Head Hunting Rabbit Curry Leftovers

 I have spent the past week deep in thought, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs.  I've been pondering the question that has plagued mankind for enos.  Why can't I eat curry morning, noon and night?  Why must one of the best foods we as a species has to offer be a "sometimes" food?  The easy answer is the fact you don't have it every day is what makes it special.  Screw special!  I want my curry! But patience is the key to great curry as it is always better the next day.  Ah, curry, how I love thee.  Believe it or not we will not be talking about curry this week, DMMs.  Nope.  This week we will be taking a closer look at the main ingredient of the Head Hunting Rabbit Curry.  Let's dip back into the curry pot and talk Rabbits!

Gotta admit, DMMs. I love rabbits!  They are such a cool animal.  Fluffy, fast, ears, whiskers. What's not to love?  I mean, other than the fact they can destroy a garden in record time?  You can't fault a rabbit for doing rabbit things, DMMs! And the rabbit has been with us for nearly 55 million years while being a near global animal.  That means many cultures have so many cool myths and legends based on rabbits.  Why don't we talk about a few starting with one of the oldest....the Moon Rabbit!

Yutu!  The Jade Rabbit itself.  Before we talk about the Moon Rabbit you may be wondering why there is a rabbit on the Moon in the first place.  It's all about what older humans saw when they looked up.  Check this out.

It kinda looks like a rabbit standing over a barrel, right?  That's what ancient peoples saw when they looked up so the Moon Rabbit was born.  What's in the barrel depends on where you are from.  The Chinese believed the barrel held the Elixir of Life. A drink that grants immortality and curse all disease!  Nice to know rabbits can make this.  The Japanese believed the rabbit was pounding mochi.  Which is a kind of life giving substance in that I love to eat it.  The Moon Rabbit isn't lazy, DMMs!  The coolest part is ancient people didn't stop there.  They asked WHY was there a rabbit on the moon.  Here's the crazy part, DMMs.  Two different cultures from very different parts of the world came up with similar stories.  In both Buddhist and Aztec stories a person was very hungry.  A rabbit came by and wanted to help but had nothing to offer but itself.  So the rabbit runs into the man's fire and roasts itself alive!  One selfless rabbit! In the Buddhist version that man is actually Sakra while the Aztec say it was Quetzalcoatl.  Both were so moved by the rabbit's sacrifice that they drew the rabbit's image onto the Moon so that everyone could see how awesome it was.  Gotta say I love that story and I really love that two cultures came up with the same basic idea.  That's an ancient story though.  What about something a bit more contemporary though?  Maybe something from the 1930's?  Jackalope anyone? 

Okay...okay...you got me, DMMs.  A Jackalope is actually a hare, not a rabbit.  Can you cut me a little slack on this?  I am a sucker for stupid Americana!  It's true!  I've stayed in a cement Wigwam off Route 66. I've eaten Cactus Candy!  And the Jackalope is pure Americana.  While stories of horned rabbits are pretty common thanks to the Shope papilloma virus (don't look it up unless you are prepared, DMMs) the Jackalope itself is fairly new.  There's actually nothing special about the Jackalope.  It doesn't have any magic powers, grant wished or cause curses. It's a prank!  Rural Americans love to play pranks on city slickers so they come up with all sorts of local monsters.  Things like the Snipe or the Jackalope. "A hare with deer antlers!  I swear it's real!  Uncle Zeke kill-t one just the other day!"  The Jackalope became "real" in the 1930's when a taxidermist named Douglas Herrick came back from hunting and threw a hare pelt near some deer antlers.  He made the first taxidermy Jackalope and sold it to the La Bonte Hotel in Douglas, Wyoming.  People loved the little guy and traveled from all over to see the real Jackalope.  This lead to knock-offs and the Jackalope exploded all of the American West!  Well, in taxidermy form at least.  Sure, the Jackalope may not be a rabbit technically but don't worry, DMMs, I do have an actual mythological American rabbit.

NO!  As much as I love roller skates we are talking about Nanabozho.  Not familiar with Nanabozho?  I'm surprised, DMMs.  They are a trickster spirit among the Ojibwe of North America.  I'm going to use They/Them for Nanabozho, DMMs, as they show up as both male and female animals in various stories.  They may be a shapeshifter but they tend to love a Rabbit form.  Nanabozho has a lot of stories attributed to them but we will be focusing on the time they smacked some sense into another American mythological being.

"Paul Bunyan?  You expect me to believe Nanabozho fought Paul Bunyan, you drippy dreg?" I can hear you yodel as you make flapjacks.  You don't have to believe me, DMMs, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen!  You see, Paul Bunyan was clear cutting across Minnesota in a mad tizzy just making all the trees fall.  Nanabozho tried to talk to the big lug and ask him to stop.  The forest was fine as it was!  Unfortunately, Paul had a psychological need to chop wood.  The tree serial killer couldn't stop!  Nanabozho wasn't going to take that sitting down so he and Paul fought and fought and fought.  They fought for 40 straight days!  That's plenty of time for all the locals to get their bets in.  It looked like they were evenly matched until Nanabozho broke out a secret weapon.  Knowing this had drug on long enough Nanabozho smacked Paul across the face with a Red Lake walleye!  When Paul fell down Nanabozho jumped on him, pulling out his beard until Paul agreed to leave.  As Paul got up his butt print created Lake Bemidji so it wasn't all bad.  

I'm not sure I see the butt, DMMs.  Looks more like a foot?  Maybe Paul Bunyan had a weird shaped butt?  No judgement!  So how about it, DMMs?  Do you have a favorite mythological rabbit?  I'm sure you know more than you think!  Rabbits have been with us a long time and our people have to telling stories about them all the while.  Let me know and be sure to come back because we will be making something fancy! Well, fancy for me.