eir
confused and absurd behavior, and then by their constantly following the
swarms of dancers. These were seen day and night passing through the
streets, accompanied by musicians playing on bagpipes, and by
innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity, to which were added
anxious parents and relations, who came to look after those among the
misguided multitude who belonged to their respective families. Imposture
and profligacy played their part in this city also, but the morbid
delusion itself seems to have predominated. On this account religion
could only bring provisional aid, and therefore the town council
benevolently took an interest in the afflicted. They divided them into
separate parties, to each of which they appointed responsible
superintendents to protect them from harm and perhaps also to restrain
their turbulence. They were thus conducted on foot and in carriages to
the chapels of St. Vitus, near Zabern and Rotestein, where priests were
in attendance to work upon their misguided minds by masses and other
religious ceremonies. After divine worship was completed, they were led
in solemn procession to the altar, where they made some small offering
of alms, and where it is probable that many were, through the influence
of devotion and the sanctity of the place, cured of this lamentable
aberration. It is worthy of observation, at all events, that the dancing
mania did not recommence at the altars of the saint, and that from him
alone assistance was implored, and through his miraculous interposition
a cure was expected, which was beyond the reach of human skill. The
personal history of St. Vitus is by no means unimportant in this matter.
He was a Sicilian youth, who, together with Modestus and Crescentia,
suffered martyrdom at the time of the persecution of the Christians,
under Diocletian, in the year 303. The legends respecting him are
obscure, and he would certainly have been passed over without notice
among the innumerable apocryphal martyrs of the first centuries, had not
the transfer of his body to St. Denis, and thence, in the year 836, to
Corvey, raised him to a higher rank. From this time forth, it may be
supposed that many miracles were manifested at his new sepulchre, which
were of essential service in confirming the Roman faith among the
Germans, and St. Vitus was soon ranked among the fourteen saintly
helpers (_Nothhelfer_ or _Apotheker_). His altars were multiplied, and
the people had recourse to t