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LIX. To Mr. E. P.
SIR,
I Saw such prodigious things daily don these few yeers, that I had resolv'd with my self to give over wondering at any thing; yet a passage happen'd this week, that forc'd me to wonder once more, because it is without parallel. It was, that som odd fellows went skulking up and down London-streets, and with Figs and Reasons allur'd little Children, and so pourloyn'd them away from their Parents, and carried them a Ship-board for beyond Sea, where by cutting their hair, and other devises, they so dis∣guis'd them, that their Parents could not know them. This made me think upon that miraculous passage in Hamelen, a Town in Germans, which I hop'd to have pass'd through when I was in Ham∣burgh, had we return'd by Holland; which was thus, (nor would I relate it unto you wer ther not som ground of truth for it.) The said Town of Hamelen was annoyed with Rats and Mice; and it chanc'd, that a Pied-coated Piper came thither, who covenanted with the chief Burgers for such a reward, if he could free them quite from the said Vermin, nor would he demand it, till a twelve-month, and a day after: The agreement being made, he began to play on his Pipes, and all the Rats, and the Mice followed him to a great Lough hard by, where they all perish'd; so the Town was in∣fected no more. At the end of the yeer, the Pied-Piper return'd for his reward, the Burgers put him off with slightings, and neg∣lect; offring him som small matter, which he refusing, and stay∣ing som dayes in the Town, on Sunday morning at High Mass, when most peeple were at Church, he fell to play on his Pipes, and all the children up and down, follow'd him out of the Town, to a great Hill not far off, which rent in two, and opened, and let him and the children in, and so clos'd up again: This happen'd a matter of two hundred and fifty yeers since; and in that Town, they date their Bills and Bonds, and other Instruments in Law, to this day, from the yeer of the going out of their children: Besides, there is a great piller of stone at the foot of the said Hill, wheron this story is ingraven,