Both Uses of

cleave

in

The Devil and Tom Walker

a cloven skull, with an Indian tomahawk buried deep in it, lay before him.†

cloven = split (or divided in two)

She must have died game, however; for it is said Tom noticed many prints of cloven feet deeply stamped about the tree, and found handfuls of hair, that looked as if they had been plucked from the coarse black shock of the woodsman.†
*

Definitions:

(1) (cleave as in: cleave through)
to split or cut through something

Ironically, this word can mean to split in two or to hold together.

Note that you may see cleaved, cleft, clove, or cloven as the past tense of this sense of cleave.
(2) (cleave as in: cleave to)
to hold firmly to something -- such as an object, a person or idea

Ironically, this word can mean to split in two or to hold together.

Note that you may see cleaved, clove, or clave as the past tense of this sense of cleave.
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
a proper noun or other word too rare to warrant focus