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EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



Part V 



The Indians of western British Columbia carved them on totem poles believing 

 that they would prevent the destruction of the poles. They held frogs wise and 

 helpful to man and beast. The great Thunderbird of the Haida Indians had 

 two large frogs in his celestial kingdom whose duty it was to croak loudly, to 

 give warning of the approach of strangers. The Thunderbird tops the totem 

 pole and the frog gazes upward from below. Humanity's use of totems, very 

 often animals, began before history and still flourishes, with the American 

 eagle and the British lion among them. 



Fig. 34.26. Blanket border of frogs from a drawing by Chief Charlie Edensaw, 

 Haida Indian. Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C. (From Amphibians of 

 British Cohimbia by C. C. Carl. Victoria, British Columbia, Provincial Museum, 

 1950.) 



