Red Island "How the Devil Came to Red Island"

This story was taken from "Fables, Fairies & Folklore of Newfoundland" by Alice Lannon and Michael McCarthy. Presented here by permission of the authors.

How The Devil Came To Red Island

  Today, Red Island, Placentia Bay is uninhabited - just one of the many communities that disappeared during the Smallwood Resettlement Program. However, for more than two centuries Red Island was a vibrant Placentia Bay fishing community with its own unique body of local history, recorded both in song and story.

  Among the stories passed down from one generation of Red Islanders to another was the legend of how a rock on one of the highest peaks overlooking the community came to have the imprint of a cloven hoof.

  The incident leading up to this curious imprint happened sometime during the early days of the nineteenth century. This was a time when Red Island was an important stopover for fishing schooners taking on bait for a new voyage to the Grand Banks.

  It was a night late in spring and the harbour of Red Island was filled with banking schooners, which meant there were a lot of strangers about. At one house, where the owner had a small shop set up in a back kitchen, a game of six-handed auction was in progress. At ten thirty, although the game wasn't finished, one of the players was called back aboard his ship. His partner, a local man, was very annoyed at this for they were close to winning the game. He threw down his cards in disgust saying, "I'd take the Devil for my partner now, if he was available."

  The other players only laughed and said they would have to start over again with five-handed railroad auction. At that moment a stranger entered the shop, and the owner of the house went to serve him. The stranger bought some tobacco, and seeing the card players in the other room hoped they were having good luck with the game.

  "I was," said the man who had lost his partner, "but 'tis gone now that my partner had to go back on board." The thought struck him that perhaps the stranger might take over the other man's place. He put out a tentative feeler. "I don't suppose you play auction yourself now?"

  "Indeed I do," smiled the stranger. "It's one of my favourite games."

  "Well then," said the owner of the house, "why don't you join us for a few hands? "

  "Nothing would please me more," said the stranger and came forward. However, as he passed from the shop to the house he seemed to trip on the door threshold, and was falling backwards when the owner of the house caught him and helped him over it. He thanked the man and took the seat the other player had just vacated.

  The game began again and the stranger's partner was delighted. Every time they bid, whether it was twenty, thirty for sixty, or slam-bang, they got the cards they needed and won everytime.

  Game after game it was the same thing, the smiling stranger and his partner were unbeatable. The stranger almost seemed to be able to read his partner's mind.

  Then, the unexpected happened. The stranger's partner dropped a card under the table and bent down to get it. He got the shock of his life, for right across from him under the table he could see that the stranger had pulled one of his feet from his shiny black leather boot to rest it but, instead of a foot the man could plainly see a cloven hoof.

  The words he had uttered earlier came back to him, and he knew that without intending to he had conjured up the Devil from Hell. Although terribly shaken he knew that he must keep calm and get help to deal with his demonic partner.

  He picked up his lost card and handed it to the dealer. Then he excused himself saying he had to go outside "to see a man about a dog" and left.

  Luckily for him, the parish priest of the area who didn't reside on Red Island, was making his spring visitation for Easter duty. The man went to him, confessed what he had said, and begged the priest for help. The good Father put on his stole, took a cross, a bottle of holy water and his breviary, and accompanied his visitor back to the scene of the card game.

  They entered and at once the stranger gave a mocking smile, and removing his hat bowed to the priest revealing at the same time a set of small pointed horns that the hat had hidden. There was a gasp of horror from the other card players who up to this time had suspected nothing, and then the priest spoke.

  "I see you are here," he said to the Devil, "and up to no good I wager."

  "I was invited," the Devil replied calmly, "and helped to my seat."

  "Well then, it's time you went," said the priest, and lighting a candle he began to swiftly read Latin prayers. The Devil sat looking amused until the priest suddenly sprinkled him with holy water, and in the name of God ordered him to depart. As the water fell over him, the Devil uttered a scream followed by a torrent of black oaths. In a great burst of fire and brimstone he disappeared through the roof of the dwelling leaving a gaping hole in the roof.

  The priest, followed by the card players, rushed outside in time to see the Devil land on the hill overlooking the harbour. He stood there for a moment, shook his fist at the onlookers, and then disappeared in the direction of Merasheen Island.

  A few days later it was discovered that the Devil had left the imprint of his cloven hoof in the rock where he had landed.

  The hole in the roof of the house where the Devil had played cards was repaired, but on each succeeding anniversary of the Devil's visit, the hole would reappear and have to be redone.

  For generations afterwards the story of how the Devil came to a card game at Red Island was told. The imprint of the cloven hoof was shown as proof of the visit. The story has passed into legend and become a part of the folklore of Placentia Bay.

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