The Jersey Devil is an elusive creature that is said to live in the Pine Barrens region of New Jersey. The story of the Devil begins with the Leeds family. A vague figure who the legend refers to as Mother Leeds (it is thought that Mother Leeds is based off of a woman named Jane Leeds) is said to have been a witch (Regal 86). Distraught by her 13th pregnancy, Mother Leeds yelled into the night "Let this one be a devil!" and so it was. The night Mother Leeds gave birth, her son quickly sprouted bat wings, a horse like head with towering horns, hoofed feat, and leathery skin. The Devil frantically clawed its way towards the chimney and took off, never to return, but to have been spotted wrecking havoc in all of the Pine Barrens for centuries to come.
While the birth of the Devil may have taken place over a century ago, with the earliest known documentation we have of the cryptic from 1859, the Devil is still said to haunt the Pines today (Regal 80). The Devil has become an oral tradition for the people of Jersey. It has been carved into a part of their identity, and it has quite a large cultural following. Now, the Devil has positioned itself as a rite of passage, beckoning teen spirits to the Pines in an attempt to catch it. The Devil has become such popular legend that the Philadelphia Zoo has even put a $10,000 bounty on its head. |