Bite or Smite

Bite or Smite

Rabbit was playing on a ledge at the second bend of the Hillsborough River when he saw a gator swimming by. Rabbit picked up a rock and tossed it at the gator and had a big laugh when it bounced off the gator’s back. There was an old turtle sunning on a log nearby. He stuck out his neck, looked up at rabbit and warned “Stay away from that gator, rabbit. By bite or smite, it'll get you.” Rabbit laughed at the turtle because he knew he was smarter than any gator. So, rabbit got the biggest rock he could find and rolled it right up to the ledge and teased the gator over by dangling his feet. When the gator came over, rabbit rolled that rock off the ledge and it fell right on the gator’s head knocking it out cold. Rabbit was so proud of himself he got down in the water raised up that gator's head and smiled at the turtle. Well, it turns out it was no ordinary gator, it had an second head growing right next to the first one. It had been hiding under water and, with a splash, it gobbled rabbit right up. Turtle just watched, shook his head and said “I told that rabbit, by bite or smite, it'll get him and, by the looks of it, smite got to do the eating today."

Bite or Smite is an old Tampa folktale recorded by R. Perez and A.L. Lopez in 1930 during their research on local superstitions for the Federal Writers’ Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Florida