Hamelin revisited (preliminary rodent tests) ;)

Whistle
1

Well, after conducting preliminary tests on my pet rats Bart and Larry, I’ve arrived at the following possible scenarios:

a) The Pied Piper didn’t play the whistle

b) He played it better than I do (a distinct possibility :slight_smile: )

c) My rats are tone deaf

I decided to serenade the boys tonight during their supper (hey, how many rats get dinner music, anyway?). They both froze at the first note and gave me this horrified look…then darted into their tube hammock and stayed there until I left. Nothing I played, said, did or offered by way of a bribe would induce them to come out until that nut with the whistle left the room.

Sigh…and here I always thought that rats were such discerning creatures. It certainly couldn’t be my playing…er…could it?

(grin)

Redwolf

2

Or the Piper might have been a practitioner of the Black Arts, imbibing it with some fiendish Rock and, or, Roll type mesmerism.

Or maybe he was using a low whistle.

3

What happened is you didn’t play that elusive tune that casts the spell. What you need to do is discover what that tune was.

4

What tune or tunes did you play?, so I can eliminate them from my list.

5

Well, you can strike these off your list:

Slane
King O’the Fairies
Rakes of Mallow
The Water is Wide
Amazing Grace
Hyfrydol (these are clearly not Episcopalian rats!)
The theme song from the old “Pippi Longstockings” TV show

I gave up after this bunch, as I didn’t want to give the poor creatures a nervous breakdown :wink:

Redwolf

6

Hmmm… Perhaps instead of the Pied Piper leading the rats out, he DROVE them out. I suggest a rat herding experiment to see if you can drive them from room to room around the house. And maybe compare the results with a highland piper.

I’d suggest the same experiment with small children, but there are probably laws against it…

7

From my experience with listeners (sufferers?), I think you can drive out almost anything with a whistle.

Just take your tunes up an octave and play everything in the 2nd and 3rd octave.

(Works great as spouse repellent too!)

–James (Flinching and Ducking)
http://www.flutesite.com

8

I tink that we can rule out the fact that they were driven out. Check out this passage fron the story.


Into the street the Piper stept,
Smiling first a little smile,
As if he knew what magic slept
In his quiet pipe the while;
Then, like a musical adept,
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled
Like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled;
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
– Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar,
Swam across and lived to carry
(As he the manuscript he cherished)
To Rat-land home his commentary,
Which was, “At the first shrill notes of the pipe,
I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
And putting apples, wondrous ripe,
Into a cider press’s gripe:
And a moving away of pickle-tub boards,
And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
And the drawing the corks of train-oil flasks,
And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks;
And it seemed as if a voice
(Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
Is breathed) called out, Oh rats, rejoice!
The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!
So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,
Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!
And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,
All ready staved, like a great sun shone
Glorious scarce an inch before me,
Just as methought it said, Come, bore me!
– I found the Weser rolling o’er me.”

9

I used to have several rats and they seemed to really enjoy whistle playing. They would all climb up to the top of the cage and listen to me play. The dog however…

10

Are you guys still talking about rats?
Gross!

11

On 2002-06-20 17:24, The Weekenders wrote:
Are you guys still talking about rats?
Gross!

As a former rat owner (granted that we canot really “own” our furry friends), I feel compelled to point out to the uninitiated that rats are intelligent, affectionate, whimsical, and keep themselves much cleaner than, say, your average politician.

Alas, I had my rat long ago, and am unable to conduct any rat/whistle experiments…

12

What we are really talking about here is what “Tune did the Pied Piper play?” obviously there were two distinct and seperate tunes played, one for children and one for rats. It is the Holy grail of Whistling!

13

I was looking up some facts about rats. One report on the web from a rat’s rights group claimed that they are sensitive to high pitched sounds. They might find them unpleasant. If you want your rats to like your whistle playing try counterconditioning. Play a couple of notes on the whistle and give them a treat. Sweetened condensed milk mixed half and half with water is good. I think they also like grape juice.

Another new agey web page reported that animals like the sound of a harp. She suggested a specific harper whose name I have forgotten. Try harp and whistle duets and maybe the rats will come to like the whistle. If your rats get sick the web site suggested that harp music will have healing properties. The author and her cats get together for regular bouts of harp therapy.

As far as keeping rats is concerned there are rats and then there are rats. I would be pretty hesitant about admitting a wild Norway rat to the household but a nice hooded rat would be welcome. Especially to the cats.

Steve

14

Can you say V-A-R-M-I-N-T-S? They stink and are gross and the pet ones bite and the males have huge #$%% and boy do they use em. Don’t they also rustle around in the night in their cages? Talk about a nightmare.

GROSSGROSSGROSSGROSSGROSSGROSS;

I keep a BB gun in my house since a giant one snuck in and tore up the rugs under my bed while I was laying there. We have so much storage stuff under the bed (small temporary apt) that we had to dismantle the bedroom to get at the sucker. Then it wouldn’t die but kept tearing up things. Thats one of the reasons I replaced the Red Ryder with a pump version for my older boy at Xmas.I needed a .22 for the mother of all rats but obviously couldn’t shoot that inside.

Rats? Why don;t you replace your dog with a hyena while you’re at it? And get a pigeon instead of a cockatiel? Rats? Gross.

Almost a third of 14th century Europe died because of them things (in fairness, their fleas). And you want em in your house???

Pied Piper started out a hopeful tale for besieged Europeans. The kid part is where the morality tale comes in. And if whistling really irritates them, excuse me, I have a date with a Gen high G!!!

Bart and Larry? I swear Redwolf, you musta went to UC Santa Cruz!

What marketing genius convinced people to let them things back in their houses after centuries of scourge?? Purina? I know they make RAT chow… Ewwwwwwwwww. Probably looks like what they leave around the house. A hammock? For a rat??? So they think they’re in Hawaii??? Am I really missing something here??? The joys of rat ownership?

Rat ranting.

[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-06-21 01:09 ]

15

Sheesh, Weekenders, take a breath! :laughing: I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with you about your vividly described opinions on wild rats. And if you hate the tame ones that much I’m sure no one is going to force you to keep one. They don’t ALL bite, and they are very nice if they are from a domesticated bloodline and treated nicely when young. And as for the huge @#*$&, well, when ya got it, ya got it…

So, what did the piper play? Could it have been Irish tunes? Perhaps he was playing highland pipes and they followed him, hoping to drive him out of town?

16

Maybe the whistle doesn’t work. When I was a tiny tyke (pre-school age) my mother would read me stories out of this big fat book of traditional tales. It had illustrations, and the Pied Piper (if I recall correctly) was pictured playing a bagpipe.

Of course, that may be BS, 'cause I have a book of alchemical illustrations which has a picture of Pan playing a bagpipe (which hadn’t been invented when Pan ruled the woods, or maybe he’s still alive and has switched instruments).

17

Ridseard wrote:
Maybe the whistle doesn’t work. When I was a tiny tyke (pre-school age) my mother would read me stories out of this big fat book of traditional tales. It had illustrations, and the Pied Piper (if I recall correctly) was pictured playing a bagpipe.

Of course, that may be BS, 'cause I have a book of alchemical illustrations which has a picture of Pan playing a bagpipe (which hadn’t been invented when Pan ruled the woods, or maybe he’s still alive and has switched instruments).

The term pipe (with no distinguishing word added) properly refers to the pipe, as in pipe and tabor, at least as some scholars have “clasified” instruments. Of course, generically it’s used of any tubular perforated wind instrument. Even of some non-perforated ones.

Pan, of course, played the Pandean pipes, or (panipes, panflute).

Are you sure bagpipes don’t go back that far? Some translations of the Old Testament (Revised Standard Version, and New American Standard Bible) refer to the bagpipes, where the King James says dulcimer (Daniel 3). The word in the original being similar to an Italian form of bagpipes. Then again, a South American form of panpipes is also known as zampoña.

18

…going form the pied piper to bagpipes… Found a German page which also has translations in English and here is mentioned that some early European (Greek) mentionings are from about 400 b.c. which is not too young for pan I think :slight_smile:

http://sackpfeifen.virtualave.net/deutschsack/dudel1e.htm

Brigitte

19

Pipes are as ancient as sheepherding and the far Eastern European celts. I vote for pipes as the rat-drawers.

They have the hypnotic power to draw people to their deaths. I am not sure I would face gunfire to a whistled Brian Boru, but the Highland warpipes cause that physiological reaction of making hair stand on end, raising bloodpressure and heartrate on me. I don;t know why, but its happened all of my life when I hear em. I have some Scots blood but it’s a disproportionately powerful effect.

Hey Badge, I was on a roll last night :slight_smile:. Of course I am not getting a rodential houseguest anytime soon, I HOPE!!!

20

On 2002-06-21 12:16, The Weekenders wrote:
Pipes are as ancient as sheepherding and the far Eastern European celts. I vote for pipes as the rat-drawers.

They have the hypnotic power to draw people to their deaths. I am not sure I would face gunfire to a whistled Brian Boru, but the Highland warpipes cause that physiological reaction of making hair stand on end, raising bloodpressure and heartrate on me. I don;t know why, but its happened all of my life when I hear em. I have some Scots blood but it’s a disproportionately powerful effect.

Hey Badge, I was on a roll last night > :slight_smile:> . Of course I am not getting a rodential houseguest anytime soon, I HOPE!!!

Strangely, I agree with you. :smiley: I mean, with the French Imperial Guard in front of you and a Great Highland Bagpipe behind you, which way would you march?