Tuesday 24 September 2013

A very strange frog indeed...


 We have found a very strange frog in amongst our lettuces, it has been living in the raised beds all summer hiding under the lettuce plants. The strange thing is the colour; it is bright yellow! I was thinking that perhaps it was just camouflaging itself but it is such a lurid colour that it is quite a puzzle.

This is what it is supposed to look like..
So I have googled it and found that it might be an albino, these have yellow skin and red eyes. So I am off to the veggie patch to see if I can catch him and look into his eyes! and perhaps get a pic as well.

Frogs and toads feature prominently in magical folklore in many societies. These amphibious creatures are known for a variety of magical properties, from their ability to help predict the weather, to curing warts to bringing good luck.
In parts of Appalachia, it is believed that if you hear a frog croaking exactly at midnight, it means rain is on the way. However, in some societies it’s just the opposite - frogs croaking during the day indicate coming storms.

  • There’s an old British legend that carrying a dried frog in a pouch around your neck will prevent epileptic seizures. In some rural areas, it’s just the frog’s liver that gets dried and worn.
  • Live frogs appear in a number of folk cures. It is believed that putting a live frog in your mouth will cure thrush, and that swallowing live frogs - presumably small ones - can cure whooping cough and tuberculosis. Rubbing a live frog or toad on a wart will cure the wart, but only if you impale the frog on a tree and let him die.
  • Some cultures believe that a frog coming into your house brings good luck - others say it’s bad luck - the Xhosa tribe says that a frog in your house might be carrying a spell or a curse. Either way, it’s usually considered a bad idea to kill a frog. The Maori people believe that killing a frog can bring floods and heavy rains, but some African tribes say that the death of a frog will bring drought.
  • For the ancient Egyptians, the frog-headed goddess Hekt was a symbol of fertility and birth. If you wish to conceive, touch a frog. The association of the frog with fertility has its root in science - each year, when the Nile river flooded its banks, frogs were everywhere. The annual flooding of the delta meant rich soil and strong crops - so the croaking of millions of frogs may well have been an indicator that farmers would have an abundant season.
  • Frogs have only been in Ireland for a few hundred years, since students from Trinity College released them into the wild. However, there are still some frog folktales in Ireland, including that you can tell the weather by the color of a frog. ( I wonder what bright yellow means?)
  • Ranidaphobia is the fear of frogs and toads.

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