the cult of the nose al sarrantonio first mention of the cult in the literature is found in a tract of the germanic heretic jacobus mesmus , which i have dated to somewhere near 1349 a.d. ; it mentions , amidst an account of an outbreak of plague in the town of breece , that `` a band of townsfolk had spied this day two figures , a man and a woman , prancing gaily on the outskirts of the village , wearing the feared nose .