Oban's Myths & Legends
Spider, Hare and the Moon
Origin Unknown - Retold by Roby & Fran Hall
West Sussex England
Moon was sad. She had spent many years looking at the people on Earth and she saw that they were afraid. They were afraid of dying. To make them feel better she decided to call on her friend Spider to take a message to them.
"Spider", She said, "The people of Earth are afraid of dying and that makes me very sad. Please tell them that they will all die sooner or later but it is nothing to be scared of."
So Spider slowly made his way back to Earth, carefully picking his way down on moonbeams and sunbeams. On his way he met Hare.
"Where are you going Spider?", said Hare.
"I am going to give the people of Earth a message from Moon.", he said.
"Oh, you'll be far too long. Tell me the message and I'll take it there for you", replied Hare.
"OK! Moon wants the people of Earth to know that they will all die......", Spider started.
"Right! Tell the people of Earth that they will all die", said Hare. And with that, Hare disappeared off to Earth.
Spider gloomily made his way back to Moon and told Her what had happened. Moon was very cross with Hare and when he came back to tell them that he had given them the message, she hit him on the nose! And that is why to this day, the Hare has a split lip.
"You had better take the message yourself", said Moon to Spider.
And to this day, Spider is still carefully carrying Moon's message and spinning the web in the corner of our rooms - but how many of us listen?
The End
