The Tuneful Frog. 95 



" Ne let th* unpleasant quyre of frogs still croking 

 Make us to wish theyr choking." 



"Dutch nightingales" is a popular nickname of these 

 loquacious amphibians, and Allan Ramsay derisively rallies 

 the Hollanders upon their songsters. 



Elegant Paris, however, has a better claim to these mud- 

 larks, as I may call them. For three frogs once formed 

 the civic device of Lutetia "the mud-land " 



"Where stagnant pools and quaking bogs 

 Swarmed, croaked, and crawled with hordes of frogs ; " 



but in Clovis' time the grenouille was "miraculously " trans- 

 figured into the fleur-de-lis, one product of the marshes thus 

 supplanting the other upon the banner and shield of France. 

 The truth, perhaps, is that about that time our neighbours 

 discovered what excellent eating their national device was, 

 and not caring to emblazon that which they cooked, they 

 promoted the frog from their oriflamme to their stew-pans. 

 The Moon-folk, however, had anticipated them, for, so 

 Lucian avers, "they used but one kind of food." "There 

 are," he says, " great multitudes of frogs flying about in the 

 air ; these they catch, and, lighting a fire, cook them upon 

 the coals ; and while the frogs are a-cooking they sit round 

 the fire, just as men sit round a table and swallow the 

 smoke, thinking it indeed to be the finest thing in the 

 world." 



" Soulless " is a good epithet (of Mackay's) for the croak 

 of the creature, as any one who has listened long to their un- 

 meaning clamour will confess, but I like Moore's humorous 

 rendering of its significance none the less : 



" Those frogs whose legs a barbarous cook 

 Cut off, and left the frogs in the brook 

 To cry all night, till life's last dregs, 

 1 Give us our legs Give us our legs.' " 



Any translation of the sound that makes sense of it com- 



