How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Kehaar's speech was so outlandish and distorted at the best of times that it was only too common for the rabbits to be unsure what he meant. The vernacular words which he used now for "iron" and "road" (familiar enough to seagulls) his listeners had scarcely ever heard. Kehaar was quick to impatience and now, as often, they felt at a disadvantage in the face of his familiarity with a wider world than their own. (23.169)
Kehaar has an almost human-level of knowledge about the world: he knows about boats and bullets and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even railroads (the "iron road"). But when the rabbits hear "iron road," they have no idea what he's talking about. (And when they see a railroad, they think they're seeing a supernatural force from Frith. That's yet another reminder that rabbits are pretty new to this whole exploration thing.
Quote #8
Then there was their sense of mischief. All rabbits love to trespass and steal and when it comes to the point very few will admit that they are afraid to do so […]. (30.1)
Okay, let's try to get this straight: on one hand, rabbits are scared of everything new, but on the other hand, they love to do a little breaking-and-entering (usually of gardens). How can creatures that are so fearful also love to explore and get into trouble so much? We're calling a technical foul on this.
Quote #9
Although there was no enemy or other danger to be perceived, they felt the apprehension and doubt of those who have come unawares upon some awe-inspiring place where they themselves are paltry fellows of no account. When Marco Polo came at last to Cathay, seven hundred years ago, did he not feel—and did his heart not falter as he realized—that this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its being all the years of his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it? That it was in need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe? That it was full of wonders beyond his understanding? That his arrival was a matter of no importance whatever? We know that he felt these things, and so has many a traveler in foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find. There is nothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelous place where no one even stops to notice that you stare about you. (33.13)
Sure, the rabbits might be simple—they don't even know what a railroad or a 401K account is—but in their own way, they're experiencing something comparable to the great explorers of all time. In the future, instead of playing the pool game Marco Polo, rabbits will probably play Hazel-rah. (Well, they'll play El-ahrairah still, but incorporate Hazel's stories into that game.) Too bad that a lot of exploration is about realizing how big the world is and how tiny and vulnerable you are (especially if you're a rabbit).