A drowsy,
dreamy influence seems to hang over the land and to pervade the
very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High
German doctor during the early days of the settlement; others,
that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe,
held his powwows there before the country was discovered by
Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues
under the sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the
minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual
reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are
subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights
and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood
abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight
superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the
valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare,
with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of
her gambols.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region,
and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air,
is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is
said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had
been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during
the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the
country-folk hurrying along in the gloom of night as if on the
wings of the wind.
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