J. of Köningshoven, the oldest German Chronicle in existence. The contents are general, but devoted more exclusively to Alsace and Strasburg, published by Schiltern, Strasburg, 1698. 4to. Observat. 21, of St. Vitus’s Dance, p. 1085. f.
“Many hundreds of men and women began to dance and jump in the public market-place, the lanes, and the streets of Strasburg. Many of them ate nothing for days and nights, until their mania again subsided. The plague was called St. Vitus’s Dance.”
This proceeding was, however, no invention of his, but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by means of wax figures (peri cunculas). The witches made a wax image of the person who was to be bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck it full of pins, or melted it before the fire. The books on magic, of the middle ages, are full of such things; though the reader who may wish to obtain information on this subject, need not go so far back. Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth century. “Abhandlung von Kinderkrankheiten.” Treatise on the Diseases of Children. Vol. IV. p. 228. Eisenach, 1751–8.
The ancients were in the habit of employing wax in incantations.
Thus Simoetha in Theocritus:
and Horace—
A very remarkable case, illustrative in part of this observation, where, however, not the person who was supposed to be the subject of the demoniacal malady, but its alleged authors, were punished, is thus reported by Dr. Watt of Glasgow:—“It occurred at Bargarran, in Renfrewshire, in 1696. The patient’s name was Christian Shaw, a girl of eleven years of age. She is described as having had violent fits of leaping, dancing, running, crying, fainting, &c., but the whole narrative is mixed up with so much credulity and superstition, that it is impossible to separate truth from fiction. These strange fits continued from August, 1696, till the end of March in the year following, when the patient recovered.” An account of the whole was published at Edinburgh, in 1698, entitled, “A true Narrative of the Sufferings of a Young Girl, who was strangely molested by evil spirits, and their instruments, in the West, collected from authentic testimonies.”
The whole being ascribed to witchcraft, the clergy were most active on the occasion. Besides occasional days of humiliation, two solemn fasts were observed throughout the whole bounds of the Presbytery, and a number of clergymen and elders were appointed in rotation, to be constantly on the spot. So far the matter was well enough. But such was the superstition of the age, that a memorial was presented to his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council, and on the 19th of January, 1697, a warrant was issued, setting forth “that there were pregnant grounds of suspicion of witchcraft in Renfrewshire, especially from the afflicted and extraordinary condition of Christian Shaw, daughter of John Shaw, of Bargarran.” A commission was therefore granted to Alexander Lord Blantyre, Sir John Maxwell, Sir John Shaw, and five others, together with the sheriff of the county, to inquire into the matter, and report. This commission is signed by eleven privy councillors, consisting of some of the first noblemen and gentlemen in the kingdom.
The report of the commissioners having fully confirmed the suspicions respecting the existence of witchcraft, another warrant was issued on the 5th of April, 1697, to Lord Hallcraig, Sir John Houston, and four others, “to try the persons accused of witchcraft, and to sentence the guilty to be burned, or otherwise executed to death, as the commission should incline.”
The commissioners, thus empowered, were not remiss in the discharge of their duty. After twenty hours were spent in the examination of witnesses, and counsel heard on both sides, the counsel for the prosecution “exhorted the jury to beware of condemning the innocent; but at the same time, should they acquit the prisoners in opposition to legal evidence, they would be accessory to all the blasphemies, apostacies, murders, tortures, and seductions, whereof these enemies of heaven and earth should hereafter be guilty.” After the jury had spent six hours in deliberation, seven of the miserable wretches, three men and four women, were condemned to the flames, and the sentence faithfully executed at Paisley, on the 10th of June, 1697.—Medico-Chirurg. Trans. Vol. V. p. 20, et seq.—Transl. note.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, has the following observations, which, with the ample references by which they are accompanied, will furnish materials for such a history.
“Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls cucubuth, others lupinam insaniam, or wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or some such beasts. Aëtius (Lib. 6. cap. 11.) and Paulus (Lib. 3. cap. 16.) call it a kind of melancholy; but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of it, whether there be any such disease. Donat. ab Altomari (Cap. 9. Art. Med.) saith, that he saw two of them in his time: Wierus (De Præstig. Demonum, 1. 3. cap. 21.) tells a story of such a one at Padua, 1541, that would not believe to the contrary, but that he was a wolf. He hath another instance of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear. Forestus (Observat. lib. 10. de Morbis Cerebri, c. 15.) confirms as much by many examples; one, among the rest, of which he was an eye-witness, at Alcmaer in Holland.—A poor husbandman that still hunted about graves, and kept in churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly, and fearful look. Such, belike, or little better, were king Prœtus’ daughters, (Hippocrates lib. de insaniâ,) that thought themselves kine: and Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel, as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness. This disease, perhaps, gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny, (Lib. 8. cap. 22. homines interdum lupos fieri; et contra,) some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men again; and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf, and afterwards turned to his former shape; to Ovid’s (Met. lib. 1.) tale of Lycaon, &c. He that is desirous to hear of this disease, or more examples, let him read Austin in his eighteenth book, de Civitate Dei, cap. 5; Mizaldus, cent. 5. 77; Schenkius, lib. 1. Hildesheim, Spicil. 2. de maniâ; Forestus, lib. 10. de morbis cerebri; Olaus Magnus; Vicentius Bellavicensis, spec. met. lib. 31. c. 122; Pierius, Bodine, Zuinger, Zeilgur, Peucer, Wierus, Spranger, &c. This malady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in February, and is now-a-days frequent in Bohemia and Hungary, according to Heurnius. (Cap. de Man.) Schernitzius will have it common in Livonia. They lie hid, most part, all day, and go abroad in the night, barking, howling, at graves and deserts; they have usually hollow eyes, scabbed legs and thighs, very dry and pale, (Ulcerata crura; sitis ipsis adest immodica; pallidi; lingua sicca,) saith Altomarus: he gives a reason there of all the symptoms, and sets down a brief cure of them.”—Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. Tenth Edit.: 8vo. 1804. Vol. 1. Page 13, et seq.
It is surprising that so learned a writer as Burton should not have alluded to Oribasius, who flourished 140 years before Aëtius, and of whom Freind says, “In auctore hoc miri cujusdam morbi prima mentio est; is Λυκάνθρωπος sive Λυκανθρωπία dicitur, estque melancholiæ, aut insaniæ, species quænam ita ab illo descripta: ‘Quos hoc malum infestos habet, nocturno tempore domo egressi, Lupos in omnibus rebus imitantur, et ad diem usque circa tumulos vagantur mortuorum. Hos ita cognosce: pallidi sunt, oculos hebetes et siccos, non illachrymantes, eosque concavos habent: lingua siccissima est, nulla penitus in ore saliva conspicitur, siti enecti; crura vero, quia noctu sæpe offendunt, sine remedio exulcerata.’—‘Quod ad morbum ipsum attinet, si peregrinantibus fides adhibenda est, fuit olim in quibusdam regionibus, ut in Livonia, Hibernia, et aliis locis visi non infrequens,’” &c.—J. Freind. Opera omnia Med. fol. London. 1733.
De hujus morbi antiquitatibus vide elegantem Böttigeri disputationem in Sprengelii Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Med. 11. p. 1–45. Blancard. Lexic. Med. Edit. noviss. 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1822.—Transl. note.
The Aranea Tarantula of Linnæus, who, after the technical description, says, “Habitat in Europa australi, potissimum Apulia, in Barbaria, in Tauria, Russiæque, australis desertis, in Astracania ad montes Sibiriæ Altaicos usque, in Persia et reliquo Oriente, in solo præsertim argillaceo in antris, morsu quamvis interdum dolente, olimque famosum tarantismum musica sanandum excitare credito, vix unquam periculoso, cinerascens, oculis duobus prioribus rubris, thorace in areas nigras diviso in centrum concurrentes, abdomine supra fasciis maxillisque nigris.”—Systema Naturæ. Tom. I. pars v. p. 2956.
For particulars regarding the habits of the Lycosæ, see Griffith’s Transl. of Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom. Vol. XIII. p. 427 and p. 480. et seq. The author states that M. Chabrier has published (Soc. Acad. de Lille 4e cahier) some curious observations on the Lycosa tarantula of the south of France.—Transl. note.
For example:—
“The imaginations of women are always more excitable than those of men, and they are therefore susceptible of every folly when they lead a life of strict seclusion, and their thoughts are constantly turned inwards upon themselves. Hence in orphan asylums, hospitals, and convents, the nervous disorder of one female so easily and quickly becomes the disorder of all. I have read in a good medical work that a nun, in a very large convent in France, began to mew like a cat; shortly afterwards other nuns also mewed. At last all the nuns mewed together every day at a certain time for several hours together. The whole surrounding Christian neighbourhood heard, with equal chagrin and astonishment, this daily cat-concert, which did not cease until all the nuns were informed that a company of soldiers were placed by the police before the entrance of the convent, and that they were provided with rods, and would continue whipping them until they promised not to mew any more.
“But of all the epidemics of females which I myself have seen in Germany, or of which the history is known to me, the most remarkable is the celebrated Convent-epidemic of the fifteenth century, which Cardan describes, and which peculiarly proves what I would here enforce. A nun in a German nunnery fell to biting all her companions. In the course of a short time all the nuns of this convent began biting each other. The news of this infatuation among the nuns soon spread, and it now passed from convent to convent, throughout a great part of Germany, principally Saxony and Brandenburg. It afterwards visited the nunneries of Holland, and at last the nuns had the biting mania even as far as Rome.”—Zimmermann on Solitude, Vol. II. Leipsig. 1784.—Transl. note.
Among the instances in which imposture successfully taxes popular credulity, perhaps there is none more remarkable at the present day than that afforded by the Psylli of Egypt, a country which furnishes another illustration of our author’s remark at the commencement of the next chapter. This sect, according to the testimony of modern writers, continues to exhibit the same strange spectacles as the ancient serpent-eaters of Cyrene, described by Strabo, 17 Dio. 51. c. 14. Lucan, 9. v. 894. 937. Herodot. 4. c. 173. Paus. 9. c. 28. Savary states that he witnessed a procession at Rosetta, where a band of these seeming madmen, with bare arms and wild demeanour, held enormous serpents in their hands which writhed round their bodies and endeavoured to make their escape. These Psylli, grasping them by the neck, tore them with their teeth and ate them up alive, the blood streaming down from their polluted mouths. Others of the Psylli were striving to wrest their prey from them, so that it seemed a struggle among them who should devour a serpent. The populace followed them with amazement, and believed their performance to be miraculous. Accordingly they pass for persons inspired, and possessed by a spirit who destroys the effect of the serpent.
Sonnini, though not so fortunate as to witness a public exhibition of such performances, yet gives the following interesting account of what he justly calls a remarkable specimen of the extravagance of man. After adverting to the superstitious origin of the sect, he goes on to say that a Saadi, or serpent-eater, came to his apartment accompanied by a priest of his sect. The priest carried in his bosom a large serpent of a dusky green and copper colour, which he was continually handling; and after having recited a prayer, he delivered it to the Saadi. The narrative proceeds:—“With a vigorous hand the Saadi seized the serpent, which twisted itself round his naked arm. He began to appear agitated; his countenance was discomposed; his eyes rolled; he uttered terrible cries, bit the animal in the head, and tore off a morsel, which we saw him chew and swallow. On this his agitation became convulsive; his howlings were redoubled, his limbs writhed, his countenance assumed the features of madness, and his mouth, extended by terrible grimaces, was all in a foam. Every now and then he devoured a fresh morsel of the reptile. Three men endeavoured to hold him, but he dragged them all three round the chamber. His arms were thrown about with violence on all sides, and struck every thing within their reach. Eager to avoid him, M. Forneti and I were obliged sometimes to cling to the wall, to let him pass and escape his blows. We could have wished the madman far away. At length the priest took the serpent from him, but his madness and convulsions did not cease immediately; he bit his hands, and his fury continued. The priest then grasped him in his arms, passed his hand gently down his back, lifted him from the ground, and recited some prayers. By degrees his agitation diminished, and subsided into a state of complete lassitude, in which he remained a few moments.
“The Turks who were present at this ridiculous and disgusting ceremony were firmly persuaded of the reality of this religious fury; and it is very certain that, whether it were reality or imposture, it is impossible to see the transports of rage and madness exhibited in a more striking manner, or have before your eyes a man more calculated to inspire terror.”—Hunter’s Translation of Sonnini’s Travels, 8vo. 1799.—Transl. note.
About this time the following couplet was circulated:—
“I had occasion to witness at Cairo another species of religious fanaticism. I heard one day, at a short distance from my residence, for several hours together, singing, or more properly crying, so uniform and fatiguing, that I inquired the cause of this singularity. I was told that it was some dervise or monk, who repeated, while dancing on his heels, the name of Allah, till, completely exhausted, he sank down insensible. These unhappy visionaries, in fact, often expire at the end of this holy dance; and the cries of the one whom I heard, having commenced in the afternoon, and continued during the whole of the night, and part of the following morning, I doubt not that his pious enthusiasm cost him his life.”—Recollections of Egypt, by the Baroness Von Minutoli. London, 1827.
In Arabia the same fanatical zeal exists, as we find from the following passage of an anonymous history of the Wahabis, published in Paris, in 1810: “La prière la plus méritoire consiste à crier le nom de Dieu, pendant des heures entières, et le plus saint est celui qui répète ce nom le plus long temps et le plus vite. Rien de plus curieux que le spectacle des Schekhs, qui, dans les fêtes publiques, s’essayent à l’envi, et hurlent le nom d’Allah d’une manière effrayante. La plupart enroués sont forcés de se taire, et abandonnent la palme au sainte à forte poitrine, qui, pour jouir de sa victoire, s’efforce et jette encore quelque cris devant ses rivaux réduits au silence. Epuisé de fatigue, baigné de sueur, il tombe enfin au milieu du peuple dévot, qui s’empresse à le relever et le porte en triomphe. Les principales mosquées retentissent, tous les Vendredis, des cris dictés par cette singulière émulation. Le Schekh, que ses poumons ont sanctifié, conserve son odeur de sainteté par des extases et des transports, souvent dangereux pour les Chrétiens que le hazard en rend témoins malgré cux.”—Transl. note.