FROGS, BOYS, AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 191 



ming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the wall-newt, 

 and the water," The Frenchmen are more partic- 

 ular, and if a frog is not a " red-legger " it is not 

 salable to them. 



So are the boys driven to using their eyes in 

 picking out their wares, for it would be a sorry 

 thing indeed to carry the wrong objects several 

 miles and then be met with a flat denial of money 

 in return for them. 



It is said that the old, bald, wrinkled Paul of 

 Russia, who was so ugly that he did not dare put 

 his countenance on his coin, issued a proclamation 

 prohibiting, under penalty of killing by the knout, 

 any one of his subjects from making use of the 

 expression " bald," in speaking of the head, or 

 " snubbed," in referring to the nose. And, more- 

 over, the same gentleman, with the characteristic 

 fear of the Czars, forbade the academy to use the 

 word " revolution " in speaking of the courses of 

 the stars. 



I suppose there are tabooed subjects of conver- 

 sation with all persons, and I should think that 

 the special objects to be avoided in conversing 

 with frogs would be u boys " and " Frenchmen." 



A little Portuguese boy that I found several 

 days after my conversation with the boy who had 

 the dogs gave me a much more moderate estimate 

 of the length of water -snakes than the former 

 boy had given. The little Portuguese said that 

 the snakes went " down in the mud." 



OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



