Thank you for the music: The Lord of the Dance (1/4)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hamlet, Act I, scene 5 W.Shakespeare

To prepare for our latest excursion, I recommend reviewing a few perplexing mysteries. It vexes me that with almost a thousand years of human history available to us for exploration, and the benefits of scientific observation, there are still mysteries that resist explanation to any substantial extent. In 1872 the brigantine Mary Celeste was boarded while under sail, and found to be sailing unmanned towards the straits of Gibraltar. The ship's lifeboat had apparently been launched but the ship's company were never found. In 1809, on the night of November 25th, in the town of Perleberg, British diplomatic officer Benjamin Bathurst disappeared from the White Swan Inn after a pause to change horses. In the fifteenth century, an opportunistic grave-robber who hoped to avail himself of the gold supposedly manufactured by alchemist Nicholas Flamel opened the alchemist's grave in Paris, but was shocked to discover that the grave contained neither projection powder for the manufacture of gold, gold, nor body! In the twelfth century, two incongruous green-skinned children wandered into the village of Woolpit in England from the forest behind the wolf pit which gave the village its name. The boy grew sick and died, but the girl grew stronger and in time her skin colour became a normal human pink. The German town of Hameln seems not to have been the only one that received a visit from a mysterious rat-catcher, though thanks to the Brothers Grimm it is probably the most well-known instance. The town of Brandenburg lost all its children to a musician who enchanted the children and led them to some hidden place inside the Marienberg. On July 15th, 1237, the children of the town of Erfurt were entranced, and followed a mysterious piper, dancing as far as Arnstadt where they collapsed, exhausted. When news of their whereabouts reached their parents in Erfurt their parents sent wagons to bring them home. How do you fancy being a mendicant friar for a week or so? it'll probably mean going hungry a bit, but hopefully we will have a chance to see at first hand, who conjured the children away, and how they did it.

I have selected Thursday, the 22nd of June, 1284, a couple of days before the recorded date when the children of Hameln danced away from the town, as our starting point. That way we should be able to see the ratcatcher in action, and I hope, confirm that he is one and the same as the so-called "pied piper". Perhaps because it is a river port on the Weser, the town certainly seems to be infested with rats as we arrive. Passing the dungpits outside the town walls the vermin are very much in evidence, not even bothering to conceal themselves from the men who cart the night soil. Once inside the town the rats are even more in evidence: every shady alley has its skitterings, small dark shapes disappear from the tops of barrels, and appear from under crates of fruit. And any article of food left untended for a moment soon receives the attention of the rodents. Did you see that monster carrying away the fishhead? I'm sure its tail was six inches long at least! ugh! Since we arrived events have been fairly unremarkable, allowing for the constant presence of these disgusting rats, and their confounded fleas. One of the women trading in the marketplace convinced me that if I eat enough garlic the fleas will be less troublesome, so I have been adding a clove or two crushed, to my opportunistic meals. With a bellyful of barley pottage at about two hours after Compline, having passed most of the day in asking alms and preaching, I am contentedly watching the sun set beside the Weser, and it is then that I hear the raucous sound of a shawm somewhere across town. You're welcome to remain here, but I'm off to see if I can find the source of the commotion. Contrary to my expectations, the player (should I dignify his performance by calling him a musician? it seems to be more enthusiasm than skill right now) is not leading the rats, but herding them, from behind! As extraordinary as it seems, the rats seem to be running from the sound of the shawm as the player leaps and bounds from street to street!