This painting illustrates the legend of a mysterious piper, whose music freed the city of Hamelin from a plague of rats. After the ungrateful citizens refused to give him the payment he had asked, he once more played on his pipe, and this time the children all followed him and disappeared, never to be seen by their families again. The legend was used as the basis for a poem by Robert Browning which was published in 1842 and probably used as a source by Christie.