His funeral was in the good old Dutch manner, a medley of grief and junketing, of piety and punch. Each comer, man or woman, was met at the outset with a glass of rum, and, after a service in Dutch and a long procession on foot (the coffin upon an open bier leading the way), the assembled company returned to the house and, amid clouds of tobacco smoke and deep potations, discussed the merits of the departed pastor and the merits of the last horse sale. One of the traditionary stories of Catskill is told in Barber and Howe's Collections, the author, William Leete Stone, having perhaps added a touch of imagination to the original version of the tale. At an old stone house standing at Cairo, about ten miles to the northward of Catskill, there lived in the early part of the eighteenth century a young man of arbitrary, passionate disposition; one whose passions often rose

49^ The Hudson River

beyond control. A young woman, one of the " redemptioners" or white bond-servants of the time, ran away from the service of this man. He pursued her on horseback, and, finally overtaking her, tied her to the tail of his horse, which became frightened and dashed madly among the rocks and stones till the poor victim was killed and her body terribly mutilated. The man was tried for murder and found guilty, but through the influence of his family he escaped punishment, or, rather, the court decreed that he should be hanged when he attained the age of ninety-nine 3^ears. In addition to this sentence, he was to present himself annually to the judges when the court was in session, and wear always a cord about his neck as a memorial of his crime. He lived for many years, and continued each year to fulfil the conditions of his sentence.