An Unusual Account of the Dark Spirit of the Devil and His Stepping Stones: A Pelham Legend

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The legend of the Devil's Stepping Stones has been told in Pelham for eons.  It is said to date to ancient times when Native Americans populated the region.  Famed American author Washington Irving even referenced the legend in his book published in 1824 entitled "Tales of a Traveller."  

Last year, Historic Pelham included an article recounting the legend of the Devil's Stepping Stones.  See Mon., Sep. 19, 2016:  The Dark Spirit of the Devil and His Stepping Stones:  A Pelham Legend.  Some in Pelham, however, remain skeptical that the legend could be true.  They have demanded proof.  Today, Historic Pelham will provide that proof.

Some seem to consider the legend a little far fetched.  The legend, as previously recounted by Historic Pelham, goes as follows.

Long, long ago when Native Americans roamed our region, things turned bad for them.  They suffered many misfortunes including failed crops, poor fishing, brutal snows, and raging storms.  It was time for action. 

The Native Americans knew that the wicked giant devil, known as Habboamoko, long had roamed the region including Pelham, today's Pelham Bay Park (once part of Pelham), Westchester County, and portions of southeastern Connecticut.  The giant devil was known to create mayhem and to bring periodic misfortune on the Native peoples. 

Concluding that Habboamoko was, once again, the source of their misfortune, warriors gathered from throughout the region to use strength, medicine, and magic to chase Habboamoko out of the region across the Long Island Sound onto Long Island where he would be left to torment others.  The warriors located and rousted Habboamoko and began to battle him. 

Because Habboamoko was a giant, the battle was difficult and raged for a long time.  Slowly, though, the warriors gained the upper hand.  As the Habboamoko began his retreat, he gathered every glacial boulder he could find in the countryside, loading his long, menacing arms with many such boulders.  He retreated to Pelham Neck and then onto City Island.  When he reached the southern tip of City Island with the Native American warriors in pursuit, however, he was not big enough to hop across the waters to the shores of Long Island (where today's Steppingstone Park stands).

Though Habboamoko was a giant, Long Island Sound was deep.  This the giant devil knew.  As the warriors closed in, Habboamoko began tossing the boulders he had collected into the Sound, using them as stepping stones to make his escape across the deep waters.  Once he had crossed the deep waters, he stood on the shores of Long Island and looked back.  Native American warriors lined the shores of today's City Island, Pelham Bay Park and Pelham laughing and taunting him.  Angrily, Habboamoko took every last boulder still cradled in his arms and, one at a time, threw them across Long Island Sound at the warriors.  

The giant boulders thrown by Habboamoko landed throughout the countryside, though each missed the warriors.  Occasionally Habboamoko threw the boulders with such anger that he flung them great distances, covering much of today's Pelham Bay Park, Westchester County, and lower Connecticut.  

One giant boulder flung by Habboamoko broke in half when it landed.  We know that boulder today as the famous Pelham landmark "Split Rock."  Many others of the boulders likewise have become famous. They became known as Glover's Rock, the Kemble House Rocking Stone, the Priory Rocking Stone, The Grey Mare, and Mishow, to name a few.  Many of the boulders were never given names.  Nevertheless, they still stand throughout the countryside as silent reminders of the blind anger of the giant devil as he vengefully tried one last time to bring more misery on the Native American lands in and around what later became Pelham.

Wise Pelhamites accept the Stepping Stones Legend for what it is:  fact.  A few jaded souls, however, have demanded proof.  They want evidence!  Such jaded and cynical souls unwilling to face the facts ask "What more can you show me besides a few boulders to convince me that there is even a kernel of truth to the legend of the Devil's Stepping Stones?"

Admittedly, for many years, the legend simply had to be taken at face value.  How could there be proof of such an event that occurred eons before any recorded history of our little Town?  

That changed, however, during the 19th century when the first real evidence of the actual event emerged.  Explorers in the little Village of Bronxville near the Pelham border were the first to find the evidence.  On a giant rock outcropping in that village, they discovered a giant impression of a human foot -- a right foot to be exact.  Though the footprint was utterly massive, it was perfect with the heel and sole of a right foot and all five toes from big on the left to small on the right.  More astonishingly, the giant footprint pointed in the correct direction.  It pointed toward Long Island Sound!  Search was made throughout the area but, sadly, no print of the giant devil's left foot could be found.

Soon an identical footprint was found near Fort Schuyler on Throggs Neck in the Bronx.  Once again, it was a print of a giant right foot on a large rock outcropping.  Once again, it pointed in the right direction, toward Long Island Sound.

As news of the giant footprints spread, the final piece of the puzzle was found.  On a large rock outcropping on Long Island, a third print of a giant right foot was found.  In each instance, the print was depressed deep into rock and was a perfect imprint of a right foot, albeit a massive one.  No imprints of left feet were found near any of the three footprints.

"Aha!" you may think.  "You have been hoisted by your own petard!  Everyone knows that the devil has cloven hooves -- not feet!  Any such giant footprints could not conceivably have been left by the cloven-hoofed devil!"

Not so fast dear skeptic!  As long ago as 1902, a "corrected" version of the ancient Pelham legend that supposedly dates almost to the "Stone Age" was recorded and published.  That corrected version follows.

It seems that as times grew desperate for local Native Americans long ago, it became apparent that the giant wicked devil who roamed the region was responsible for their misfortunes including failed crops, poor fishing, brutal snows, and raging storms.  The Native Americans hatched a plan to rid themselves of the devil.  They concluded that if they only could cut off his tail, he would leave in disgrace, never to be heard from again.

The group selected their two most powerful men capable of wielding giant stone axes.  They then began a search for the evil giant devil.

The search took days.  Finally, however, the men found the giant devil asleep.  To their dismay, however, they discovered that the devil slept with his tail tucked beneath his body.  In a change of plans, the two powerful men used their axes to cut off the devil's two cloven hooves.  

When the giant devil awoke from his long slumber, he had his tail but neither of his cloven hooves.  In the place of his right cloven hoof, however, a large foot had grown on the stump of the leg.  But. on the left leg he had neither hoof nor foot.

The devil exploded in anger.  He recognized his vulnerability.  He knew he had to leave the region or, with his new disability, might not be able to defend himself from local warriors.  He grabbed every boulder nearby and began a series of mighty jumps, landing each time on his new right foot as he tossed boulders into the Long Island Sound to create the small islets and rock outcroppings that came to be known as Devil's Stepping Stones.  He finally landed on his right foot on Long Island, never to return to Pelham or Westchester County.

The giant footprints remain to this day and still can be seen.  Certainly the truth of the matter is now free from doubt. . . . . 

Giant "Footprint" in Granite Similar to the Ones to Be Found

in the Pelham Region.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"Old Pelham Legend.

When those who lived a hundred years or more ago found the prints of huge human feet on rocks at various places they decided that they had been left by the devil in his flight through the country.  The first print was discovered in East Chester, and another, pointing in the same direction, was near Fort Schuyler.  Across the Sound, on Long Island, they found the third footprint in solid rock, and there the trail was lost.  Long Islanders have said that if the devil could jump from East Chester across Pelham to Fort Schuyler, a distance of nine miles, he would not find it difficult to step across the island into the sea.  In Pelham they hint that perhaps the devil liked Long Island and stayed there.  Anyway, when they found the footprints the imagination of the residents was called upon to furnish an explanation for the devil's flight, and, as a result, two traditions have been handed down.  The good people of Connecticut had been casting devils out of witches a little while before the discovery, and it is only natural that they accepted that explanation.

The other story is more elaborate, and goes back to the Stone Age.  In that time the people who lived here were like wolves, and the hand of the devil was heavy upon them.  They tried in every way to rid themselves of their oppressor.  Some thought that if they could only cut off his tail the devil would feel the disgrace and leave them.  Accordingly, two of the strongest men, famous wielders of great stone axes, were appointed to perform the task.  They waited many days before they found him asleep.  Great was their dismay when they found that he slept with his tail tucked under his body.  They decided to cut off his cloven hoofs.  When the devil awoke from his long slumber he found that a human foot had grown on the stump of his right leg and that he had neither foot nor hoof on the other.  Accordingly, he made haste to leave the country by a series of mighty jumps.  

The redeeming feature of this tale is that it explains the absence of cloven hoof, and the fact that all of the prints are those the right foot.  The footprints are really there, and are as plain today as they ever were."

Source:  Old Pelham Legend, The Bronxville Review [Bronxville, NY], Apr. 24, 1902, p. 7, col. 2.

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