The "Trickster" figure plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. Rabbits and hares are both good and bad in trickster tales found all the way from Asia and Africa to North America. In the Panchatantra tales of India, for example, Hare is a wily trickster whose cleverness and cunning is pitted against Elephant and Lion, while in Tibetan folktales, quick-thinking Hare outwits the ruses of predatory Tiger. In Japan, the fox is the primary trickster animal, but hares too are clever, tricky characters. Usually depicted as male (whereas fox tricksters are most often female), hares in Japanese folktales tend to be crafty, clownish, mischievous figures — as opposed to fox tricksters (kitsune), who are more seductive, secretive, and dangerous. In West Africa, many tribal cultures, such as the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Wolof of Senegal, have traditional story cycles about an irrepressible hare trickster who is equal parts rascal, clown, and culture hero. In one pan–African story, the Moon sends Hare, her divine messenger, down to earth to give mankind the gift of immortality. "Tell them," she says, "that just as the Moon dies and rises again, so shall you." But Hare, in the role of trickster buffoon, manages to get the message wrong, bestowing mortality instead and bringing death to the human world. The Moon is so angry, she beats Hare with a stick, splitting his nose (as it remains today). It is Hare’s role to lead the dead to the Afterlife in penance for what he’s done.
- Source: http://www.cronemagick.com/The-Symbolism-of-Rabbits-and-Hares_c_1174.html
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