which is well worth consideration.


SECT. 4--MORE ANCIENT DANCING PLAGUES


The Dancing Mania of the year 1374 was, in fact, no new disease,
but a phenomenon well known in the Middle Ages, of which many
wondrous stories were traditionally current among the people. In
the year 1237 upwards of a hundred children were said to have been
suddenly seized with this disease at Erfurt, and to have proceeded
dancing and jumping along the road to Arnstadt. When they arrived
at that place they fell exhausted to the ground, and, according to
an account of an old chronicle, many of them, after they were
taken home by their parents, died, and the rest remained affected,
to the end of their lives, with a permanent tremor. Another
occurrence was related to have taken place on the Moselle Bridge
at Utrecht, on the 17th day of June, A.D. 1278, when two hundred
fanatics began to dance, and would not desist until a priest
passed, who was carrying the Host to a person that was sick, upon
which, as if in punishment of their crime, the bridge gave way,
and they were all drowned. A similar event also occurred so early
as the year 1027, near the convent church of Kolbig, not far from
Bernburg. According to an oft-repeated tradition, eighteen
peasants, some of whose names are still preserved, are said to
have disturbed divine service on Christmas Eve by dancing and
brawling in the churchyard, whereupon the priest, Ruprecht,
inflicted a curse upon them, that they should dance and scream for
a whole year without ceasing. This curse is stated to have been
completely fulfilled, so that the unfortunate sufferers at length