THE COOKERY OF THE RABBIT 231 



are swinging from a tree trunk, and rabbits are 

 festooned around, with wild geese, pheasants and red 

 partridges. But the French, being a nation of cooks, 

 have set a due value on their rabbits, and not a few 

 of their novelists have delighted to do them honour. 

 A solide lapin is a title of respect, bestowed by the 

 reckless criminal class on some truculent athlete. 

 Sue, in the ' Mystferes de Paris,' makes the ' Lapin 

 Blanc ' the resort of his outcasts and ruffians. The 

 outlawed poacher Bete-puante, in his 'Enfant Trouve,' 

 snares rabbits and tenches in the swamps where he 

 goes to earth with the foxes and badgers. George 

 Sand refers to the rabbit frequently in her romances 

 of the desolate Sologne. We are somewhat surprised 

 that Dumas makes no reference to him in ' Le 

 Meneur de Loups,' where he passes most sorts of 

 game under review. That explains itself, however ; 

 for, as Thiebault hunted with a cortege of wolves, the 

 rabbits scuttled to their burrows when they heard the 

 pack giving tongue. Then there are the cockney or 

 realistic novelists of France who leave the field and 

 the forest for the city and the cooking range. The 

 gibelotte de lapin is a standard plat at all the bourgeois 

 restaurants of thebanHeue and environs, from Boulogne 

 to Vincennesand Enghien to Fontainebleau. Seldom 

 is there a merry-making in Paul de Kock, Gaboriau, 



