expected it.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And your heated fantasies did the rest. You know me well.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not a man who excites easily. I was good, indeed,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: for Louisa. I tried giving factual explanations. Echoes, reverberations of
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: faraway sounds, idiosyncrasies in the construction of the house that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: made it strangely resonant. We returned to the city. but
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the next night the phenomenon reproduced itself with greater force.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Twice the foot of the bed was shaken violently. I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: jumped down to better observe it. Louisa curled up under
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the blanket, stammered, It's him! It's him! Excuse me, Monjeti interrupted.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying this to put any hard feelings between
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: you and your wife, but I wouldn't marry a widow
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: for all the gold in the world. Some part of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the dead husband always remains, despite everything, inside the widow. Not,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: as your wife believes, the ghost of the dead man.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It's that hymn, that is, that sensation, that impression of him,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that remains indelibly inside her body. We're talking basic physiology.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It could be. But, responded Lelio Georgi, what does your
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: physiology have to do with me? You've been influenced. Now
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it's clear. Clear as day. Only influenced at night? At
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: a fixed hour? Expectant attention. Oh, you're a prodigy. And
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: how come the phenomenon changes each time with unexpected details
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: when my imagination doesn't work to that extent? So it
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: seems to you, we're not always aware of what goes
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: on inside us, the unconscious. Hey, hey, you're a prodigy again.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Let me continue. Save your explanations until I've finished. Note
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: that in the morning during the day, we thought over
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the facts with relative tranquility. Louisa reminded me of what
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: she had heard, to compare it with what I had heard.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: precisely to convince ourselves, as you say, that our overexcited
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: imaginations had invented it, that awful joke. It turned out
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that we had heard the same identical sound of footsteps
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: in the same direction, now slow, now fast, the same
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: shaking at the foot of the bed, the same tug
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: at the blankets, and under the same circumstances. That is,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: when I tried, with a caress or a kiss, to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: soothe her fear, to keep her from crying out, it's him,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: it's him, It was almost as if that kiss, that caress,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: were provoking anger in the invisible person. Then, one night, Louisa,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: clutching her neck, bringing her lips to my ear, whispered
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in a tone of voice that startled me. He spoke.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: What did he say? I couldn't hear well. Did you
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: hear it? He said, you're mine. And even as I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: held her tightly to my chest, I could feel that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Louisa's arms were being pulled back, violently, by two powerful hands.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and they might have had to yield despite Louise's resistance.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: What resistance could she put up, if it was she
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: herself shaking that way, without being aware of it? All right,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: but I felt an obstruction, too. Someone interfering between me
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and her. Someone who wanted to obstruct, at all costs,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: contact between me and her. I saw my wife thrown backwards.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: She was shoved. Since Louisa wanted to stay up, because
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the baby was sleeping in the cradle next to the bed,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: and we had heard the bars that the cradle hung
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: from creaking, and had seen the cradle rocking and wobbling,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and the covers go flying across the room, thrown into
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the air. That wasn't a hallucination. We gathered the covers. Louisa, trembling,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: put them back in place, but not long after they
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: flew into the air again, and the baby, roused by
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the shaking, cried. Three nights ago it got worse. Louisa
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: seemed overpowered by his evil charm. She no longer heard me.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: If I called for her, she didn't realize that I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: was in front of her. She talked to him, and
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: from her responses I understood what he was saying. What
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: fault is it of mine if you're dead? Oh, no, no.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: How can you think it? Me, poison you? To rid
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: myself of you? How shameful! And the baby, what fault
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: is it of his? You're suffering? I'll pray for you.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I'll have masses said. You don't want masses? You want me?
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: But how? You're dead. In vain I shook her. I
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: called to her to rouse her from her fixation, her hallucination.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden Louisa recomposed herself. Did you hear that?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: she said to me. They're accusing me of poisoning him.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: You don't believe it. You wouldn't think me capable. Oh, God!
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: And what will we do about the baby? He'll kill him.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Did you hear him? I hadn't heard anything, but I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: understood perfectly well that Louisa wasn't crazy. She wasn't delirious.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: She cried, taking the baby out of the cradle and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: holding it very tightly to protect it from his evil.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: What will we do? What will we do? But the
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: baby was fine. This should have calmed you down. What
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: do you want? Even the most solid-headed person can't witness
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: something of that nature without being shaken. I'm not superstitious,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: but neither am I a free thinker. I'm the type
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: that either believes or doesn't believe, the type that isn't
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: interested in religious matters, that I don't have the time
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: or the desire— but in my situation and under the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: influence of my wife's words i'll have masses said for
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: you naturally i thought of having a priest intervene you
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: had an exorcism no but i had him bless the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: house with lots of holy water scattered around to make
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: an impression on poor louisa's imagination too as if it
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: were a case of exaggerated imagination of upset nerves louisa
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: is a believer you laugh but i'd like to have
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: seen you in my shoes and the holy water useless
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: as if it hadn't been used It wasn't a bad idea.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: At times science, too, resorts to similar methods in cases
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of nervous illnesses. We had a case of someone who
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: believed his nose had grown enormously long. The doctor pretended
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: to operate on him with all the instruments, tying up
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of veins, bandages, and the patient healed. The holy water
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: instead made it worse. The next night, oh, I feel
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a shudder just thinking about it. Now all of his
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: hatred was directed towards the baby. How to protect him?
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Soon Louisa saw, or thought she saw. She saw, my friend,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: she saw. I saw, too, almost. Since my wife couldn't
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: get any closer to the cradle, a strange force blocked her.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I trembled at the sight of her with her arms
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: desolately reaching towards the cradle while he, Louisa told me,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: stooped over the sleeping baby, was doing something terrible, mouth
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: to mouth, as if he were sucking out its life,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: its blood. Three nights in a row the same nefarious
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: operation was repeated, and the baby, our dear little boy,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: he was no longer recognizable. Pale white, when he had
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: been such a rosy child. As if he had really
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: sucked out his blood, so incredibly wasted in just three nights.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Is this my imagination? Is it my imagination? You come
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and look. Then it must be... Monjedi was pensive for
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a few minutes, his head down, knitting his eyebrows. A
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: somewhat sarcastic, somewhat compassionate smile had appeared on his lips
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: while Lelio Georgi spoke, but it had suddenly disappeared. Then
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: he raised his eyes, looked at his friend, who was
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: watching him and anxiously waiting, and repeated. Then it must be.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Listen closely. I'm not going to explain anything to you,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: because I'm convinced that I can't explain anything. It's hard
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to be any more frank than this. But I can
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: give you advice, empirical advice, that might make you laugh,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: especially coming from me. Use it how you wish. I'll
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: follow it today, right away. It will take a few days,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: for several steps are required. I'll help you get through
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: them as quickly as possible. I don't doubt the things
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that you have told me. I must add that, while
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: science is reluctant to get involved with phenomena of such
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: a nature, It has for a while now been less
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: contemptuous than in the past. It is trying to restore
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: these things to the realm of natural phenomena. For science,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: nothing else exists outside of the material world. Ghosts. Science
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: leaves ghosts to the believers, the mystics, and those imaginative
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: people that today we call spiritualists. For science, only the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: body is real, this structure of flesh and bone that
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: makes up an individual and which disintegrates upon his death.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: resolving itself into the chemical elements that make up life
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and thought. Disintegrated. But soon the question is reduced, according
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to some, to knowing whether putrefaction, the disintegration of atoms,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: or better their organic function, stops instantaneously upon death, annulling
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: individuality ipso facto, or whether it endures, according to circumstances,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: for shorter or longer time after death. You begin to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: suspect— And on this point, science would find itself in
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: agreement with popular belief. For the past three years, I
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: have been studying the folk remedies of old women, peasants,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: to explain to myself what their value is. Quite often,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: they heal poorly what science doesn't know how to heal.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Do you know what my opinion is today? These folk
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: remedies are the remains, the fragments, of an ancient secret science, and,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: more likely, of the instincts that animals are proven to have.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: From the beginning, when man was much closer to beasts
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: than he is now, even he deduced the therapeutic value
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of certain herbs, and their use has perpetuated, passed down
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: from generation to generation, as with the beasts. They still
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: operate by instinct. In man, with the development of his faculties,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: this primitive virtue became obscured. But the tradition persists all
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the same. These old women, who are more firmly attached
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to the practice, have retained some tips from natural medicine.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and I think science should be paying attention to this fact,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: because in every superstition hides something that is not just
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a deceptive observation of ignorance. Please excuse my long digression.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Some scientists now admit, that is, with the apparent death
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: of the individual, the functioning of individual existence doesn't really
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: cease until all the elements have completely disintegrated. Popular superstition,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: for this is the word we use, has already defined
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: it in part with its belief in vampires. and I
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: had to find the remedy. Vampires would have a more
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: persistent individuality than others in rare cases, yes, but it's possible,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: even without admitting the immortality of the soul, of the spirit.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Don't look at me like that. It's a fact, and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: not so uncommon, that so-called popular superstition, or better said,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: primitive divination, could find itself in agreement with science. And
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: do you know what the defense against the evil actions
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of vampires is? these persistent individualities who believe they can
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: prolong their existence by sucking the blood or vital essence
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: from healthy people, to accelerate the destruction of their bodies.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: In the places where this happens, the old women, the peasants,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: run to the cemetery, dig up the corpse, and burn it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: It's proven then that the vampire has really died, and
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in fact the phenomenon ceases. You say that your child,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: come and see him, he's not recognizable anymore. Louisa is
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: mad with pain and fear. I feel I might go
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: mad myself, or even be possessed by that diabolical suspect. But,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in vain I tell myself, it's not true. It can't
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: be true. In vain I tried to comfort myself, thinking,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and what if it were true? It's a proof of love.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: She poisoned him for you. In vain. I don't know.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sick of defending myself from a living repugnance, from
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: this heartbreakingly violent distancing. another one of his evil acts.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: He insists on reproach. I understand it from Louisa's responses
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: when he had her under his horrid spell, and the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: poor thing protested. Poison you? Me? How can you think it? Oh,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: we can't go on, my friend. For months and months
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: we've withstood this torment, without saying a word to anyone
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: for fear of being laughed at by unscrupulous friends. You
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: are the first person that I've had the courage to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: confide in, out of desperation. to seek advice, a way out,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and still we would have patiently withstood everything, fooling ourselves
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: that such strange phenomena couldn't go on for so long,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: if our little child weren't now in danger. You must
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: burn the corpse. It's an experiment that interests me, not
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: just as a friend, but as a scientist. Your wife,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: although no longer a widow, will be easily granted permission.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I will help you in matters regarding the authorities, and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not ashamed for science, of which I am a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: poor lover. Science doesn't lose any dignity when it runs
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to folk wisdom, turning superstition into its prize. If you
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: can then prove that it is only superstition in appearance,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: then science will be inspired to try new research, to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: discover unexpected truths. Science must be modest, good, while continuing
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: its heritage of facts and truths. You must burn the corpse.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you quite seriously, added Mungeri. 'reading the doubt
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: in his friend's eyes' of being treated by old women
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: or ignorant people.' And the baby, meanwhile?' exclaimed Lelio Giorgi,'
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: wringing his hands.' One night I felt a surge of anger.'
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I hurled myself against him,' following the direction in which
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Louisa was looking,' as if he were a person that
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I could grab and choke.' I hurled myself against him, crying,'
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Go away! Go away, you devil!'' But after a few
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: steps I was stopped, paralyzed,' nailed in place at a distance.'
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: with the words dying in my throat, unable even to
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: translate themselves into an indistinct moan. You can't believe, you
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: can't imagine. If you would allow me to keep you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: company tonight. There, you asked me in such a suspicious tone.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: You're mistaken. Maybe it will make it worse. I feel
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that your presence might irritate him more, like having the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: house blessed. No, not tonight. I'll come to see you tomorrow.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and the next day he returned so frightened, so defeated,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that Mongeri entertained certain doubts about the integrity of his
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: friend's mental faculties. He knows, stammered Leilu Georgi as soon
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: as he entered the study. Ah, what a hellish night!
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Louisa heard him cursing, shouting, threatening, terrible punishments if we dare.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: All the more reason that we must dare, replied Mongeri.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: If you had seen that cradle shaking, so hard that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I don't even know how the baby didn't fall to
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the ground. Louisa was forced to get down on her knees,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: invoking his pity, crying to him. Yes, I'll be yours,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: all yours, but spare this innocent baby. And at that
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: moment it seemed that my every tie with her was broken,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: that she was no longer really mine, but his, his.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Calm down. We will win. Calm down. I'd like to
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: be with you tonight. Mongeri went with a conviction that
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: his presence would prevent the phenomenon from taking place. He thought...
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: It nearly always works this way. These unknown forces are
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: neutralized by indifferent, foreign forces. It nearly always works this way. How? Why?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: One day certainly we'll know. We need to observe it,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to study it. And, in the early hours of the night,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: it happened just like you'd thought it would. Louisa turned
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: her frightened eyes around the room, pricked up her ears anxiously. Nothing.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: The cradle remained motionless. The baby, quite pale and thin,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: slept calmly. Lelio Giorgi, holding back his agitation with difficulty,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: looked now at his wife, now at Mongeri, who was smiling, satisfied. Meanwhile,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: they discussed things that, despite their preoccupation, managed now and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: then to distract them. Mongeri had begun to tell the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: story of a very entertaining trip he had taken. A
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: good speaker, free of any affectation of scientific gravity, he
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: intended to divert their attention. and in the meantime to
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on them, in order to take note
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: of all the phases of the phenomenon in case it
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: should ever repeat itself. And he had already begun to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: persuade himself that his intervention had been beneficial, when, just
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: as he had turned his gaze towards the cradle, he
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: noticed it move lightly, in a way that could not
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: have been caused by any of them, since Louisa and
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Lelia were seated far from the cradle. He couldn't help
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: but pause and be noticed, and so Louisa and Lelia
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: leapt to their feet, The movement grew stronger by degrees,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and when Louisa turned to look, where Mungeti's eyes were
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: involuntarily fixed, the cradle was rocking and jerking.' There he is!'
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: she cried.' Oh, God! My poor little son!' She went
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to run, but she couldn't, and she fell upside down
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: on the couch where she had been sitting. Pale, her
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: entire body shaking, with her eyes open wide and her
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: pupils motionless, she stammered something that gurgled in her throat
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: but didn't take the form of words— and seemed as
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: if it would suffocate her. It's nothing, said Mongeri, having
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: stood up, squeezing Leleo's hand, which had come towards him
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in vivid terror, almost in defense. Louisa, at first stiffened,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: shook even more violently, and then suddenly seemed to return
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to her ordinary state, except that her attention was fully
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: directed towards watching something that the other two didn't see,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: towards listening to words that they didn't hear, the meaning
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of which they deduced through her responses. Why do you
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: say that I want to keep hurting you? I've prayed
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: for you. I've had masses said for you. But you
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: can't annul. You're dead. You're not dead? Then why did
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: you accuse me of poisoning you? Agreement with him? Oh.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: He promised you yes, and he kept it. Pretend? We
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: planned it all along? He sent me the poison? It's absurd.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: You must not believe that if it's true that the
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: dead can see the truth. All right, I won't consider
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you dead. I won't repeat it again. She's gone into
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: a spontaneous trance, said Mongeri into Lelio's ear. Allow me.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Taking hold of her thumbs, after a few minutes he
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: called out in a loud voice, Madam. On hearing the deep, annoyed, robust,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and masculine voice with which she responded, Mongetti jumped back.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Something in Louisa had risen from the grave, with such
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: a darkened face, with such hardness in her features, that
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: she seemed another person. The special beauty of her physiognomy,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: so good, gentle, almost virginal, that came from the sweet
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: gaze of her beautiful blue eyes and the light smile
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: that roamed her lips like a delicate pulse, had completely disappeared.'
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: What do you want? Why are you meddling?' Mongetti regained
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: self-control almost immediately. His habitual scientist mistrust made him suspect
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: that he too must have felt, by induction, by consent
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: of his nervous system, the influence of the strong hallucinatory
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: state of those two. As if he had seemed to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: see the cradle rocking and jerking, which he could see
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: quite well was now still, with the baby inside quietly sleeping,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: now that his attention was drawn from the extraordinary phenomenon
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: of the ghost's personifications. He approached, with a sense of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: spite against himself for that backwards jump at the sound
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: of the rough voice that had nearly run him over,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: and imperiously responded, Stop it! I order you! He had
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: put such force of will into his expression that the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: command should have asserted its authority over the woman's nervous excitement,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: should have overcome it, he thought. The long and sardonic
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: laugh that immediately replied to I order you shook him,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: made him hesitate for an instant. Stop it. I order you,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: he responded with greater force. Ah, ha, you want to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: be the third. Poison him, too? You lie. Wickedly. Mungeri
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: didn't have to restrain himself from responding like with a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: living person. In the already slightly disturbed lucidity of his mind,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding the efforts he made to retain an attentive and
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: impartial observer, all of a sudden became very upset when
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: he felt two blows to his back by an invisible hand.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and in the same instant he saw a gray, semi-transparent
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: hand appear in front of the light, almost made of smoke,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: that contracted and relaxed its fingers rapidly, growing thinner as
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: though the heat of the candle's flame were making it evaporate.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Do you see? Do you see? Georgie asked him. There
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: were tears in his voice. Suddenly the phenomenon stopped. Louisa
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: woke up from her trance, almost as if she were
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: waking from a natural dream, and looked around the room,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: questioning her husband and Mongetti with a brief nod of
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: her head. Lelio and Mongeri questioned themselves, in turn, bewildered
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: by the sense of serenity, or better, liberation that eased
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: their breathing and returned their heartbeats to normal. No one
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: dared to speak. Only a faint cry from the baby
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: made them run anxiously towards the cradle. The baby wailed
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and wailed, struggling under the oppression of something that appeared
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: to aggravate his mouth and impede his cries. Suddenly this
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: phenomenon stopped too, and nothing more happened. In the morning,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: as he was leaving, Mongeti was thinking not only that
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: scientists were wrong not to want to study up close
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: those cases that coincided with popular superstition, but he repeated
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: to himself, in his mind, what he had told his
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: friend two days ago. I wouldn't marry a widow for
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: all the gold in the world. As a scientist he
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: had acted admirably, leading the experiment until the end without
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: minding at all if, in case, burning the corpse of
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Louise's first husband hadn't worked, his reputation with his colleagues
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: and with the public had to suffer. Although the experiment
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: had confirmed the popular belief, and since the day that
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the remains of the corpse had been burned, the phenomena
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: had completely ceased, to the great relief of Lelio Giorgi
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and his good wife Louisa. In its relation not yet published,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Mongeri had proved unable to be entirely sincere. He hadn't said,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: These are the facts, and this is the result of
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the remedy. The claims of popular superstition were right in
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: their negation of science. The vampire died completely as soon
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: as his corpse was burned. No. He had placed many ifs,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: many buts, in the smallest circumstances, had shown off the
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: words hallucination, suggestion, nervous influence, many times, in his scientific reasoning,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: in order to confirm what he had confessed previously, that is,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: that even intelligence is a matter of habit, and that
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: having to change his opinion had annoyed him. Most curious
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: is that he did not prove to be more coherent
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: as a man. He who had proclaimed, I wouldn't marry
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: a widow for all the gold in the world, later
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: married one for much less, a sixty thousand lira dowry.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And Lelio Giorgi, who had naively said, But how? You?
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: He replied, Right now not two atoms of the first
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: husband's corpse exist. He's been dead six years. Without realizing that,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: in saying this, he was contradicting the author of the
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: scientific memoir An Alleged Case of Vampirism. That is, he himself.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: End of A Vampire Recording by Aaron O'Rourke