The record-union., 1896-05-13
TOAD LORE.
Superstitious in Regard to the Little
Reptiles.

There is a mysterious connection be-
tween toads and warts. This is known
| across the Atlantic, where, in New Eng
land, they say that one who kills a
toad will have as many warts as the
victim has spots. Toads are used for
the cure of warts by American boys,
who operate by rubbing the trouble
some eXcrescenceS against one of the
unfortunate reptiles impaled on a sharp
stick. Live toads, or their limbs, con-
fined in bag worn round the neck, as
described by Sir Kenelm Digby, were
good for quinsy, would stop bleeding at
the nose, and, above all, were a most
valuable remedy for kings evil or scrof-
ula- A belief in the efficacy of a live
toad in cases of scrofula is still widely
held in the west of England. Not many
years ago a certain cunning man"
used to hold an annual meeting at Stall
bridge, in DorSetShire, which was local
ly known as the Toad Fair" because
the quack sold, at no cheap rate, legs
torn from the bodies of living toads,
which, when placed in bags and worn
around the neck, were reckoned as
sovereign remedies for scrofula, and for
those who had been "overlooked' or
bewitched. These toad doctors" used
to travel about the country dispensing
these abominable and cruelty obtained
remedies to the credulous sufferers
from kings evil" Seven shillings was
common price asked for a bag con-
tanning one of these limbs, price that
must have been very profitable to the
doctor
A less cruel method sometimes adop-
ted by the scrofulous or those suffering
from glandular swellings, was to en-
close a live toad in bag, and hang it
up in a room, in the faith that as the
toad died and wasted away, SO the dis
ease would depart or the swelling be
reduced. This, however, must have re-
quired an unusual degree of faith, for
the toad might continue to live in it's
bag for quite an unconscionable time,
without a thought of dying to oblige the
sufferer. There are many stories told
Of toads having been found alive at
great depths in the earth, enclosed in
blocks of coal, or in solid stone, where
according to some legends, they must
have remained without light or air for
countless ages. But although many of
these stories are somewhat mythical,
it is an undoubted fact that the toad
can sustain life for considerable periods
without access to air. Experiments
have been made with toads by enclosing
them in boxes which, again, were en-
cased in thick mortar or other material
which effectually excluded all air; and,
| after many months, when the mortar
had been broken away, and the boxes
opened, the toads have been found
within, still alive, and apparently little
the worse for their prolonged incarcera-
| ton.
One undoubted vulgar error about
the toad may be mentioned in conclu-
sion, and that is the old belief that there
are no toads in Ireland. 1t was said
that when St. Patrick cleared the Emer-
aid Isle Of snakes, he also banished for
ever all toads. Shakespeare makes
Richard Ill" allude to the belief in the
lines:
Now for our Irish wars;
We must supplant those rough rug-headed
kerns,
Which live like venom where no venom else
But only they have privilege to live.
But despite this poetic Endorsement
of ST. Patrick's claim, the story or be-
lief must be classed as a vulgar error,
for in many parts Of Ireland toads are
to be met with, just as in other coun-
tries with patron saints of less anti
reptilian putation.-Chambers Jour-
nal.