In 1374 a strange mass insanity began to spread in Germany. It existed for about two hundred years and disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. People were seized by an irresistible passion for dancing. They gathered in crowds and, with wreaths in their hair, danced in round dances with wild cries and mad looks.
They twitched convulsively and fell to the ground in exhaustion. And then they jumped to their feet again, jumped, twisted, writhed and beat themselves with such force with their fists on the chest and thighs, as if they wanted to expel the demons that had possessed them from their bodies. Foam poured from mouths that emitted terrible screams.
A multitude of spectators running from all sides, without taking their eyes, watched the terrible performances. The madness took different forms in different places.
Descriptions of wild dances remained in the published memoirs of not doctors and not specialists, but of people who accidentally found themselves at the scene, struck by what they saw, who were convinced that only evil spirits could bring a person to such a state and, therefore, the reasons for the madness of the dancers in a devilish obsession.
A lot of fantastic stories were told about the insane dancers, and everyone wanted to see them with their own eyes. For this, the peasants left their fields, and the artisans their workshops. Women abandoned housework, children left their parents, servants left their masters.
Adventurers and crooks joined the raging ones, deftly imitating their gestures and behavior. Wandering with dancers, they could live easily and satisfyingly.
In July 1374, the raging appeared in Aachen. A month later, more than 500 people were dancing in the streets of Cologne. From Germany, the dance craze spread to Belgian cities. Most of the raging were poor people. As if under hypnosis, they told each other that soon the demons would move through them into the bodies of noble people and princes and they would destroy the churchmen they hated.
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It was becoming impossible to tolerate violators of public peace. The rioters were removed from the Belgian cities in 10 or 11 weeks.
The 14th century dance fever was not the first in Europe. In 1237, in the German city of Erfurt, a passion for dancing and vagrancy suddenly seized over a hundred children who went to the neighboring city of Arnstadt. All the way they danced and jumped, and when they reached the destination of their journey, they fell to the ground in exhaustion. Here they were taken by their parents, who followed in the footsteps of their offspring. As the chronicle reports, many of the children soon died, and the survivors kept trembling until their death.
The incident that occurred on Christmas night 1021 in the church of a monastery located near the German city of Bernburg has been described many times. The service was going on, disturbed by the noise and shouts of eighteen raging peasants. Finally, the priest Ruprecht lost his patience and cursed them, announcing that in punishment for their indecent behavior they would dance and shout for a whole year.
They said that this wish came true. The unfortunate ones danced and could not stop. Having lost their strength, they fell to the ground, and then, having a little rest and coming to their senses, got up and again began to dance like clockwork dolls.
Only thanks to the intercession of the two compassionate bishops who took pity on them, the madmen were spared further dancing. They all fell asleep for three days. Then four of them died. The rest had trembling limbs for life.
Bitten by a tarantula
The Italian physician Nicola Perrotti (1430-1480) first described this unusual disease. According to him, people bitten by a tarantula fell into despondency, lost their will and behaved as if they were stunned. They were constantly crying, being depressed. They were tormented and sad for some unknown reason.
Another group of patients suddenly flared up sexual passions, and they threw greedy glances at women. Perrotti noticed something that the ancient Greeks and Romans apparently never encountered.
Those bitten developed a special sensitivity to music. At the very first sounds of their favorite melodies, they were delighted, jumped with joyful cries, danced until they had enough strength, and then fell to the ground without signs of life.
The disease quickly spread throughout Italy and then to other European countries. Those bitten by a tarantula knew that it was useless for them to go to doctors, because their disease was incurable. They were preparing for imminent death. Some were speechless and most of the sick - any interest in life.
They didn't care, but as soon as they heard the sounds of the flute, the world changed for them. They seemed to wake up after a long lethargic sleep, their eyes opened wide, lethargy and stiffness disappeared. They came to life and began to dance slowly at first, and then more and more temperamentally.
The number of patients grew at an incredible rate. They had no doubt that the bite of a poisonous spider was the cause of suffering. No one believed in the possibility of a complete cure, but the patients dreamed, at least for a while, to get rid of the feeling of hopelessness and ease their torment. For this, special healing festivals were held every year. The sick got together and danced the tarantella. The very name of this dance, apparently, comes from the word tarantula.
Tarantella could be danced at home, on the street, and at the crossroads. Sometimes they danced in festive clothes, sometimes half-naked. The orchestra included a violinist and a woman with a tambourine. Often she sang a song about deceived love and imminent death that was tearing her soul apart, which would bring deliverance from earthly suffering.
If for some reason the music fell silent, the joyful mood and strength immediately left the dancers, and they, as if knocked down, helplessly sank to the ground. Curious women came to see the unusual sight. It was said, however, that such an occupation was unsafe.
The spectators also took risks. And they could get sick. They had the same ailment as those bitten. This was explained by the fact that he was excited by a spiritual poison, which they absorbed with their own eyes, watching the dances.
Gradually it was discovered that the possessed, who considered themselves bitten by spiders, were distinguished not only by their passion for dancing, but also by many quirks. They had an incomprehensible hatred of certain colors and an equally difficult to explain addiction to others. Usually these features were associated with a difference in temperament.
In most cases, patients loved red. They carried red scarves with them. They looked out for spectators dressed in red and did not take their eyes off them. Some dancers preferred yellow. Those who liked the green color took with them branches with green leaves. There were also those who were attracted to the black.
It often happened that a dancer, noticing an object painted in his favorite color, became excited, became furious and tried with all his might to get the desired object, and if he was lucky and the thing ended up in his hands, he began to caress, kiss and press it to his chest with tears before our eyes.
Another oddity that often manifested itself in mad dancers was a passion for the sea. They could not hear stories about sea voyages without excitement. Sometimes the mere mention of the sea made them ecstatic.
Once on the shore, they threw themselves into the waves. It often happened that the tarantella was danced, being waist-deep in water, and at the same time they constantly poured water on their head and shoulders. If a strange disease was caused by the evil eye, the craving for the sea and water is easy to explain. The victim of the evil eye tries to remove it, even if he himself does not realize it. Water (and first of all salty sea water) has always been considered the strongest healing remedy for all types of spoilage.
The variety of forms in which tarantism manifested itself was often associated with a difference in the characters of patients. But its main reason was seen in the fact that the disease is caused by various types of spiders, whose venom has different properties.
But in 1785, the doctor at the Madrid hospital, Manuel Iraneta-i-Haureyi, published the results of studies on the effect of poisonous spider bites on the human body. On several occasions, the Spanish physician observed that the bitten ones (they were soldiers in the field camp) were restless and twitching, but when he asked if they felt like dancing, the patients took this question as a joke. They had no time for dancing.
It also turned out that the bite of poisonous spiders did not affect the attitude of the bitten to different colors of things. Neither red, green, nor yellow objects aroused any special feelings in them. So we can only guess about the true nature of the mysterious tarantella (and other strange dances).