Russel & Davis' Republican gazetteer — Concord, N.H., 1797-03-07 00:00:00, page 4

._—"!■ '-'ft
The PiMPLEIADCS.
-A PARADUN.
To dun— or not to dun ? That is tbs |
Gutflion—
IFbether 'tij better that the Purse Jhould 1
(For lack of case) by barttfuhmptinfo;
Or.s a gentle dun to fill it op :
To dun ! to get the money— and bo en
abled
To live, ang pay our debts—'tis a con
fummatUn.
Devoutly to be willed. To dun—to
be deny'd—
Deny'd-^itb 6f CALL AGAIN"-'
Ay, there's the rub —
For in that " call again," lubat roils
come —
What dij appointment fore—chagrin (A
woe —
What time is wasted —and what foots
are worn
In con/equenct—muft give us pain,
——lt is this
Fpat makes so man, debts not worth col
leaing:
'Tis this that fitkens befaejs to dejpair,
And keeps from HONEST LABOR its
\ reward.
While thus in language of complaint quo
f„ak.
We don't forget our many, man, Friends;
To them a debt of gratitude quo owe :
To them our gratitude we freely pay.
Buoy'd by their kindness, still our
bark ffiall fail,
fojay the pleating calm—not dread
the boift'rous gale.
On th^ notorious old Offender.
No mortal,st could catch me ever ;
O us of mijebiej / am truer ;
B ad enough, b, all report ;
Often hunted for at court ;
D ead, when alt's alive and well ;
You, no doubt, m, name can /poll.
upon WIT.I
TRUE Wit is like the brilliant font, l
Dug from the Indian mine,
Which boasts two various pow'rs in one.
That cut as well as feint.
Genius, like that, if polic'd right.
Withthe fame gifts abounds ;
Appears at once both keen and bright.
And sparkles while it wounds.
•— M ; ; .- - ±
MISCELLANY.
.©racrauufai
EssAr
ON THE
TARANTULA.
MANY opinions conceived from
mistake or impofiure, tranf
mitred by-tradition and fanaified by
time, have been jnftly exploded in
the progress of phiiofophy, and in the
course of more accurate observation.
Sometimes/however, the Philosopher
has been apt to refine too much in
his improvements, and even, ,rashly
to reject notions as absurd, which d&
served a more deliberate inveftiga.l
tion. Among these last, perhaps, I
we may number the ancient doctrine |
and (Opposed effeds of the bite of the
ph Jjngium or spider, called the Ta
rantula, from Tarentum, a city on
the coast <4 lonia, where these crea
tures formerly abounded. It was
supposed that the only remedy which
could expel this poison, was dancing ;
and mys.; „ ,
Without entering into an anatom
ical description or this spider, we,
full only observe, that it is as large
as an ordinary walnut, sometimes of
an ash color, sometimes brown, and
Sometimes blackish ; covered with
hair, furnifhed with eight eyes, eight
feet, two feelers, and two pair of
sharp, horned torcips, rising from the
head, and serving, riot only as weap
ons to wound, but aifo as canals to
convey the poison, analogous to the
grooved teeth of brakes and vipers.
—I is constantly observed, that the
Ibite of the Tarantula is most venom
ous in a dry, aduft, hot climate,
such as the diftrids of Bari and Lec
ce, in Apuglia ; and that the pcifon
is more and more exalted by the
scorching heat of summer : indeed,
this is the case with every species of
virus, whether of snake, viper, scor
pion or tarantula.
This creature, impatient of cold,
keeps under ground in the winter ;
during which, it takes no sustenance.
Its natural food consists of flies, and
itfelf becomes a prey to another ani
mal, not unlike a wasp, that hunts,
kills and devours it. lElianus tells
us that the Tarantulas are pernicious
to quadrupeds as well as mankind,
especially to harts, which being bit,
will die in a very little time, if they
do not eat ivy, which was esteemed
an infallible cure. According to
Baglivi, the reapers of Apuglia are
most exposed to the bite of the Ta
rantula, which at firft feels like the
flinging ofa bee or ant. The wound
is immediately circumscribed with a
small circle of a livid, yellow, or black
color ; and either a violent pain or a
numbness ensues : in a few hours,
the patient is seized with a difficulty
of breathing, an anguish of heat, and
a profound melancholy. His eyes
appear disturbed, his voice grows for
rowful and plaintive, and when asked
where his pain lies, he either takes
no notice of the question, or points,
in mournful silence to the region of
his heart. These symptoms are
sometimes followed by a stupor,
head-ache, Ihivering, gripes, diar
rhea, &c. The malady not only ex
cites those disorders in the body, ac
cording to the various disposition of
the humors, but also infers the im
agination in a wonderful manner.—
Some of the patients conceive antip
athies to certain colours, which they
cannot look upon without manifen
aggravation of the symptoms ; while
lat fight of others, they express a kind
of changeling pleasure : some love to
feqvefter themselves among graves
and tombs, and other solitary places,
or to lay themselves on a bier, as if
they were a&ually dead ; while others
precipitate themselves into pits and
wells, agitated by the most frantic
despair. Women and maidens, re
markable for their chaste lives, when
bit by the Tarantula, lay aside all
appearance of modesty, sigh, hewl,|
throw themselves into very indecent
attitudes, and utter abundance of im
pure difeourfe. Others love to be
swung in the air ; a third fort de
light to wallow in the mire ; a fourth
to be dubbed or baftinadoed, &c.
We have already mentioned, that
the venom is expelled by music and
dancing ; nevertheless it is not so
wholly extirpated, but that it revives
every ensuing summer, about the
month of August, when the patient [
is gradually seized with his former
,symptoms ; then he fends for the
music, and his disorder vanishes; but
sometimes it attacks him so suddenly,
that he drops down in a kind of apo
plectic fit, and thus contii.es until
the music arrives. When the tunes
that affect him are played, he begins
to move as it were mechanically, and
the motion increases until he can rife
up and dance. 'lf the patient ne
gleß the dancing season, because the
; symptoms do not revive, he is gener
ally troubled all the year, with ajiun
dice, sickness at heart, want of appe
,cite, and a flow fever. Upon the firft
1
I notice of the bite, (music being pre
cured) a variety of runes is sometimes
played before the musician hits upon
the one that affeds the patient, who,
from a state of insensibility, wakens
as it were, by degrees, from a quiver
ing motion in his fingers, to the most
violent exercise of dancing, in which
he continues for three hours together,
and renews the exercise, with short
intervals, for the (pace of four or five
days, in which the disorder is over
come.
What is very remarkable, the most
ignorant peasants, who never saw a
fiddle before, are so fenfire of the
exa& time, that a: soon as the instru
ment founds out of'tune, they begin
to sigh piteously, and their anguiffi
returns, until the firings are put in
order again. Some physicians im
agining that the cure was performed
by the sweating alone, administered
diaphoretics, which produced great
difeharges from the skin ; but these,
without dancing, had no good effe&.
During this exercise, they exhibit all
the marks of a disordered fancy, and
even of a temporary delirium. They
know not their friends and parents,
but seem mightily pleased with gay
colours. Some, in dancing, wave a
bout their heads green reeds and
rushes, dipping them in water, and
plai.ing them about their necks:—
others love to plunge their hands and
faces into cold water ; a third fort de
lights in handling red cloth and nak
ed swords, which they flourifo as they
dance ; a fourth set dig holes in the
ground, fill them with water, and
roll themselves in them, with signs of
uncommon fatisfadion. Different
patients require, not only different
pieces of music, but allo different in
struments. One affefts the pipe and
tabor, another the harp, a thirdthe
cittern, a fourth the violin : but all
of them require brilk tunes, played in
very quick time. If we may believe
Epiphanius, animals of the brute cre-I
ation, when bit^y the Tarantula, are
affeded and cured by music ; andl
that a wasp and cock that had. met I
with this misfortune, no sooner heardl
the music than they danced in con-I
cert with the other patients of the I
human species.
The ingenious Mr. Drummond, in
his hiftory of Cyprus, observes, that
although the people of that island, in |
which the Tarantulas abound, be- I
lieve that the bite would be attended I
with the most fatal circumstances,
yet he could not find that any such
fyftoms had ever appeared, althoughl
the climate is at least as hot there as
in any part of Apuglia. He supposes
therefore that those dreadful impref-|
lions Were given to the Cypriots by
the hyperbolical Italians, when the
Venetians peffeffed the island ; in |
conftquence of which, the reapers al-|
I ways wear boots, and fix bells to [
their fitkles. In a word, this judic-I
ions traveller Items to think, that all [
the accounts we have from Italian ;
physicians, refpeding the effds ofl
this animal's bite, are mere chimerasl
suggested by imposition. Neverthe
less, we ought not slightly to reject
opinions which are fuppor|ed by the
authority of the most creditable writ
ers ; especially as there is nothing inl
those opinions repugnant to philofo-[
1 f phy and the received doctrine touch-r
llngllng the animal economy.
We shall subjoin the following his-I
tory from Bagliyi, for the entertain-I
merit of the reader :—
66 In 1689, a noble woman
of Lecce, returning out of the
country into the city, stepped
aside into a wine cellar, whence,
after a little flay, (he returned
home ; and at (he was employ
ing herfelf about her houfhould
affairs, felt somewhat like the
bite of an emmet in her right
ph'igh. fa the mean time, not
^regarding so flight a matter,
she went to dinner ; but had «,'
! Scarce begun to eat, when her
thigh was gradually seized with
a oumboefs, so as to become
insensible. Hereupon, (he
I leaves her dinner, retires to
I her chamber, and found, io the
[ place that was bit, a small tu
mour, about the bignefsof a
I pea, of a dark, reddifb colour,
pomewhat inclining to blue;
pt the fame time found herfelf
I taken with a violent anguish at
f heart, and great diffiwlty of
I breathing. A little alter, be.
liffgliffg put to bed, there came up*
on her an universal trembling,
land that with such violence,
I that two robust men could
I' scarce hold her. Not long af
ter, she was taken with a griev
ous pain in her joints and toes,
to such a degree, that she could
scarce bear the weight of a
I flight linoen cloth, that was
} put upon her. The physician
I being called, lanced the part af
feded several ways, and then
applied to it treacle and bruised
garlic, and gave inwardly con
tention of alkermes, with genu
ous wine; but all to no pur
pose, for she found the malady
increate upon her, and her
tongue so pulled in, as she said,
that she could not get her wordt
pronounced. All these happan
ied in the cumpafs of three hours
after she wo bit ; and to these
were added a great thirstiness,
want of deep, pain at heart, loss
I of appetite, and many other
I symptoms. Whence, her par
lentsI ents begun to fufped there
l might be something of the
Iftiog of the Taraotula io the
Icafe, and thereupon advised her
Ito dance ; but with tears ruo-
Ining down, she told them that
I the pain of the joints, and total
Ilofs of ftreng<h, made it impof
-1 fible.
" But the disease growing fiill more
I violent, the musicians were sent for,
I who, ftariding by the bedside, enquir
ledI ed what was the colour of the Taran.
I tula that stung her,that fe they might
I fall upon the tune that was peculiar
[ to it ; and when she made answer that
rfhe could not tell, they played at a
I venture two or three different tunes,
I which had no manner of effeft ; but
I upon hearing a fourth, she began to
sigh, and not being able to moderate
the most violent impuifes, railed in
her by the music, without any regard
to modesty, sprung out of bed quite
j naked, fell a dancipg with great ea
[ gernefs, and so continuing for three
! days, in the usual method, was freed
I from all the symptoms. But though
Ithe patient kept very well all that
I year, yet every year after, about the
I time of her being flung, the f>mp
I toms are renewed, with the pain, tu
mor, &c. in the part affected ; but
are all removed by the dancing alrea
dy described." $
WANTED,
A faithful, boneft, steady
MAN, to ride POST, on a good
Route. ... Inquire at this Office.
CaJb given for RAGS.