Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 3 | Page 2

but that did not
protect his brain from the corporal's bullet.

DELAWARE WATER GAP
The Indian name of this beautiful region, Minisink, "the water is gone,"
agrees with the belief of geologists that a lake once existed behind the
Blue Ridge, and that it burst its way through the hills at this point.
Similar results were produced by a cataclysm on the Connecticut at
Mount Holyoke, on the Lehigh at Mauch Chunk, and Runaway Pond,
New Hampshire, got its name by a like performance. The aborigines,

whatever may be said against them, enjoyed natural beauty, and their
habitations were often made in this delightful region, their councils
being attended by chief Tamanend, or Tammany, a Delaware, whose
wisdom and virtues were such as to raise him to the place of patron
saint of America. The notorious Tammany Society of New York is
named for him. When this chief became old and feeble his tribe
abandoned him in a hut at New Britain, Pennsylvania, and there he
tried to kill himself by stabbing, but failing in that, he flung burning
leaves over himself, and so perished. He was buried where he died. It
was a princess of his tribe that gave the name of Lover's Leap to a cliff
on Mount Tammany, by leaping from it to her death, because her love
for a young European was not reciprocated.
There is a silver-mine somewhere on the opposite mountain of Minsi,
the knowledge of its location having perished with the death of a
recluse, who coined the metal he took from it into valuable though
illegal dollars, going townward every winter to squander his earnings.
During the Revolution "Oran the Hawk," a Tory and renegade, was
vexatious to the people of Delaware Valley, and a detachment of
colonial troops was sent in pursuit of him. They overtook him at the
Gap and chased him up the slopes of Tammany, though he checked
their progress by rolling stones among them. One rock struck a trooper,
crushed him, and bore him down to the base of a cliff, his blood
smearing it in his descent. But though he seemed to have eluded his
pursuers, Oran was shot in several places during his flight, and when at
last he cast himself into a thicket, to rest and get breath, it was never to
rise again. His bones, cracked by bullets and gnawed by beasts, were
found there when the leaves fell.

THE PHANTOM DRUMMER
Colonel Howell, of the king's troops, was a gay fellow, framed to make
women false; but when he met the rosy, sweet-natured daughter of
farmer Jarrett, near Valley Forge, he attempted no dalliance, for he fell
too seriously in love. He might not venture into the old man's presence,
for Jarrett had a son with Washington, and he hated a red-coat as he did
the devil; but the young officer met the girl in secret, and they plighted
troth beneath the garden trees, hidden in gray mist. As Howell bent to
take his first kiss that night, a rising wind went past, bringing from afar

the roll of a drum, and as they talked the drum kept drawing nearer,
until it seemed at hand. The officer peered across the wall, then hurried
to his mistress' side, as pale as death. The fields outside were empty of
life.
Louder came the rattling drum; it seemed to enter the gate, pass but a
yard away, go through the wall, and die in the distance. When it ceased,
Howell started as if a spell had been lifted, laxed his grip on the
maiden's hand, then drew her to his breast convulsively. Ruth's terror
was more vague but no less genuine than his own, and some moments
passed before she could summon voice to ask him what this visitation
meant. He answered, "Something is about to change my fortunes for
good or ill; probably for ill. Important events in my family for the past
three generations have been heralded by that drum, and those events
were disasters oftener than benefits." Few more words passed, and with
another kiss the soldier scaled the wall and galloped away, the triple
beat of his charger's hoofs sounding back into the maiden's ears like
drum-taps. In a skirmish next day Colonel Howell was shot. He was
carried to farmer Jarrett's house and left there, in spite of the old man's
protest, for he was willing to give no shelter to his country's enemies.
When Ruth saw her lover in this strait she was like to have fallen, but
when she learned that it would take but a few days of quiet and care to
restore him to health, she was ready to forgive her fellow- countrymen
for inflicting an injury that might result in happiness for both of them.