Travelers in the 19th century would purchase vampire hunting kits in preparation for their travels to Eastern Europe. The kits would contain a wooden stake, Bible, crucifix, pistol with lead bullets, gunpowder, garlic and glass vials that held various concoctions to ward off vampires. Interestingly, these kits predated Bram Stoker’s Dracula and other written accounts of vampires, pointing to the strong oral history component of the undead bloodsucker.