ZOMBIE FACTS BOOK

Zombie Facts Book FACT!

MASCHALISMOS Long ago, the threat of the dead returning as a type of zombie-like creature was taken seriously by many cultures worldwide. The ancient Greeks were the first to come up with a word for it: “Maschalismos”. Wikipedia.org describes this word as: “…the practice of physically rendering the dead incapable of rising or haunting the living in undead form”. To prevent the dead from rising, bodies were mutilated in various ways, like removing organs or pinning the body down. The Chinese bound the body so it couldn’t move. In India, they burnt the body. Suicides in Europe were buried upside down, with a stake driven through their heart or their head cut off and placed between their legs. The Basuto people from South Africa slit the spinal cord and sinews. In Australia, the Herbert River Aborigines broke the bones of the body and filled incisions made in the body with stones. FIRST “UNDEAD HUNTER” In Medieval England, a famous 12th-century monk, William of Newburgh (1138 – 1198), was a highly regarded historian from the Newburgh Abby. Newburgh researched and wrote about the undead. The belief in souls returning from the dead was common in his time. He believed his work was from reliable sources and that the perceived zombie-like creatures, ghouls, ghosts, and vampires (commonly reported on in the community in the 12th century) were real! William of Newburgh was a major source for stories about the medieval Revenants (a zombie-like creature) common in Irish and Norse mythology. He tried to understand why they existed, and his writings about this were considered important to the church.