Washington Irving was one of the first great American writers. Born in 1783 in New York City, Irving’s first literary success was A History of New York (1809), which poked fun at American politics. His next work, The Sketch Book (1820), was the first American book to get wide praise on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It contained Irving’s two most famous tales, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Irving died in New York in 1859.
Irving felt that the American landscape needed myths and legends like the ones that gave the European countryside such a mysterious and romantic air. The following story, which appeared as a postscript to “Rip Van Winkle,” relates a New York Indian legend.
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Postscript to “Rip Van Winkle”
The Kaatsberg or Catskill mountains have always been a region full of fable. The Indians considered them the abode [home] of spirits who influenced the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds over the landscape and sending god or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old squaw spirit, said to be their mother. She dwelt on the highest peak of the Catskills and had charge of the doors of day and night to open and shut them at the proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies and cut up the old ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly propitiated [pleased], she would spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs and morning dew, and send them of, from the crest of the mountain, flake after flake, like flakes of . . . cotton to float in the air; until, dissolved by the heat of the sun, they would fall in gentle showers, causing the grass to spring, the fruits to ripen and the corn to grow an inch an hour. If displeased, however, she would brew up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle bellied spider in the midst of its web; and when these clouds broke—woe betide [despair occurred in] the valleys!
In old times say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or Spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the Catskill mountains, and took mischievous pleasure in wreaking all kids of evils and vexations [annoyances] upon the red men [Indians]. Sometimes he would assume the form of a bear or a panther or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter on a weary chase through tangled forests and among rugged rocks; and then spring off with a loud ho! ho! leaving him aghast [horrified] on the brink [edge] of a beetling precipice [overhanging cliff] or raging torrent [flood].
The favorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or cliff in the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the flowering vines which clamber [climb] about it, and the wild flowers which abound in its neighborhood, is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake the haunt [favorite place] of the solitary bittern [a bird], with water snakes basking in the sun on leaves of he pond lillies which lie on the surface. This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts [boundaries]. Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his way, penetrated to the garden rock where he beheld a number of gourds placed in the crotches of trees. One of these he seized and made off with it, but in the hurry of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth which washed him away and swept him down precipices where he was dashed to pieces, and the stream made its way to the Hudson [River] and continues to flow to the present day; being the identical stream known by the name of the Kaaters-kill.
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“Postscript to “Rip van Winkle”” from Anthology in American Literature, 3rd edition, edited by George McMichael.
