Mhachkay
The mhachkay is a Tatar and Turkic revenant explained by a double soul. The second soul stays in the dead body and sends it out to feed, typically as an owl. An Ottoman judge's report from Tarnovo in 1833 shows the belief acted on: two corpses were dug up, staked, scalded and finally burned. Its near-identity with the Slavic strzyga points to long exchange of undead lore between Turkic and Slavic neighbours.1
- beheading the corpse and burying the head apart from the body
- burial face down with a sickle round the neck
- burning, when stakes and boiling water failed (1833 case)
When did it first appear?
1833An Ottoman report of 1833 from Veliko Tarnovo, printed in the official gazette Takvim-i Vakayi, describes the staking and burning of two such corpses
What the sources say
Sucks blood and eats the entrails of its victims1
Can be held off for a while with animal blood1
A person found in the woods with torn nails and fresh soil and blood on the hands was taken for one and driven away1
In the 1833 case the exhumed bodies of two former Janissaries were said to have grown, with longer hair and nails1
The description matches the Polish strzyga almost point for point1
Could you outrun it?
Speed class from how the sources describe it (runs), not a measurement.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.
Vampir (South Slavic)
Upiór
Hortlak
Zalozhnye pokoiniki
Örek
Jiangshi
Zombi (Haitian)
Strigoi
Abhartach
Arnold Paole
Churel