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Pork with clams (Portuguese)

Ingredients:
600 grs pork cut into cubes
6 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons red pepper sauce
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1 cup and 1 tablespoon white wine
Coriander (to taste)
Bay leaf (to taste)
7 tablespoons olive oil
1 kg potatoes
800 grs clams
Vegetable oil for frying

Preparation:
We soak the clams in water seasoned with salt about 1 to 2 hours. Then, we wash them under running water before cooking. We season the meat with red pepper sauce, unpeeled crushed garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper and white wine. We mix everything and let marinate about one hour. In a large skillet, we heat the olive oil over low heat. When the olive oil is hot, we add the meat without the marinade (reserve the marinade) and we fry over medium-low heat until the meat turns slightly golden, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, we peel and wash the potatoes. We cut them in cubes and fry them. We place them on a platter with absorbent paper and leave aside. We add the marinade to the meat and boil for about two minutes. We add the clams, stir, cover the skillet and cook until the clams start to open. then, we turn off the heat and sprinkle with chopped coriander. We place the fried potatoes on a platter and over them we place the cooked meat with the clams. We drizzle with the sauce and serve.

Itadakimasu!

Dix Love,

Beef with quinces, plums and apricots (Asia Minor)

Ingredients: (for 6 persons)
1 kg tender beef meat cut in big cubes
2 white onions cut in small pieces
2-3 quinces
250 grs dried pitted apricots
250 grs. dries pitted plums
1 wine glass brandy
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
1 ripe big tomato cut in small cubes or some tomato paste
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
In a cooking pot, we sautee the onions in the olive oil until they become sort of see-through and shiney. We add the cubed meat, we sautee well. Then we add warm water and we let it boil slowly till it softens keeping the cooking pot lid on. After it has become tender, we add the tomato cubes or the paste, adding some hot water, if needed. As long as the meat is slowly cooking. we peel the quinces, we cut them in 8 slices and we put them in water with lemon so they remain in their natural color. In a second cooking pot or a deep skillet, we sautee the quinces' slices in some olive oil till they get golden and then we add the brandy. We add the sauteed quinces in the meat and we let them boil for 8 to 10 minutes till they get soft. Following, we add the plums, the apricots, the honey diluted in a bit of water, the cinnamon powder, the salt and the pepper. We mix softly. We turn off the cooking stove leaving the pot on the it till we serve. We serve as it is or with white rice pilaf (I usually use basmati rice).

Itadakimasu!

Dix Love,

Re: Vampires & Legends: The Legend of The Chiang-shih

Let me google it and find out!

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of the Vampires of the Plague

During the 16th century, it was believed that vampires fed off the bodies of plague victims and that female vampires spread the plague. Those suspected of being vampires were even buried with rocks or bricks wedged in their mouths.

Vampires are the stuff of legends - found in folk tales, urban legends, and the occasional Twilight movie.

But Italian researchers believe they have found the remains of a female 'vampire' in Venice - buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century.

Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

The remains of a female 'vampire' from 16th-century Venice, buried with a brick in her mouth to prevent her feasting on plague victims.  The remains of a female 'vampire' from 16th-century Venice, buried with a brick in her mouth to prevent her feasting on plague victims

Borrini said: 'This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire

'This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born.'

Matteo Borrini from the University of Florence at the site where the skull was found
Matteo Borrini from the University of Florence at the site where the skull was found

The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 - in which the artist Titian died - on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around two miles northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.

The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.

Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.

The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse's teeth, and vampires became known as 'shroud-eaters.'

According to medieval medical and religious texts, the 'undead' were believed to spread pestilence in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.

'To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,' said Borrini.

'It's possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognizSed.'

While legends about blood-drinking ghouls date back thousands of years, the modern figure of the vampire was encapsulated in the Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 novel 'Dracula,' based on 18th century eastern European folktales.

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of the Rising Dead

Throughout northwest Europe, stones called dolmens were placed over graves; some historians believe they were there to prevent the dead from rising or evil spirits from escaping.

Poulnabrone dolmen is an example of a portal dolmen or portal tomb, not to be confused with passage tombs such as Newgrange! Dolmens are found in Ireland and throughout the world and are generally characterized as a single-chamber megalithic tomb, often consisting of three or more upright stones (megaliths) supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table).

Dolmens are thought to have been ancient tombs or burial markers and also served as places for ritual and worship although their exact purpose and significance is still debated by scholars and researchers. There are dolmen sites throughout Europe and Asia, including the dolmen Er Roc'h Feutet (Roch-Feutet) in Carnac, France, the Monte Bubbonia in Sicily, several in Gochang, South Korea and in Kerala, India.

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of the Ekimmu

 Sumerian and Babylonian myth dating from 4,000 B.C. describes an ekimmu—a spirit that isn't buried properly that returns to suck life from the living.

In the Mesopotamian Empire, there were these creatures called Ekimmu. Ekimmu means "snatched away". Mesopotamians dreaded the Ekimmu, and prayed that they themselves were not one day turned into an angry bitter spirit banished to roam the earth in search of peace.

The Ekimmu are said to appear as a demon phantom-like creature that searches for victims to feed its misery. The Mesopotamians also called the Ekimmu "evil wind gusts". Now, unlike stereotypical vampires, the Ekimmu does not drink blood in order to live; instead it feeds off of the life forces of plants, animals, elements, and humans by tapping into their aura.
Mesopotamians believe that you could become one of these evil wind gusts by:
-dying violently from murder
-dying young
-death from a battle/war
-death before finding love
-improper burial, or no burial at all
-dying during pregnancy
-dying from drowning
-dying from starvation
-improper offerings to the Gods

If an Ekimmu were to show up on your doorstep, it would not be a good sign. Usually, within a few days, the inhabitants of the household that the Ekimmu invaded would die. An Ekimmu could can also make the living behave criminally or could inflict disease upon them.

Legends about the Ekimmu still exisit today. Modern Ekimmu are believed to wander the earth among the homeless, living in sewers, tunnels, and abandoned buildings. They tend to stay in run-down urban areas.

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of The Chiang-shih

In China, vampires had long, hooked claws and red eyes. In Chinese vampire legends, they were known as Ch'iang-shih, which translates to "corpse-hopper".

The Chiang-shih are undead creatures of Chinese mythology, with similarities to the European vampire. Instead of feeding on the blood of their victims, the risen Chiang-shih were said to suck the breath out of the living. Like many European vampires, they were said to have long hair, eyebrows, and fingernails, as well as the ability to fly.

A person was thought to have two different souls: a superior and an inferior. It was the inferior soul that remained in the body after death, and if it was strong enough it could reanimate the corpse. That soul was made strong when the person died with unfinished business, suffered a violent death, was given an improper burial, or because respects had not been paid to them.

Also, like the Western vampire, the Chiang-shih are said to be vulnerable to religious verses and images, as well as garlic. Throwing rice and peas at the Chiang-shih was also said to keep them at bay. A jiangshi (chiang-shih in Wade–Giles), also known as a Chinese "hopping" vampire or zombie, is a type of reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore. "Jiangshi" is read goeng-si in Cantonese, gangshi in Korean . It is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing Dynasty, and it moves around by hopping, with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi, or "life force", usually at night, while in the day, it rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves. Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia.

The Chiang-Shih (or Kiang Shi, Kuang-shi, or Jiang Shi) is the Chinese vampire derived from the believe in two souls. Each person had a superior rational soul and an inferior irrational soul. The former had the form of the body and upon separation could appear as its exact double. The superior soul could leave the sleeping body and wander the countryside. For a short period, it could even possess the body of another person and speak through it. If accidents befell the wandering soul, it would have negative repercussions on the body.

The inferior soul (the p'ai or p'o), was the soul that inhabited the body of a fetus during pregnancy and often lingered in the body of a deceased person, leading to the unnatural preservation of the body. When the p'ai left the body, it disintegrated. The p'ai could inhabit the body for a long time and could use the body for its own gain, but only if the p'ai was strong.

The body when animated by a strong p'ai was considered the Chiang-Shih. It appeared normal and was not recognized as a vampire until some action gave it away. Sometimes, the body would have a hideous appearance and a green phosphorescent glow; when in this form, the Chiang-Shih would develop serrated teeth and long talons.

The Chiang-Shih lacked the powers of Slavic vampires. It could not rise from the grave. The transformation to vampire had to occur before burial. The Chinese vampire was nocturnal which limited their activity during the day. It, also, had trouble crossing running water, but the Chiang-Shih was very strong and vicious. There are detailed reports of attacks upon living people, where their heads and limbs were ripped off by the Chiang-Shih vampire.

The vampire often absorbed the qi (life's essence) of the living. It's not uncommon to hear the Chiang-Shih as the hopping vampire, as it commonly moved around by hopping with its arms outstretched. Overtime, the vampire may master the art of flying and gain the ability to change into a wolf.

In order to ward off the Chinese Chiang-Shih vampire, garlic kept them away and salt had a corrosive effect on the vampire's skin. Loud noises offended them, and thunder would occassional kill them. You could literally sweep a vampire into its resting spot with a broom. Iron filings, rice, and red peas could be used as barriers to the entry of the vampire and would often be used around a vacant coffin to keep a vampire from taking rest there.

If the vampire reached the age where it could transform and fly, only thunder or a bullet could bring it down. Cremation was the ultimate solution for getting rid of a Chiang-Shih.

Description
Some would appear to look as a normal human being while others had a hideous green phosphorescent glow with serrated teeth and long talons. These Vampires have difficulty walking because of the pain and stiffness of being dead so they hop instead. They are far more pale and have very dark circles under their eyes.
Generally in the movies the hopping corpses are dressed in imperial Qing Dynasty clothes, their arms permanently outstretched due to rigor mortis. Like those depicted in Western movies, they tend to appear with an outrageously long tongue and long fingernails. Their visual depiction as horrific Qing Dynasty officials reflects a common stereotype among the Han Chinese of the foreign Manchu people, who founded the much-despised dynasty, as bloodthirsty creatures with little regard for humanity.

Features
Chiang-shihs were nocturnal creatures and had difficulties crossing running water. It was said that they were particularly vicious and ripped the head or limbs off their victims. They were also said to have a strong sexual drive which led them to attack and rape women. After a period of growing stronger, chiang-shihs would gain the ability to fly, grow long white hair, and possibly change into wolves.

These Vampires can be evaded by holding one's breath, as they are blind and track living creatures by detecting their breathing. People also protected themselves from chiang-shih by using garlic or salt. They were driven away with loud noises, and it was thought that thunder could kill them. Brooms were used to sweep the creature back to its resting spot, while iron filings, rice, and red peas were used as barriers. If a chiang-shih reached its flying, white-haired stage, it could only be killed by a bullet or thunder. Its body must then be cremated.

Usually villages that are 'infested' with vampire occurances recruit a Taoist priest to perform a 'ceremony' to exorcise the negative energy. Taoist Priests traditionally rely on talismans-yellow paper strips with illegible characters written in red ink or blood. It is commonly believed that with incantations the priest can 'activate' the talisman, which can totally inhibit a vampire's actions when applied to it's forehead area, thus putting the vampire under a spell. The priest will then, after subduing the vampire(s), use a special bell, which with every ring, will command the vampires to take a single jump. Should the vampire be too strong to subdue, the priest usually draws upon a wooden sword, or a sword made entirely of copper coins linked by a red string as a weapon. Although Taoist priests nowadays do not go 'capturing' vampires, they still perform ceremonies of exorcism from "unclean spirits" and still commonly use talismans.

It is also conventional wisdom of feng shui in Chinese architecture that a threshold, a piece of wood approximately six inches high, be installed along the width of the door to prevent a hopping corpse from entering the household

Origin
They are said to be created when a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body. Usually chiang-shih were created after a particularly violent death, such as a suicide, hanging, drowning, or smothering. It could also be a result of an improper burial, as it was thought that the dead would become restless if their burial was postponed after their death. The chiang-shih were not known to rise from the grave, so their transformation had to take place prior to burial.

Culture
The influence of Western vampire stories brought the blood-sucking aspect to the Chinese myth in modern times (the traditional Chiang-shih steal the breath of his victim). In fact, Dracula is translated to Chinese as "blood-sucking chiang-shih " where the thirst of blood is explicitly emphasized because it is not a traditional trait of a jiangshi.

Stories
The wife of teacher named Liu wakes in the morning and finds that her husband who had been sleeping next to her is dead – his head is missing and the bed is drenched in blood. She reports this to the local authorities who then accuse her of murder and put her in jail. She remained there for months. The mystery was finally solved as the result one of the villagers finding a neglected grave on a hillside. A coffin was laid bare next to it with the lid slightly raised. This villager summoned the rest of the community. When the coffin lid was raised, the corpse was found within resembling the dead person when he was still alive except that it was covered with white hair. Between its arms, it held the head of Liu. The head of Liu could not be pulled from the arms of the corpse. After they cut off the corpse's arms, fresh blood gushed from them and their stumps. But their was not a drop of blood to be found in Liu's head. It had been sucked dry by the vampire. This tale can be found in Supernatural Tales from Around the World edited by Terri Harden (Barnes and Noble, 1995) as an excerpt from Religious Systems of China, vol. 5, book 2, by Jan de Groot (E.J. Brill, 1907.). It also can be found in The Vampire: His Kith and Kim by Montague Summers.

In another tale, a man walking down a country road at night finds an open coffin in the middle of the road. He realized that it must be the coffin of a chiang-shih. He filled the coffin with rocks and broken pottery. Then he retreated to the loft of a nearby barn to observe the coffin and see what would happen there next. About an hour after midnight, the corpse tried to climb back into the coffin. Finding the coffin filled with rocks and debris, the corpse became angry and its eyes began to blaze. In the moonlight, this chiang-shih saw the traveler in the loft and went to the barn. The man feared that he was trapped in the loft and jumped out the window into a tree. But the chiang-shih could not climb the ladder to the loft and went outside where it spotted the man after he climbed down from the tree. The chiang-shih pursued the man. The man finally escaped by jumping into a stream and swimming to the other shore. The chiang-shih could not cross running water. The chiang-shih stood near the stream screaming and gesticulating in anger. Then it jumped into the air three times, turned into a wolf, and ran off. This tale is given in Lust for Blood by Olga Hoyt (Scarborough House, 1984).

According to one tale, in 1761 A.D., the twenty sixth year of the Kien-lung period, there was a time of drought in Peking and its vicinity. During this time, a courier was dispatched with an urgent message from one general to another in a different city. On the way, while he was in a lonely place, a storm suddenly brewed up and the rain poured heavily upon him. The courier took shelter in the pavilion of a post house. Here a lovely young woman joined him. She invited him to her house. The courier followed her, tied his horse to a post outside her house, and went inside. The woman treated him first with tea. They spent the night together enjoying each others embraces in bed. But when cock crowed the woman suddenly got out of bed , put on her clothes, and left. The exhausted courier fell asleep. When he awoke again, he found himself on a tomb stone in the open pain. There were no buildings nearby. He found his horse tied to a tree. Frightened, he quickly untied his horse, mounted it, and road off. When he reached his destination, he was many hours late. Under interrogation, he told what had happened to him on the way. The general had the tomb investigated. It turned out to that of a young unmarried woman who had hung herself out of shame after it was discovered that she was no longer a virgin. Her specter had enticed and seduced travelers coming through the vicinity of her tomb. And it was suspected that her specter was the cause of the drought. The general ordered the tomb opened. There, inside, rested the woman's corpse still undecayed, plump and rosy in complexion, but covered with white hair. This corpse was then cremated. The drought ended the next day and the tomb was no longer haunted. From Supernatural Tales from Around the World.

Theories and analysis
In Chinese belief, each person has two souls, a superior or rational soul and an inferior irrational soul. The superior soul could leave a sleeping body and appear as the body's double as it roamed about. It could also possess and speak through the body of another. However, if something would happen to the disembodied soul during its journey, its body would suffer.

The inferior soul, on the other hand, was called p'ai or p'o and was that which inhabited the body of a fetus during pregnancy and often lingered in the bodies of the dead. It was thought to preserve the corpse. If the p'ai was strong enough, it could preserve and inhabit a corpse for a length of time, using the body to serve its needs.

The chiang-shih would arise from people who died a violent death, including suicide. Improper burial procedures such as a long postponement of burial which angered the dead. Animals, particularly cats, were kept away from the unburied corpse for fear that the might jump over it and thus the deceased would come back as a chiang-shih. Because they had no powers to dematerialize, transformation had to occur before burial, an added incentive for prompt burial.

It came from the mythical folklore practice of "Traveling a Corpse over a Thousand Li", where traveling companion or family members who could not afford wagons or have very little money would hire Tao priests to transport corpses of their friends/family members who died far away from home over long distances by teaching them to hop on their own feet back to their hometown for proper burial. Some people speculate that hopping corpses were originally smugglers in disguise who wanted to scare off law enforcement officers.

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of the Ka

Egyptians also had their share of vampire lore and blood suckers.

The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was known for her taste for blood.
ACcording to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, if a certain part of the soul called the ka
didn't receive adequate offerings, it left the tomb to drink blood.

Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The Legend of Dracula, “Son of the Dragon”

Vlad of Wallachia, better known as Vlad the Impaler, is most likely the root of several vampire legends including Dracula. He would impale his enemies on stakes (hence his nickname) and some stories even claim that Vlad would eat bread that had been dipped in his enemies' blood.

Few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. The legendary vampire, created by author Bram Stoker for his 1897 novel of the same name, has inspired countless horror movies, television shows and other bloodcurdling tales of vampires.

Though Dracula may seem like a singular creation, Stoker in fact drew inspiration from a real-life man with an even more grotesque taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or — as he is better known — Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes), a name he earned for his favorite way of dispensing with his enemies.

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Transylvania, a mountainous region in modern-day Romania. His father was Vlad II Dracul, ruler of Wallachia, a principality located to the south of Transylvania. Vlad II was granted the surname Dracul ("dragon") after his induction into the Order of the Dragon, a Christian military order supported by the Holy Roman emperor. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]

Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Transylvania and Wallachia were frequently the scene of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed westward into Europe, and Christian Crusaders repulsed the invaders or marched eastward toward the Holy Land.

When Vlad II was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along. But the meeting was actually a trap: All three were arrested and held hostage. The elder Vlad was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind.



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Dix Love,

Vampires & Legends: The legend of the blood countess

Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived from 1560 to 1614 in Hungary, was accused of vampire behavior: Biting the flesh of victims and bathing in their blood as a beauty treatment. 

She has been described as the most vicious female serial killer in all recorded history. Where fact ends and fiction begins in her horrible story is now impossible to determine but in her fame as a legendary vampire she is outrivalled only by Count Dracula. Born in 1560, she was endowed with looks, wealth, an excellent education and a stellar social position as one of the Bathory family, who ruled Transylvania as a virtually independent principality within the kingdom of Hungary.

When she was 11 or 12 Elizabeth was betrothed to Ferenc Nádasdy of another aristocratic Hungarian family but a year or two later she had a baby by a lower-order lover. Nádasdy was reported to have had him castrated and then torn to pieces by dogs. The child, a daughter, was quietly hidden from view and Elizabeth and Nádasdy were married in 1575 when she was 14. Because Elizabeth socially outranked her husband, she kept the surname Bathory, which he added to his own. The young couple lived in the Nádasdy castles in Hungary at Sárvár and Csetje (now in Slovakia) but Ferenc was an ambitious soldier and was often away. Elizabeth ran the estates, took various lovers and bore her husband four children. She was 43 when he died in 1604.

Word was beginning to spread about her sadistic activities. It was said that she enjoyed torturing and killing young girls. At first they were servants at her castles, daughters of the local peasants, but later they included girls sent to her by local gentry families to learn good manners. She believed that drinking the blood of young girls would preserve her youthfulness and her looks. Witnesses told of her stabbing victims or biting their breasts, hands, faces and arms, cutting them with scissors, sticking needles into their lips or burning them with red-hot irons, coins or keys. Some were beaten to death and some were starved. The story that Elizabeth used to bathe in their blood seems to have been added later on.  A Lutheran minister went to the Hungarian authorities, who eventually began an investigation in 1610. In December of that year Elizabeth was arrested and so were four of her favourite servants and intimates, who were accused of being her accomplices. They were tried and found guilty. Three of them were executed and the fourth was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Elizabeth herself was not put on trial because of her family's standing, but she was shut up in Csetje Castle, held in solitary confinement in a room whose windows were walled up. She was 54 when she died there in 1614.

Please follow her profile http://sanctuaryofmana.club/profile/Ecsedi_Bathory_Erzsebet.html

Dix Love,