[CHAPTER XXII: ANIMAL LEGENDS]
Magical Animals
Many of the following stories are the tales a Japanese mother narrates to her child, for animal stories make a universal appeal to the child-mind. They are generally regarded as fairy stories, but they contain so much legendary material that it is necessary to include them in a book of this kind, for they tend to illustrate our subject in a lighter vein, where the miraculous is mingled with the humorous. We have devoted a separate chapter to fox legends on account of the importance of the subject, but it must be borne in mind that the supernatural characteristics of this animal apply also to the badger and cat, for in Japanese legend all three animals have been associated with an incalculable amount of mischief.
The Hare
The hare is supposed to attain, like the fox, tortoise, crane, and tiger, a fabulous age, extending to no less than a thousand years. In Taoist legends the hare is said to live in the moon, and is occupied in pounding, with pestle and mortar, the drugs that compose the Elixir of Life, while in other legends, as we have seen elsewhere, this animal is represented as pounding rice. Shaka Muni (the Lord Buddha), according to legend, is said to have sacrificed himself as a hare in order that he might appease the hunger of Indra, who drew the animal upon the moon by way of showing his admiration. The fur of the hare becomes white when it has lived for five hundred years, and we give below the famous legend from the Kojiki known as "The White Hare of Inaba."
The White Hare of Inaba
In ancient days there were eighty-one brothers, who were Princes in Japan. With the exception of one brother they were quarrelsome fellows, and spent their time in showing all manner of petty jealousy, one toward the other. Each wanted to reign over the whole kingdom, and, in addition, each had the misfortune to wish to marry the Princess of Yakami, in Inaba. Although these eighty Princes were at variance in most things, they were at one in persistently hating the brother who was gentle and peaceful in all his ways.
At length, after many angry words, the eighty brothers decided to go to Inaba in order to visit the Princess of Yakami, each brother fully resolved that he and he alone should be the successful suitor. The kind and gentle brother accompanied them, not, indeed, as a wooer of the fair Princess, but as a servant who carried a large and heavy bag upon his back.