Brer Rabbit

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 28 November 1907, Page 22

Brer Rabbit

In European folklore .and fable, the fox is the great emblemi of cunning. But .in */Uncle Remus's .plantation stories, Brer Rabbit outwits Brer' Fox at every turn. The negro, says Joei Chandler Harris, ' selects as his hero the weakest and most harmless of all animals, and brings him out victorious in' contests with the bear, the wolf, and the fox. It is not virtue that triumphs, but helplessness;, it is not malice; 'but Jthischievousness.' There ia a singular pathos in "this characteristic .of negro folklore. In Australia and New Zealand, Brer Rabbithas scored over more powerful enemies' than the bear, the wolf, -and the fox.' Cased in a triple armor of pas 7 save resistance, burrowing hatoits, and (best of themall-) marvellous fecundity, he has. defied shotgun, the most potent-poisons, and. the microbes of the Pasteur Institute. This last was the toughest tussle of all, and Australia; looked on ~ while burrowing rodent and armies of deadly microbes struggled for the .mastery. But the umpire has awarded the .belt to the rabbit. So much we learn from, a Sydney cable message in last Saturday's daily papers. It runs as follows :—

Dr. Tidswill, who. as the representative of the Federal and State Governncents , watched the experiments with the Danysz virus for rabbit extermination, has presented his report. He finds,, that the efficiency of the virus as a destroyer of rabbits . has not been ' demonstrated, and that although the microbe might be made

to infect certain small animals, there is no reason to " apprehend any danger from its practical use. He points out that a similar, or- at least indistinguishable, virus has been known for years, and its natural' behaviour on the main laoid has not been sufficient t,o, keep rabbits in check, and no results have come out'of the' experiments to-indicate that-the virus- could be artificially manipulated" with greater efficiency. There need be no apprehension! of. da-ngier to buman beings from its' use, while the risk to other animals is remote.'' Brer Man. has been worsted, as well as Brer Bar and Brer Wolf and Brer Fox. But Brer Man may yet find among his .growing microscopic menagerie a , microbe with a more potent virus, yet sufficiently .safe/, to loose in the big- warrens of Australia and New Zealand. And then Brer Rabbit must look) once more to his armor. ' . , •