Since I could not hold
these people from the resolution they had made, either with good words or
with threats, I went to the village of Kisilova, taking along the Gradisk
priest, and viewed the body of Peter Plogojowitz, just exhumed, finding, in
accordance with thorough truthfulness, that first of all I did not detect
the slightest odor that is otherwise characteristic of the dead, and the body,
except for the nose, which was somewhat fallen away, was completely fresh.
The hair and beard- even the nails, of which the old ones had fallen away
- had grown on him; the old skin, which was somewhat whitish, had peeled away,
and a new one had emerged from it. The face, hands, and feet and the whole
body were so constituted, that they could not have been more complete in his
lifetime. Not without astonishment, I saw some fresh blood in his mouth, which,
according to the common observation, he had sucked from the people killed
by him.
In short, all the indications
were present that such people (as remarked above) are said to have. After
both the priest and I had seen this spectacle, while people grew more outraged
than distressed, all the subjects, with great speed, sharpened a stake - in
order to pierce the corpse of the deceased with it- and put this at his heart,
whereupon, as he was pierced, not only did much blood, completely fresh, flow
also through his ears and mouth, but still other wild signs (which I pass
by out of high respect) took place. Finally, according to their usual practice,
they burned the often mentioned body, in his case, to ashes of which I inform
the most laudable Administration, and at the same time would like to request,
obediently and humbly, that if a mistake was made in this matter, such is
to be attributed not to me but to the rabble, who were beside themselves with
fear.
