The origin of the Black Plague were the fleas in little rodents such as rats, squirrels, and mice on the northern coast of the Black Sea, where the Italians had trading colonies. The Black Plague spread through the importing and exporting of goods from country to country. Nobody ever thought that the fleas on the rodents were the cause of the deadly virus. Often, in the winter time, the plague would rear its ugly head because the little rodents would look for a warm place and inhabit people's houses. Sooner or later that whole family would be infected with the plague and it would spread to whole villages or towns. Millions of deaths occurred due to the Black Plague. Most of the deaths recorded were in Europe. The victims of the plague would suffer a horrible death.

The first symptoms of the bubonic plague often appear within several days: headache and a general feeling of weakness, followed by aches and chills in the upper leg and groin, a white coating on the tongue, rapid pulse, slurred speech, confusion, fatigue, apathy and a staggering gait. A blackish pustule usually will form at the point of the flea bite. By the third day, the lymph nodes begin to swell. The swelling will be tender, perhaps as large as an egg. The heart begins to flutter rapidly as it tries to pump blood through swollen, suffocating tissues. Subcutaneous hemorrhaging occurs, causing purplish blotches on the skin. The victim's nervous system begins to collapse, causing dreadful pain and bizarre neurological disorders, from which the "Dance of Death" rituals that accompanied

Scene depicting the Black Plague

the plague may have taken their inspiration. By the fourth or fifth day, wild anxiety and terror overtake the sufferer - and then a sense of resignation, as the skin blackens and the rictus of death settles on the body .