Romania's Csángó

A comment on Dracula Blogged by Pitchperfect guided Internet "wanderers" to this National Geographic article and multimedia feature that is pitchperfect to feature on The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire. From the article:

Bibi Koszan was a sorceress, an accomplished 23-year-old witch and fortune-teller, as well as a fervent Roman Catholic. At our meeting in the village of Arini, at the end of a rutted mule track in the eastern Romanian region of Moldavia, she rocked to and fro under a framed print of the "Last Supper," willing herself into a trance as she spread 41 kernels of dried corn on a table and arranged them in rows. Her four-month-old son stared intently at us from a straw cradle perched on a chest, babbling his encouragement. "Here is the stranger," Bibi chanted, waving a hand over the first row of corn, then moving on to the others. "Here is your heart, and here is your house." She had stolen her secrets from an older witch, pretending to be an ordinary client while she memorized the incantations and rituals of white magic. "Theft is the only way, our forefathers' way, to acquire these powers," she told me. Then she went on with her reckoning of my prospects, divined in 41 kernels of corn. The details, which I'll keep to myself, were as enigmatic as Bibi's people—an ancient, restless tribe known as the Csángós, which roughly translates as "wanderers."

Read the entire excerpt and don't forget to watch and listen to the excellent multimedia feature.