Ernesto de Martino

The belief was that the music would make them sweat out the poison.

So often the bite wasn't a bite at all, but was an imaginary bite, and what it became just taking the form of other unwellness, uh, that can be a sadness because of the loss of someone, but also of sexual frustration or economic problems, is what Ernesto De Martino called

A bad past.

A bad past.

And so they were starting to make fun of everything which was considered ignorant and poor and as, uh, something which belonged to the past.

But even in those last moments, people would, wouldn't abandon who was suffering, and instead, by using this ritual, they would be cured.

In the 1950s and '60s, a team of academics led by anthropologist Ernesto De Martino traveled to Galatina to see what remained of the tradition.

They found only a few dozen women there receiving care.