Notebooks

Story: Story of the Moon and the Hare and how the Moon punished the Hare

Title

Story of the Moon and the Hare and how the Moon punished the Hare

Collection

Summary

The veritable Hottentot myth of the 'Origin of Death' is told in the Katkop dialect by ≠kásin, whose father was a Hottentot; and, although the narrator says that he heard the story from his mother /’wá ≠kõ, a Bushwoman, its Hottentot origin can hardly be doubted. Here, the Moon sends the Hare to men with the message of the renewal of life; but it reverses it into a message of death. The angered Moon then heats a stone, and burns the Hare’s mouth, causing the harelip. ≠kásin told this story three times; once in a very short version (B XXV. 2361-2364), secondly, in a little longer one (L IV.-4. 3886-3889) and thirdly, in a still more extended one (L IV.-4. 3890-3900). On account of the Hare's actions, people die and do not return to life.

Comments

1) ≠kasin heard this from his mother (ko a ≠ko) 2) p.3444v: ≠kasin heard things about death and ascending thoughts from his father and mother; his father heard them from his father, 3) See also The Moon and the Hare and A prayer addressed to the Moon, and another version of the Moon and Hare story and Story of the Moon and the Hare: a version at first by ≠kasin and then by Dia!kwain and Moon and Hare: the origin of death, 4) This story is found in Book IV-1