'Religious Dances' is an account of the origins and history of religious dances and their significance in the Christian church. The author attempts to assess the role which religious dancing has played in the history of medicine and the healing of sickness, and points to disease in cereal plants as one probable cause of dancing epidemics. He pays particular attention to the dancing epidemics of the Middle Ages and he believes that the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin had its origins in one of these epidemics.Heavily illustrated, and packed with dates, facts, and quotations, Religious Dances is a standard work on its subject.