In this week of Easter, there is bunny, chicken, duckling, and lamb cuteness decorating store windows and lining the shelves of gift shops. However, my baby grandson has a new Easter basket, or should I say, bucket with a different kind of decoration.
His mama, my daughter, had her friend Lisa Cobb to adorn the bucket with the image of a jackalope. If you aren’t a Westerner or a fan of the western plains culture, you may not be familiar with this mystical creature, the jackalope. Mystical, is he?
My daddy lived his childhood and teenaged years in west Texas and New Mexico. He brought his love of all things Western back to Mississippi, and my children and I have included the lore and customs into much of our lives.
I can remember sitting in his lap and looking at his photos of “Out West.” In that collection was a vintage postcard of a cowboy riding a GIANT hare, the jackalope. The creature is a cross between a giant hare (jack rabbit) and an antelope, or more specifically, a pronghorn. It is much like the one on the card I have included, except our cowboy is riding a wild, bucking, rearing rabbit with horns. Olivia has had me on a hunt for the postcard for a while now, and we can’t find it.
It seems that jackalopes have shown up in art as early as 1280. Some say they are small and more rabbit-like with a single horn. Those probably did exist, but scientist says they are ordinary wild rabbits which have a fungal growth protruding for their head. Well, that’s no good mystical tale.
Others are described as weighing 150 pounds and having a nasty disposition. Cowboys sitting around the campfire told of hearing a creature making noises that mimicked the human voice and made sounds like they were throwing their voices to different locations. The legend, also told by old-time storytellers, is that the jackalope could only breed during a lightning storm.
Two young brothers had a small set of horns on the ground and when he threw a wild hare down on them, he was struck with the idea that he could take them to a taxidermist and have it mounted as a jackalope. The fad spread. President Reagan even had and jackalope doe and buck mounted above a door at his Rancho Del Cielo in Galeta, New Mexico, according to a photo courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library.
“Are they real?” I used to look up and ask daddy.
“Sure, they are. You just don’t see any in Mississippi,” he would say, winking his eye and smiling.
Real or legend, see for yourself. Here is a link to a great article from High County News. It’s a great read. https://www.hcn.org/articles/books-the-legend-of-the-horned-rabbit-of-the-west
But we at my house know that bunnies, chicks, ducks, and lambs are not the reason we celebrate Easter. It’s for our living Jesus.
Resources
Legends of America.com
High Country News
The Legend of the Horned Rabbit of the West
Michael Branch
No comments:
Post a Comment