This was more especially the case with hysteria, that
proteiform and mutable disorder, in which the imaginations, the
superstitions, and the follies of all ages have been evidently
reflected. The "Carnevaletto delle Donne" appeared most
opportunely for those who were hysterical. Their disease received
from it, as it had at other times from other extraordinary
customs, a peculiar direction; so that, whether bitten by the
tarantula or not, they felt compelled to participate in the dances
of those affected, and to make their appearance at this popular
festival, where they had an opportunity of triumphantly exhibiting
their sufferings. Let us here pause to consider the kind of life
which the women in Italy led. Lonely, and deprived by cruel
custom of social intercourse, that fairest of all enjoyments, they
dragged on a miserable existence. Cheerfulness and an inclination
to sensual pleasures passed into compulsory idleness, and, in
many, into black despondency. Their imaginations became
disordered--a pallid countenance and oppressed respiration bore
testimony to their profound sufferings. How could they do
otherwise, sunk as they were in such extreme misery, than seize
the occasion to burst forth from their prisons and alleviate their
miseries by taking part in the delights of music? Nor should we
here pass unnoticed a circumstance which illustrates, in a
remarkable degree, the psychological nature of hysterical
sufferings, namely, that many chlorotic females, by joining the
dancers at the Carnevaletto, were freed from their spasms and
oppression of breathing for the whole year, although the corporeal
cause of their malady was not removed.
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