At last it was found necessary to drive away
these mischievous guests, who were equally inaccessible to the
exorcisms of the priests and the remedies of the physicians. It
was not, however, until after four months that the Rhenish cities
were able to suppress these impostures, which had so alarmingly
increased the original evil. In the meantime, when once called
into existence, the plague crept on, and found abundant food in
the tone of thought which prevailed in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and even, though in a minor degree,
throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth, causing a permanent
disorder of the mind, and exhibiting in those cities to whose
inhabitants it was a novelty, scenes as strange as they were
detestable.
SECT. 2--ST. VITUS'S DANCE
Strasburg was visited by the "Dancing Plague" in the year 1418,
and the same infatuation existed among the people there, as in the
towns of Belgium and the Lower Rhine. Many who were seized at the
sight of those affected, excited attention at first by their
confused and absurd behaviour, and then by their constantly
following swarms of dancers. These were seen day and night
passing through the streets, accompanied by musicians playing on
bagpipes, and by innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity, to
which were added anxious parents and relations, who came to look
after those among the misguided multitude who belonged to their
respective families.
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