M. E. Rolland, in his invaluable Faune populaire de la France, devotes many pages ("Les Mammifères Sauvages," pp. 78-88) to the names, proverbs, and sayings, connected with the hare. From him we learn that the idea that it is unlucky to meet a hare prevails in France, Germany, and Lower Austria; the misfortune may be averted by returning three times and then resuming one's journey. "Quand on veut être beau ou belle pendant sept jours de suite, on doit manger du lièvre." Here is a French explanation: "Pourquoi les lievres ont la levre fendue. Un jour un lievre passait pres d'une mare, toutes les grenouilles étaient au soleil; quand elles ont entendu du bruit, elles ont sauté dans la mare; le lièvre en a tant ri[1] qu'il s'est fendu la lèvre." Mr. Gregor[2] tells that "in the north-east of Scotland hare-lip in the human subject is accounted for by a woman enceinte putting her foot into a hare's lair. If the woman noticed she had done so, and immediately took two stones and put them into the lair, the evil effects were averted."
There is an expression in common use in Ireland, which is sometimes seen in print, e. g. in "Father Tom and the Pope," one of the "Tales from Blackwood," where we are told that Father Tom by his astuteness " made a hare " of his Holiness. The term is commonly used when speaking of an opponent who has been worsted in an argument: "I made a hare of him, sir." The hare is popularly taken as a type of timidity—Lepus timidus is its scientific name—but not of stupidity; so that this expression is of some interest.
A Charm.—Mr. C. E. Doble, in the Academy of 2 August, 1884, writes as follows: Possibly the following charm has already appeared in print. I found it written, in a contemporary hand, between the end-papers of a copy of Gaigny's Scholia on the Epistles of St. Paul (Paris, 1539), which formerly belonged to the library of the Barefoot Cannelites at Milan.
Oxford, July 28, 1884.
✠ Vt mulier pariat 03 ✠
Dominus noster Jesus Christus stabat in monte oliueti cum discipulis
