the Tarantella Dancers: Beyond Breaking

In Southern Italy, in the region of Calabria, in the province of Catanzaro, in the villa of Soveria Simeri where my grandfather was born, there is a legend. I don't remember where or when I heard it, but I'm sure it was my grandmother who told it to me. The legend says that the bite of the tarantula inflicts upon its victims the dreaded tarantolismo. These unfortunates are doomed to dance the earth forever in a frenetic attempt to rid their bodies of the fatal poison injected by the tarantula bite.In the early 1900s three of these afflicted came to America with my grandfather. I knew them well for I grew up with them. I called them the Tarantella dancers, but I never saw them dance - except for that one time.