Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1884-07-10
SOME FOLK LORE.
THE PIED PIPER or HAMELis.
EGsr,s 30 Trnee the origin Of tho s'orv-Rsss
and Mice In the Legendary Past.


The celebration OF the C00th anniversary
| Of the exploits the Pied Piper OF Hamciin
| has brought forth some Interesting articles
! bearing upon the story. The London
News has the following:
On the 2Gth OF June. 1884, " we accept
Mr.. Barring Gould's reckoning, the fra
Piper disappeared in the mountain sac
with all the children Of Hamelm following
him. except one lame boy, who could not
keep no with his companions. The story
is hest known 10 all English men. women,
1 and children by the poem which Mr..
Browning wrote for William Mscready the
Younger. and which needs no elucid1ton
! by the Browning Society. We all have
| heard how rats (in Mr.. Browning's yersionl
| invaded IIamein town, IL Brunswick.
"fought the dogs and Killed the cats. and
! Bit the babies Ia the cradles" Every one
remembers how the Mayor and the eorpo..
ration we've at their wits end for way OF
conquerin, the rats, when the Pied ripper
entered in his Gypsy colors--
! HIS queer long coat from heel 70 head
Was half Of yellow and half OF red.
| For thousand gulders the piper offered
10 rid the town OF the plague, and the cor
poration gladly accepted his terms. But
when all the yermin had followed his sweet
! yipincs into the river Wiser, then the
Mayor aud Council. with a touch o. the
modern spirit. repudiate0." Thereon
| .he piper played 4 new tune, and all the
! children in Hamelm "ran merrily after the
wonderful music with piping and laugh
! ter" TIL the rock opened, as in the Zulu
! fairy tale, and swallowed up the Piper and
all his merry company. At such price
did IIameiin pay the Piper, and ever since
, the event was an era Qike the n!iagira) IN
! the annals Of the town, which dated It's Re-
! cords from the disappeaTance OF the little
| cnes. True, Mr. Browning gives the dltc
o. 22d July. 1876, but the people OF lIamelin
! appear 20 prefer the chronology OF Mr..
! Barring Gould and regard the present week
as the seXccntenary OF the Pied Piper.
This bad business OF the Piper. as Mr..
Carlyle might have called il, is only oae
example OF the great part which mice and
rats Especially mice play in the legendary
past OF humanity. A great many learned
explanations have been given Of the liame-
| lin stOry-noac OF them, we fear, quite ST.
lisiactcry. Mr.. Keary, in his volume on
"rhe Outlines Of Primitive Belief, = thinks
that the tale is o lingering memory OK an
old German myth. The rats are the souls
Of the dead the Piper is the wind. and
the wind Is much the same rs Odin,
while OGin is much the same "a lIcrmes.
who, in Greek faith, drove the souls
with his wand Of gold down the dark
| ways" 20 liadeS. Mr. kealy bogS Us %
suppose that there had been 4 great cpl
dcinic near IIamcin: that the Slavonic
Hamelin people would speak Of the flight
Of tic souls rs the departure Of the rats
or mice; that the Germans would tell
chow tee same piper had piped away all
the children IRON the town. so that a Gou-
bic story grew up about the same event.
All this seems little too theoretical, and
(uuoSs The epidemic was measles or
| whoOprg cough why were only the call
dron pipcd away &? How did the exact
date get itself fixed so neatly: The story
OF the Piper is not REGULAR 20 Hamelin.
In Brandenburg a fiddler is said TO have
aIurod all the children into the Marien-
ierg with his violin. Al Torch the fields
were devastated by ants. The Bishop OF
Worms ordered procession, Just as Greek
Bishops are doing to-day. in the interest OF
The vines and olives. A hermit met the
procession. and promised 70 "banish all
the varmint" Of ants II the farmers would
build a chapel Al the cost OF one hundred
gujldcrs. The farmers promised, the her
nit pipcd. and ali the ants followed him
into the lake and were drowned. The
farmers then refused to pay. and the her-
nit. indignant at being "welshed," struck
up new tune, which affected the pigs -
the old tune had affected the ants. Next
year crickets were ~ rulnOus As The ants had
been; charcOal-burneT offered TO charm
them away for five hundred guilders; the
farmers again promised again rcpudIated,
and this time saw all their sheep 20 where
tie PIGS had gone. The third time it was
case OF rats; relieved Of the rats the
dVrUS oTdiOr still refused TO pay, and
lastly, all the children were plped into the
lake. Now surely ants, cricketS, and pigs
and sheep are moi all mythical terms for the
souls o, the dead. Besides. the explains
ton does not "msrch," does not 90 on all
four. The people did not want to get rid OF
their souls the rats get, and they promised
money TO have the rats piped away. Guber-
natis holds that the Germans mot the Slays)
look on mice and rats as souls, thus
MIR. Eeary's Ingenious theory OF double
headed myth. Slav0nic ana German is
threatened. Gubernatis himself believes
that the mouse represents night. The
provorb when the eats away the mice
will play" does not seem 20 need TO be cx-
planned as a myth. But Gubernatis says
that the cat is the moon. and the mice are
the shadows OF night. "The shadows
Of night dance when the moon IL absent"
4 mythologist will say anything. The very
reverse, OF course, is the case. The shadows
Of night dance when the moon is present
No moon no shadows, and shadow dance.
The pToYerb, il Gubernatis is right, should
run, "Whcn the cats not away the mice
will play"
II we reject the explanation about the
Piper being the wind, and the mice the
souls OF the dead, how ere we TO account
| for the Hamelin story! One point we
must give up. We cannot tell how the
! legend became localized at Hamclin and
Torch and elsewhere rs historical event.
II may be possible TO resolve a myth into
/ It's component elements, but II Is scarcely
possible TO say why people assert that the
events Of the myth occurred at one place
rather than another. The real reason
doubtless is that 30 give known names 10
the people and the places in any story
adds TO the pleasant feeling Of reality.
We all know how stupid men will
tell an old Joe Miller, and aver that
the incidents occurred in the experience OF
themselves or their relations. Thus dozens
Of persons will assure YOU that they met a
man abroad who was travelling alone and
seemed melancholy. On being questioned.
he said that he was on his wedding tour
but could not afford TO bring his wife.
Doubtless this notion first occurred 10 some
wag as a quaint conceit. He added name
and place. other people got hold OF the
tale, such rs it Is, and again seasoned to
TASTE" with place and name. This ex-
ample shows how myths grow. TO come
nearer The mice aud rats, we have all heard
how the army Of the Assyrans came down
like wolf on the fold, and was miracu-
ousy destroyed. The Egyptians when
they told the tale said that god appeared
to their King when invaded by Assyria.
and promised him succOr. Next morning
the enemy found that feld-mice had
gnawed thelr bOw-strings and the leather
loops of their shields, so that they
were powcrless either 10 shoot or
TO defend themselves. The same le-
gend is located in the 1road,
where the mouse was held sacred. with
new names Of people and places. Odder
yet, Chinese annals tell us that an army
Of Turks invaded Khotan. The King OF
Khotan fell asleep in the temple while pray
lug, and Tie Father Of all Rats appeared 10
him in dream and promised hello. Next
morning the Turks were precisely In the
same case as the Assyrians in the Egyptian
myth preserved by Heroditus. Rats had
eaten their bowstrings, and they were de-
ieated easily.
The same "localizatioD /" Of a wide
spread myth must have occurred at Iiame-
lin Rut how Is the myth itself exOla,ued