GNAWING ANIMALS RODENTS 169 



" Nor did we meet with nimble feet 



One little fearful lepus. 

 That certain sign, as some divine 



Of fortune bad to keep us." 



Shakespeare constantly refers to the hare and 

 speaks of it as melancholy and cowardly. The 

 Romans ate hare, and Pliny says : " The flesh in- 

 duces sleep and makes the eaters thereof beautiful/^ 



The practice of making toy hares and filling them 

 with sweetmeats at Easter time, and of making ginger 

 and other sweet cakes at that season in the form of 

 hares is connected with a very old myth. The hare was 

 originally a bird, according to Teutonic mythology, 

 but was changed into a hare by the goddess Ostara. 

 The animal acknowledges its former state at the 

 feast of the goddess by laying eggs. 



In Western Europe and Scandinavia the hare is 

 regarded as the spirit of the corn. The last ears 

 standing in the harvest-field are called ^^ the hare,^^ 

 and the man who cuts them has " caught the hare.^^ 



In some places_, says Mr. Millais, these ears are 

 modelled into the form of a hare and treated with 

 quaint ceremonies. Among the South American 

 Indians ^' the Great Hare '' is regarded as the creator 

 of the universe, and they hold it in the same reverence 

 as the North-American Indians do the beaver. 

 There is an old Sanscrit fable which tells of the hare 

 in the moon, the guardian of all earthly hares. The 

 Hindoos see this sovereign hare in the moon, not a 

 man as we do. 



" If a hare makes an unexpected escape from the 

 hounds,^^ says Sir Roger de Coverley, " the huntsman 



