PHOTOGRAGH BY STEVEN GETTLE, WWW.STEVEGETTLE.COM
Orlok: There is a belief in the Orient that the bat is particularly adapted to occult uses. In the Austrian region of Tyrol, it is believed that the man who wears the left eye of a bat may become invisible, and in the German state of Hesse, whoever wears the heart of a bat bound to the arm with red thread will always be lucky at cards. The Arctic Snow Bat is the rarest breed of all, and therefore the most sought after. The spell that turned people like William Weiss and Flapper into vampires requires the sacrifice of a nocturnal creature, and the Snow Bat is considered the most enchanted of them all. Sam Gumpertz said he bought Orlok from the explorer Admiral Byrd, who captured the Snow Bat on his 1926 trip to the North Pole. Snow Bats are fond of eating the rare white rose that only grows in regions where the temperature is below freezing year round.
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