CurseFamous
Don't say rabbit
Mind your words on Portland.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Quarried limestone island with sculpture park
- Legend from
- Island superstition
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Never say the word. Call it underground mutton.
On Portland the word 'rabbit' is unlucky. Islanders call them 'underground mutton', 'long-eared furry things' or 'bunnies'. Wikipedia notes there is no record of the belief before the 1920s, but it is believed to come from quarrymen, who saw rabbits leave their burrows just before rockfalls and blamed them. The BBC reported that quarrymen would go home if they saw one. In 2005 posters for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit were changed on the island, and the Guardian and BBC both covered it.