The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-12
THE LEGEND OF
 THE EASTER RABBIT


 Montgomery. April Il.
 THE LEGEND OF
 THE EASTER RABBIT.
 The children who give the credit of the Easter egg to the Easter rabbit are faith fully following a tradition which is so old that none knows its origin. In every corner of the globe children of every race and color are Gs faithfully following the same ancient tradition. Wise men have from time to time endeavored to trace to its fountain head the story of this, one of the oldest of historic charac- ters but have, failed to run the rabbit down to any 1eld save the tangled one of tradition and superstition.
 The most unaccountable thing about the wonderful rabbit which lays the red, white and blue Easter egg is that he is to be found in every part of the world in Africa and Asia as prominent a per sonage as in America and Europe; though he is not always accredited with the remarkable accomplishment of lay ing Easter eggs.
 Volumes have been written on the rab- bit and one reading them will find proof that he is not considered by the savants a commonplace, stupid member of society. "No more sense than a rabbit" is as un- | just a comparison as Is, Low as a dog. | As for the children--to them he is known | in every language. though Mother Goose | Is more familiar to them wherever Eng | fish Is spoken.
 l The most assiduous student of rabbit \ lore has not been able to discover how 1t came to pass that the rabbit lays Easter eggs. But the fact remains that little children, particularly little children | In Germany, do as their grandfathers did I-make nice, comfortable nests of hay dur ing Easter week and in them find on Easter morning lot of beautiful colored eggs. laid there by the Easter rabbit of course. No proof has ever been given no proof is needed. Way back further | than "The Oldest Citizen can rennem- Der, 1t was said that the rabbit laid the l Easter eggs, and there is no more reason | to doubt 1t now than there was then.
 Going back behind the first books men have found that the rabbit was regardea as a sacred animal by widely scatterec 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 T,., raDDii, inra ana the early inhabitants of what IS now England had been Christianized. the hare | or rabbit Is said to have been sacred 10 Ostara, the goddess Of dawn ana or
 Among the natives of South Africa l there has heen for centuries ana stiil IS a story which connects the rabbit with l Easter in a curious way. The spots on the surface of the moon form, as these l natives say, the perfect image of rab- bit And as the moon sets or dies ana rises again every thirty days. 1t sent the rabbit to take its message to the children of men.
 Go" said the moon to the rabbit; Ego and say to men that, even as l die ana rise again. so shall they also die ana rise again. ,.,
 But the rabbit was wicked, and did not carry the message straight.
 The moon says" the raboit tolo the 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 natur- ally angry. and struck at him with a Ihatchet The blow struck the rabbit and split It's upper lip. People who doubt the story are asked to notice that the rab- bits lip Is split to this day. And besides having its lip split the rabbit was much frightened at the moons anger, so that 1t ran away and hid in hole in the ground, and has been timid ever since
 Going over to Asia we find that the rab- bit still holds it's place as a sacred anil nal. In China and all the other countries where the religion of Buddha prevails. the story runs that the great Buddha himself was at one time terribly hungry, and wandered up and down on the sur face 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. so that Buddha could not fail to see him, the rabbit laid down at his feet.
 But the Chinese divinity was not to be outdone in generosity. Instead of eat ing the rabbit he transported it up to the Chinese children can see it. Against the bright face of the moon they can make out a tall cassia tree. with spreading top. Uuder this tree sits the rabbit on it's tar from which is made the water of life. Perhaps if our children will look care fully at the moon they. too may be able to make out the shape of the rabbit which lays the Easter eggs.
 And today in China at the time of the celebration of the great moon festival, which corresponds in season to Easter in Christian lands, the figure of the rab- bit is stamped on the moon cakes. which relatives and friends exchange among each other in the place of Easter cards.
 In certain parts of England, even at the present time, much more Is made of the Easter hare than in this country. In Lei cestershire, for instance, there Is cus- tom still in vogue called "the Easter hare pie scramble" So many years ago that Everybody has forgotten 1t a certain plat of ground was given to the rector of the parish perpetually on the condition that each year on Easter Monday he and his successor should contribute two hares or rabbit pies and a quantity of ale to be scrambled for by the villagers. As late as 1892 the hare pie scramble" was ob- served as a great festival all the villag- CTS turning out to march Tn procession be- hind the men carrying the hare pies cut up into fragments. When they reached a spot known traditionally as Hare Pie Bank" the sacks were emptied and all the crowd engaged in a fight or scramble for the pies. which are supposed to guar antee good luck to the possessor for the ensuing year.
 So the Easter rabbit that lays the