References of the Jersey Devil before 1735?
A while back I asked a question here about how old the Jersey Devil legend was, because I was trying to rediscover a reference online that said that the Lenni Lenape called the Pine Barrens “the place of the dragon” – and this was the before the traditional date of the urban legend of 1735.
Somebody helped me by pointing out to the wiki article on the Pine Barrens – which mentioned “Popuessing” as the word that the Lenni Lenape used, and in addition, “Drake Kill” by the early Swedish explorers, which translates to “dragon river (or channel, stream, etc)”.
I want to do some research again on the Jersey Devil and so I revisited the wiki page to dig into the reference. However, there’s no mention of “Popuessing” on there anymore. It’s been edited out – and the “Drake Kill” comment too.
Even odder still, when I asked this question on Fluther several years ago, the response of the person who led me to the reference got moderated for spam?? = https://www.fluther.com/167656/how-long-has-the-jersey-devil-legend-been-around/ – so I can’t be 100% sure that it was the Pine Barrens wiki article – although I’m pretty sure it was.
I really want to know where this thing about “Popuessing” and “Drake Kill” came from, but it seems to be really obscure. The only helpful explanation I can find is from another forum a while ago where someone said that the Lenni Lenape language can be difficult to translate, so “Popuessing” is most likely erroneous. But I can’t find any hard evidence or sources. If you Google “Popuessing”, you can find many articles and other wikis mentioning the supposed translation – and “Drake Kill” too – but no references. Where did this come from??
I did a Google Book search and so far the oldest book I can find that mentions “Popuessing” and “Drake Kill” in reference to the Pine Barrens is from 2001. So this supposed translation goes waaaay back. But dammit – NOBODY SOURCES THESE TRANSLATIONS!
On a final note, I did find THIS, which is really interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poquessing_Creek
It’s spelled virtually like Popuessing except with a “q” instead of a second “p”. And it’s a Lenni Lenape word meaning “place of the mice”. Sooo. Someone probably messed up translations a long time ago?
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