Is the Frog a Native of Irclimd ? r 



of the general prejudice againt them and kindred animals. 

 The history of Giraldus contains frequent allusions to the 

 supposed sacred quality of the soil and air of Ireland, which 

 was believed not only to render the existence of poisonous 

 animals impossible, but even caused all poisons brought here 

 to become innocuous. We may certainly believe the people 

 to have done their utmost to support this belief so agreeable 

 to their pride of country, and which helped to bring pilgrims 

 (the tourists of that time !) to the ''Isle of Saints." 



Giraldus, in the passage quoted, states that the Frog is not 

 venomous, but the scene described by him, and his remarks 

 elsewhere, tend to the belief that frogs, as well as toads, were 

 generally held to be poisonous by the Irish. 



It may indeed be that most people were really ignorant of 

 their existence in the countr>^ I venture to think that many 

 people would deny at the present day that toads live in Ire- 

 land, and 3'et they are plentiful about Dingle Bay. Water- 

 fowl also were then much more plentiful, as the countr>' was 

 more thinly inhabited, and these birds, in pools and marshes 

 which they now do not frequent, would keep down frogs. 



Authorities differ as to whether there is an Irish name 

 for the Frog, Dr. Hyde informing me that there is none, 

 and that the word for "frog" used in the Irish translation of the 

 Bible, which was made about the jxar 1620-50, is "losgan," a 

 Scotch Gaelic word, not in use in any part of Ireland now, 

 while Dr. Joyce says that the word now used is "cnadan" which 

 is not a very ancient one. This might be explained by the 

 supposition that frogs and other of the lower animals, not being 

 hunted or useful for food, w^ere, in ancient times, spoken of 

 collectively under a name uniting them all, such as ''worms," 

 just as many people now-a-days speak of snails and kindred 

 invertebrates as "insects " Dr. Frazer kindly pointed out to 

 me that there is a frog sculptured on the Drumcliffe cross in 

 Co. Sligo, which dates from about the nth century. There 

 is a drawing of this interesting cross in his wonderful col- 

 lection of sketches, made principally by himself, of Irish 

 antiquities. However, I attach no special importance to this 

 figure in aiding the present enquiry into the origin of the Frog 

 in Ireland, and we must search for something more tangible 

 to prove its presence there in ancient times. 



One of the most convincing proofs of an animal's existence 



