92 
MADAGASCAR. 
anti-Christian and anti-foreign feeling had arisen, 
and this strange epidemic was looked upon by 
the native Christians as a kind of demoniacal 
possession. The lower classes were chiefly, but 
not solely, affected by it, and the great majority 
of victims were young women. There were, 
however, many men amongst the dancers, but 
mostly of the lower orders of society. Scarcely 
any of the native Christians came under its 
influence—no doubt, partly because the general 
spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction and fear 
did not disturb them so much. The tombs 
or sacred places were favourite resorts of the 
dancers, who kept their bodies in motion for 
hours, to the music of a low monotonous chant. 
Sometimes great excitement and muscular agi¬ 
tation accompanied the exercises, leaving the 
patient afterwards exhausted for days, and in 
some cases permanently prostrated. This dis¬ 
ease, known as choreomania, is familiar to 
physicians, and is the result of pent-up passion 
and excitement. The child-pilgrimages of the 
thirteenth century in Europe, towards the end, 
began to assume some of the characteristics of 
choreomania, and the visitation may always be 
connected with the disturbance of national pre¬ 
judices—political or religious. Few really fatal 
cases resulted, however. It is possible, and 
indeed it is allowed by an eyewitness of the 
