2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Paul's question as to the possible bewitching of the Galatians, 

 and Simon the magician's bewitching of the people of Samaria. 



Naturally, such leaders had a large body of adherents in that 

 class — so large in all times — who find that 



" To follow foolish precedents and wink 

 With both our eyes, is easier than to think." * 



It must be owned that their case seemed strong. Though in 

 all human history, so far as it is closely known, these phenomena 

 had appeared, and though every classical scholar could recall the 

 wild orgies of the priests, priestesses, and devotees of Dionysus 

 and Cybele, and the epidemic of wild rage which took its name 

 from some of these, the great fathers and doctors of the Church 

 had left a complete answer to any skepticism based on these facts ; 

 in their view the gods of the heathen were devils — these examples, 

 then, could be transformed into a powerful argument for diabolic 

 possession, f 



But it was more especially the epidemics of diabolism in 

 mediaeval and modern times which gave strength to the theologi- 

 cal view, and from these I shall present a chain of typical exam- 

 ples. 



As early as the eleventh century we find clear accounts of dia- 

 bolical possession taking the form of epidemics of raving, jump- 

 ing, dancing, and convulsions — the greater number of the sufferers 

 being women and children. In a time so rude, accounts of these 

 manifestations would rarely receive permanent record ; but it is 

 very significant that even at the beginning of the eleventh cent- 

 ury we hear of them at the extremes of Europe — in northern 

 Germany and in southern Italy. At various times during that 

 century we get additional glimpses of these exhibitions, but it is 

 not until the beginning of the thirteenth century that we have a 

 renewal of them on a large scale. In 1237, at Erfurt, a jumping 

 disease and dancing mania began and afflicted a hundred chil- 

 dren, many of whom died in consequence ; it spread through the 

 whole region, and fifty years later we hear of it in Holland. 



But it was the last quarter of the fourteenth century that saw 

 its greatest manifestations. There was much reason for them. 

 It was a time of oppression, famine, and pestilence : the crusading 

 spirit, having run its course, had been succeeded by a wild, mysti- 

 cal fanaticism ; the most frightful plague in human history— the 



* As to eminent physicians, finding a stumbling-block in hysterical mania, see Kirch- 

 hof s article, page 351, cited in previous chapter. 



f As to the Maenads, Corybantes, and the disease " Corybantism," see, for accessible 

 and adequate statements, Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities " and Lewis and Short's " Lex- 

 icon " ; also reference in Hecker's " Essays upon the Black Death and the Dancing Mania." 

 For more complete discussion, see Semelaigne, " L' Alienation mentale dans PAntiquite," 

 Paris, 1869. 



