THE TOAD AS TRAVELLER 91 
motionless on my knee like a toad carved out of a 
piece of black stone with two yellow gems for 
eyes. 
After helping him to a dinner, I took him off my 
knee with a little trouble, as he squatted close 
down, desiring to stay where he was, and putting 
him back among the small flowers to get more flies 
for himself if he could, I went on my way. 
It is easy to establish friendly relations with 
these lowly creatures, amphibious and reptiles, by 
a few gentle strokes with the finger-tips on the 
back. Shortly after my adventure with this toad 
I was visiting a naturalist friend, who told me of 
an adventure he had had with a snake. He was 
out walking with his wife near his home among the 
Mendips when they spied the snake basking in the 
sun on the turf, and at the same moment the snake 
saw them and began quietly gliding away. But 
they succeeded in overtaking and capturing it, 
and, although it was a large snake and struggled 
violently to escape, they soon quieted it down by 
stroking its back with their fingers. They kept 
and played with it for half an hour, then put it 
down, whereupon it went away, but quite slowly, 
almost as if reluctant to leave them. 
So far this was a common experience; I have 
tamed many grass-snakes in the same way, and the 
only smooth snake I have ever captured in England 
was made tame in about ten minutes by holding 
it on my knee and stroking it. In the instance 
related by my friend, it would appear that the 
