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MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF OUR OWN LAND - COMPLETE
MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF OUR OWN LAND - COMPLETE CHARLES M. SKINNER
PREFACE
It is unthinkingly said and often that America is not old enough to
have developed a legendary era for such an era grows backward as a
nation grows forward. No little of the charm of European travel is
ascribed to the glamour that history and fable have flung around old
churches castles and the favored haunts of tourists and the Rhine and
Hudson are frequently compared to the prejudice of the latter not
because its scenery lacks in loveliness or grandeur but that its beauty
has not been humanized by love of chivalry or faerie as that of the
older stream has been. Yet the record of our country's progress is of
deep import and as time goes on the figures seen against the morning
twilight of our history will rise to more commanding stature and the
mists of legend will invest them with a softness or glory that shall
make reverence for them spontaneous and deep. Washington hurling the
stone across the Potomac may live as the Siegfried of some Western saga
and Franklin invoking the lightnings may be the Loki of our mythology.
The bibliography of American legends is slight and these tales have
been gathered from sources the most diverse: records histories
newspapers magazines oral narrative--in every case reconstructed. The
pursuit of them has been so long that a claim may be set forth for some
measure of completeness.
But whatever the episodes of our four historic centuries may furnish to
the poet painter dramatist or legend-building idealist of the future
it is certain that we are not devoid of myth and folk-lore. Some
characters prosaic enough perhaps in daily life have impinged so
lightly on society before and after perpetrating their one or two great
deeds that they have already become shadowy and their achievements have
acquired a color of the supernatural. It is where myth and history
combine that legend is most interesting and appeals to our fancy or our
sympathy most strongly; and it is not too early for us to begin the
collation of those quaint happenings and those spoken reports that gain
in picturesqueness with each transmission. An attempt has been made in
this instance to assemble only legends for doubtful as some historians
profess to find them certain occurrences like the story of Captain
Smith and Pocahontas and the ride of General Putnam down Breakneck
Stairs are taught as history; while as to folk-lore that of the Indian
tribes and of the Southern negro is too copious to be recounted in this
work. It will be noted that traditions do not thrive in brick and
brownstone and that the stories once rife in the colonial cities have
almost as effectually disappeared as the architectural landmarks of last
century. The field entered by the writer is not untrodden. Hawthorne
and Irving have made paths across it and it is hoped that others may
deem its farther exploration worthy of their efforts.
CONTENTS
THE HUDSON AND ITS HILLS
Rip Van Winkle
Catskill Gnomes
The Catskill Witch
The Revenge of Shandaken
Condemned to the Noose
Big Indian
The Baker's Dozen
The Devil's Dance-Chamber
The Culprit Fay
Pokepsie
Dunderberg
Anthony's Nose
Moodua Creek
A Trapper's Ghastly Vengeance
The Vanderdecken of Tappan Zee
The Galloping Hessian
Storm Ship on the Hudson
Why Spuyten Duyvil is so Named
The Ramapo Salamander
Chief Croton
The Retreat from Mahopac
Niagara
The Deformed of Zoar
Horseheads
Kayuta and Waneta
The Drop Star
The Prophet of Palmyra
A Villain's Cremation
The Monster Mosquito
The Green Picture
The Nuns of Carthage
The Skull in the Wall
The Haunted Mill
Old Indian Face
The Division of the Saranacs
An Event in Indian Park
The Indian Plume
Birth of the Water-Lily
Rogers's Slide
The Falls at Cohoes
Francis Woolcott's Night-Riders
Polly's Lover
Crosby the Patriot Spy
The Lost Grave of Paine
The Rising of Gouverneur Morris
THE ISLE OF MANHATTOES AND NEARBY
Dolph Heyliger
The Knell at the Wedding
Roistering Dirck Van Dara
The Party from Gibbet Island
Miss Britton's Poker
The Devil's Stepping-Stones
The Springs of Blood and Water
The Crumbling Silver
The Cortelyou Elopement
Van Wempel's Goose
The Weary Watcher
The Rival Fiddlers
Wyandank
Mark of the Spirit Hand
The First Liberal Church
ON AND NEAR THE DELAWARE
The Phantom Dragoon
Delaware Water Gap
The Phantom Drummer
The Missing Soldier of Valley Forge
The Last Shot at Germantown
A Blow in the Dark
The Tory's Conversion
Lord Percy's Dream
Saved by the Bible
Parricide of the Wissahickon
The Blacksmith at Brandywine
Father and Son
The Envy of Manitou
The Last Revel in Printz Hall
The Two Rings
Flame Scalps of the Chartiers
The Consecration of Washington
Marion
TALES OF PURITAN LAND
Evangeline
The Snoring of Swunksus
The Lewiston Hermit
The Dead Ship of Harpswell
The Schoolmaster had not reached Orrington
Jack Welch's Death Light
Mogg Megone
The Lady Ursula
Father Moody's Black Veil
The Home of Thunder
The Partridge Witch
The Marriage of Mount Katahdin
The Moose of Mount Kineo
The Owl Tree
A Chestnut Log
The Watcher on White Island
Chocorua
Passaconaway's Ride to Heaven
The Ball Game by the Saco
The White Mountains
The Vision on Mount Adams
The Great Carbuncle
Skinner's Cave
Yet they call it Lover's Leap
Salem and other Witchcraft
The Gloucester Leaguers
Satan and his Burial-Place
Peter Rugg the Missing Man
The Loss of Weetamoo
The Fatal Forget-me-not
The Old Mill at Somerville
Edward Randolph's Portrait
Lady Eleanore's Mantle
Howe's Masquerade
Old Esther Dudley
The Loss of Jacob Hurd
The Hobomak
Berkshire Tories
The Revenge of Josiah Breeze
The May-Pole of Merrymount
The Devil and Tom Walker
The Gray Champion
The Forest Smithy
Wahconah Falls
Knocking at the Tomb
The White Deer of Onota
Wizard's Glen
Balanced Rock
Shonkeek-Moonkeek
The Salem Alchemist
Eliza Wharton
Sale of the Southwicks
The Courtship of Myles Standish
Mother Crewe
Aunt Rachel's Curse
Nix's Mate
The Wild Man of Cape Cod
Newbury's Old Elm
Samuel Sewall's Prophecy
The Shrieking Woman
Agnes Surriage
Skipper Ireson's Ride
Heartbreak Hill
Harry Main: The Treasure and the Cats
The Wessaguscus Hanging
The Unknown Champion
Goody Cole
General Moulton and the Devil
The Skeleton in Armor
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
Love and Treason
The Headless Skeleton of Swamptown
The Crow and Cat of Hopkins Hill
The Old Stone Mill
Origin of a Name
Micah Rood Apples
A Dinner and its Consequences
The New Haven Storm Ship
The Windham Frogs
The Lamb of Sacrifice
Moodus Noises
Haddam Enchantments
Block Island and the Palatine
The Buccaneer
Robert Lockwood's Fate
Love and Rum
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH
The Swim at Indian Head
The Moaning Sisters
A Ride for a Bride
Spooks of the Hiawassee
Lake of the Dismal Swamp
The Barge of Defeat
Natural Bridge
The Silence Broken
Siren of the French Broad
The Hunter of Calawassee
Revenge of the Accabee
Toccoa Falls
Two Lives for One
A Ghostly Avenger
The Wraith Ringer of Atlanta
The Swallowing Earthquake
The Last Stand of the Biloxi
The Sacred Fire of Natchez
Pass Christian
The Under Land
THE CENTRAL STATES AND GREAT LAKES
An Averted Peril
The Obstinacy of Saint Clair
The Hundredth Skull
The Crime of Black Swamp
The House Accursed
Marquette's Man-Eater
Michel de Coucy's Troubles
Wallen's Ridge
The Sky Walker of Huron
The Coffin of Snakes
Mackinack
Lake Superior Water Gods
The Witch of Pictured Rocks
The Origin of White Fish
The Spirit of Cloudy
The Sun Fire at Sault Sainte Marie
The Snake God of Belle Isle
Were-Wolves of Detroit
The Escape of Francois Navarre
The Old Lodger
The Nain Rouge
Two Revenges
Hiawatha
The Indian Messiah
The Vision of Rescue
Devil's Lake
The Keusca Elopement
Pipestone
The Virgins' Feast
Falls of St. Anthony
Flying Shadow and Track Maker
Saved by a Lightning-Stroke
The Killing of Cloudy Sky
Providence Hole
The Scare Cure
Twelfth Night at Cahokia
The Spell of Creve Coeur Lake
How the Crime was Revealed
Banshee of the Bad Lands
Standing Rock
The Salt Witch
ALONG THE ROCKY RANGE
Over the Divide
The Phantom Train of Marshall Pass
The River of Lost Souls
Riders of the Desert
The Division of Two Tribes
Besieged by Starvation
A Yellowstone Tragedy
The Broad House
The Death Waltz
The Flood at Santa Fe
Goddess of Salt
The Coming of the Navajos
The Ark on Superstition Mountains
The Pale Faced Lightning
The Weird Sentinel at Squaw Peak
Sacrifice of the Toltecs
Ta-Vwots Conquers the Sun
The Comanche Rider
Horned Toad and Giants
The Spider Tower
The Lost Trail
A Battle in the Air
ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE
The Voyager of the Whulge
Tamanous of Tacoma
The Devil and the Dalles
Cascades of the Columbia
The Death of Umatilla
Hunger Valley
The Wrath of Manitou
The Spook of Misery Hill
The Queen of Death Valley
Bridal Veil Fall
The Governor's Right Eye
The Prisoner in American Shaft
AS TO BURIED TREASURE
Kidd's Treasure
Other Buried Wealth
STORIED WATERS CLIFFS AND MOUNTAINS
Monsters and Sea-Serpents
Stone-Throwing Devils
Storied Springs
Lovers' Leaps
God on the Mountains
THE HUDSON AND ITS HILLS
RIP VAN WINKLE
The story of Rip Van Winkle told by Irving dramatized by Boucicault
acted by Jefferson pictured by Darley set to music by Bristow is the
best known of American legends. Rip was a real personage and the Van
Winkles are a considerable family at this day. An idle good-natured
happy-go-lucky fellow he lived presumably in the village of Catskill
and began his long sleep in 1769. His wife was a shrew and to escape
her abuse Rip often took his dog and gun and roamed away to the
Catskills nine miles westward where he lounged or hunted as the humor
seized him. It was on a September evening during a jaunt on South
Mountain that he met a stubby silent man of goodly girth his round
head topped with a steeple hat the skirts of his belted coat and flaps
of his petticoat trousers meeting at the tops of heavy boots and the
face--ugh!--green and ghastly with unmoving eyes that glimmered in the
twilight like phosphorus. The dwarf carried a keg and on receiving an
intimation in a sign that he would like Rip to relieve him of it that
cheerful vagabond shouldered it and marched on up the mountain.
At nightfall they emerged on a little plateau where a score of men in
the garb of long ago with faces like that of Rip's guide and equally
still and speechless were playing bowls with great solemnity the balls
sometimes rolling over the plateau's edge and rumbling down the rocks
with a boom like thunder. A cloaked and snowy-bearded figure watching
aloof turned like the others and gazed uncomfortably at the visitor
who now came blundering in among them. Rip was at first for making off
but the sinister glare in the circle of eyes took the run out of his
legs and he was not displeased when they signed to him to tap the keg
and join in a draught of the ripest schnapps that ever he had tasted--
and he knew the flavor of every brand in Catskill. While these strange
men grew no more genial with passing of the flagons Rip was pervaded by
a satisfying glow; then overcome by sleepiness and resting his head on
a stone he stretched his tired legs out and fell to dreaming.
Morning. Sunlight and leaf shadow were dappled over the earth when he
awoke and rising stiffly from his bed with compunctions in his bones
he reached for his gun. The already venerable implement was so far gone
with rot and rust that it fell to pieces in his hand and looking down
at the fragments of it he saw that his clothes were dropping from his
body in rags and mould while a white beard flowed over his breast.
Puzzled and alarmed shaking his head ruefully as he recalled the
carouse of the silent he hobbled down the mountain as fast as he might
for the grip of the rheumatism on his knees and elbows and entered his
native village. What! Was this Catskill? Was this the place that he
left yesterday? Had all these houses sprung up overnight and these
streets been pushed across the meadows in a day? The people too: where
were his friends? The children who had romped with him the rotund
topers whom he had left cooling their hot noses in pewter pots at the
tavern door the dogs that used to bark a welcome recognizing in him a
kindred spirit of vagrancy: where were they?
And his wife whose athletic arm and agile tongue had half disposed him
to linger in the mountains how happened it that she was not awaiting him
at the gate? But gate there was none in the familiar place: an unfenced
yard of weeds and ruined foundation wall were there. Rip's home was
gone. The idlers jeered at his bent lean form his snarl of beard and
hair his disreputable dress his look of grieved astonishment. He
stopped instinctively at the tavern for he knew that place in spite
of its new sign: an officer in blue regimentals and a cocked hat
replacing the crimson George III. of his recollection and labelled
"General Washington." There was a quick gathering of ne'er-do-weels of
tavern-haunters and gaping 'prentices about him and though their faces
were strange and their manners rude he made bold to ask if they knew
such and such of his friends.
"Nick Vedder? He's dead and gone these eighteen years." "Brom Dutcher?
He joined the army and was killed at Stony Point." "Van Brummel?
He too went to the war and is in Congress now."
And Rip Van Winkle?"
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