Picture it, Sicily, 1922. Oops, wrong reference. Picture it, Vienna, 1679, the corona virus bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, is sweeping through Europe, taking down almost 25 million people. Vienna was no different. The streets were piling up with corpses, people tried to quarantine themselves, not realizing that in this case rats (well, the fleas ON the rats… sorry rats, I didn’t want to wrongly point fingers) were to blame for the disease so quarantining was not really helping.
The drivers of the dead-carts wheeled their haul through the narrow cobblestoned streets screaming, “Bring out yer deaddd!!!”
It was a tough time, but there were people determined to cheer the crowds up, and not let this pandemic get them down. Augustin, a Viennese bagpipe player, an early YouTuber if you will, cheered people up with his merry bagpipe playing. Due to copyright issues I tried drawing what Augustin looked like myself (see right) but it turns out I’m not so great at drawing… note the inverted leg bones. But you get the idea.
Augustin also loved a good ole ale. He would go from tavern to tavern, drinking and playing his bagpipe. Legend has it that during one of these drinking sessions, Augustin got so drunk that he stumbled outside the tavern, and fell into a pit filled with plague victims. He promptly passed out, and when he woke up in the morning he was covered in, basically, dead people. He didn’t know what to do, so instead of screaming for help he began playing his bagpipe, until the drivers of the dead-cart heard him and rescued him! And thus, the legend and song of Augustin was born. You can listen to the now iconic song here.
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