Joost played like a man inspired, but the stranger kept right with him, note for note.

When European colonists first settled the New World, they brought with them more than mere physical possessions; they brought their beliefs, customs, and folklore as well. Among the many tales to make the Atlantic crossing is one folk theme dating from at least the late Middle Ages and common in one variant or another all across Europe, from the British Isles to the Russian steppes. It is the story of the musician—usually a fiddler, the fiddle being considered in folk tradition “the devil's instrument”—who, through boasting or the breaking of a taboo such as fiddling on the Sabbath, invokes the devil himself, and is challenged by Old Nick to a battle of wits and music.

This “diabolical duet” theme has traveled widely through this continent, too, since its introduction sometime in the seventeenth century. Variations turn up in regions as diverse as Quebec, Canada, and the Ozark Mountains; it has even surfaced more recently in the country and western song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” But the following tale is perhaps the earliest variant to reach the New World, originating with the Dutch in New Amsterdam—or, to be more precise, Brooklyn.

Now, Joost was a fiddler, and a fine fiddler, too, the finest, folk said, in all New Amsterdam. They would call him to play at weddings and wakes, fairs and feasts, and Joost—well, Joost was never sorry to show off his skill, particularly when there was eating and drinking to be done as well.