The Black-Bellied Tarantula 3 



in the person stung by her. To cope with 

 * tarantism,' the name given to the disease 

 that follows on the bite of the Itahan Spider, 

 you must have recourse to music, the only 

 efficacious remedy, so they tell us. Special 

 tunes have been noted, those quickest to afford 

 relief. There is medical choreography, medical 

 music. And have we not the tarentella, a 

 lively and nimble dance, bequeathed to us per- 

 haps by the healing art of the Calabrian 

 peasant ? 



Must we take these queer things seriously 

 or laugh at them ? From the little that I have 

 seen, I hesitate to pronounce an opinion. 

 Nothing tells us that the bite of the Tarantula 

 may not provoke, in weak and very impression- 

 able people, a nervous disorder which music 

 will relieve ; nothing tells us that a profuse 

 perspiration, resulting from a very energetic 

 dance, is not likely to diminish the discomfort 

 by diminishing the cause of the ailment. So 

 far from laughing, I reflect and enquire, when 

 the Calabrian peasant talks to me of his Taran- 

 tula, the Pujaud reaper of his Theridion lugubre, 

 the Corsican husbandman of his Malmignatte. 



