Vampire hunter or vampire slayer is a fictional occupation in history and fiction which specializes in finding vampires, and sometimes other supernatural creatures. A vampire hunter is usually described as having extensive knowledge of vampires and other monstrous or undead creatures, including their powers and weaknesses, and uses this knowledge to effectively combat them. Vampire hunters range in characterization in fiction from sages with more than average knowledge about the occult, to athletes with the skill and ability to confront vampires with traditional or holy weapons often including wooden stakes and holy water, to supernatural beings themselves who fight vampires with mystical powers. Many characterizations draw from the history and folklore of the Balkans. A well known and influential archetypal vampire hunter is Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a character in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel, Dracula, a foundational work in the genre. In history Professional or semi-professional vampire hunters played some part in the vampire beliefs of the Balkans (especially in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian folk beliefs). In Bulgarian, the terms used to designate them included glog (lit. "hawthorn", the species of wood used for the stake), vampirdzhiya, vampirar, dzhadazhiya, svetocher. They were usually either born on Saturday (then called Sabbatarians, Bulgarian sâbotnichav, Greek sabbatianoí) or the offspring of a vampire and a woman (typically his widow), called a dhampir in Romanian or a vampirović in Serbian. It was also believed that someone born on a Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible (and sometimes other supernatural entities as well); similarly for the dhampir. In the case of the Sabbatarians, it was believed in some places that they needed to be fed meat from a sheep killed by a wolf (Bulgarian vâlkoedene); this would enable them not to fear the things that only they were able to see. In Croatian and Slovenian legends, the villages had their own Vampire hunters that were called kresniks, whose spirits were able to turn into animals at night to fight off the vampire or kudlak. Some carried a kit that used mallet, stake, and crucifix. If part of a church, it included holy water, holy oil, etc. However, the most important things it carried were items such as rope, crowbars, or even pistols. In fiction The vampire hunter has found new popularity in modern fiction and popular culture. The most widely known example of a vampire hunter is Abraham Van Helsing