LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Vampires: Eastern Europe
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Vampires have remained a strong presence in European fable through the centuries. How could a creature of fiction have instilled such fear and genuine belief to have existed in public consciousness all these years? Would the idea of Vampires make more logical sense if they were not fiction at all?
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Old folklore from Eastern Europe suggests that many vampires suffered from a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, being fascinated with counting. Millet or poppy seeds were placed on the ground at the gravesite of a presumed vampire, in order to keep the vampire occupied all night counting. Chinese myths about vampires ... state that if a vampire comes across a sack of rice, s/he will have to count all of the grains. Aside from the Muppet character of Count von Count on television's Sesame Street, this characteristic seems to have largely disappeared from popular culture. It was also referenced in an episode of The X-Files.
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Today everyone is familiar with vampires, but in Britain very little was known of vampires prior to the 18th century. What brought the vampire to the attention of the general public? During the 18th century there was a major vampire scare in Eastern Europe. Even government officials frequently got dragged into the hunting and staking of vampires.
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Many of the myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,[19][63] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.[64] These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the 18th century and were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularised.
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