SEVEN-YEAR SLEEPEES 87 



naturally give rise to the familiar myth. Throw in a little 

 allowance for human credulity, human exaggeration, and 

 human love of the marvellous, and you have all the elements 

 of a very excellent toad-in-the-hole in the highest ideal 

 perfection. 



At the same time I think it quite possible that some 

 toads, under natural circumstances, do really remain in a 

 torpid or semi-torpid condition for a period far exceeding 

 the twenty-four months allowed as the maximum in Dr. 

 Buckland's unpleasant experiments. If the amount of air 

 supplied through a crack or through the texture of the 

 stone were exactly sufficient for keeping the animal alive 

 in the very slightest fashion the engine working at the 

 lowest possible pressure, short of absolute cessation I see 

 no reason on earth why a toad might not remain dormant, 

 in a moist place, with perhaps a very occasional worm or 

 grub for breakfast, for at least as long a time as the desert 

 snail slept comfortably in the British Museum. Altogether, 

 while it is impossible to believe the stories about toads that 

 have been buried in a mine for whole centuries, and still 

 more impossible to believe in their being disentombed from 

 marble mantelpieces or very ancient geological formations 

 it is quite conceivable that some toads-in-a-hole may really 

 be far from mere vulgar impostors, and may have passed the 

 traditional seven years of the Indian philosophers in solitary 

 meditation on the syllable Om, or on the equally significant 

 Ko-ax, Ko-ax of the irreverent Attic dramatist. ' Certainly 

 not a centenarian, but perhaps a good seven-year sleeper for 

 all that,' is the final verdict which the court is disposed to 

 return, after due consideration of all the probabilities in re 

 the toad-in-a-hole. 



