THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 22, 1861. 
219 
countries; and in Sweden, and elsewhere having long severe 
wiuters, it can only he preserved in houses. Northern Africa 
and the southern parts of Europe seem to have been its native 
places. In America it was unknown until introduced by 
Europeans. 
The Chinese legislator Confucius ranges the Rabbit among 
animals worthy of being sacrificed to gods, and prescribes their 
multiplication. Even now Rabbits are sacrificed on their altars 
twice a-year—in spring and autumn. Thirty thousand Rabbits 
are annually sacrificed. These sacrifices are made in one 
thousand six hundred temples in spring to ask that the earth 
may be as fruitful as Rabbits, and in autumn to return thanks 
for that fruitfulness. Many races, or varieties, of Rabbits are 
bred in China with success ; and the populations consume a 
great number. 
It is certain that the Rabbit was venerated by the ancients, 
and, as in the case of fowls, altars were raised to it in the Isle 
of Delos in Ortygia, now called the Grecian Archipelago. The 
Greeks even went so far as to ornament with marble the entries 
of their warrens, or vast galleries where these animals could have 
a common issue and multiply. 
From Greece the cuniculine race passed into Spain, and par¬ 
ticularly to the Balearic Isles. Pliny mentions that the in¬ 
habitants of these were obliged to defend themselves against 
their voracity, as they ravaged the harvests, and undermined the 
houses and lands with their burrows. The prodig'ous fecundity 
of these little animals was considered a plague—a public calamity; 
and being imable to get rid of them the islanders asked the 
Emperor Augustus to send some Roman troops to aid in destroy¬ 
ing them. The troops were sent and with them ferrets. Of 
course, these statements refer to wild Rabbits. ( Pliny's Nat. 
Hist,, b. viii., c. 81.) 
The Phoenicians were the first navigators who discovered the 
southern part of Spain, and penetrated into this extremity of 
Europe. Even in the Phoenician language is the etymology of 
the name which that country now bears. It is said that formerly 
Armorica, the ancient Spain, was so overrun with Rabbits, that 
by dint of burrowing under ground, they even overturned the 
houses of the inhabitants. Spanija in the Phoenician language 
signifies a Rabbit, of which the Latins have made Hispania, and 
we Spain. It is then very probable that the name Hispania was 
substituted by the Romans for that of Armorica , at the time of 
their conquest, to distinguish it as the “ Rabbit country ,” as 
they changed the name of the country of the Celts into Gaul, 
Gallia, or “ country of cocks." 
This opinion is somewhat sustained by the fact, that on the 
reverse of a medal of the Emperor Adrian Spain is represented 
by a woman sitting on the ground with a Rabbit squatting upon 
her robe. ( Addison on Medals. Dial, iii., series iii., fig. 6.) 
There was a pack of cards formerly in the possession of Francis 
Douce, Esq., the four suits in which were roses (hearts), pinks 
(diamonds), columbines (spades), and Rabbits (clubs). The 
originals are believed to have been from the pencil of the cele¬ 
brated German artist, Martin Schoen, who died in 1486. 
( Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of England.) We have no doubt, 
judging from the costume of the kings, queens, and knaves of 
those four suits, and considering the contentions going on between 
the four great European powers at the time in which they were 
drawn, that they were intended to represent England, Austria, 
France, and Spain. Every card-player does not know that the 
term basto is derived from the Spanish Bastos, a club; and 
spades from espados, a sword, in the same language. 
In confirmation of our opinion we find that on the monument 
of Richard Cceur de Lion, in the cathedral of Notre Dame, at 
Rouen, there is the head of a Rabbit peeping out of a hole, and 
a dog watching it. This, says Mr. Alfred Way, was not placed 
there without design; and a writer, in answer, observes that it 
probably alludes to that monarch’s successful attacks upon Spain 
and Sicily, on the coins of both of which countries Rabbits are 
well-recognised symbols.—( Notes and Queries, v. 598.) 
Strabo, who calls the Rabbit “ the burrowing Hare,” says (iii. 2, 
§ 6) that it was found over nearly the whole of Spain, and 
m the Balearic Islands, reaching also as far as Massilia (Mar¬ 
seilles, in France). Polybius mentions (xii. 3) that the Rabbit 
is a native of Corsica, 
The notices by Yarro, Strabo, Polybius, iElian, and Pliny, 
are the earliest which we can identify with the animal known to 
us as the Rabbit. It is quite certain that the Shaphan of the 
Old Testament {Leo. xi., 5, Bent, xiv., 7, Psalm civ., 8, Frov. 
xxx,, 26) is not our Coney or Rabbit. The translators of our 
version knew of no other animal but this at all agreeing with 
the Shaphan, and, therefore, so translated it. But the Rabbit is 
not a native of the countries in which the Israelites sojourned, 
nor is there the slightest probability that it was known to 
Moses, David, or even Solomon. At all events, the Levitical 
law would not forbid the eating of an animalthe Israelites never 
saw. The Hare is common enough in Palestine and adjacent 
countries, and so is the Ashkoko, the habits of which animal 
closely agree with that of the Shaphan as mentioned by Solomon. 
He mentions this animal as one of the four “ which are little 
upon the earth, but are exceeding wise.” “ The Saphans are 
but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.” 
(Prov. xxx., 24-26) Mr. Bruce says that this animal, the 
Ashkoko, is so much attached to the rock that he never once 
saw it on the ground, or from among the large stones in the 
mouth of caves where it constantly resides. It is a native of 
Judaea, Palestine, and Arabia. Though it resides among the 
rocks, yet its feet are too fleshy and tender to dig holes : there¬ 
fore, it builds houses among the very hardest rocks, more in¬ 
accessible than the burrows of Rabbits, and very sagaciously 
constructed. Moreover, it chews the cud, as particularised by 
Moses, which is not the case with the Babbit. 
It is probable that during the time of Caesar, and while he 
was in Gaul, the “country of cocks,” that the Rabbit was in¬ 
troduced into England. 
That it was so introduced seems sustained by the fact that its 
most ancient British name, Cwningen, is evidently derived from 
the Latin. Rabbits rapidly spread throughout our islands, for 
their great fecundity is not diminished even in the colder 
climate, Scotland. This fecundity there obtained for them our 
now common name of Rabbit, for in Gaelic, Rabaid is a Rabbit ; 
plural Rdbaidean, Rabbits ; cuilean Rabaid, a young Rabbit; 
and Rabaid seems to be derived from rabach, plentiful, fruitful. 
{Armstrong's Gaelic Diet.) 
This name soon came into general use in England. It is true 
that in the translation of the Bible as late as the reign of 
James I., the word coney, probably as being more English, was 
employed by the translators, but at a far earlier period the 
name of Babbit was employed. 
Thus in the “Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York” 
(p. 13), under the date of May 24th, 1502, is entered the pay¬ 
ment of two shillings “ to a servaunt of the Abbase of Syon in 
reward for bringing a present of Rabettes and Quayles to the 
Queue at Ricliemount.” 
At first, of course, only the grey wild Rabbit would be known, 
and for their protection a peculiar warren, called a coningry, 
was established. This, however, was not until the Norman 
period of our history, and about the same time and with similar 
intentions as they were established in France. We are told that 
there it w'as under the reigns of Philip Augustus and Louis VIII., 
at the beginning of the thirteenth century, that the French nobles 
began to people with wild Rabbits some countries which they 
called “ varennes," thence “ garennes,” in English “ warrens." 
The name of “ varennes ” remained to’several bourgs, villages, 
or countries, because they were built in a place peopled with 
wild Rabbits. (Clicliy-la-Garenne, now in Paris, was the 
favourite hunting-place of Henry IY.) 
The design of the French nobles by introducing Rabbits to 
their grounds, was to multiply game, and increase the pleasures 
of the chase and the table. 
It is well known that at these early periods the lords were 
warriors and hunters. They took no interest in agriculture, 
industry, or commerce. The chase entertained the warlike spirit, 
and inured them to fatigue. They did not know, or did not care, 
what ravages the Rabbits made in the harvests of their serfs, 
the cultivators of the soil. 
The Rabbit warren, as we have already noted, was called in Eng¬ 
land a coningry. Thus in a statute passed in the year 1390 (13 Rich. 
II. c. 13) occurs this sentence—“ Yont chaceants es parkes, 
garennes, et conyngers des seigneurs et autres or, in English, 
“They hunt in parks, warrens, and conyngries of lords and 
others.” A warren, in those days, meant a place belonging to 
some one privileged to keep in it all fowls and beasts of warren 
-—namely, Partridges, Pheasants, Hares, and Rabbits {Blount s 
Glossary) ; but a coningry was a plaee where Rabbits only were 
preserved. 
Rabbits, like some other animals, are liable to produce va¬ 
rieties, and this not only in the colour, but in the length and 
form of the hair. Black individuals occur in our warrens. In 
Syria we read of a wild sort with thickly tufted hair. The 
