Chapter Macaber of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Macaber (The Dance) or the “Dance of Death” (Arabic, makabir, “a churchyard”). The dance of death was a favourite subject in the Middle Ages for wall-paintings in cemeteries and churches, especially in Germany. Death is represented as presiding over a round of dancers, consisting of rich and poor, old and young, male and female. A work descriptive of this dance, originally in German, has been translated into most European languages, and the painting of Holbein, in the Dominican convent at Basle, has a world-wide reputation. Others are at Minden, Lucerne, Lubeck, Dresden, and the north side of old St. Paul’s.

Elsie. What are these paintings on the walls around us?
Prince. “The Dance Macaber”…“The Dance of Death.
   —Longfellow: The Golden Legend (1851).