Posted on 05/12/2003 2:15:16 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
Hameln is famed as the scene of the myth of the piper of Hameln. According to the legend, the town in the year 1284 was infested by a terrible plague of rats. One day there appeared upon the scene a piper clad in a fantastic suit, who offered for a certain sum of money to charm all the vermin into the Weser. His conditions were agreed to, but after he had fulfilled his promise the inhabitants, on the ground that he was a sorcerer, declined to fulfill their part of the bargain, whereupon on the 26th of June he reappeared in the streets of the town, and putting his pipe to his lips began a soft and curious strain. This drew all the children after him and he led them out of the town to the Koppelberg hill, in the side of which a door suddenly opened, by which he entered and the children after him, all but one who was lame and could not follow fast enough to reach the door before it shut again. Some trace the origin of the legend to the Children's Crusade of 1211; others to an abduction of children; and others to a dancing mania which seized upon some of the young people of Hameln who left the town on a mad pilgrimage from which they never returned. For a considerable time the town dated its public documents from the event. The story is the subject of a poem by Robert Browning, and also of one by Julius Wolff. Curious evidence that the story rests on a basis of truth is given by the fact that the Koppelberg is not one of the imposing hills by which Hameln is surrounded, but no more than a slight elevation of the ground, barely high enough to hide the children from view as they left the town.
'rat master Clinton is the modern pied piper.
I keep getting e-mail about that.
The Marquis de Sade was something of a pain, but I don't think he had descended into kiddy murder yet.
The old Pied Piper doesn't sound like the sort of chap you'd want living next door to the grammar school - whoever he was !
Another " sweet thing" was a Hungarian, named Elizabeth, who was Countess of Bathory. Some helpful beauty advisor - sort of an early version of the Avon Lady - told her bathing in the blood of virgin girls would keep her forever young - especially if she seduced them first. Unlike her spiritual descendent - the former Attorney General - she didn't get voted out of her unique "office" : the powers that be held a " bonfire of the vanities ", with her as the centerpiece.
I believe the original expression was " don't give a Tinker's dam", refering to the dam of putty a tinker used when filling a hole in a pot he was repairing. The heat of the molten metal made the putty hard but brittle and it broke away when the metal cooled. Once used, it was worthless; hence the expression was that " I cared so little about something"
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