244 AMERICAN SPIDERS 



beheld one wounded by this Spider, to dance and leape about in- 

 cessantly, and the Musitians (finding themselves wearied) gave over 

 playing: whereupon, the poore offended dancer, having utterly 

 lost all his forces, fell downe on the ground, as if he had bene dead. 

 The Musitians no sooner began to playe againe, but hee returned to 

 himselfe, and mounting vp vpon his feet, danced againe as lustily as 

 formerly hee had done, and so continued dancing still, til hee found 

 the harme asswaged, and himselfe entirely recovered." 30 



The spider credited with being the cause of tarantism is one of 

 the large wolf spiders, Lycosa tarentula, which has been demon- 

 strated by modern students to be no more virulent than other 

 comparable species of the genus. Various people have tested the 

 notorious creature and reported that no ill effects result from its 

 bite. The mechanical injury is similar to being jabbed with two 

 needles. The pain is very sharp at first, but soon disappears, and 

 the tiny wound heals quickly without other symptoms. The reports 

 of various Italian doctors have been very contradictory, which is 

 understandable when we realize that the real bites were caused by 

 different spiders and that many purported ones were probably fic- 

 tional. 



There is no doubt at all that epidemics of tarantism swept south- 

 ern Europe; they are matters of recorded history. However, the 

 question as to what actually caused these demonstrations has not 

 been fully answered, although there are several clues to their origin. 

 As time went on, many doubters rose up to declare that the whole 

 matter of the tarantula and tarantism was a fraud perpetrated upon 

 gullible travelers who paid liberally to see the actions of supposed 

 victims. Oliver Goldsmith declared that the peasants very willingly 

 offered to let themselves be bitten for the benefit of any tourist, 

 and that the whole train of symptoms, and the style attending the 

 tarantula dance were more or less in accord with the size of the fee 

 paid by the onlookers. 



It is quite probable that several things contributed to the out- 

 breaks of tarantism. Some authors have suggested that it was a 

 nervous disease, which attained epidemic proportions, then disap- 

 peared. An accidental and much less frequent variation could easily 

 have been caused by the bite of the "malmignatte" a spider com- 

 mon in southern portions of Europe, which has a neurotoxic venom 

 capable of initiating serious symptoms. Indeed, this spider has been 

 claimed by some workers to be the "tarantula." However, "la 

 malmignatte" could not have been responsible for the great out- 



