Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Classical stories of the world

The Pied Piper Of Hamelin
(Old stories of Germany)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Make Origami ( ORIGAMI CLUB) Mouse face　　　Mouse

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time, myriad of mice came out of nowhere and ended up in a town called Hamelin.

　The townspeople were so annoyed by mice that they set up mouse traps and spread poison baits, but nothing worked. On top of that, the number of mice was even increasing.

"All we can do must be have a cat or dog."

　People believed so and every family owned a dog or cat.

　But, on the contrary, both cats or dogs were chased by mice because there were too many of them.

　One day, a man came to the town and said,

“I’ll get rid of these mice. In exchange, I’d like a thousand gold coins.”

“Oh, fair enough. We’re willing to give you two thousand, not only a thousand.”

“Great. Let’s get to it right away.”

　The man went outside and started to pipe he was holding.

　Strangely enough, mice dashed out of houses here and there and gathered around the piper.

　The piper leading the mice came to the riverside while piping.

"What is he going to do?"

　Under the people’s wondering eyes, the piper splashed his way into the river.

　After the mice followed him and entered the river, all of them drowned and died.?

"He did it! He did it!"

"Let's celebrate!"

　The townspeople were singing and dancing with a joy.

　Later, the piper came back from the river and said,

“As you can see, I killed all of the mice for you. So, can I take a thousand gold coins as you promised?”

“A thousand gold coins?”

　People were making a frowning face.

“We can’t give you a thousand gold coins for only killing mice. We can give you about ten though.”

“Are you going to break the agreement? Fine. Then I have an idea!”

　The piper gave a fierce look and then disappeared.

“Whew. He seems to have given up.”

　The townspeople started to sing and dance again, feeling relieved.

　Then, the vibrant sound of the pipe was heard somewhere.

　The piper started to pipe in the middle of the town square.

　Meanwhile, children gathered from houses here and there.

“Holy cow! The children are following the piper.”

　People followed them in a hurry and they reached a cave at the bottom of the mountain.

　The piper was piping and went into the cave.

“Yay! It’s a cave. It’s a cave.”

　The children were so excited and entered the cave too.

"Hey, wait up! Wait up!"

“We’re so sorry. We’ll give you the gold coins as we promised so please give us the children back.”

　The townspeople shouted at the top of their voice.

　But it was too late and a rock automatically moved and closed the entrance of the cave.



　As a result, Hamelin became a town without any children in it.

The end

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