f the Holy Innocents.

In Central France the Wild Huntsman, whom we have already seen in
other countries as Odin, Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Rodenstein, von
Hackelberg, King Arthur, Hel, one of the Swedish kings, Gabriel,
Cain, or Herod, is also called the Great Huntsman of Fontainebleau
(le Grand Veneur de Fontainebleau), and people declare that on the
eve of Henry IV.'s murder, and also just before the outbreak of the
great French Revolution, his shouts were distinctly heard as he swept
across the sky.

It was generally believed among the Northern nations that the soul
escaped from the body in the shape of a mouse, which crept out of
a corpse's mouth and ran away, and it was also said to creep in and
out of the mouths of people in a trance. While the soul was absent,
no effort or remedy could recall the patient to life; but as soon as
it had come back animation returned.

The Pied Piper

As Odin was the leader of all disembodied spirits, he was identified in
the middle ages with the Pied Piper of Hamelin. According to mediaeval
legends, Hamelin was so infested by rats that life became unbearable,
and a large reward was offered to any who would rid the town of these
rodents. A piper, in parti-coloured garments, offered to undertake
the commission, and the terms being accepted, he commenced to play
through the streets in such wise that, one and all, the rats were
beguiled out of their holes until they formed a vast procession. There
was that in the strains which compelled them to follow, until at last
the river Weser was reached, and all were drowned in its tide.

"And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
You heard as if an army muttered;
And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
Followed the Piper for their lives.
From street to street he piped advancing,
And step for step they followed dancing,
Until they came to the river Weser,
Wherein all plunged and perished!"

Robert Browning.

As the rats were all dead, and there was no chance of their returning
to pl