A s mufick is the common cure, fo they who are bitten are pleas’d,
fome with one fort o f it, fome with another 5 one is rais’d with a
pipe, another with a timbrel; one with a harp, another with a fiddle 5
fo that the muficians make fometimes feveral eflays before they can accommodate
their art to the venom5 but this is conftant and certain,
notwithftanding this variety, that they all require the quickeft and
briskeft tunes, and are never moved by a flow, dull harmony.
W h i l e the Tarantati, or affedted, are dancing, they lofe in a
manner the ufe of all their fenfes 5 like fo many drunkards, do many
ridiculous and foolifh tricks; talk and adt obfcenely and rudely, take
great pleafure in playing with vine leaves, with naked fwords, and red
cloths, and the like ; and on the other hand can’t bear the fight o f any
thing black j fo that if any by-ftander happen to appear in that colour,
he mull immediately withdraw, or otherwife they relapfe into their
fymptoms with as much violence as ever.
IT may afford fome light towards underftanding the nature o f this
poifon, to obferve that A p u lia is the hotteft part o f all I ta ly , lying
eaftward, and having all the fummer long but very little rain to temper
the heats, fo that the inhabitants, as one o f that country obferves, da
breath an air, as it were, out o f a fiery furnace j hence their temperament
is dry, and aduft, as appears by their being generally lean,
paffionate, impatient, ready to action, quick-witted, very fubjedt to inflammatory
diftempers, phrenfies, melancholy, and the like j upon
w hich account there are more mad people in this, than in all the other
parts o f I ta ly . As to the return o f the fymptoms the next year, that
is owing to the fame exceffive heat in thole months, acting again upon
the fmall remains o f the venomous ferment. Thole that are delirotis
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