Some songs, which are still
preserved, marked this peculiar longing, which was moreover
expressed by significant music, and was excited even by the bare
mention of the sea. Some, in whom this susceptibility was carried
to the greatest pitch, cast themselves with blind fury into the
blue waves, as the St. Vitus's dancers occasionally did into rapid
rivers. This condition, so opposite to the frightful state of
hydrophobia, betrayed itself in others only in the pleasure
afforded them by the sight of clear water in glasses. These they
bore in their hands while dancing, exhibiting at the same time
strange movements, and giving way to the most extravagant
expressions of their feeling. They were delighted also when, in
the midst of the space allotted for this exercise, more ample
vessels, filled with water, and surrounded by rushes and water
plants, were placed, in which they bathed their heads and arms
with evident pleasure. Others there were who rolled about on the
ground, and were, by their own desire, buried up to the neck in
the earth, in order to alleviate the misery of their condition;
not to mention an endless variety of other symptoms which showed
the perverted action of the nerves.
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