Myths & Legends of Our Own Land by Charles Montgomery Skinner

Philadelphia & London, J. B. Lippincott company, 1896

Covers the Hudson and its hills; the Isle of Manhattoes and nearby; on and near the Delaware; tales of Puritan land; lights and shadows of the South; the Central states and Great Lakes; along the Rocky Range; on the Pacific Slope; buried treasure; storied waters, cliffs, and mountains

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:

Part 1
  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

Part 2

  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

Part 3

  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

Part 4

  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

Part 5

  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

Part 6

  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

Part 7

  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