This week I decided to indulge myself and write one of my vampire articles. One of my favorite bits of folklore is that the undead are compulsive obessive about counting and untying knots. I am not sure of how much folklore the counting Count on Sesame Street has to do with this folk belief or it his title simply comes from Count Dracula. But it seems that vampires have a near addiction to counting seeds thrown on the ground. Vampires, as well as some ghosts and some demons seen unable to stop themselves from counting. Places all over the world hold beliefs of the dead’s desire to count. Oats, poppy seed, flax seeds, and rice were used to distract the undead and keep them busy until sunrise. Fishing nets were also used to distract vampires since they will feel compelled to untie every single knot or count every hole. There was even an episode of the X-Files in which Muldarr tosses his sunflower seeds to distract a vampire pizza boy. It also had them untying knots. Not for nothing I considered X-Files to be one of the scariest tv shows ever. The nights I had to work I finished watching the X- Files and was actually a little scared to walk to my car, because we lived kind of in the woods and in a very spooky little house on the hill.
In the West Indies the grain of choice to keep out werewolf vampire known as Loupgaroo was rice and painting the door and window frames sky blue. I suspect this color most resembled heaven and likely kept out evil demons.
And so it goes…