For at the first Sound of the _Musical Instrument_, altho’ the Sick lie, as it were, in an Apoplectick Fit, they begin by Degrees to move their Hands and Feet, till at last they get up, and fall to Dancing with wonderful Vigour, at first for three or four Hours, then they are put to Bed, refreshed from their sweating, for a short time, and repeat the Exercise with the same Vehemence, perceiving no Weariness or Weakness from it, but professing they grow stronger and nimbler the more they dance.
At this Sport they usually spend Twelve Hours a Day, and it continues Three or Four Days; by which time they are generally freed from all their Symptoms, which do nevertheless attack ’em again about the same time the next Year; and if they do not take Care to prevent this Relapse by Musick, they fall into a _Jaundice_, Want of Appetite, universal Weakness, and such like Diseases; which are every Year increased, if Dancing be neglected, till at last they prove incurable.
As Musick is the common _Cure_, so they who are bitten are pleas’d some with one Sort of it, some with another; one is raised with a Pipe, another with a Tymbrel; one with a Harp, another with a Fiddle; so that the Musicians make sometimes several Essays before they can accommodate their Art to the Venom; but this is constant and certain, not withstanding this Variety, that they all require the quickest and briskest Tunes, and are never moved by a slow, dull _Harmony_.
While the _Tarantati_, or Affected, are Dancing, they lose in a manner the Use of all their Senses, like so many Drunkards, do many Ridiculous and Foolish Tricks, talk and act obscenely and rudely, take great Pleasure in playing with Vine-Leaves, with naked Swords, red Cloths, and the like; and on the other Hand can’t bear the Sight of any thing black; so that if any By-stander happen to appear in that _Colour_, he must immediately withdraw, otherwise they relapse into their Symptoms with as much Violence as ever.
It may afford some Light towards Understanding the Nature of this Poison, to observe that _Apulia_ is the hottest Part of all _Italy_, lying _Eastward_, and having all the Summer long but very little Rain to temper the Heats, so that the Inhabitants, as one of that Country observes (50), do breath an Air, as it were, out of a fiery Furnace; hence their Temperament is dry, and adust, as appears by their being generally lean, passionate, impatient, ready to Action, quick-witted, very subject to inflammatory Distempers, Phrensies, Melancholy, and the like, upon which Account there are more mad People in this, than in all the other Parts of _Italy_; nay, what in other Countries is but a light Melancholy, arises here to a great Heigth; for Women in a _Chlorosis_ do suffer almost the same Symptoms as Persons poisoned by the _Tarantula_ do, and are cured the same Way; and in like manner the Venom of the _Scorpion_ does here in Effects and Cure agree very much with that of this _Spider_.