The Portland daily press., 1868-11-05
Miscellany.
Curious Myths

From myths of the sun and moon, let US
turn to contemplate quite different class
Opposite our writing table hangs a curious
German picture illustrative of Goethe's IA
nous ballad OF the Erlking. 1t is all there
according to M. Taine's notion of what a
picture should be-the whole wild pathos OF
the story compressed into one supreme mo-
ment;-the fearful, halfgliding rush of the
Erlking, his long, spectral arms outstretched
to grasp the child; the frantic gallop of the
horse; the alarmed father clasping his dar-
ling to his bosom in convulsive embrace; the
siren-like elves lowering overhead, to lure the
little soul with their weird harps. Often, as
we have raised our head to contemplate for a
moment this terrible scene, we have fallen to
meditating upon the origin of the legend,
until we have come, halt unconsciously, to
find its true Significance in the fathers ad-
dress to his child:
.'Sei ruhigi bleibe rughig meine Kind;
In durren Blattern sauselt der Wind
One of the stories told by Mr.. Barring
Gould leads to the same conclusion. 1t is
well known in the version of Robert Rrown-
ing. In 1924 the town OF Hamelin was in
tested by rats. They gave people no rest, day
or night:
"They fought the dogs and killed the cats
And bit the babies in the cradles,
AMI ate the cheeses out of the watts
And licked the soup from the cooks own lad es (;
Made nests inside mems Sunday hats
ana even spoiled the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking
With shreking and squeaking
In nifty different sharps and fats"
One day came strange man in hunting
suit, and offered, for five hundred guilders.
to rid the town of the vermin The people
agreed, whereupon the man took out a pipe
and pped, and instantly all the rats in town.
In an army, which blackened the face of the
earth
t areat rats small s rats lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins
Cooking tails and pricking whske1s:
Families by tens and DOZENS"
came forth from their haunts. and followed
the piper until he piped them to the river
Weser, where they all jumped in and were
all drowned. But as soon as the torment
was gone the townsfolk refused to nav tbe
piper, on the ground that he was evidently a
wizard. He went away vowing vengeance
and on st. Johns day reappeared, and put
ting his pipe to his mouth blew a differen
ar. Whereat ell the little, plump, ROSY
checked, golden-haired children came merriiy
running after him, their parents standing
aghast, not knowing what to do, while he led
them up hill in the neighborhood. A door
opened in the mountain side through which
he led them in, and they were never seer
again, save one lame boy who did not hobble
fast enough to get in before the door shut.
and who lamented for the rest of his life that
he had not been able to share the rare Iuck of
his comrades In the street through which
this procession passed, no music was ever af-
terward allowed to be played. For a long
time the town dated from this fearful calam-
lty. and many authorities have treated it as a
historical event. Similar stories are told O
other towns in Germany, and, strange to saw.
IN remote Abyssinia also. Wesleyan peas
ants in England believe that angels pipe to
children who are about to die; and in Scan
dinavia, youths are said to have been enticed
away by the songs Of elf-maidens. In Greece.
the sirens by their magic lay allured voyaeers
to destruction, and Orpheus caused the dumb
beasts to follow him. Here we reach the ex-
PLANTATION. For Orpheus is The wind signing.
signing through untold acres of pine forest.
1.-The piper is no other than the wind, and
ancients held that in the wind were the souls
OF the dead" To this day the English peas
antry believe that they hear the wall of the
spirits OF unbaptized children as the gale
sweeps past their cottage DOORS The Greek
Hermes resulted from the fusion of two del
Ties. He is the sun and also the wind. In the
latter capacity he bears away the souls of the
dead. So the Morse Odin, who, like Hermes
fulfils double function, is supposed to rush
at night over the tree tops, accompanied by
the scudding train of brave mems spirits.
And readers of French literature cannot fail
10 RENE mber Erckmann- Chatrian's terrible
story of the wild huntsman Vittikab, and
how he sped through the forest, carrying
away young girls soul.
mus, as Tannhauser is the Northern
Ulysses, so is Goethes Erlking none other
than the piper of Hamelin. And the Piper.
in turn, is the classic Hermes or Orpheus. the
counterpart of the Finnish Wainamoinen
and OF the Sanskrit Gunadhya. His wonder
ful pipe is the horn of Oberon, the lyre of
Apollo (who like the Piper, was a rat-klller,l
the harp stolen by Jack when he climbed the
oeanstalk to the ogre's castle. And the
father, in Goethe's ballad, is no more than
flgnt when he assures his child that the 81
rem voice which tempts him is but the rustic
OF the wind among the dried leaves; for from
such simple class of phenomena arose this
entire family of charming legends.
But why does the Piper, who is a leader of
souls (Psychopompos,) also draw rats after
him? In answering this VIC shall have occa-
sion to note that the ancients by no means
shared that curious prejudice against the
brute creation which is INDUCED in by mod
ern anti-Darwinians. lii MANY countries.
rats and mice have been regarded as sacred |
animals; but in Germany they were thought |
10 represent the human soul. One story out |
Oh hundred must suffice to illustrate this |
~ Ihurlngla, at Saalfeld, a servant girl fell |
asleep Whilst her companions were Smelling
nuts. They observed a little red mouse
creep from her mouth and crawl out of the
window. One of the fellows present shook
Ine sleeper, but could not wake her, SO he
moved her to another place. Presently the
mouse ran back to the former place, aud dash
ca ABOUT seeking the girl; not finding her, it
vanlshed at the same moment the girl died"
ms completes the explanation of the Piper