THE FROGS. 



117 



bass voiced patriarchs of the tribe have dispersed to many 

 secluded water-holes, or perhaps have buried themselves 

 in the mud, and even the nimble small fry, skimming with 

 many a hop, skip, and jump along the surface of the water, 

 have much ado to save their lives from the fierce fish and 

 the remorseless dJidman below, not to speak of the glut- 

 tonous heron above. Of course imagination can body 

 forth the vulgar forms of frogs, even when they are un- 

 seen, and unheard, too, but it is not the same thing. They 

 may stand out as clearly before the mind's eye, but they 

 do not touch the feelings in the same way, and when the 

 feelings are cold the vital principle of all eloquence is 

 wanting. Were the rain at this moment dripping from 

 the roof and gushing from the waterspout, and a concert 

 of a hundred bassoons from the flooded paddy-field sound- 

 ing in my ears, I could write on frogs. 



I believe the observations of " Sarus " are vitiated by 

 the common mistake of confounding things which differ 

 toto cceio from each other. To take, for instance, the frog, 

 which he found on the top of a door, it is obvious that 

 everything turns on the question : Had it, or had it not 

 little round pellets on the points of its toes ? If it had 

 not, then it ought to have been bottled in spirits, and sent 



