Extra Reading Diary: Myths of the Cherokee

For my extra reading, I looked at the Myths of the Cherokee unit.  My two favorite stories are in the "The Deer and the Rabbit" chapter.

Jackalope

How The Deer Got His Horns

This story is great because it reminds me about the cryptid the jackalope.  Because what if Rabbit hadn't gotten caught cheating?  Then we'd have jacklopes!  My great-aunt, who lives in Topeka, KS, had a mounted jackalope hanging above her fireplace (typically, these mounts are stuffed jackrabbits with deer antlers).

In reality, the inspiration for jacklopes was more than likely found in wild rabbits suffering from infections of the Shope papilloma virus, which causes weird growths and tumors to grow from the rabbits face and body.  So be careful googling the images - they can get gross.

Fun fact: the study of the Shope papilloma virus helped to lead the development of the HPV vaccine.

Why The Deer's Teeth Are Blunt

I liked this story because, frankly, a deer with fangs isn't something that the world needs.  Sure, there's the water deer, who looks like a little saber-toothed deer (and certain biologists out there need to answer for not taking the opportunity to name it that), but that guy's a little cutie.  Now, imagine a white tail buck with big ol' wolf's teeth...

With all the stories of bucks going crazy during rutting season, adding fangs to the picture would just up the death toll of any unfortunate enough to get in their way.  So frankly I think we all owe Rabbit a bag of yellow apples and our never-ending gratitude.

Deer with a coyote (maybe wolf) mouth.