El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-29

~ ONE Of the strangest dances the
world has ever seen have been OF
religious origin. We have holy
Jumpers in some communities today,
whose religious eXhOrtatiOns are &C
cOmpanied by wild and often frenzied
motions Of the body, but they are emo
more sensational than the religious
dances Of more primitive people.
About 1874 there was an epidemic Of
the dancing sickness (St- Vitus) in the
southern TyrOL A great procession
was formed Of men, women and chill
dren who danced their way to the very
distant shrine of the saint to pray for
cure either for themselves or some one
dear to them
This dancing procession is still a fea-
ture Of the feast of the PenteCoSt at
Etehernach, about 5000 people join
ing 1t every year They all hold hands
and advance five steps and then take
two steps back This gives the process
sion the strangest most fantastic ap-
pearance, like a huge snake that jerks
itself along There are plenty of brass
bands to keep the dancers spirits up,
and the close contact Of 50 many other
praying and dancing people is in
fictitious 1t is said that many cures
are effected among the pilgrims and
that many Of the younger ones lose
their hearts on the way to the shrine
But that is considered TO be particular
" lucky.
The most morbid and fearful of all
the dances in Christian times were the
death dances which appeared about the
same time as the great plaques and
were the peoples expression of grim
and CHASTITY despair at their lot. The
grisly humOr Of these dances, which
were led by a man dressed as Death
himself painted like a skeleton with
crown and ermine coat, can only be
understood If you try to think yourself
back IN those times. In the 18th and
18th centuries every imaginable dis
ease and the black plague especially,
raTaged Europe. sometimes killing
every one Of the inhabitants in small
town. There was no idea Of a cure FOR
anyone who contracted the disease, and
no exact knowledge Of how 1t was
caught The people were as helpless
as sheep before a flock OF wolves. If
one man died Of the plague in the town
would. and no one knew whose turn
would come next So Death was con-
stanuy in everybOdy'S thought, and
they could not even get away from the
idea IN their merrymaking, but danced
with Death as the piper of a lOng,
CHASTITY procession.
At this time dancing had become a
perfect mania and many people were
accused Of having the dance sickness,
which was a form Of hysteria or st.
Nitus dance, quite as popular in the
middle ages as neurasthenia is now.
The dance Of death had a very bad ef-
feet on people, needless to say, and
soon the church forbade it, and the
only reminder we have Of il now is in
pictures Of that time
The Slavic people still retain a trace
Of this morbid dance in q death dance
OF their own. This is performed by a
young girl who pretends TO be a corpse.
She must remain rigid while the rest
Of the company try as hard as possible
TO make her laugh by their funny
antics, their dancing and their ridicu-
1ous caricature Of profound mourning.
The boy who can make her laugh or
Waken her gets a kiss as his reward,
and the dance, despite its grewsOme
idea. is very popular in some parts Of
Bohemia.
There was nothing morbid or un-
healthy in the funeral dances Of the
old Greeks where members OF the fam
1ly- or paid mOurners, walked in solemn
and stately manner around the funeral
pyre Of the dead and chanted hymns
IN his honor, while they scattered
flowers and poured out libations Of
wine to the gods. But other religious I
dances Of the pleasure loving Greeks I
were less dignified. and certain Diony-
sian mysteries participated in only by |
women ended in the widest kind Of
reTelry- This festival permitted the
women who were hedged in by very ]
strict laws and even narrower cOnven-
tons to get back to nature for a while, |
and they made full use Of their Oppor-
tunity, led by the wild Maenads, the I
high prjestesses Of the god Of wine.