"Hon err de bloue Storken nit g's‰hn?" (Have you not seen the blue storks?) The _Bloue Storken_ is one of the oldest national dances of the Alsatian peasants. It is danced by one person only. At the commencement his performance resembles that of the slow and grave minuet; after awhile it becomes more animated. However, in a musical point of view, the most interesting of these dances is the _Kochersberger Tanz_, which is mentioned by Reicha and other musical theorists on account of its peculiar rhythm. According to Reicha's notation it is in 5/8 time. Perhaps it would have been as correctly written in 3/8 and 2/8 alternately, like _Der Zwiefache_, or _Gerad und Ungerad_ ("Even and Uneven"), of the villagers in the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria, to which it bears altogether a strong resemblance. The musical bands attending the villagers at dances and other rural pastimes are, as might be expected, very simple--a clarionet and one or two brass instruments generally constituting the whole orchestra. In Alsace a certain musical instrument is still to be found which, about three centuries ago, was popular in Germany. Some of the works on music published in the beginning of the seventeenth century contain drawings of it. Its German name is _Scheidholt_, and its French name is _b˚che_. It consists of an oblong square box of wood, upon which are stretched about half-a-dozen wire-strings. Some of the strings run over a finger-board provided with iron frets. These strings are used for playing the melody. The others are at the side of the finger-board, and serve for the accompaniment. The strings are twanged with a plectrum. The _Scheidholt_ may be considered as the prototype of the horizontal cither which, in the present century, has come much in vogue in Bavaria and Austria, and which has recently been introduced also into England. Formerly, the professional musicians of Alsace formed a guild, the origin of which dates from the time of the _Minnes‰nger_, when players on musical instruments wandered from castle to castle to entertain the knights with their minstrelsy. In the year 1400 a Roman imperial diploma was granted to Count Rappoltstein constituting him protector of the guild. The musicians were called _Pfeiffer_, and Count Rappoltstein and his successors had the title of _Pfeiffer-Kˆnig_ ("King of the Pipers"). In the seventeenth century the _Pfeiffer_ held annually a musical festival at Bischweiler, a small town near Strassburg. Having gradually fallen into decay, this old guild died out in the year 1789.