Rabbit and the Ram

Rabbit and the Ram

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If you look at the Reference Map of Native Tribes you will see many names, however, they are not all free-standing societies or cultures. Most of them are subgroups of larger societies, like the Aztec or the Maya. I have found at least one exception, that being the Zapotec, and we have already featured some of their legends.

Today we will again visit with a universal character in Native legends and mythology, that trickster, Rabbit. This time he is traveling with a ram as he outwits some predators. Note how easily the storyteller endows the animals with human characteristics and takes them back again. I hope that you enjoy this one because there are two more installments of the Maya view of Rabbit before we move further south towards the Inca People.

Rabbit and the Ram

There was once a ram who liked to roam in a bean patch. He was very mischievous, and when they weren't paying attention, he would abandon his companions and end up eating in the bean patch. One day he stayed there enjoying eating the bean plants when the sun set. His stomach was full but he kept on eating. When it got dark he wanted to go back but his horns had become tangled up in the bean tendrils. He kept trying to free himself, but the tendrils wouldn't release him. He was beginning to move from one side to the other among the bean plants when the rabbit arrived.

"What's the matter, friend?" the rabbit asked the ram.

"Just look at what happened to me, just because I was looking for food. I'm in a real predicament," said the ram.

"Don't worry, my friend, I'm going to untangle you right now. There's no problem. After all, aren't we friends?" asked the rabbit.

"Thanks, friend, if you hadn't come, who knows what would have happened to me," said the ram.

The rabbit finished setting him free and then told him this:

"Let's go and eat far from here at a place I know where there's food." The rabbit took the ram to that place. After they were through eating, they looked for a place to spend the night.

"Listen, my friend, we're going to look for a good place to sleep, so we won't have any problems and nothing will happen to us tonight, for there are some people who hate us. Not everyone is kind," said the rabbit. They were near a big rock.

"It's a good idea to get on top of that rock," they said.

They got on top of the rock to sleep. At midnight some big animals began to approach the foot of the rock that they had climbed onto: the lion, the jaguar and the coyote.

"My friend, what's going to happen to us? Maybe they'll finish us off." "Don't move, because if you move they'll know someone is up here," said the rabbit.

The ram felt the need to pass water. "I feel like passing water, friend, I'm going down to pass water, so as not to wet myself up here," said the ram.

"Something could happen to us, friend. Maybe you ought to leave well enough alone. If they hear you climbing down, that'll be the end of us. Lie on your back and relieve yourself that way. Look how thick your wool is: the wetness will disappear into your wool. If I were like you, I wouldn't have to worry about that," said the rabbit.

"I'm going to try now," said the ram.

The ram tried to lie on his back, but he didn't have any hands to hold on with and he fell down among those who were at the foot of the rock. They were all asleep when the ram fell among them and they all fled out of fear. The rabbit and the ram spent the night in the other animals' house.

When dawn came those who had been sleeping at the foot of the rock came back. From afar they were looking to see if the rabbit and the ram were still there. They saw that the rabbit was moving his paws from side to side, and beginning to lick them. So they said to each other:

"The little one is the most rascally one, and the big one keeps saying 'Yes, sir; yes, sir.' When they look at us, it is as if they're telling us that they're going to knock us down. They're gesturing with their hands," they said.

They were all very frightened. But the rabbit was just shooing away flies. That's why he was moving his hands to and fro, and the ram was just complaining. Later they went to eat some more where they had eaten the previous afternoon. The other animals had fled out of fear that night and they never saw them again.

After they had gone out to eat again, the ram's master arrived. When the ram realized that he was out looking for him, he said to the rabbit:

"Now, my friend, we're going to part company, they're coming for me, take care. We'll meet another time," said the ram.

"All right, my friend, you take care of yourself too." And so they parted. This is what happened to these two animals, the ram and the rabbit.

Reference map

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