umstances, whereof non-medical contemporaries but
imperfectly noted the essential particulars, accustomed as they were to
confound their observation of natural events with their notions of the
world of spirits.

It was but a few months ere this demoniacal disease had spread from Aix-
la-Chapelle, where it appeared in July, over the neighbouring
Netherlands. In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres, and many other towns of
Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in their hair, and their
waists girt with cloths, that they might, as soon as the paroxysm was
over, receive immediate relief on the attack of the tympany. This
bandage was, by the insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight: many,
however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which they found
numbers of persons ready to administer: for, wherever the dancers
appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their curiosity with
the frightful spectacle. At length 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 were sung, 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 recourse to exorcisms,
and endeavoured by every means in their power to allay an evil which
threatened so much danger to themselves; for the possessed assembling in
multitudes, frequently poured forth imprecations against them, and
menaced their destruction. They intimidated the people also to such a
degree that there was an express ordinance issued that no one should make
any but square-toed shoes, because these fanatics had manifested a morbid
dislike to the pointed shoes which had come into fashion immediately
after the "Great Mortality" in 1350. They were still more irritated at
the sight of red colours, the influence of which on the disordered nerves
might lead us to imagine an extraordinary accordance between this
spasmodic malady and the condition of infuriated animals; but in the St.
John's dancers this excitement was probably connected with apparitions
consequent upon their convulsions. There were likewise some of them who
were unable to endure the sight of persons weeping. The clergy seemed to
become daily more and more confirmed in their belief that those who we