One of the greatest images of the Halloween tradition, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Here we have Ichabod Crane competing for the hand of the lovely Katrina van Tassel with the lusty Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt. One fell eve Ichabod, rejected again by the lady Tassel, is riding through the haunted wood near Sleepy Hollow. Sorrowful and dejected he rides his plow horse home . . . but in route he encounters a headless rider, a demon from hell, whose steed strikes a wild ride toward the young man. Ichabod, in terror, flees the headless horseman, plunging down the dark and narrow paths for life and his soul's safety.
At last he clatters across the bridge and to safety only to see the hell bent demon and his nightmare steed thundering across the bridge. He hurls his decapitated head at Ichabod in a fit of madness and it shatters upon his face. Ichabod flees the forest, the Hollow, county and state, never to be seen again.
Thus the legend was born. Some wondered about the headless horsemen, a demon from hell . . . but if ever the tale was mentioned the lady Tassel only smiled.
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