The Black Rabbit of Inle and His Journey to Midcommon: Culminating Activity

Written By: George Ciuca

Teacher: Pres. Maria Koulianos

Class: Great British Classics – Level 5

Issue: Set to Appear in the December Issue of the Newsletter

I watch my empire every day, always growing. The dead greet me as I walk bye, and I
great them just as well. One day Frith came to visit me, he doesn’t usually come because he so
busy. He looks at me strait in the eye and said” Black Rabbit of Inle, do you feel your kingdom is
getting too crowded.” I looked at him and answered with a simple yes. Frith looked at me “do
you know why?” I told him that I did not know why my kingdom was overflowing with the dead.
He looked at me very solemn “well the human beans are getting too powerful, with their sticks
that scream and blast out lead, one scream and the rabbit dies in the ground.” He looked out at
my kingdom,” this is a big game for them; they are mocking us, laughing that we fall so easily.
They hunt so many of us, I want you to go to the midcommon (earth) and find out how bad this
is.”

As I left, El-ahrairah and Hazel met me at the gate and told me that they were
assigned under me by Firth. As we entered the midcommon, we smelled a dark smoke burning
our noses. We could easily smell the dead corpse, reeking of lead .What had been beautiful
warrens, with plenty of grass and playing rabbits was now a “road”. We found the ruins of a
warren and inside of it a rabbit, just waiting. The rabbit looked at me then at Hazel and said
“are you here to take over the warren.” I looked at him and said “no, we’re just passing by,
what happened here.” The rabbit told me of how the man came with their sticks and killed
many rabbits. He told me it was because the humans had hunted the other warrens that they
kept pushing deeper into the woods, and destroying the other warrens. I asked the rabbit “why
would the human hunt us?” The rabbit responded “they do it for all sorts of reasons such as our
furs, they wear them like trophies or they are hungry and we’re the first thing they see. The
worst part is that they make it a tradition, they teach their children how to use the sticks and
how to use the dogs to find us.” Hazel looked uncomfortable, and asked El-ahrairah if we could
leave.

As we left we the rabbit bid us goodbye, and our journey continued. We entered the
woods, and it smelled of dogs and lead. As we continued, we ran into a fox by mistake and as
he looked at us he ignored us. Hazel asked if the fox was going to eat them. The fox looked up
and said “I won’t eat you little morsels, I hunt for dogs. Ever since the men came they disrupted
the forest.” Hazel asked “how so? “The fox looked at Hazel” the humans have disrupted the
food chain, I haven’t seen a rabbit in years, some say they have left this earth for good and they
are never returning, others say that they have left to learn the ways of the raccoon.” El-ahrairah
looked at Hazel “what’s a raccoon.” Hazel responded “it’s like a big rat.” The fox said that he
had to learn how to hunt dogs and eat them. The fox said that he would love to eat a chicken
but he didn’t want to die by the man’s screaming stick.

I decided that we should visit a farm and ask the animal’s opinion. As we got there we
met a horse, and asked him about the death of rabbits by the screaming stick. The horse looked
at us “The stick is called a gun, its deadly to all animals, not just rabbits. My human told me that
someday there will be a law, which is the human way of saying a rule, which will tell all the
other humans that they shouldn’t hunt rabbits all the time. Some humans protect the rabbits
and try to build forests that will have no humans hunt there, so if you wait a bit maybe you live
to tell the story to your grandchildren.” This gave me hope that not all humans are bad, and
some want to help the rabbits.

As the journey ended and we head back to Frith, we were reminded that humans cause
destruction, but some can rebuild what others destroyed. As we met Frith we told him of our
journey and that we must tell rabbits to go to the places where no hunters came to hunt. Frith
seemed both pleased and relieved. Hazel and El-ahrairah said good bye to me, and I went back
to my throne and looked over my kingdom.