Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1900-04-12
rHE FASTER RARRIr.

The wonderful rabbit With lays the
! rcd, white and blue Caster eggs is one
of the oldest historic characters In
fact Mise men who have tried to
| trace the story to its source have gone
| back far beyond the earliest begin
ntngS of written history only to find
| its htg woody ears sticking up through
| the mistS of tradition and Supcrsti-
! ton
! But the straugCst thing about the
easter rabbit is that YOU will find him
in every part of the world IN Africa
and Asia as we'll rs in Europe and
| America and IL he is not laying Eas-
ter eggs he is doing something equally
remarkable and noteworthy
People who think tho rabbit only
timid, stupid and commonplace mem,
| Der OF society are entirely mistaken
| They ought to read the volumes that
have been written about him And rs
| for the children Mother Goose may
be moro familiar where English is
| spoken but the Easter rabbit is
| known to the little ones in every lam
| guage
Not even the greatest students have
ever been able to learn how it happcus
| that the rabbit lays Caster eggs All
they know is that little children, and
particularly little children in Ger
m2ny, make, as their grandfathcrs
did httar" them, warm nests of hay
during Easter week in which they
| find on Easter morning lot of beau
| tifnly eolorcd eggs laid there, ot
course, by the easter rabbit Some
| times the Easter rabbit even leaves 4
| little candy or china image OF himself
| behind him in the midst OF the eggs,
| by way Of a card But really no proof
is needed Years before the oldest
man can remember II was always said
that the rabbit laid the Easter eggs,
and there IS no moro reason to doubt
! II now than there was then
In Chicago the shop windows are
now crowded with Easter rabbits, and
the Easter cards as often as not show
the Easter rabbits picture, Ask some
body why ii is a rabbit instead Of a
woodchuch or any other animal You
viii find nobody that can tell you
Nobody knows All they can do is to
make shrewd gucsscs at 1t
Going back behind the first books
men have found that the rabbit was
regarded as a sacred animal by widely
scattered people all over the world
Even the American Indians, who had
! never, SO far as we know heard OF
Easter, had their feast Of the Great
Hare, or rabbit: and in the sixth cen
tnry after Christ before the early In
habitants Of what is now England
| had been Chrlstianized, the hare or
! rabbit Is said to have been sacred TO
/ Ostara, the goddess of dawn and OF
spring
Among the natives Of south Africa
there has been for centuries and still
Is a story which connects the rabbit
with Easter In curious way The
! opus ph tllf Shl az w til' llI''I IVA liii
/ as these natives say the perfect image
Of a rabbit And as the moon sets or
dies and rises again every thirty days,
il sent the rabbit to take It's message
| to the children OF men
Co." said the moon TO the rabbit;
go and say to men that, even as
| die and rise again, so shall they also
die and rise again
But the rabbit was wicked, and did
not carry the message straight
The moon says" the rabbit told
the south African natives, that even
as die and do not rise again so shall
you also die and not rise again
When the rabbit came back and told
what he had done the moon was nat
urally angry, and struck at him with
a Ratchet. The blow struck the rab-
| bit and split its upper lip. People who
doubt the story are asked to notice
that the rabbits lip Is split TO this
day And besides having It's split lip
the rabbit was much frightened at the
moons anger 50 that 1t ran away and
| hid In hole In the ground, and has
been timld ever since.
Going over to Asia II Is found that
the rabbit still holds its place as a
sacred animal. In China and all
other countries whore the religion Of
| Buddha prevails the story runs that
the great Buddha himself was at one
time terribly angry, and wandered up
| and down on the surface Of the earth
looking for something to eat. but
found nothing Finally the rabbit
saw the hungry god and felt sorry for
him Going up close 50 that Buddha