The Dodo proposes the Caucus-Race in Lewis Carroll’s *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*.
The scene follows Alice’s plunge into a pool of tears, which leaves her and several animals soaked. The Dodo announces that the best way to get dry is a Caucus-Race. There is deliberately no conventional course, starting signal, finish line, or clear winner: participants run in whatever direction they choose and stop whenever they like. The Dodo then declares that everyone has won.
The character also has a biographical connection. In the original boating-party story, Alice Liddell appears as Alice, her sisters Lorina and Edith become the Lory and Eaglet, and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth becomes the Duck. The Dodo represents Carroll himself, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
A common mix-up comes from later adaptations, especially Disney’s 1951 film, where the Dodo becomes a more prominent organizer and recurring character. In Carroll’s book, however, the Dodo is the bird who proposes the race.