meeting a hare while going to work would return home and not again venture out until the next meal had been eaten, "for beyond that the evil influence did not extend."[1] From India we learn that it is as unlucky to meet a hare as it is to meet a one-eyed man, an empty water-pot, a carrier without a load, a fox, a jackal, a crow, a widow, or a funeral.[2] Dalyell couples the hare with the weasel as ominous.[3] At the Wheal Vor mine it is linked in similar ill-fame with the white rabbit; the appearance of either in one of the engine-houses presages a fatal accident in the mine.[4] These are a few out of many illustrations of the bad repute of the hare.
When we enquire into the origin of any superstition it is prudent not to limit investigation into the exact form of the folk-lore which it is intended, if possible, to explain: let us, therefore, see with what other qualities than those of mere power to frighten we find the hare credited.
In the first place it is confessedly one of the most melancholy of animals in popular opinion. When Falstaff complains that he is as melancholy as a gib-cat, or a lugged bear. Prince Henry suggests "Or an old lion, or a lover's lute;" and when Falstaff, in the same vein, goes on with "Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe," the Prince replies "What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?" and brings down upon himself the retort, "Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art, indeed, the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young Prince." Dyce cites from Turberville (through Staunton), "The hare first taught us the use of the hearbe called Wyld Succory, which is very excellent for those who are disposed to be melancholicke: shee herself e is one of the most melancholicke beasts that is, and to heale her own infirmitie she goeth commonly to sit under that hearbe."[5] In a note to a long passage from Levinus Lemnius, de Complexionibus—which may be consulted by those who
- ↑ West of Scotland Folk-Lore, p. 117.
- ↑ Folk-Lore Record, vol. v. p. 48. Browne mentions meeting a fox as presaging some future imposture, Vulgar Errors, p. 320.
- ↑ Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 424.
- ↑ Jones' Credulities Past and Present, 1880, p. 137.
- ↑ Dyce's Shakespeare, Glossary, p. 201. See also Cockayne's Saxon Leechdoms, vol. i. p. 227 (Herbarium Apuleii, cxiv.)
