29: Folktale
Folktale
In the early days of the earth, Rabbit prowled about the land. In these days Rabbit was an eater of meat, and his teeth were sharp. But in these days Rabbit was slow, so he could not catch his prey, for his teeth were large and weighed him down. So Rabbit had to trick his prey.
He would call out, “Who needs a sharp point to cut their food? Come buy it from me!” And a creature would come to him and look in his mouth. “Come closer,” Rabbit would say. “Do not buy before you have inspected the point in detail!” And the creature would step into Rabbit’s mouth, and Rabbit would shut his jaws on it.
This happened until Rabbit had devoured all the slow-witted creatures. Rabbit grew hungry. But he happened upon Fox, whom he had not met.
At this time Fox ate only plants, and had only flat teeth with which to chew them. So Rabbit called to Fox, “Come and buy!” And Fox crept close, but not close enough for Rabbit to shut his jaws on him. He looked at Rabbit’s teeth, which were indeed sharp. But he said, “I do not believe your teeth are sharp! They are as flat as mine!” And Rabbit sneered and gnashed his teeth to show that they were sharp. “See,” said Fox, “your teeth do not even cut your mouth!” And Rabbit scoffed, and bit his tongue until it bled.
“Oh no!” cried Rabbit. “Oh no!” cried Fox. “Your teeth are too sharp! You must let me save you!” And quick as lightning, Fox pulled the teeth from Rabbit’s mouth. Rabbit, in pain from his biting, could not stop Fox.
Fox put Rabbit’s sharp teeth in his mouth, and he chased poor Rabbit across the woods. But Rabbit was much lighter now, and he could just outrun Fox. So to this day, Fox chases Rabbit, crying “Come! Come try these sharp teeth!” And to this day, Rabbit says nothing back.
Last weekend I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Next to the medieval arms and armor they put a couple dozen bifaces, or ancient hand-axes. Ancient. The one below may be up to 700,000 years old.
Homo sapiens is about 300,000 years old.
Looking at this tool that’s older than the species I’m in, myself and all the other ancient wonders dwarfed by its archaic presence, I thought, does the museum need so many bifaces? I mean, we get it.