Among the Bulgarians and Sloyakians the were-wolf is called vrkolak, a name resembling that given it by the modern Greeks {Greek brukolakas}. The Greek werewolf is closely related to the vampire.
The lycanthropist falls into a cataleptic trance, during which his soul leaves his body, enters that of a wolf and ravens for blood. On the return of the soul, the body is exhausted and aches as though it had been put through violent exercise. After death lycanthropists become vampires.
They are believed to frequent battlefields in wolf or hyena shapes, and to suck the breath from dying soldiers, or to enter houses and steal the infants from their cradles.
Modern Greeks call any savage-looking man, with dark complexion, and with distorted, misshapen limbs, a brukolakas, and suppose him to be invested with power of running in wolf-form.
