1--TIGRETIER
Both the St. Vitus's dance and tarantism belonged to the ages in
which they appeared. They could not have existed under the same
latitude at any other epoch, for at no other period were the
circumstances which prepared the way for them combined in a
similar relation to each other, and the mental as well as
corporeal temperaments of nations, which depend on causes such as
have been stated, are as little capable of renewal as the
different stages of life in individuals. This gives so much the
more importance to a disease but cursorily alluded to in the
foregoing pages, which exists in Abyssinia, and which nearly
resembles the original mania of the St. John's dancers, inasmuch
as it exhibits a perfectly similar ecstasy, with the same violent
effect on the nerves of motion. It occurs most frequently in the
Tigre country, being thence call Tigretier, and is probably the
same malady which is called in Ethiopian language Astaragaza. On
this subject we will introduce the testimony of Nathaniel Pearce,
an eye-witness, who resided nine years in Abyssinia. "The
Tigretier," he says he, "is more common among the women than among
the men.
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