THE SIGN OF THE SPIDER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1271, 28 October 1911, Page 11

THE SIGN OF THE SPIDER.

"TAItANTISM." In Australia "unrest" is sporadic and chiefly an accompaniment of industrial growth. In Europe at present it is multiform and almost epidemic in its scope (says the English correspondent of an Australian paper). The symptoms of i megalomania and "jumpy" nerves in Germany, of incipient anarchy in re- I spectable old England, and of revolt in I ranee against established principles of trading (in the matter of groceries, for instance) are only a few of the more noticeable forms of the prevailing complaint. Even schoolboys draw up manifestoes, go on strike and break windows, with the result that, as at Liverpool, the school masters have to undertake an unsympathetic striko to re-establish order and sanity am»nj the juvenile papulation. We are getting accustomed to novelties. It i 9 scarcely surprising therefore to hear —although the facts are related with,an air of scientific solemnity—that "unrest" in the Troatl is being varied by thing like a revival of the oonvulsive dancin" mania which afflicted Europe at intervals between 1374 and the beginning of the sixteenth oontury, and which in Italy was given the name of "Tarantism," on account of its resemblance to the effects produced by the bite of the taran- , tula. The facta are certainly queer. They are related. in a letter which the Times" has received from an Englishman who has been farming for some years at Yenishehr, near the Dardanelles. He begins by describing an outbreak among his fomalo harvest workers. |

One evening he found their quartei filled with a crowd of 6hrieking, weepinj gesticulating women in the midst c whom wore four girls, their legs, armi and bodies in twitching motion like thos of marionettes. Two of them were cj ecuting a sort of slow dance, closely re Bembling the dance which they who ar bitten by the tarantula are under compul sion to perform. A third was taking j series ot terrifying "headers" on to tb cement floor that might have been ex pectcd to break her skull—"though Btrange to say, when the fit was over sh< appeared without a scratch or bruise.' The fourth was working her arms back wards and forwards with a kind of saw ins, Swedish drill-like movement. Tha all were suffering great distress was cvi dent from their staring, anxious eyes an< laboured breathing. The women wero taken into a gardot away from their agitated friends. An un successful attempt was made 'to sooth< them with music, but ultimately thej wero calmed by doses of valerianate ol line. There is a general belief among the natives that this strange excitcmenl is due to promptings of the spirit of St George, and that many of the "possessed" become seers and mediums for the working of miracles. On further investigation tho English farmer learned that this non f° rm of tarantism is spreading rapidly in the rroad, and that it brings on heart disease in many instances. In a chuTct at Yemshehr he witnessed a spectacU far more extraordinary than anything o the kind that he had previously seen. Ii front of an image of St. George a yo'uni woman with dishevelled hair stood writh ing and groaning. Ho states that sb< worked herself into a paroxyism, flunc herself at the image, pressing her fact and breast against it in an ecstasy, thei tried to encircle it with her arms—which tras impossible, as the picture is embedded In tho panel of the altar screen. Giving up this attempt, she next carefully and deliberately set about climbing the altar screen—a feat that would have done credit to a professional acrobat, for tha screen is 15 feet high, and there was apparently nothing projecting from its smooth surface that could support hands and feet. The spectators watched her nerTonsly as eb.3 made her way up, and felt relieved when she got to the top. The foothold there could not have been more than a few inches. But she now gave free vent to hor paroxysm. Uttering a succession of piercing shrieks, she ran alon™ the narrow ledge, twisted herself into fantastic attitudes, suspended herself bv her hands then by her hands and knees, with head down and hair wildly flowing Presently attention was diverted from her by a burst of yet louder shrieks from tho opposite side of tho nave. From there another dishevelled woman rushed towards the screen, climbed it with the same agility as the first, and went through tho same antics as her companion. And all the while others of the "possessed," throe girls, a man and a small boy, were displaying a variety of contortions in tho nave. The informant of the "Times" seems to fear that this mania may spread to other parts of Europe, and suggests that it should bo made the subject of a pcdical inquiry before it goes further.