Photo by Martin Pettitt
A long time ago, in the center of Pietermaritzburg, not far away from my house, there was a big general market where besides fresh fruit and vegetables, they also sold small animals like pigeons and rabbits.
One early morning my dad and I decided to go and have a look at this market without the intention of buying anything. We went past the stand where they were bidding for two rabbits. The animals were somewhat big with a black head and a white body. Although the price was very low nobody wanted to buy them. So my dad lifted up his hand and before he knew it the rabbits were his.
They gave them to us in a cardboard box so we could carry them home easily. When my father told me that we would be eating the rabbits I thought he was joking. When we got home he prepared all the knives needed for slaughtering the poor animals to be cooked.
My father, being a butcher of trade knew very well how to slaughter them. To skin the rabbits he asked for the native girl who worked for us to help him. She accepted willingly to give a hand with whatever had to be done. She helped pull the skin off the animals’ bodies, then she rubbed salt into the inside of the skins, and stretched them out in the sun on the garage roof to dry. Later the skins would be hung on the wall. The two rabbits landed one in the refrigerator and the other in the freezer.
We ate one the next Sunday. After having prepared it with olive oil, rosemary, other aromatic herbs and potatoes it was roasted in the oven. Needless to say, it was delicious!
After some weeks we had the other for Easter lunch. This one was chopped up in smaller pieces and put into a pot together with olive oil, garlic, black olives, vinegar and white wine, salt and pepper, and last but not least a good sprinkle of rosemary. That is an Italian recipe called “coniglio alla cacciatora”, that is to say “rabbit cooked in the hunter’s way”.
Photo by unit20072007
The following month my father went again to the general market to see if he could find other rabbits. On the way out he took the two skins from the wall because he had promised them to a friend of his. When he came back home he had two new rabbits which looked incredibly just like the first two. They had black heads and white bodies.
When my father called the native girl to help him like she had done before, she looked long and hard at the new rabbits. At first she smiled, then she glanced at the wall where the skins were supposed to have been, but she saw none. So she looked again at the two rabbits and let out a deafening scream. Putting her hands on her head she turned around and ran out of the gate screaming at the top of her voice. We knew she was superstitious but not to that extent. She thought that the two new rabbits were the old rabbits because their skins were missing and that they came to life again to get who knows what revenge.
She came back home later that evening and she was very frightened. My father tried to reassure her and we all went to sleep. The morning after it was clear that she had not slept at all. My mother wanted to give her the day off but she preferred to remain, even though she had a swollen face because of all the crying. For her to work would help her to forget what had happened the day before, but to no avail.
For days we all tried to convince her that the rabbits were two different ones, but she did not believe us.
After many years we still talk about that event and the revenge of the rabbits.
About Mauro
I got my inspiration for this website from the song called “Imagine”, and so I decided to go on this adventure. I have always wanted to put up something like this where my friends and I could express our memories and dreams for the future. Share them with us, because if many people dream the same dream it will certainly come true.
I remember the domestic servant’s response as it was yesterday. She was absolutely convinced that the rabbits had returned. I don’t eat rabbit today but were fed some by mother Pennesi thinking I was eating chicken. Must admit it tasted very good though.