Jersey Devil-real or unreal?
- Thread starter Barrens
- Start date
I do not think it's real. There is nothing I have ever read about it that for half a second made me think it is real. It would be pretty cool if it were but it ain't.
I do believe that the basis for the myth could be real. That Mrs.Leeds had a malformed child. In those days it would not be unusual for children born like that to be hidden away. Rumors about the child would form and a myth is born.
I don't believe that Big Foot exists either. If a race such as that existed there would be proof positive after all the thousands of years of supposed existance. Someone would have one mounted and hanging over the fireplace.
Now Jackalopes......that's a different story.
I do believe that the basis for the myth could be real. That Mrs.Leeds had a malformed child. In those days it would not be unusual for children born like that to be hidden away. Rumors about the child would form and a myth is born.
I don't believe that Big Foot exists either. If a race such as that existed there would be proof positive after all the thousands of years of supposed existance. Someone would have one mounted and hanging over the fireplace.
Now Jackalopes......that's a different story.
BEHR655 said:
Ha! You are a hoot Steve!
From Jersey Genesis by Beck:....."The Leeds Devil..like a giant bird of prey, is seen to hover above some silent, star-bespangled pond within the umbrous recess of a cedar swamp"
I think it's real; however, I don't follow that Leeds junk. I think it's most likely an unknown species.
Stu said:
Where does it live? Why have no hunters found and killed one? Why are there no photographs? Why have no remains been found? Who put those 8 great tomatos in that itty bitty jar? The questions can go on and on.
Steve
The Pine Barrens, evidently.BEHR655 said:
From my experience, most hunters go out in the early morning or day. Judging by many of the sightings, whatever it is is nocturnal. Plus that'd just be downright mean to shoot one.BEHR655 said:
Got me on that one, seeing how more & more people are bringing cameras into the Pines. Bad timing, maybe? I dunno. For the most part, animals do their best to get away from people.BEHR655 said:
Same reason remains of other animals, like bears, are seldom found. Excluding getting killed by something else, animals, for the most part, know if they're going to die and go to their dens or somewhere else where they won't disturbed.BEHR655 said:
It could survive in very small numbers too.
I think there have been too many sightings over the years to just dismiss it. Once again, I don't believe that 13th child crap, but I do think it's possible there are animals out there we simply don't know about. My doubt has been growing over the past year or so, seeing how I've spent a good amount of time in the Pines, even at night, and have never seen or heard anything abnormal. But just as you can't prove it, you can't disprove it.
Stu said:
Stu said:
Well the "13th Child" is Hollywood of course but the story about Mrs. Leeds does make sense as to the beginning of the myth. And I must stress the word myth. As I stated before, I believe that if Mrs. Leeds had a hideously deformed child it would not be unusual in that day and age to hide the child from prying eyes. This was in a time when most people still believed in demons and witches and such. I mean these people actually believed that insects and vermin came from dead bodies and that when you sneezed demons where expelled (hence, God bless you). Not a very enlightened bunch.
Rumors about the child would be passed down the line and you know what happens with rumors. The rumor gets embellished with each telling until we have a huge bat winged, horse headed, upright walking monster.
In this day and age, with the Pine Barrens much more populated than you may think, I find it hard to believe that, if it exists, that hard (or even soft) evidence of it's existence would not have been found.
Steve
I believe that there are a lot of things in this world that are beyond our ability to understand or rationalize.
I don't, however, think the Jersey Devil was ever real, nor is he an animal that has not been cataloged.
Scientifically, there is no way that an animal like the JD could escape detection in such a small environment as the Pine Barrens. Nobody has ever found a skeleton of one - nobody has ever seen one flying around, etc.
It turned out that many of the 1909 sightings were pure fiction.
What likely happened was that back in colonial times either somebody from outside the Pines wanted to create a story that would make the area look bad (just like the Kalikkak paper), OR it was a story created and passed on by Pineys that wanted to keep outsiders away.
I don't, however, think the Jersey Devil was ever real, nor is he an animal that has not been cataloged.
Scientifically, there is no way that an animal like the JD could escape detection in such a small environment as the Pine Barrens. Nobody has ever found a skeleton of one - nobody has ever seen one flying around, etc.
It turned out that many of the 1909 sightings were pure fiction.
What likely happened was that back in colonial times either somebody from outside the Pines wanted to create a story that would make the area look bad (just like the Kalikkak paper), OR it was a story created and passed on by Pineys that wanted to keep outsiders away.
I find it strange that those who voted no actually voted or spoke up to voice their dissent. And to then feel they had to explain why they voted no is baffling to me. Of course its no 
.
But I voted yes because its fun to pretend.
.But I voted yes because its fun to pretend.