తలలేని రౌతు – స్లీపీ హాలో రహస్యంThe Headless Horseman – The Secret of Sleepy Hollow

Once upon a time there was a quiet little village called Sleepy Hollow. Ringed by thick forests, tall hills and narrow streams, the place always seemed wrapped in a strange spell. The people of the village believed deeply in ghosts, spirits and tales of magic.

In that village lived a schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane. He was thin as a reed, tall as a palm tree, and had big, flapping ears that gave him an odd look. Besides teaching the village children, he passed his time eating at the homes of the village elders. Though he was an educated man, stories of superstition and ghosts filled him with a little fear and a great deal of curiosity.

In the same village lived Katrina Van Tassel, the darling daughter of a wealthy landlord. Seeing her beauty and her father’s riches, Ichabod secretly hoped to marry her. But the village also had a bold, rough young strongman named Brom Bones, who liked Katrina too. Brom did not like the schoolmaster hanging around Katrina one bit, and he waited for a chance to play a trick on him.

One night, Katrina’s father held a grand feast at his mansion. When the music and dancing were over, everyone sat together and began to tell the frightening tales that were whispered around the village. The most famous of them all was the tale of the Headless Horseman, a soldier who had lost his head in battle and now rode his horse along the village borders! As Ichabod listened, his heart began to race like a runaway train.

When the feast was over, disappointed that he had failed to win Katrina’s heart, Ichabod climbed onto his skinny old horse at midnight and set off alone along the forest road.

The shadows of the thick trees, the moaning of the wind and the hooting of the owls filled Ichabod with terror. Just as he reached the old broken bridge, he heard the thunder of hooves behind him. He looked back, and his heart leapt into his throat! On a huge black horse rode a figure with no head at all. In its hand, where a head should have been, it held something round!

Shaking with fear, Ichabod urged his horse to run faster. But the strange rider chased after him and hurled the round pumpkin in his hand straight at Ichabod. The blow knocked Ichabod off his horse, and he fell to the ground senseless.

The next morning, beside the bridge, the villagers found only Ichabod’s crushed hat, the shattered pieces of a pumpkin and his horse standing all alone. Of Ichabod himself, there was no trace. Some believed he had lost his life to the Headless Horseman, while others thought he had simply run away in fright.

Some time later, Brom Bones happily married Katrina. Whenever anyone mentioned the Headless Horseman, Brom would only smile to himself. Was it truly the work of a ghost, or a clever trick Brom played to drive away his rival? To this day, that remains the secret of Sleepy Hollow!