New-York tribune., 1908-03-08
T1R4NTUL1 FIGHTING.
Sailors Of Batteship Fleet UM See
NOreI Pastime.
By Lewis X. Freeman.

San Diego, Cal, March 4.-If recent and per-
nstent reports from Lower California prove to
De well founded, it may be deemed advisable to
place the big battleship fleet in quarantine on
its arrival in home waters to prevent the spread
Of one Of the weirdest and most ineSplicabIe
manias that the world has ever known. Pros
pectors returning from the Sierra del M&gdalena
mountains to Ensenada tell of d persistent and
furious dancing mania which has taken posses
Jon of the inhabitants of the small villages in
nat district-principally In San Vincente and
Solado-Which, at the time they left II, the
middle OF February, was spreading with great
fapidity
Their story is that in Solado, of the
feast days following the New Year while
Indian was putting two tarantulas together for
"combata,'' or fight, be was bitten on the
hand. The member swelled greatly and ali day
the Indian lay in stupor on couch IN the
back of a 'posada-" At sunset dance be-
gun in adjoining building and at the sound
OF the music the injured man threw off his
stupor, ran to the dance hall in a frenzy of
hxcitement and whirled and danced about the
Boom until he fell to the floor IN exhausted
condition.
No effort made to stop him while he was
lancing the half-civilized people of the coun-
hy believing that crazy man is sacred Before
the evening was several Of the dancers
acted much as the Indian had, and in the course
# a week than score Of persons mani
tested the same desire to dance hearing
music.
The Indian recovered from the effects OF the
bite, but continued TO persist in his furious ex-
ercise many times day. The mania went on
spreading the new victims appearing to be af-
fectcd merely as a result of watching the move
rnents Of others Visitors from neighboring viii
laees caught the dancing fever and they, in turn,
spread it to their towns, until fully half
the population of this isolated district so say
the reports, has fallen victim 10 the strange
mania
This story though repeated without discrep-
ancy or contradiction by the prospectors, re-
ceiyed no credence until it reached the ears of
Dr. Ramon Torres, a surgeon on one OF the
coastvyise steamers and q relative Of the Gov
ernor of Sonora. Or. Torres, though born in
MazatIan. was educated abroad and is a man OF
much greater natural and acquired ability than
the average Mexican physician.
on hearing the story DR.. Torres sent fo- two
Of the prospectors who had remained in En-
senada and listened 10 their narrative OF the
etrorge madness When he had heard all that
they had to tell the physician expressed himself
as convinced that the men had not only told the
truth but had discovered the first historic re-
currence of the peculiar dancing mania called
during the Middle Ages. He at once made ar
rangenents for a substitute to take his place
on his ship, and is making arrangements
10 start for the Magdalena Mountains under the
guidance OF one of the prospectors. DR.. Torres
gives the following history Of tarantism,
which was supposed to have its origin in the
bite of the Italian tarantua:
IN its origin 'tartansEa' appears to have
been contemporaneous with the st. Nitus dance
of Germany It first appeared toward the end
OF the fourteenth century in Apulia. Thence II
gradually spread through Italy. by which time
the dancing mania Of the north had already died
ont II affected not only the Inhabitants of the
country bat foreigners visiting It as well. age
ay,ne2rs to have had saving influence chill
drer and old people alike fell under its spell.
hut as a rule women were more susceptible
than men. The bite Of the spider threw the
surferer into a depressed state Of melancholy,
acco,r1anie,l by nervous disorders The condi-
ton was marked by an increased sensibility to
the power of music The excitement OF the
nervous system amounted in some cases almost