become, under a new dispensation, the most ill-omened and outcast. Thus we may often argue back from the present unpopularity of an animal to its former divinity. The fate of the hare appears to have been similar to that of the wren. This very small and humble bird seems to have been a common totem, and its name in nearly all European languages still recalls its early sovereignty.[1] In some places (as in Cornwall[2]) a certain divinity hedges the bird to this day, but in others only the faint traces of its original sacrifice survive in the cruel sport called "Hunting the Wren", which prevails widely throughout France and the British Isles. Somewhat similar to the fate of the shy little king of birds is that of the timid hare. He is strictly boycotted by all superstitious people. Here are a few examples:
(1) To meet a hare is a very bad stroke of luck; and many people, if they meet a hare when going to work, will return home, and not venture out again until the next meal has been eaten.[3] This superstition is common in the British Isles, and is also found in India, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Africa, Lapland, Finland, and doubtless elsewhere.
(2) The hare portends a fire. There are reports of this superstition from South Northamptonshire[4] and from Ely,[5] and also from Hungary.[6] In the Wheal Vor mine the appearance of a hare presages a fatal accident.[7]
(3) The animal is accursed, an object of disgust and
- ↑ Brand, Pop. Antiq., iii, 195-200; De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, 1872, ii, 207.
- ↑ F.-L. Journal, v, 213.
- ↑ Brand, iii, 201; F.-L. Journal, i, 84-85; ii, 258; De Gubernatis, op. cit., ii, 81; Indian Antiquary, v, 21; Henderson, op. cit., 204; Gomme, Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life, London, 1883, p. 183; Kalewala, Rune 38, Crawford's translation, p. 576.
- ↑ F.-L. Journal, i, 87.
- ↑ Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, xi, 134-5.
- ↑ Ibid., xii, 362.
- ↑ F.-L. Journal, i, 85.
