The effects of the Black Death had not yet subsided, and the
graves of millions of its victims were sgic circle of hellish superstition.
It was a convulsion which in the most extraordinary manner
infuriated thece of persons possessed. It did not remain confined to
particular localities, but was propagated by the sight of the
sufferers, like a demoniacal epidemic, over the whole of Germany
and the neighbouring countries to the nor-west, which were
already prepared for its reception by the prevailing opinions of the time.
So early as the year 1374, assemblages of men and women were seen
at Aix-la-Chapelle, who had come out of Germany, and who, united
by one common delusion, exhibited to the public both in the
streets and in the ch tollowing strange spectacle. They
formed circles hand in hand, and appearing to have lost all
control over their senses, continued dancing, regardless of the
bystanders, for hours together, in wild delirium, until at length
they fell to the ground oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies
of death, untiy were swathed in cloths bound tightly round
their waists, upon which they again recovered, andractice of swathing
was resorted to on account of the tympany which followed these
spasmodic ravings, but the bystanders frequently relieved patients
in a less a their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names
they shrieked out; and some of them afterwards asserted that they
felt as if they had been immersed in a stream of blood, which
obliged them to leap so high. Others, during the paroxysm, saw
the heavens open and the Saviour enthroned with the Virgin Mary,
according as the religious notioage were strangely and
variously reflected in their imaginations.
Where the disease waspletely developed, the attack commenced
with epileptic convulsions. Those affected fell to the ground
senseless, panting and labouring for breath. They foamed at the
mouth, and suddenly springing up began their dance amidst strange
contortions. Yet the malbtless made its appearance very
variously, and was m ne this demoniacal disease had spread
from Aix-la-Chapelle, where it appeared in July, over the
neighbouring Netherlands. In Liege, Utrechres, and many
other towns of Belgiumrs appeared with garlands in
their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they might, as
soon as the paroxysm many, however, obtained more relief
from kicks and blows, wound numbers of persons ready to
administer: for, wherever the dancers appeared, the people
assembled in crowds to gragth the increasing number of the affected
excited no less anxiety than the attention that was paid to them.
In towns and villages they took possession of the religious
houses, processions were everywhere instituted on their account,
and masses were said and hymns wereg, while the disease
itself, of the demoniacal origin of which no one entertained the
least doubt, excited everywhere astonishment and horror. In Liege
the priests had rthe possesseing in multitudes,
frequently pou imprecations against them, and menaced
their destruction. They intimidated the people also to such a
degree that there was uare-toed shoes, because these fanatics had
manifested a morbid dislike to the pointed shoes which had come
into fashion immediately after thertality" in 1350.
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