the frog go againe into the water (and spoilt
his singing), apply the said tongue unto the
left pap of a woman whiles she is asleepe, in
the very place where the heart beateth, shee
shall answer truly and directly in her sleepe
to any interrogatione or question that is put
to her." I rather think, when this fact
becomes generally known, that frogs' tongues
will be at a premium, unless there be some
other device for eliciting the true expression
of a lady's mind. "But," continues Pliny,
"the magicians tell more wonders than so of
the frogs, which, if they be true, certes froggs
were more commodious and profitable to a
commonwealth than all the positive written
laws that we have; for they would make us
beleeve, that if the husband take a frogg, and
spit him, as it were, upon a reed—" with
other processes—conjugal infidelity is
henceforward a thing no longer to be feared.
Other marvels are also performed by frogs,
if Pliny's authorities are to be credited:
"Some froggs there bee that live onely among
bushes and hedges, which thereupon wee call
by the name of Rubetæ, and the Greeks term
them Phrynos—the biggest they are of all
others, with two knubs bearing out in their
front, like horns, and full of poyson they bee.
They that write of these toads strive a-vie
who shall write most wonders of them; for
some say that if one of them be brought into
a place of concourse, where people are in
great numbers assembled, they shall all be
husht, and not a word among them. They
affirme also, that there is one little bone in
their right side, which, if it be thrown into a
pan of seething water, the vessel will coole
presently, and boil no more, until it be taken
forth againe. Now this bone (say they) is
found by this means: if a man take one of
these venomous frogs or toads, and cast it
into a nest of ants, for to be eaten and
devoured by them, and looke when they have
gnawed away the flesh to the verie bones,
each bone one after another is to be put into
a kettle seething upon the fire, and it will be
soon knowne which is the bone, by the effect
aforesaid. There is another such like bone
(by their saying) in the left side. Cast it
into the water that hath done seething, it
will seem to boil and waulme againe
presently. This bone (forsooth) is called
Apocynon. And why so? Because ywis there
is not a thing more powerful to appease and
represse the violence and furie of curst dogs
than it. They report, moreover, that it
inciteth unto love; and yet, nathelesse, if a
cup of drinke be spiced therewith, it will
breed debate and quarrels among those that
drinke thereof. . . . Othere there be who
are of opinion that if it bee but worne about
one, either hanging to the necke or fastened
unto any other part of the bodie, enfolded
within a little piece of new lamb's-skin, it
will cure a quartan ague or any other fever
besides. Moreover, they bear us in hand,
that the milt of these toads is a counterpoison
against their own venome; but the head is
much more effectuall." Let oculists consider
the next paragraph: "Take the right eye of a
frogg, lap it within a piece of selfe-russet cloth
(such is made of blacke wooll as it came in
the fleece from the sheepe), and hang it
about the neck; it cureth the right eye, if it
be inflamed or bleared. And if the left eye
be affected, do the like by the contrarie eye
of the said frogg, &c." All frogs, however,
are not such perfect medicines. "A little
frog there is, delights to live most amongst
grass, and in reed plots; mute the same is,
and never croaketh, greene also of colour,
If kine or oxen chance to swallow one of
them down with their grasse, it causeth them,
to swell in the bellie, as if they were dewe-
blowne." Still, as the poet says, "None are
all evil," ex. gr.: "And yet (they say) that if
the slime or moisture wherewith their bodies
be charged outwardly, bee scraped off with
the edge of some pen-knife, it cleareth the
sight, if the eyes bee anointed therewith,
As for the flesh itself, they lay it upon the
eyes to mitigate their paine. Furthermore.
some there are who take fifteen froggs, pricke
them with a rist, and draw the same through
them that they may hang thereto, which
done, they put them into a new earthern pot,
and the humour or moisture that passeth
from them in this manner, they temper with
the juice or liquor which, in manner of a
gum, issueth out of the white vine brionie,
wherewith they keep the eyelids from having
any haires growing upon them. . . . Meges,
the chyrurgian, devised another depilatorie
for to hinder the growing of haires, made of
froggs which hee killed in vinegre, and
permitted them (how kind!) therein to putrefie
and dissolve into moisture; and for this
purpose his manner was to take many fresh
froggs, even as they were engendered in any
rain that fell during the autumn." As
periapts, spells, and charms, frogs were never
kept in the back-ground while a belief in
witchcraft obtained credence, and their occult
virtues were as highly lauded by the adepts
as their simply medicinal properties. The
witches' cauldron wanted some of its most
stimulating ingredients if the component
parts of frogs were absent from it, and "Syr
Cranion," as the frog was called, held a high
place in the esteem of those deluding and
deluded dames.

It would not, perhaps, raise "a party" very
highly in the esteem of a regular sportsman
if the former were to state, that the rod and
line and other fishing apparatus with which
he sallied forth some fine morning in June
were provided solely for the purpose of
catching frogs! And yet this species of
angling finds great favour in France. I
remember once to have witnessed the sport
on a very extensive scale at a country house
in the Chartrain. It was at the Château of
Villebon, near Courville, a place that had
once belonged to the Grand Sully, and had