"THE LEYAKS
The terrors
of the witch trials are a dark shame on the history of New England. While the
infamous trials at Salem are the most well known, Connecticut actually has the
dubious distinction of being the first place in the New World where people were
tried and executed for witchcraft. The hysteria began in 1647 and would
continue for nearly fifty years, during which time 33 women and two men were
murdered by the courts of the witch-hunters. Oftentimes the victims were older
women who lived outside the community, or women who “knew too much”, or were
too inquisitive and interested in the natural world. Most of the perpetrators
were likely motivated by greed. Many of the women accused were married but
without children, and thus would inherit their husband’s property upon his
death. If she died first, however, her husband’s valuables would be given to the
community once he died. Thus having the wife executed as a witch meant the
accusers would be able to get their hands on the husband’s goods when he
passed.
When public
opinion outgrew witch-craft hysteria, some looked back and saw the trials for
what they were. Righteous judges became cruel torturers, and accusers were cast
anew in the light of greed and avarice. In Grenhaven, which has had its own
shameful history of witch-trials, a legend sprang up surrounding the execution
of alleged witch Mary Carrington. Her accusers, John Colwen, Silas Orne, Mary
Goodwin and Wilbur Greensmith Jr. were motivated by a desire to seize the
successful woodworking shop of Carrington’s ailing husband. After Mary was
hanged, it is said that the Earth beneath her feet cracked open and the Devil
Himself emerged to punish Colwen and the others along with the sentencing
judge, Enoch Hathorne. Though the five fled, the Devil chased them all the way
to East Haddam, where he left his hoofed footprints in the glen known as
Devil’s Hopyard. In desperation, they offered to give their tormentor all of
Carrington’s property in exchange for their souls. The Devil accepted their
deal and allowed their souls to remain on Earth. However, he took their bodies
down to Hell, leaving them as disembodied spirits forced to wander the
Connecticut woods for eternity.
With the
arrival of immigrants from Indonesia in the late 19th century, a new wrinkle
was added to the tale. Along with these new citizens came the tradition of the
Leyak (pronounced “Lee-ak”, the y is silent), sorcerers-- usually female- who
could detach their heads from their bodies at night and fly about with their
entrails hanging from the ragged stump of their neck.
According
to the tales, Rangda, the queen of these creatures met the wandering ghosts of
Colwen, Orne and the others and offered to give them new bodies if they would
serve her. Desperate to the point of insanity, the ghosts agreed and instantly
found themselves restored to human form. Come nightfall, however, they
discovered the true horror of their situation as their heads ripped off of
their bodies and flew into the night. These New World leyaks continue to serve
Rangda in the hopes that she will someday grant them their freedom and allow
them to either assume normal human lives or at least finally find the sleep of
death.
Though the
Grenhaven Leyaks exist primarily in folk tales and ghost stories, a few
sightings have cropped up over the years. In 1903 a hunter reported seeing
three black, ragged-looking objects approximately the size and shape of human
heads floating through the forest. In 1935, workers tearing down the ruins of
the retired Meyers Mill along Wolsten Creek reported hearing sobs and choking
sounds from the woods at night, and being terrified by shadows that floated
just outside the light of their fires. In 1941 a pharmacist snapped the
haunting “DeBois Photo” which appears to show the blurry image of a man’s
floating head and entrails drifting across a bridge.
Then of
course there are the numerous sightings and legends among Grenhaven’s
Indonesian population, which are covered in full in the author’s book “Ghosts
of Bali: Indonesian Folklore in the New World”.
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