changing them indeed, swallowed them off! 

 Three great gulps more and the suit shirt, 

 shoes, stockings, and all disappeared. Then 

 Hyla winked, drew his clean sleeve across his 

 mouth, and settled back with the very air of one 

 who has magnificently sent away the waiter with 

 the change. 



Four days later Hyla ate up this new suit. I 

 saw the entire operation this time. It was al- 

 most a case of surgery. He pulled the skin over 

 his head and neck with his fore feet as if it were 

 a shirt, then crammed it into his mouth ; kicked 

 it over his back next ; worked out his feet and 

 legs ; then ate it off as before. The act was ac- 

 complished with difficulty, and would have been 

 quite impossible had not Hyla found the most 

 extraordinary of tongues in his head. Next to 

 the ability to speak Russian with the tongue 

 comes the power to skin one's self with it. The 

 tree-toad cannot quite croak Russian, but he can 

 skin himself with his tongue. Unlike ours, his 

 tongue is hung at the front end, with the free 

 end forked and pointing toward his stomach. 

 When my little captive had crammed his mouth 

 full of skin, he stuck this fork of a tongue into it 

 [121] 



