A printed description presumably by Robley is pasted to the reverse:
“The reader of the Arabian Nights will remember the horrible stories of ghouls which occur there, and which illustrate a belief prevalent and still existing throughout the East. To the natives of Bengal they are known as Vampires, and are dreaded as creatures whose religion it is to undergo degrading rites and impurities of food in order to debase themselves for the exaltation of the praise of their deity…..”
Robley has added a second signature and added the ms note “Very Rare” followed by the manuscript addition: “He was when discovered, gnawing on the arm of a girl who had recently died of small pox.”
Horatio Robley was a soldier who served in Burma, New Zealand, Ceylon and elsewhere. While in Burma he became interested in tattooing and as a result of his experiences in New Zealand wrote extensively on Maori culture, and Mokomokai in particular. He was a prolific artist and a collector of the arcane both in artifact and image. The cult of Vetala is strongly associated with Konkan region in India.
There is a photograph of Robley, a copy of which is held at the Wellcome Collection, seated with his extensive collection of preserved human heads. This personal predilections perhaps contextualises his interest in the macabre in other cultures, posing the question of who the real monster may be.
