IN 1284, Hamelin, a town of 60,000 residents in Lower Saxony, Germany, had a problem. It was so infested with rats that the town hall hired a Pied Piper to exterminate them.
He had a magical flute that played hypnotic notes, much like the song of the sirens, the mythical bird-woman creatures in Homer's play, "Odyssey".
Just as their mesmeric song lured sailors to ram their boats into the rocky cliffs and to their death, so too did the rat-catcher's tune entrance the rodents. Like zombies, they followed the piper through the city gates and to their doom.
When the town refused to pay for his service, Pied Paper turned his anger on the town's children.
