ance and throw herself into the maddest postures
imaginable, and in this manner she kept on the whole day. Towards
evening she began to let fall her silver ornaments from her neck, arms,
and legs, one at a time, so that in the course of three hours she was
stripped of every article. A relation continually kept going after her
as she danced, to pick up the ornaments, and afterwards delivered them to
the owners from whom they were borrowed. As the sun went down she made a
start with such swiftness that the fastest runner could not come up with
her, and when at the distance of about two hundred yards she dropped on a
sudden as if shot. Soon afterwards a young man, on coming up with her,
fired a matchlock over her body, and struck her upon the back with the
broad side of his large knife, and asked her name, to which she answered
as when in her common senses--a sure proof of her being cured; for during
the time of this malady those afflicted with it never answer to their
Christian names. She was now taken up in a very weak condition and
carried home, and a priest came and baptised her again in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which ceremony concluded her cure. Some are
taken in this manner to the market-place for many days before they can be
cured, and it sometimes happens that they cannot be cured at all. I have
seen them in these fits dance with a _bruly_, or bottle of maize, upon
their heads without spilling the liquor, or letting the bottle fall,
although they have put themselves into the most extravagant postures.

"I could not have ventured to write this from hearsay, nor could I
conceive it possible, until I was obliged to put this remedy in practice
upon my own wife, who was seized with the same disorder, and then I was
compelled to have a still nearer view of this strange disorder. I at
first thought that a whip would be of some service, and one day attempted
a few strokes when unnoticed by any person, we being by ourselves, and I
having a strong suspicion that this ailment sprang from the weak minds of
women, who were encouraged in it for the sake of the grandeur, rich
dress, and music which accompany the cure. But how much was I surprised,
the moment I struck a light blow, thinking to do good, to find that she
became like a corpse, and even the joints of her fingers became so stiff
that I could not straighten them; indeed, I really thought that she was
dead, and immediately made it known to the