98 OUR REPTILES. 



race of animals won for itself an inalienable place 

 in poesy ; and, beginning with fable and with riddles, 

 runs through the whole of song. 



The Koran relates of Mohammed that he knew 

 how to appreciate these despised animals, for that 

 he caused them to be respected for having saved 

 Abraham from a fiery death. When the Chaldeans 

 had thrown the patriarch into the flames, in order 

 to kill him, frogs came compassionately to the 

 rescue, spat water into the fire, and extinguished it. 



We have not adverted to two very extraordinary 

 phenomena attributed to these animals. If the 

 frequency with which accounts of these events 

 illustrate the columns of our newspaper press may 

 be accepted as proof of their verity, then there are 

 no mysteries of Batrachian life so true as " showers 

 of frogs," and live frogs or toads found embedded in 

 coal, limestone, granite, &c, immured for ages, or 

 since times contemporaneous with the patriarch 

 Noah. We know it is not philosophic to deny, 

 because we cannot explain, any of the marvellous 

 things recorded of sea-serpents, buried toads, or 

 frog-showers ; nevertheless we will venture to doubt, 

 whilst believing that future generations will, one 

 day, set these matters at rest, beyond the possibility 

 of doubt. It would be folly to deny that there are 

 still very many estimable people in existence who 

 believe in showers of frogs : perhaps a still larger 



