In the Middle Ages, the town of Hamelin, Germany, was overrun with rats. The townspeople, according to the fairy tale, had heard of a well-known pied piper with a magic flute who was able to rid a town of rats. They offered the pied piper a handsome fee to rid the town of this curse. Playing his magic flute, he led hundreds and hundreds of rats out of town, as if by magic, miles away to a river where they all drowned. Returning to Hamelin, he saw that the town council gleefully refused to pay him as the rats and their problem were now gone. In reprisal the pied piper, thoroughly incensed, played his magic flute a second time, placing the town's children under his spell. Following the pied piper, the children left the village down the country road until they reached another town far away to return years later.