Native American Legends
How Master Rabbit went to a wedding and won the bride
A Passamaquoddy Legend
Chee mahtigwess, or the Great Rabbit, was once very stout or large
of body, having a very long tail. And one day in the old times,
as he sat on the rock, with his fine long tail trailing afar into
the bushes, an old man came by who asked the way. And Master Rabbit,
being as usual obliging offered to show it to him. So they talked
together and grew intimate, but as the old man went very slowly,
while Rabbit was always running, he said, "Go on before, and I will
follow." So the guide was soon out of sight, and then the old man,
hurrying without heeding, fell down into a deep pit or chasm, where
he cried out aloud for help, but was not heard. After a time, Rabbit,
missing his follower, turned back and tracked him till he found
the pit. Yet they could not between them manage to bring the traveler
up again, until Rabbit said, "Catch hold of my tail;" and when this
was done he gave a jump, but alas! the fine tail broke off short
within an inch of the root.
One would think that by this time Master Rabbit must have had enough
of helping, but all the stories of him show that he never gave up
anything which he had once begun. So he simply said to the old man,
"Catch hold of me round the waist;" and when this was done he gave
another leap, and brought the prisoner out. But the man, being heavy,
had slipped down, and almost broken Rabbit's back. So it came to
pass that since that day Master Rabbit has had a very short tail
and a slender waist.
The old man was on his way to marry a young girl. But she was in
love with Mikumwess, the forest fairy. However, the old man married
her, and invited Master Rabbit to the dance, which in old times
made the ceremony. And the guest dressed for the occasion by putting
ear-rings on his heels, for Rabbits or Hares dance on their tip-toes,
and a beautiful bangle round his neck, and he danced opposite the
bride. Now the bride had on only a very short skirt, and in crossing
a brook it had got wet. So that as she danced, it began to shrink
and shrink, until Master Rabbit, pitying the poor girl, ran out
and got a deer-skin, and hastily twisted a cord to tie it with.
But it seemed as if Master Rabbit's efforts to oblige people always
got him into trouble, for he twisted this string so rapidly and
earnestly, holding one end of it in his teeth as he did so, that
he cut his upper lip through to the nose, for which reason his descendants
all have harelips to this day.
Now having dressed the bride, she was so grateful to Rabbit that
she danced with him all the night. The old man, seeing this, was
so angry at her fickleness that, without saying a word, he walked
away, and left her to Mahtigwess, with whom she lived very happily
until she ran away with Mikumwess; with whom, if she has not run
away again, she is living yet. This story is at an end.
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