The Black Death and The Dancing Mania | Page 6

affected with expectoration of blood; but they did not usually die
before the sixth, and, sometimes, even as late as the fourteenth day. The
same occurrence, it is well known, is not uncommon in other
pestilences; as also blisters on the surface of the body, in different
places, in the vicinity of which, tumid glands and inflammatory boils,

surrounded by discoloured and black streaks, arose, and thus indicated
the reception of the poison. These streaked spots were called, by an apt
comparison, the girdle, and this appearance was justly considered
extremely dangerous.
CHAPTER III
--CAUSES--SPREAD

An inquiry into the causes of the Black Death will not be without
important results in the study of the plagues which have visited the
world, although it cannot advance beyond generalisation without
entering upon a field hitherto uncultivated, and, to this hour entirely
unknown. Mighty revolutions in the organism of the earth, of which we
have credible information, had preceded it. From China to the Atlantic,
the foundations of the earth were shaken--throughout Asia and Europe
the atmosphere was in commotion, and endangered, by its baneful
influence, both vegetable and animal life.
The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years
before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in China.
Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the
tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai. This was
followed by such violent torrents of rain, in and about Kingsai, at that
time the capital of the empire, that, according to tradition, more than
400,000 people perished in the floods. Finally the mountain Tsincheou
fell in, and vast clefts were formed in the earth. In the succeeding year
(1334), passing over fabulous traditions, the neighbourhood of Canton
was visited by inundations; whilst in Tche, after an unexampled
drought, a plague arose, which is said to have carried off about
5,000,000 of people. A few months afterwards an earthquake followed,
at and near Kingsai; and subsequent to the falling in of the mountains
of Ki-ming-chan, a lake was formed of more than a hundred leagues in
circumference, where, again, thousands found their grave. In
Houkouang and Honan, a drought prevailed for five months; and
innumerable swarms of locusts destroyed the vegetation; while famine

and pestilence, as usual, followed in their train. Connected accounts of
the condition of Europe before this great catastrophe are not to be
expected from the writers of the fourteenth century. It is remarkable,
however, that simultaneously with a drought and renewed floods in
China, in 1336, many uncommon atmospheric phenomena, and in the
winter, frequent thunderstorms, were observed in the north of France;
and so early as the eventful year of 1333 an eruption of Etna took place.
According to the Chinese annuals, about 4,000,000 of people perished
by famine in the neighbourhood of Kiang in 1337; and deluges, swarms
of locusts, and an earthquake which lasted six days, caused incredible
devastation. In the same year, the first swarms of locusts appeared in
Franconia, which were succeeded in the following year by myriads of
these insects. In 1338 Kingsai was visited by an earthquake of ten days'
duration; at the same time France suffered from a failure in the harvest;
and thenceforth, till the year 1342, there was in China a constant
succession of inundations, earthquakes, and famines. In the same year
great floods occurred in the vicinity of the Rhine and in France, which
could not be attributed to rain alone; for, everywhere, even on tops of
mountains, springs were seen to burst forth, and dry tracts were laid
under water in an inexplicable manner. In the following year, the
mountain Hong-tchang, in China, fell in, and caused a destructive
deluge; and in Pien- tcheon and Leang-tcheou, after three months' rain,
there followed unheard-of inundations, which destroyed seven cities. In
Egypt and Syria, violent earthquakes took place; and in China they
became, from this time, more and more frequent; for they recurred, in
1344, in Ven-tcheou, where the sea overflowed in consequence; in
1345, in Ki-tcheou, and in both the following years in Canton, with
subterraneous thunder. Meanwhile, floods and famine devastated
various districts, until 1347, when the fury of the elements subsided in
China.
The signs of terrestrial commotions commenced in Europe in the year
1348, after the intervening districts of country in Asia had probably
been visited in the same manner.
On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had already broken
out; when an earthquake shook the foundations of the island, and was

accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, that the inhabitants who had
slain their Mahometan slaves, in order that they might not themselves
be subjugated by them, fled in dismay, in all directions. The sea
overflowed--the ships were dashed to pieces on the rocks, and