NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 393 



which alone can ensure the tenderness of the joint, should 

 be without the following bit of the toad's skeleton — 



' They affirm also that there is one little bone in their 

 right side, which, if it be thrown into a pan of seething 

 water, the vessel will cool presently, and boil no more 

 until it be taken forth again. Now this bone (say they) 

 is found by this means: If a man take one of these vene- 

 mous frogs or toads, and cast it into a nest of ants, for to 

 be eaten and devoured by them, and look when they have 

 gnawed away the flesh to the very bones, each bone, one 

 after another, is to be put into a kettle seething upon the 

 fire, and so it will soon be known which is the bone, by 

 the effect aforesaid. There is another such like bone (by 

 their saying) in the left side; cast it into the water that 

 hath done seething, it will come to boil and Avallow again. 

 This bone (forsooth) is called Apocynon; and why so? 

 Because y-ivis, there is not a thing more powerful to 

 appease and repress the violence and furie of curst dogs 

 than it.' 



While some have proclaimed the toad as the most 

 poisonous of animals, others have denied it any noxious 

 qualities whatever. 



According to JElian, death not only lurked in its 

 breath, but its very aspect killed, so that the basilisk had 

 in it a potent rival. ' The precious jewel in its head' 

 was considered to be the redeeming qviality in the ' ugly 

 and venomous' creature. This jewel was not its brilliant 

 and beavitiful eye, which the earthy croaker was said to 

 have exchanged with the heavenly lark,* but a stone well 



* The love-sick Juliet exclaims : — 



' It is the larke that sings so out of tune, 

 Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. 

 Some say the larke makes sweet division ; 

 This doth not so : for she divideth us. 

 Some say the larke and loatlied toad change eyes^ 

 O now I would they had chang'd voices too.' 



's3 



