THE TOAD AS TRAVELLER 91 



motionless on my knee like a toad carved out of a 

 piece of black stone with two yellow gems for 

 eyes. 



After helping him to a dinner, I took him off my 

 knee with a little trouble, as he squatted close 

 down, desiring to stay where he was, and putting 

 him back among the small flowers to get more flies 

 for himself if he could, I went on my way. 



It is easy to establish friendly relations with 

 these lowly creatures, amphibious and reptiles, by 

 a few gentle strokes with the finger-tips on the 

 back. Shortly after my adventure with this toad 

 I was visiting a naturalist friend, who told me of 

 an adventure he had had with a snake. He was 

 out walking with his wife near his home among the 

 Mendips when they spied the snake basking in the 

 sun on the turf, and at the same moment the snake 

 saw them and began quietly gliding away. But 

 they succeeded in overtaking and capturing it, 

 and, although it was a large snake and struggled 

 violently to escape, they soon quieted it down by 

 stroking its back with their fingers. They kept 

 and played with it for half an hour, then put it 

 down, whereupon it went away, but quite slowly, 

 almost as if reluctant to leave them. 



So far this was a common experience ; I have 

 tamed many grass-snakes in the same way, and the 

 only smooth snake I have ever captured in England 

 was made tame in about ten minutes by holding 

 it on my knee and stroking it. In the instance 

 related by my friend, it would appear that the 



