BANE
2010
1SDB2019
Bane Theresa
McFarland
& Company, Inc., Publishers.
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2010, 209 p. (pdf.)
Preface
„I am a vampirologist—a
mythologist who specializes in cross- cultural vampire studies. There are many
people who claim to be experts on vampire lore and legend who will say that they
know all about Vlad Tepes and Count Dracula or that they can name several
different types of vampiric species. I can do that, too, but that is not how I
came to be a known vampirologist. Knowing the “who, what and where” is one
thing, but knowing and more importantly understanding the “why” is another. Throughout
history, every culture of man has had an incarnation of the vampire, a being
responsible for causing plagues and death. A hobbyist or enthusiast may know
that the hili is a vampiric creature who hunts the Xhosa people of Lesotho,
South Africa, and to be certain it is a rather obscure bit of trivia. But
knowing the “why” of the hili is what a vampirologist does. Why did the
Xhosa people of that region of South Africa develop their vampire the way they
did? Why does the hili look the way it does? Why is it an
indiscriminate killer, attacking anyone at any time of the day or night? Why
are the vampires that live due west completely different in every way? Why
do they not cross into each other’s territories? I know the answers to all
these questions because I have delved into the history, anthropology, psychology,
sociology, and religious studies of just about every culture I could get my
hands on. One of the questions I am frequently asked is how I ever came to be
interested in vampires. I am always hesitant to answer because as simple a
question as it may seem, the answer, like the vampire itself, is complex. For
me, there was no single event that sparked a sudden interest, no chance meeting
with someone who inspired me. As best as I can trace it back, my parents were
people who encouraged learning and valued education in their children. At least
once a week we would go to the library, returning home with a hodgepodge of
books on various subjects. Each night around the dinner table we discussed what
we learned that day and it seems to me that nothing brought my parents greater
joy than when the whole family became deeply involved in a conversation where
all of our cumulative knowledge was pooled, compared, and debated. Obviously at
some point in my youth I discovered the mythology of the vampire went beyond
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although I cannot honestly say when it happened.
I had always wanted to be an author, and some years ago I set out to write a
trilogy of vampire novels. I knew then that I did not want my vampires to be
just like all the fictional vampires that were already out there; I wanted my
vampires to be less like Ann Rice’s vampires and more like the original
mythology. What started out as what was going to be just a little bit of
looking into the subject matter quickly became a full- time endeavor lasting
five years. At the end of my research what I had written was not a trilogy of
books about a fictional vampire but rather a compendium of vampire lore. Through
self-examination, I can say that I love the vampire because there is always
something new to discover, that its mystery still exists. Every time an ancient
piece of parchment is found or newly translated there is the potential for an
undiscovered species of vampire to be named or for a new story to be told about
a type we already know to exist. In the past there have been books both rare
and expensive that have been kept out of the reach of most researchers either
because the researchers lacked the clout to have access to them or because the
books were locked up tight in a distant library. However, with today’s
technology these books are being transcribed and scanned into electronic
documents so that everyone, no matter his reason, income level, or academic
credentials, can have access to them. What was once forbidden or lost knowledge
is now posted in PDF format on the Internet. I love the idea that there will
always be one more book to read and a new discovery to be made. As a researcher
this excites me—this is why I love the vampire. To take on the task of writing
an encyclopedia, on any subject, is tremendously exciting and daunting. My very
first order of business had to be how I intended to establish what specific
information it was going to contain as well as how inclusive it was going to be.
My intent was to make a reference book that pulled together the disseminated
knowledge from all over the world, from all cultures of people, from our
ancient ancestors to our modern kinsmen. Additionally, I wanted my book to not
only be useful to the serious- minded academics that would need my book for
their own varied research but also something that could appeal to fans. To
achieve this goal I committed myself to not exclude any culture, religion, or
people from any historical time period and to report the facts for each entry without
any personalization, dramatization, emphasis, or hyperbole. In doing so, I
could ensure that each entry would be treated equally with a measured level of
professional dégagé. My next task was perhaps more difficult, for to write an
encyclopedia about vampires one has to have a clear definition of what a
vampire is. Most interesting, there is not a pre-existing or commonly accepted
idea, let alone a singular, all- encompassing definition that clearly says what
a vampire is, specifically. That being the case, I would have to create one and
apply it even- handedly against all potential entries for the book. This was
more difficult than it sounds as what is considered a vampire in modern- day
Brazil would not in side- by- side comparison be considered a vampire by the
ancient Celts of Ireland—and yet, each of these mythical beings are by their
people’s standards every bit a vampire. For starters, not all vampires are
undead, that is, the animated corpse of a human being, such as the brykolakas
of Greece. There are mythologies where a living person is a vampire, such
as with the bruja of Spain. Not all vampires are considered evil; the talamaur
of Australian lore is not only a living person but may choose to be a force
of “good.” Not all vampires survive on human blood; the grobnik of
Bulgarian lore feeds strictly on cattle and animal carcasses. Not even blood is
a requirement; the algul of Arabic lore consumes rice while the gaki from
Japan can feed off either samurai topknots or the thoughts generated while one
meditates. It is a popular misconception that vampires can only come out at night
as the light of day is said to be most deadly; however, this is hardly the case
for the sixtysome species of vampire that are said to originate on the Greek
isles. There it seems that many of their vampires are particularly deadly at
noon, when the sun is at its apex. The Aztecs of ancient Meso- America had
vampiric gods as well as vampiric demons in their pantheon, and so do the
Hindus, whose religion is just as old but still practiced today throughout the
world. Nor is the vampire a stagnant creature, as the pishtaco of Peru
has been evolving in appearance and hunting tactics throughout the written
history of the Andean people. What, then, do all these different species of
vampires, from all around the world, have in common? The answer is simple:
basic human fear. No matter when or where, how it hunts or what it hunts, the
vampire attacks that which man considers most precious. The reason that there
is no single definition of a vampire is because each culture of people, from
their various time periods and from their various locations, has feared
different things. The vampire has become man’s fear manifest; as man has
evolved, so too has the vampire. What is culturally important to one people is
not necessarily so to another. Because of this, I used the definition that each
unique and diverse culture throughout history used; I let the people who lived
with their fears dictate to me what a vampire is. With my definition of a
vampire as fixed as it ever could ever be, I had to determine if fictional
vampires were to be included. A “fictional” vampire is, for the sake of
classification, a vampire that is the creation of an author or group of
creative- minded individuals. These fictional characters were deliberately not
included. As fond as I am of Joss Whedon and his vampires, they will not be
represented here. It would be impossible to publish a book containing those
creations considered the most popular fictional vampires, let alone all of
them. Only time will tell what, if any, vampire characters from various forms
of entertainment will one day be considered “historically relevant.” I do not
believe that the time has come to make that call. Also not included in this
encyclopedia are those homicidal individuals, mass murderers, cannibals,
sadists and serial killers who have displayed vampiric tendencies. These types
of people are not only irrelevant to the vampire as a mythological being but
are themselves not vampires. The tag “vampire” is often applied to individuals
who consume human blood, like Fritz Haarman, the “Vampire of Hanover,” most
often by the media in an attempt to sensationalize a story. People who have a
blood fetish and kill to fulfill it, like Elizabeth Bathory, the “Blood
Countess,” for instance, are not considered vampires. She did not consider
herself a vampire. Her peers did not consider her a vampire. She had nothing in
common with how a vampire is created, lives, or hunts. She had no powers or
special physical abilities that one would consider vampire-like. She was a
living, breathing, historical person and clearly not a vampire. I also did not
include cryptozoological creatures, such as the Vampire Beast of Greensboro which
is alleged to be an A.B.C. (alien big cat) that attacks livestock, draining
them of their blood. Pumas, or mountain lions as some people call them, were
once native to North Carolina. The state’s Department of Wildlife Management
stands firm on the fact that there are no big cats living there in the wild.
Isaac Harrold, a section manager for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources
Commission, has assured me that although the NCWRC continues to investigate
numerous reported cougar “sightings” every year, “there is no documented physical
evidence to suggest that a population of wild eastern cougars continues to
exist in North Carolina. In the absence of any physical evidence to the
contrary, it is our position that wild cougars do not exist in the state.”
Regardless of the NCDW’s stance, scores of hunters and eyewitnesses report
seeing these cats every year; often these claims are accompanied by blurry
photos of the beast itself or of its tracks. On the one hand, it would seem ridiculous
to argue that there are panthers in the mountains and piedmont of North
Carolina. On the other hand, eyewitness reports and blurry photographs do make
one wonder if they are indeed real. The standard, as it were, must be
maintained. Furthermore, the Vampire Beast of Greensboro has only been sighted
and reported since the early 1950s, and although it is most certainly a part of
local history, it is neither culturally significant nor mythologically relevant.
(The complete story of this vampiric creature can be found my book Haunted Historic
Greensboro.) I did, however, include those vampiric creatures, such as the chupacabra
of Mexico, that are culturally noteworthy and historically pertinent. This
species of vampire has been sighted since the 1500s and has long been part of
the history and mythology of its people. Whenever possible, at the end of each
individual entry I have included the source material I used so that it may be
referenced by others. I went back to the oldest source I could find to confirm
what was written and tried to consult the most authoritative works available.
Much of the information I discovered about vampires was taken from a wide array
of sources on different subjects that appeared in scholarly studies and
folklore journals, not the New Age or the occult section of the bookstore. It
took me five years of intensive research to gather the information I would need
to sit down and write this book. Sometimes a single piece of information came
from one book and another tidbit from another. No one entry came from any single
book. A complete bibliography is provided at the back for the reader who wants
to learn more or start his or her own research. For ease of readability, I have
used SMALL CAPS for cross-references. I find that crossreferencing is
important, particularly when it comes to the reader’s desire to learn more.
Crossreferences let them know that additional information is available and that
it is right there at their fingertips. To complement this, there is a
thoroughly exhaustive index that can be found at the very back of the book.
Compiled here, in this one place, is a list of terms any researcher would ever
need to look up in this encyclopedia. There are an untold number of nonfiction
books about the vampire, and although I cannot personally vouch for even the
smallest percentage of them, there are several books that I consider to be
relevant and worth reading. All are nonfiction and the information that they
contain is fairly timeless. For example, the history of ancient Rome has been written
and is well established. Although new bits of information may come along or a
new understanding of situations may be brought to light, Edward Gibbon’s book The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, first published in 1781,
is still a valid historical reference book. Matthew Bunson’s The Vampire
Encyclopedia offers readers a good mixture of mythological and fictional
vampires as does J. Gordon Melton’s The Vampire Book: The
Encyclopedia of the Undead. Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Complete Vampire
Companion: Legend and Lore of the Living Dead covers mythological and
fictional vampires as well as the real or living vampires, those who live the
“vampire lifestyle.” As mentioned, these books present varying amounts of
information about fictional vampires from books, movies and television. While
it is interesting and entertaining, this material is irrelevant to the
mythology and history of the vampire and not appropriate for this encyclopedia.
Naturally, Montague Summers’ books The Vampire, His Kith and Kin,
The Vampire in Lore and Legend and The Vampire in Europe are
“must- reads” for anyone who takes their vampire lore seriously. Be advised,
however, that Summers was a very religious individual and oftentimes conveyed
his feelings when not adding outright his own Christian opinion. I am
personally fond of Orenlla Volta’s The Vampire, although it does not go
into great depth on the various species of vampires; what it does offer,
however, is wonderful insight into the human psyche as it relates to the
vampire. A similar comment can be made for the book written by Ernest Jones, On
the Nightmare. Perhaps I am especially fond of these two books because they
dwell less on the “who, what and where” and focus more directly on the “why.” I
am frequently asked the age- old question “Do you believe that vampires are
real?” and time and again my answer is an unhesitating and unwavering “No, I do
not.” My rational and scientific self cannot accept their existence. I do not
believe that there are animated corpses wandering the countryside and dark
alleys looking for suitable prey to lure into a quiet shadow so that they may
sustain their life by consuming a human’s blood. That is not to say that I do not
experience the same cultural fears as my fellow man; I just do not lay the
blame for the manifestations of those fears on
the vampire. All the same, just in case I am wrong, don’t take candy from any
strangers. On that note, I would like to express my appreciation to those in
the field who went before me, a list too long to present in its entirety but is
comprised of those editors, artists, and historical experts who work in occult
research, paranormal investigation, psychology, parapsychology, and
translation. Also I would like to thank Gina Farago, my beta-reader
extraordinaire; June Williams, who was instrumental in my pronunciation guides;
and especially my husband, Glenn, who makes my writing and being an author
possible. To you all I extend my heartfelt thanks. I couldn’t have done it
without you” (pp. 1-5).
Introduction
„Vampire.
To those people who believe that
there are such creatures in the supernatural, bloodsucking predators who stalk
mankind in the night, just hearing this word aloud in a crowded room instantly
draws their attention to the speaker. All eyes turn to face him as their bodies
tense up, becoming like a herd of deer in the communal process of deciding
whether or not to bolt. Perhaps there is still some primitive part of our brain
that is hardwired yet into fearing this life-taking entity of the night. Modern
man, for all his achievements and developments in the fields of science and
technology, knows that there is no such thing as a vampire, and yet ... there
is that little voice in the back of our heads or in the twitch we get in the
bottom of our stomachs at night that whispers, “But what if...” Then,
there are those people who hold a deep-rooted fascination with the vampire; to them
the vampire is not a monster seeking lives to claim in sadistic acts of terror
and violence night after eternal night. Rather, the image they fancy is that of
a poor Byronic figure in need of understanding, compassion, and love. To the
fans of paranormal romance, the vampire with his hundreds of years of sexual
experience to draw from is a near perfect lover: passionate, dominant and
seductive—it loves only her, wants only her, needs only her, the one person who
can save him from an isolated, dismal and droning eternity of loneliness. I
would think that the fewest number of people think “parasitic life form” when
they heard the word “vampire”; perhaps this one word is the rogue exception of
Occam’s Razor, the principle that the simplest and most logical answer is most
likely the correct one. Seeing a bat flying at night, who among us truly
thinks, “There is a creature that eats 8,000 mosquitoes a night, and without it
we’d all have died of malaria by now.” It may be safe to say that the opposite is
true, that we see a bat and think illness and death, all words akin to the
vampire because it has always been blamed as the carrier for such horrors. Since
the dawn of man, there has been the belief in supernatural vampires. Just like
flood myths, every society has had vampire myths as well. In fact, one of the
earliest pieces of writing that archeologists have discovered was not a love
poem, recipe, or a religious text but rather a magical spell written around
4000 B.C. It is alleged to have been written by a mother in an attempt to keep
her child safe from the attack of the EKIMMOU, a type of vampiric spirit that even then was considered to be
an ancient evil. A February 13, 1892, article in the New York Times discusses
ad nauseam some ancient letters transcribed between the Assyrian monarch, Dusratta,
king of Mitain, to Amenophis III, king of Egypt. Dating from around 1500 B.C., these
letters discuss the arrival of envoys and ambassadors. What makes the letters
so valuable is that they contain 500 lines of Acadian and Babylonian ideas
regarding the belief of witches and maligned spirits that haunt man kind. The
article even translates into English for its readers’ pleasure most of an
incantation used to exorcize a demon as well as a complete translation for a
brief magical formula for use against ten different types of devils, including
LILITH and the EKIMMOU:
I hold aloft the torch, set
fire to the images
Of Utukku, Schedu,
Rabisu, Ekimmou,
Lamastu, Labasn,
Achahaza,
Lila, Lilitu
of the maid Lilu,
Of all that is hostile, that
attacks me.
May their smoke mount heaven,
May their sparks cover the sun,
May the priest, the
son of the god Ea, break their spell.
Often reality and the perception
of reality are two very different things. It seems highly unlikely that there
ever were such beings, or that the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Inuits
all could develop and fear this very same vampire at about the same time, and
yet they did. To be certain, this is not proof that vampires such as the EKIMMOU
once existed, only that ancient man believed they did. In fact, man need not be
all that ancient to have a profound belief in vampires. In 1576 the plague was
ravaging the Italian city of Venice; it was believed by some to be spread by
vampires. In an attempt to gain the upper hand on the undead and help bring the
widespread disease under control it is speculated that the gravediggers who
buried plague victims took matters into their own hands. Matteo Borrini of the
University of Florence in Italy found the skeletal remains of a woman who had a
brick wedged into her mouth, a telltale sign that it was assumed that she was a
vampire. Borrini believes that the gravediggers would have returned to the mass
grave with more bodies for burial after a two- or three-day absence. It would
have been at that time that they would have noticed that one of the corpses, a woman,
had apparently chewed through her burial shroud. He also suspects that the men would
have noticed what would have appeared to look like fresh blood on her lips and
teeth as well as on the remains of her shroud. Five hundred years ago it was
commonly believed and widely accepted that vampires spread the plague by
chewing their own burial shrouds while they lay in their graves, that this act
somehow mystically spread the plague to their surviving family members. The
gravediggers thought that placing the brick in the mouth of the vampire prevented
the creature from continuing to chew on its shroud and thereby saved the lives
of an untold number of people. The “blood” that the gravediggers must have seen
was in fact not blood but rather bodily fluids loaded with enzymes escaping the
corpse, some of which apparently bubbled up from the mouth and, being mildly
acidic, dissolved part of the shroud. By the time the brick would have been
placed in the jaws of the corpse, that stage of decomposition would have
already passed, so if the gravediggers ever did check on their vampire, they
would have been very pleased with themselves to have seen that the remedy worked.
Hardly an isolated incident, this folkloric custom was also practiced in Poland
and through the Greek isles. Shards of pottery know as POTSHERD would have been
inscribed with the words INNK (“Jesus Christ conquers”) by a priest before
being placed in the mouth of the deceased. Vampires are without a doubt the
single most adaptable monster that mankind has ever dreamt up. Unicorns and
griffons have come and gone within the dreams of man, yet the vampire has
remained. At every stage of our social development, the vampire was there. When
man was a huntergatherer, the vampire lurked in the dark jungles and ambushed,
an invisible entity that left nothing behind but the mangled and unwanted
remains of its kill. Only in the light of day or in the glow of the nightly
campfires was a person safe from the WURWOLAKA of Albanian lore, for example.
And just to be fair, just because a vampire attacked its prey at night did not mean
that it was automatically susceptible to sunlight; it very well could mean that
it for the most part is nocturnal and by use of cunning takes advantage of
mankind’s natural fear of the night. The MRART of Australia is one such ambush
predator. Its supernatural powers are at their peak at night, but that does not
mean that one is automatically safe from its attack during the light of day. As
cultures continued to become more socially dynamic, so did the most insidious and
notorious stalker. When man stopped following the animal herds and decided to
make permanent settlements, cultivate crops and develop societies, the vampire
settled down with him. It had the power to cause droughts and destroy precious grains.
It made rivers run dry and sent the plague. All throughout eastern Europe, a
vampiric REVENANT known as a TAXIM, fueled by a lust for vengeance, spread the
plague wherever it wandered. In societies where herds of cattle were considered
invaluable, vampires attacked them; the NUCKELAVEE, a vampiric fay of the
Orkney Islands, Scotland, was known to drive herds off the steep cliffs and
into the ocean. If a tribe of people considered their children to be most
precious, their children were the only food their vampire would feed on, as is
the case with the UPOR of Russia. High in the mountains and in the near–Arctic
regions where keeping warm was the most important priority, the vampires in those
places, like the KHARISIRI, LIK’ICHIRI, ÑAKAQ and the PISHTACO, survived on
body fat and heat. Furthermore, no matter where in the world man settled or how
his societies were established and run, the vampires of that particular region
always appeared as that which man found to be the most terrifying aspect of his
society imaginable. Be it an invisible and intangible spirit, a corpse risen up
and animated by a demonic force, or one’s very own next door neighbor, the
vampire was always near and ready to strike. It is no wonder that such a
far-reaching fear, namely the vampire, would have an equally far-reaching
resource to confront it: GARLIC. Not only did this vegetable grow in abundance in
the wild in most parts of the world in a wide range of soil conditions, it was
very easy to cultivate, a delicious and healthy food to eat, and just so
happened to be a natural vampire repellant. From the ASEMA of the Republic of
Suriname to the ZBURATOR of Romanian lore, a simple clove of garlic is used to
stave off mankind’s worst and most dangerous supernatural enemy. In truth
garlic is not a universal deterrent; other common foods that can be used to
thwart a vampire attack are poppy seeds, grains of rice, sesame seeds, iron
shavings and peppercorns. Each of these items when thrown or left for a vampire
to discover will compel it to stop and count each one. Ideally, this obsessive
counting will take the monster all night, stalling it long enough for the sun
to rise and destroy it; this is believed to be true of the SUCOYAN of the West
Indies. Additionally, as it so happened, in just about every spot in the world
where early man settled, fraxinus excelsior, more commonly known as the
ash tree, was revealed to be the most perfect wood for making stakes to drive
into vampires’ hearts. According to Pliny the Elder, “All things evil fear
ash.” The vampiric REVENANTS know as STRIGON of Istrian lore can be destroyed
only with such a weapon. Even when organized religions began to gain power and influence,
their gods and faith alone could not quench the innate and deep- rooted fear
and belief that people had always had in the vampire. Rather than trying to
dispel the creature, they accepted it, gave validity to the fear and then
applied their own beliefs onto the existing vampire lore, further legitimizing
it themselves. No better example of this process can be given than the
transformation of the TOMTIN. Once they were feared as the vampiric fay that
served the fertility gods of the ancient Germanic tribes, whipping travelers to
death with chains and then lapping up the blood from the corpses. Christianity
and the church’s desire to have new converts absorbed the regional TOMTIN lore.
Rather than serving their pagan gods the TOMTIN became Christian converts
themselves and freely chose to serve Saint Nicholas. In true vampiric fashion
the TOMTIN, many years later, evolved once again, but this time into something we
are all very familiar with—Santa Claus’s toy-making elves. Once the CRUCIFIX and
rice paper prayer sheets were easily accessible to the common man, it was small
wonder that these easy to get religious items could protect a person from the
attack of the TLACIQUES and the HULI JING. No matter how vicious or violent or
bloodthirsty the vampire, there is always a simple, inexpensive and common
means by which it can be defeated, that is, providing one is able to stand up,
confront and face the fear. Even today, in the twenty-first century, people all
over the world still believe in vampires. Why is that? There has never been a
shred of archeological evidence to prove that one of the more than 600
different species included in this encyclopedia ever existed. We have discovered
the fossilized remains of flora and fauna that lived millions and millions of
years ago. We are cloning animals with such frequency in laboratories around
the world now that it hardly even makes the news. Regularly, rocket ships and
satellites penetrate our atmosphere and send humans into outer space, so often
in fact that their debris is becoming a serious travel hazard, turning our sky
into a landfill, and no one even thinks this to be exciting or newsworthy. We
have found life thriving on the deepest parts of our oceans’ floors. We have even
found what in all likelihood is significant scientific proof that life once
existed on Mars — a planet some 36 million miles from Earth. We are clever and
smart and learned people, and yet the belief of the vampire remains. Why is
that? How can it be? Why does the belief in this mythical being linger in spite
of the lack of any supporting facts or corroborating evidence, especially in
our modern day and age? Could it possibly be that somewhere we, as a species, need
to believe that vampires are real? That such horrors exist just beyond our
sight, just out of our reach, that are far worse than the ones we know to be
real and accept and live with? Will we ever grow beyond this fear we seem to
have as a species that causes us to need to believe in the existence of the
vampire, or at the very least, need the fear it causes within ourselves? Thus
far we have been unable to shake it off. We overcame our fear of fire, why not the
vampire? The shark, perhaps the natural world’s most perfect killer, has
changed very little over the eons, whereas the vampire has been in a constant
state of flux. A Darwinian delight, the undead beings that we are apparently
forever to be in fear of are always adapting to new environments. Today, the
vampire is seen by many as an object of sexual desire, a Byronic and wounded
soul that needs and seeks out a living human companion to inspire him to
continue on. Books, comics, movies, music, television shows, theater — there is
no form of media that the vampire has not conquered. And as our world grows
smaller, due to the ease and accessibility of communication devices such as the
Internet and due to the ever-increasing world population, the vampire is right
there in the mix. As cultures collide, their mythologies mingle and the vampire
once again is morphed into something modern and newly fearsome to a wider audience.
It is difficult to remain stoic and objective about a supernatural predatory
being such as the vampire because even if one is not inclined to believe that
they are real and walk among us, the crimes that they are believed to have
committed are absolutely the most horrific that our society can imagine. Simply
trying to imagine what its victims experience as they are consumed alive is
enough to turn one’s hair white and inspire one to sleep with his lights on. It
is because of the horrific nature of the crimes they commit, the methodology
that they employ, the feelings of trust and safety that they so easily shatter,
that we would be hard pressed to find someone who had no opinion on the matter
at all. That is exactly the reason why encyclopedias, regardless of the subject
matter, are so important to researchers. These books are meant to be a
comprehensive resource on a subject, pulling together all related bits of
reliable data from all branches of knowledge in one place—and this is the most important
part—in an impartial and unbiased voice. Admittedly this sort of book is seldom
the sort seen on best selling lists, as they opt for the credible rather than
the sensational, but long after the title du jour is forgotten the encyclopedia
remains, its factual content and integrity intact” (pp. 7-11).
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