When things were at
their worst a strange man appeared in the place and offered, for a sum
of money, to clear it of these pests. The bargain was made and the
stranger began to pipe; and straightway, from every nook and corner in
the old town, the rats came in swarms, followed him to the river Weser
and jumped in and were drowned.
When the people found that the city was really free from rats they were
ungrateful enough to say that the piper had used magic, which was
believed to be the practice of the evil spirit, and refused to carry out
their part of the contract. The stranger went off in a great rage and
threatened to come back again and take payment in his own way. On St.
John's Day, which was a time of great festivity, he suddenly reappeared,
blew a new and beguiling air on his pipe, and immediately every child in
the city felt as if a hand had seized him and ran pell-mell after the
musician as he climbed the mountain, in which a door suddenly opened,
and through that door all, save a lame boy, passed and were never seen
again.
From this old story probably came the proverb about paying the piper;
and it is one of many stories which turn on the magical power of a voice
or a sound to draw men, women, and children to their doom. These very
interesting stories are not like the stories which are made up just to
please people and help them pass away the time; they are different forms
of one story--the story of the wind, told by people who thought that the
wind was not what we call a force but a person, and that when he called
those who heard must follow if he chose; for "the piper is no other than
the wind, and the ancients held that in the wind were the souls of the
dead.
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