SECT. 3--INCREASE
At the close of the fifteenth century we find that tarantism had
spread beyond the boundaries of Apulia, and that the fear of being
bitten by venomous spiders had increased. Nothing short of death
itself was expected from the wound which these insects inflicted,
and if those who were bitten escaped with their lives, they were
said to be seen pining away in a desponding state of lassitude.
Many became weak-sighted or hard of hearing, some lost the power
of speech, and all were insensible to ordinary causes of
excitement. Nothing but the flute or the cithern afforded them
relief. At the sound of these instruments they awoke as it were
by enchantment, opened their eyes, and moving slowly at first,
according to the measure of the music, were, as the time
quickened, gradually hurried on to the most passionate dance. It
was generally observable that country people, who were rude, and
ignorant of music, evinced on these occasions an unusual degree of
grace, as if they had been well practised in elegant movements of
the body; for it is a peculiarity in nervous disorders of this
kind, that the organs of motion are in an altered condition, and
are completely under the control of the over-strained spirits.
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