Mahomedanism, John is to this day worshipped, as protecting saint of those who are attacked with the dancing malady[224]. In these fragments of the dominion of mysticism and superstition, historical connexion is not to be found. When we observe, however, that the first dancers in Aix-la-Chapelle appeared in July with St. John’s name in their mouths, the conjecture is probable that the wild revels of St. John’s day, A. D. 1374, gave rise to this mental plague, which thenceforth has visited so many thousands with incurable aberration of mind, and disgusting distortions of body. This is rendered so much the more probable, because some months previously the districts in the neighbourhood of the Rhine and the Maine had met with great disasters. So early as February, both these rivers had overflowed their banks to a great extent; the walls of the town of Cologne, on the side next the Rhine, had fallen down, and a great many villages had been reduced to the utmost distress[225]. To this was added the miserable condition of Western and Southern Germany. Neither law nor edict could suppress the incessant feuds of the Barons, and in Franconia especially, the ancient times of club law appeared to be revived. Security of property there was none; arbitrary will everywhere prevailed; corruption of morals and rude power rarely met with even a feeble opposition; whence it arose that the cruel, but lucrative, persecutions of the Jews, were in many places still practised through the whole of this century, with their wonted ferocity. Thus, throughout the western parts of Germany, and especially in the districts bordering on the Rhine, there was a wretched and oppressed populace; and if we take into consideration, that among their numerous bands many wandered about, whose consciences were tormented with the recollection of the crimes which they had committed during the prevalence of the black plague, we shall comprehend how their despair sought relief in the intoxication of an artificial delirium[226]. There is hence good ground for supposing that the frantic celebration of the festival of St. John, A. D. 1374, only served to bring to a crisis, a malady which had been long impending; and if we would further inquire how a hitherto harmless usage, which, like many others, had but served to keep up superstition, could degenerate into so serious a disease, we must take into account the unusual excitement of men’s minds, and the consequences of wretchedness and want. The bowels, which in many were debilitated by hunger and bad food, were precisely the parts which in most cases were attacked with excruciating pain, and the tympanitic state of the intestines, points out to the intelligent physician, an origin of the disorder which is well worth consideration. SECT. 4.—MORE ANCIENT DANCING PLAGUES.