Welsh cuisine roasted cheese led to the dish of Welsh rarebit, or Welsh rabbit, seasoned melted cheese poured over toasted bread. The cheese would need to be a harder one, such as cheddar or similar. Referred to as Welsh rabbit as early as 1725, the name is not similar to the Welsh term "caws pobi". Welsh folk rarely ate rabbit due to the cost and as land owners would not allow rabbit hunting, so the term is more likely a slur on the Welsh. The name evolved from rabbit to rarebit, possibly to remove the slur from Welsh cuisine or due to
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend a person would associate with having nightmares. McCay's most famous character, Little Nemo, first appeared in the first year of "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend", on December 10, 1904. In 1905, McCay had Nemo appear in his own strip in the "New York Herald". In comparison to "Little Nemo", the artwork of the "Rarebit Fiend" strips had minimal backgrounds, and were usually done from a static perspective with the main characters often in a fixed position. The content of "Rarebit Fiend" played a much bigger role than it did in "Little Nemo", whose focus was on beautiful visuals. The stories