Why the Cottontail Has A Short Tail

898 words
Why the Cottontail Has A Short Tail

Many years ago, ten hands of ten hands of ten hands of years ago, when the world was young, the Wan-ee band of the Miwalks lived in the foothills of the great mountains in what is now Northern California.

The Wan-ee lands were not rich with the salmon that swam in the great river which flowed through the willow and oak-covered fertile lands of the valley floor. Nor did they have elk to eat for the grasses in their mountains were thin and the elk bypassed them to eat the succulent grasses of other bands’ territory.

The Wan-ee lived in huts of sticks covered with dried grass for all 13 moons in a year and ate only soup or porridge made from the bitter acorns of the oak trees.

One evening Waphoo, a young boy of 10 summers, was called by his father who said, “My son, I am tired of eating acorn porridge and drinking acorn soup. I have given you a boy-sized bow with boy-sized arrows and taught you how to shoot. Tomorrow I want you to go hunt and bring home two rabbits to eat. I wish to taste the roasted flesh of the rabbits and lick their grease off my fingers.”

As soon as Father Sun had peeked over the tops of the great mountains Waphoo had risen, washed his face in the cold waters of the stream that ran through the village, picked up his bow and arrows and left to hunt rabbits.

Father Sun was now at the top of the heavens and Waphoo had not even seen ONE rabbit, much less had a chance to kill two of them. He had stopped for a drink in a small, clear stream but now his stomach was complaining that it was hungry, very hungry, so when Waphoo came to a small meadow of yellow, drying grasses, he sat down, pulled out handfuls of the yellowish leaves and began chewing on them as an elk would do.

The grass was dry as the summer dirt, almost impossible to chew, and Waphoo was ready to spit it out when he saw a flicker of motion far to his right. He turned to see two long, white, furry ears jutting from the top of a fur-covered head in the middle of the meadow.

“Hello,” said Rabbit.

“Hi there, Brother rabbit,” Waphoo said unsurprised, for in those days animals and humans could talk to each other, for they were all brothers made by Coyote. “How are you this warm afternoon?”

“Fine, fine,” Rabbit answered, his whiskers trembling for he saw the boy-size bow and arrows Waphoo had and knew young boys did not hunt elk, deer or even the wild goats in the mountains, but shot and killed smaller animals -- such as rabbits -- for food. “Why are you so far from your village?” Rabbit asked.

“I am hunting meat for my family. We have eaten only acorn soup and porridge all year and we need some meat. My father told me to find and shoot two rabbits to bring home him to eat.”

“Well, I am a very small and scrawny rabbit -- you will need many rabbits my size for a mouthful. I have an idea that would help us both.”

“What is that, Brother Rabbit?”

Rabbit waggled his very long tail, even bringing it around to his front paws where he held and caressed it lovingly. “The members of my tribe have very long, fat and tasty tails. If you do not kill me, I will get my brothers and sisters and we will let you cut off all of our juicy tails for you to take home. Then, when our tails grow back you can return and harvest our new tails. But you have to agree to never hunt or kill or any of my brothers and sisters.”

Waphoo thought about what Rabbit said. Rabbit’s tail was very long and fat looking and it DID look delicious so finally he agreed.

Rabbit ran off and returned with eight of his brothers and sisters. They all let Waphoo use his sharp glass knife to quickly and painlessly cut off their tails before they ran from the meadow.

When Waphoo arrived home his father was surprised at how large the deer hide sack was that contained the rabbit tails. After they had roasted and ate them all, his father declared Waphoo had made a good trade.

Two weeks later Waphoo returned to the meadow and found Rabbit there looking for more food.

“Rabbit,” he said, “what happened to your tail? It has NOT grown back as you said it would. It is tiny and not more than a ball of fur that cannot be eaten.”

“I know,” rabbit wailed sorrowfully, “none of our beautiful tails have grown back." Rabbit looked down where he used to have his fat, beautiful tail and said, "Coyote says it is punishment for tricking you into not killing any of my tribe. He says we will be known as 'cottontail rabbits' from now on.”

Waphoo didn’t know what to do, but he remembered his agreement with Rabbit, he would never kill another member of the rabbit tribe in exchange for the eight juicy tails, so he returned home with no meat of any kind.

And that’s why even today, the tribe of Cottontail Rabbits has short tails while the Jackrabbit tribe still has long ones.