Duck In Noose...Care To Read?

The Rabbit was so boastful that he would claim to do what- ever he saw anyone else do, and so tricky that he could usually make the other animals believe it all. Once he pretended that he could swim in the water and eat fish just as the Otter did, and when the others told him to prove it he fixed up a plan so that the Otter himself was deceived.

Soon afterward they met again and the Otter said, "I eat ducks sometimes." Said the Rabbit, "Well, I eat ducks too." The Otter challenged him to try it; so they went up along the river until they saw several ducks in the water and managed to get near without being seen. The Rabbit told the Otter to go first. The Otter never hesitated, but dived from the bank and swam under water until he reached the ducks, when he pulled one down without being noticed by the others, and came back in the same way.

While the Otter had been under the water the Rabbit had peeled some bark from a sapling and made himself a noose. "Now," he said, "Just watch me;" and he dived in and swam a little way under the water until he was nearly choking and had to come up to the top to breathe. He went under again and came up again a little nearer to the ducks. He took another breath and dived under, and this time he came up among the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one and caught it. The duck struggled hard and finally spread its wings and flew up from the water with the Rabbit hanging on to the noose.

It flew on and on until at last the Rabbit could not hold on any longer, but had to let go and drop. As it happened, he fell into a tall, hollow sycamore stump without any hole at the bottom to get out from and there he stayed until he was so hungry that he had to eat his own fur, as the rabbit does ever since when he is starving. After several days, when he was very weak with hunger, he heard children playing outside around the trees. He began to sing:

The children ran home and told their father, who came and began to cut a hole in the tree. As he chopped away the Rabbit inside kept singing, "Cut it larger, so you can see me better; I"m so pretty." They made the hole larger, and then the Rabbit told them to stand back so that they could take a good look as he came out. They stood away back, and the Rabbit watched his chance and jumped out and got away.

The Rabit, the Otter, and Duck Hunting. As told by The Warrior based on James Mooney

The Rabbit was known far and wide for his boastful nature. To hear him tell it, he could do what anyone else could do. He was so good at this that he even was able to convince the Otter that he could catch and eat fish just as good as him.

Now time went by, and the Otter meet the Rabbit again. Now it just so happen that the Otter was still a bit miffed about the fish. He had a plan to expose the Rabbit. The Otter looked at the Rabbit, and said to him. "You know, I sometimes eat Duck too!" So off to the river they went and found seven ducks, which they every so quietly were able to sneak up on. "You go first", cried the Rabbit, to which the Otter quickly slid into the water. He quickly was able to drag a duck under and return to the Rabbit unseen.

Now the Rabbit had not just been standing around watching. While the Otter was otherwise occupied, he had been striping bark from near by sapling and making himself a noose. He looked at the Otter when he returned and said, "OK, that is great, watch me!", and off he took into the water. Now the Rabbit did not have anywhere near the ability in water that the Otter had. And it was a struggle for him to reach the ducks un-noticed, but he managed to do so and came up among the remaining six ducks. He quickly fastened his noose around the neck of the closest duck. Startled, the duck began to struggle to get away and finally took of on his wings and dragged the Rabbit out of the water after him. Now it was the Rabbits turn to be startled. And boy was he. He held on to the noose and was taken high into the air. Higher and higher he went. All of a sudden, he lost his grip on the noose and down he fell into the middle of a old hollow Sycamore tree with out a hole in the bottom to get out.

Now the Rabbit was in a fix. He stayed in there so long that he had to start eating his own fur, as rabbits still do to this day when the are starved. Then one day, he heard some children playing and he began to sing in a weak little voice. The song he sang went like this. "Cut a hole and see me, I am the prettiest thing you ever did see"

Soon the children had returned with on of the fathers who cut a who so that the Rabbit could get out. He told them to stand back and see, and out he ran and took his leave.

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