in the
moon, where he is still to be seen. [80]

The Mongolian also sees a hare in the lunar shadows. We are told
by a Chinese scholar that "tradition earlier than the period of the
Han dynasty asserted that a hare inhabited the surface of the moon,
and later Taoist fable depicted this animal, called the gemmeous
hare, as the servitor of the genii, who employ it in pounding the
drugs which compose the elixir of life. The connection established
in Chinese legend between the hare and the moon is probably
traceable to an Indian original. In Sanskrit inscriptions the moon is
called Sason, from a fancied resemblance of its spots to a leveret;
and pandits, to whom maps of the moon's service have been shown,
have fixed on _Loca Paludosa_, and _Mons Porphyrites_ or
_Keplerus_ and _Aristarchus_, for the spots which they think
exhibit the similitude of a hare." [81] On another page of the same
work we read: "During the T'ang dynasty it was recounted that a
cassia tree grows in the moon, this notion being derived apparently
from an Indian source. The _sal_ tree (_shorea robusta_), one of the
sacred trees of the Buddhists, was said during the Sung dynasty to
be identical with the cassia tree in the moon. The lunar hare is said
to squat at the foot of the cassia tree, pounding its drugs for the
genii. The cassia tree in the moon is said to be especially visible at
mid-autumn, and hence to take a degree at the examinations which
are held at this period is described as plucking a leaf from the
cassia." [82]

This hare myth, attended with the usual transformation, has
travelled to the Hottentots of South Africa. The fable which follows
is entitled "From an original manuscript in English, by Mr. John
Priestly, in Sir G. Grey's library." "The moon, on one occasion, sent
the hare to the earth to inform men that as she (the moon) died away
and rose again, so mankind should die and rise again. Instead,
however, of delivering this message as given, the hare, either out of
forgetfulness or malice, told mankind that as the moon rose and died
away, so man should die and rise no more. The hare, having
returned to the moon, was questioned as to the message delivered,
and the moon, having heard the true state of the case, became so
enraged with him that she took up a hatchet to split his head; falling
short, however, of that, the hatchet fell upon the upper lip of the
hare, and cut it severely. Hence it is that we see the 'hare-lip.' The
hare,