One day I went privately, with a companion, to see my wife dance, and kept at a short distance, as I was ashamed to go near the crowd.On looking steadfastly upon her, while dancing or jumping, more like a deer than a human being, I said that it certainly was not my wife; at which my companion burst into a fit of laughter, from which he could scarcely refrain all the way home.Men are sometimes afflicted with this dreadful disorder, but not frequently.Among the Amhara and Galla it is not so common."Such is the account of Pearce, who is every way worthy of credit, and whose lively description renders the traditions of former times respecting the St.Vitus's dance and tarantism intelligible, even to those who are sceptical respecting the existence of a morbid state of the mind and body of the kind described, because, in the present advanced state of civilisation among the nations of Europe, opportunities for its development no longer occur.The credibility of this energetic but by no means ambitious man is not liable to the slightest suspicion, for, owing to his want of education, he had no knowledge of the phenomena in question, and his work evinces throughout his attractive and unpretending impartiality.
Comparison is the mother of observation, and may here elucidate one phenomenon by another--the past by that which still exists.
Oppression, insecurity, and the influence of a very rude priestcraft, are the powerful causes which operated on the Germans and Italians of the Middle Ages, as they now continue to operate on the Abyssinians of the present day.However these people may differ from us in their descent, their manners and their customs, the effects of the above mentioned causes are the same in Africa as they were in Europe, for they operate on man himself independently of the particular locality in which he may be planted; and the conditions of the Abyssinians of modern times is, in regard to superstition, a mirror of the condition of the European nations of the middle ages.Should this appear a bold assertion it will be strengthened by the fact that in Abyssinia two examples of superstitions occur which are completely in accordance with occurrences of the Middle Ages that took place contemporarily with the dancing mania.THE ABYSSINIANS HAVE THEIRCHRISTIAN FLAGELLANTS, AND THERE EXISTS AMONG THEM A BELIEF IN AZOOMORPHISM, WHICH PRESENTS A LIVELY IMAGE OF THE LYCANTHROPY OFTHE MIDDLE AGES.Their flagellants are called Zackarys.They are united into a separate Christian fraternity, and make their processions through the towns and villages with great noise and tumult, scourging themselves till they draw blood, and wounding themselves with knives.They boast that they are descendants of St.George.It is precisely in Tigre, the country of the Abyssinian dancing mania, where they are found in the greatest numbers, and where they have, in the neighbourhood of Axum, a church of their own, dedicated to their patron saint, Oun Arvel.
Here there is an ever-burning lamp, and they contrive to impress a belief that this is kept alight by supernatural means.They also here keep a holy water, which is said to be a cure for those who are affected by the dancing mania.
The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a no less important phenomenon, and shows itself a manner quite peculiar.The blacksmiths and potters form among the Abyssinians a society or caste called in Tigre TEBBIB, and in Amhara BUDA, which is held in some degree of contempt, and excluded from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because it is believed that they can change themselves into hyaenas and other beasts of prey, on which account they are feared by everybody, and regarded with horror.They artfully contrive to keep up this superstition, because by this separation they preserve a monopoly of their lucrative trades, and as in other respects they are good Christians (but few Jews or Mahomedans live among them), they seem to attach no great consequence to their excommunication.As a badge of distinction they wear a golden ear-ring, which is frequently found in the ears of Hyaenas that are killed, without its having ever been discovered how they catch these animals, so as to decorate them with this strange ornament, and this removes in the minds of the people all doubt as to the supernatural powers of the smiths and potters.To the Budas is also ascribed the gift of enchantment, especially that of the influence of the evil eye.They nevertheless live unmolested, and are not condemned to the flames by fanatical priests, as the lycanthropes were in the Middle Ages.
