REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 249 



In his time people who drew the line at frogs put oysters 

 and snails too at the far side of it ; ' so voluntarily de- 

 priving themselves of three great pleasures/ says De la 

 KeyniSre. But the brave have shown the way to oysters, 

 and snails and frogs are now eaten in all parts of France 

 where vines flourish or have flourished, and reeds grow 

 in ponds. 



" There are many ways of cooking a frog, or rather the 

 only joints of him that are eaten — namely, his hind-legs, 

 to which a portion of the back is left attached, chiefly to 

 hold those limbs together. Old Simon's way is as good 

 as any. The edible portions should first be thrown into 

 plenty of fresh cold water to blanch ; next, they should 

 be drained and dried; then put to soak awhile in white 

 of eggs well beaten up ; now powder them over with 

 flour ; and finally fry them in plenty of fine olive- oil 

 until they are crisp as 'the whitebait of the Minister, 

 that treasure of the sea,' and the bones are changed into 

 something so rich and strange that they melt in the 

 mouth. Add a lemon, red pepper, brown bread and 

 butter, to complete ' the loaves and fishes ' illusion, and 

 say if a ' fricassde de grenouilles ' be not much easier to 

 eat than to pronounce, and a species of ' small deer ' by 

 no means to be abandoned to Poor Tom. You can devil 

 them like the ' bait,' too, if you like ; and they make a 

 tip-top curry. Or they fry well in batter ; or you stew 

 them in butter and white wine, with parsley and enough 

 garlic to swear by chopped up fine. But, no matter how 

 they be cooked, they are very pretty eating, and make a 

 delicious entrie — tenderer than the youngest chicken, and 

 still with a flavour and a velvety texture all their own. 

 There is a painful French proverb — 'il n'y a pas de 

 grenouille qui ne trouve son crapaud ' — and it has a 

 dreadful double-edged explanation. It means that there 

 is no girl so — well, so unbeautiful that she cannot find 

 an uglier husband. We put something like it long ago 

 in a much prettier way when, in ' Froggy would a woo- 

 ing go,' we sang, ' A lily-white duck came and gobbled 

 him up.' But, ugly or not, froggy ' eats' well ; as we 



