Friday, February 18, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
Kit found in Australia
The 19th century wooden box contains a crucifix, wooden stake (possibly set with human bone), a silver pistol and four bullets, each engraved with a cross. There is also an empty vial thought to have once contained holy water, and a place for the all-important vampire repellent: garlic.
The stake is engraved with the Latin phrase "Deus Vult", which means "God wills it."
The kit, believed to have been made in the early 1800s, was found by Broadmeadows police during a drug raid at the home of a Romanian man in Pascoe Vale South in August. The kits were popular in Eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, with interest renewed in the early 20th century after the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897.