Legendary Critters and Mysterious Animals

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Throughout the world cultures have stories of all sorts of creatures. Some are benign, others dangerous, some human in form but larger or smaller in size, some appear to be half-human and half-animal, others sound like contemporary versions of prehistoric animals, some are just commonly known animals but of unusual size, some live in trees, others live in the mountains, and some live in the water. But one thing they all have in common is that people like to talk about them and some believe in them so much that they've been discussed for generation after generation, and in a few cases for several centuries or even millennia. A few have even made their ways into published folklore and have become well known well outside of their "home" territories. A good example of this are the tales about trolls. The Scandinavians have one about little men named the Tomte, who, as folklore attests, owned all the land. They allow people to live on or farm the land, so long as they maintain it properly. Every year around Christmas or Jule (pronounced yule) they return to inspect the scene and decide whether or not to continue to allow the tenants to stay. Archaeologist Dr. Finnvald Hedin, a native of Norway, whom I met through my days of doing graduate studies, relates that such stories of trolls and "little men-of-the-woods" exist not only in places like Finland and Sweden, but all over the world. Some Native American tribes, such as the Paiute, Sioux, Shoshone, and Delaware mention them in their legends, whom also have legends of giants. The natives of tropical areas like Borneo and New Guinea have legends of "little people" too . So, they're all over the planet. Even right here in the Hudson Valley, so close to New York City, we are not excluded from this cultural phenomena by any means. At least one example is very well known throughout the east, and now thanks to modern communications and the expansion of professional sports teams, it, at least in name, has become familiar to almost everyone in North America. The Jersey Devil isn't just the name of a professional hockey team, it's the moniker of an animal that's been the topic of conversation for centuries. As with many such tales, it has a lot of variations, but most agree that it started in Leeds Point, N.J. in Atlantic County around 1735. As is most often repeated, Mother Leeds was suffering through a very agonizing labor while delivering her thirteenth child. It was a full moon on the thirteenth (of course) and she cursed the child, "To the Devil with it. I don't want anymore children!" A ghastly creature emerged, killed the midwife, and flew out the window. Since then the tale has been retold for generations. Reports of its existence have it usually in the middle and southern sections of New Jersey, although sightings have been reported as far south as Wilmington, Delaware, as far west as Reading, Pennsylvania, as far east as Glastonbury, Connecticut, and as far north as Spring Valley and Monroe, New York. Even some famous people claimed to have encountered the beast. In the early 19th Century, naval legend Commodore Stephen Decatur was testing cannon balls on the firing range along the New Jersey coastline when he saw a strange creature flying across the sky. He fired at and hit the flying apparition, but it continued unerringly along its path. Between 1816 and 1839, Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and former King of Spain, saw the Jersey Devil while on hunting expeditions near Bordentown, N.J. Its physical characteristics have changed since its original sighting. It has variously been described as a jabberwocky (of Lewis Carroll fame), cowbird, kangaroo horse, flying horse, a Devil bird, a prehistoric lizard, and much else. Allegedly, its feet were cloven hoofed or horse-hoofed and faced in opposite directions which made it impossible to track. In January 1909 no less than 100 people in 30 different towns claimed to have been visited by the dreadful animal. This incident began in Bristol, Pennsylvania when the local postmaster couldn't sleep, so as he got up, he heard an eerie sound coming from the Delaware River. He beheld what he took to be a large crane flying over the river, but it glowed like a firefly! What's more, the creature's head resembled a ram's with curled horns. It had long, thin wings and short legs. Its wailful cry was a combination of a factory whistle and the scratching of a phonograph before the music begins. Others reported it as having eyes that glowed like blazing coals. A Mrs. Davis White of Philadelphia reported that when she went to take down the laundry she observed a strange creature huddled in the corner of her yard. She said that it was between five and six feet tall, had cloven feet, and alligator-like skin. Her screams alerted her husband who chased it down the street and a passing motorman on the local trolley claimed he almost ran over the animal. That evening, Officer Henderson of the Salem, N.J. police saw an eleven feet-tall "Devil bird" that had one foot like a mule's and the other like a horse's, a tail like an ostrich, and a horn on its head. By mid-week snow had fallen and strange tracks were seen all over the area. With this physical evidence the scientific community decided to step in and offer its diagnosis. According to the Gloucester County Democrat, Professor Breitkopf of the School of Science in Philadelphia asserted that the Jersey Devil was really a Peleosaurus cattelya of the Jurassic Period. The professor proposed that the animals had been released from their home in limestone caves under the ocean by recent volcanic activity and were able to travel northward via the Gulf Stream to New Jersey. According to the newspaper article, "Professor Breitkopf said that no fear need be had of these beasts and he desires anyone finding one to pen it up and feed him fish and milk." With this assurance the sightings increased. Apparently the critter was also chameleonic because he was then reported as being three feet high with long black hair over its entire body, arms and hands like a monkey, split hooves, and a long tail. After once again changing shape, it was reported in Pitman, N.J. as being a winged kangaroo with a long neck. That year it was seen in Chester, Conshocken, Columbus, Hedding, Burleigh, Salem, Camden, Gloucester, Swedesboro, and Mount Holly (all in New Jersey), Reading, Pennsylvania, and in Wilmington, Delaware. In the town of Tar Kiln Branch, N.J. it was reported to go after and frighten horses but was afraid of women. I can think of many men who are likewise (most of them divorced at least once). Since then rewards totaling more than $133,000 have been posted but never collected. Ever since then it has taken a hiatus from view for the most part, but still continues to rear its head from time to time. In 1961 two couples were parked near the Pine Barrens when they heard a screeching noise and saw a strange creature flying through the trees. In 1987, in Vineland, N.J., a German Shepherd attack dog was killed and near its body were tracks which no one could identify. In March 1973 a cat-like beast of great height and long black hair was seen near Pottstown, Pa. It was named the "Pottstown Monster", but Jerseyans knew it was the Jersey Devil out on a visit across the Delaware to Pennsylvania. Longtime journalist and historian Wilfred Blanch Talman discusses the circumstances surrounding its perambulations north of the state line to Rockland County in his book, How Things Began In Rockland and Places Nearby. He writes that in 1899 a George Saarosy was stirred by blood-curdling cries coming from the swamp that is now Spring Valley's Memorial Park. He got a brief glimpse of it and claimed that it resembled a flying serpent. Talman himself says that he could remember different times during the 1920s when local inhabitants reported seeing the Jersey Devil slinking through the waters of the old mill pond near the Lawrence Street Bridge in Spring Valley. "But", Talman continued, "That year's vintage of Jersey Lightning was reportedly particularly potent". Folklorist and author, Patricia Edwards Clyne recalls that the Jersey Devil was even reported being seen in Monroe, in Orange County, New York at one time as well. No doubt scaring livestock and small children over there too. I'll bet there's also little doubt that that may too have been a vintage year for "Mountain Lightning" in the Highlands. There is a similar creature in regional folklore hailing mostly from areas closer to the Hudson Highlands. This is the Great Swamp Devil which was first reported in 1745 in and around the Passaic Great Glacial Lake which runs from around Morristown, N.J. up through Warwick, N.Y. It was and is said to have man-like legs with a disproportionately large torso, and sometimes it has been purported to have wings and fly about. But mostly it seems to more or less hover or glide through the tree tops and roof tops. It was once reported by a minister (presumably a sober man) to be lurking in the trees and moved about by gliding from treetop to treetop much like a flying squirrel. There have also been legends of giant birds and Devil birds throughout the northeastern United States. One termed the Devil Bird, which is different in characteristics than the reports of Devil birds ascribed to the persona of the Jersey Devil, has been reported since colonial times in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The author's mother says that when she was a little girl growing up in rural Hudson Valley, parents would frighten their children into submission when they misbehaved by telling them that if they weren't good they'd let the "Devil Bird" get them. Others, she says, at times actually believed that something they termed the "Devil Bird" had been seen nearby so they wouldn't let their children or small animals far from their sight for fear of them being snatched. The New Jersey Folk