The Black Death, and The Dancing ManiaHecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl)
History
The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl)
Black Death; Chorea, Epidemic; Epidemics
"Next day, according to the custom in the cure of this disorder, she was
taken into the market-place, where several jars of maize or tsug were set
in order by the relations, to give drink to the musicians and dancers.
When the crowd had assembled, and the music was ready, she was brought
forth and began to dance and throw herself into the maddest postures
imaginable, and in this manner she kept on the whole day. Towards
evening she began to let fall her silver ornaments from her neck, arms,
and legs, one at a time, so that in the course of three hours she was
stripped of every article. A relation continually kept going after her
as she danced, to pick up the ornaments, and afterwards delivered them to
the owners from whom they were borrowed. As the sun went down she made a
start with such swiftness that the fastest runner could not come up with
her, and when at the distance of about two hundred yards she dropped on a
sudden as if shot. Soon afterwards a young man, on coming up with her,
fired a matchlock over her body, and struck her upon the back with the
broad side of his large knife, and asked her name, to which she answered
as when in her common senses--a sure proof of her being cured; for during
the time of this malady those afflicted with it never answer to their
Christian names. She was now taken up in a very weak condition and
carried home, and a priest came and baptised her again in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which ceremony concluded her cure. Some are
taken in this manner to the market-place for many days before they can be
cured, and it sometimes happens that they cannot be cured at all. I have
seen them in these fits dance with a _bruly_, or bottle of maize, upon
their heads without spilling the liquor, or letting the bottle fall,
although they have put themselves into the most extravagant postures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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