In the town of Taranto victims of the tarantula danced a frenzied tarantella to prevent death from tarantism. There were strong suggestions that there was no organic cause for the heightened excitability & restlessness that gripped the dancers. However, these Tarantata said their wild, ecstatic rites would purge them of the tarantula poison coursing through their veins. Secretly, they whispered that they danced because they loved to and because they were told not to by the powers that wished an end the frenzy.