They say that at first when the child was born, it seemed like a perfectly healthy and normal infant boy with a chubby little baby face and blue eyes. But in less than half an hour, the child grew quickly into a creature the size, some say, of a two full-grown men. It had the hairy torso of a powerful man, but in place of the baby face was the head of a horse with two giant horns growing out of either side. And growing out of its back were two giant, leathery, bat-like wings. In place of human legs, it had the legs and feet of a goat.
Most accounts agree that it also had a long serpentine tail.
At the end of each arm were paws, and at the end of each paw were long, bony claws. Each claw was razor sharp. With a single swipe of his right paw, he slit the throat of the midwife in attendance, who collapsed in a pool of blood. The creature let out a blood-curdling scream and flew up the chimney and escaped into the Pine Barrens, where, according to legend, he has terrified the citizens of south Jersey ever since. In recent years, the Jersey Devil has been featured in a set of five multi-colored banners, crafted by former Festival Manager Peri Coady, prominently displayed as backdrops on the Festival's main stage.