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Mythological
Toad. [
Click
for a larger image.]
Illustration by Khristine Anja Page.
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In the twilight,
you leave your hut and head out into the forest, perhaps to draw water
from the pond, perhaps for a last handful of fallen wood for the fire.
Darkness falls. Suddenly, all around you, the forest springs alive with
voices: trilling, croaking, muttering. Voices are everywhere, yet you
see nothing. What are these voices in the woods?
Morning arrives. You walk
to the pond again. As you bend down to the water to wash, a flash of
motion catches your eye -- splash! Something quick and green disappears
into the water. As you stare, wondering, you realize that a pair of
bright eyes are observing you. A creature, hidden below the water, is
watching. Who, or what, is this spirit of the lake?
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Frogs and toads have shared
the world with humans as far back as our species' memory extends.
With their huge eyes, their quadrupedal bodies, their love of and
need for water, and their eerie voices, frogs and toads are both distinctly
alien to humans and uncannily like us. Cultures the world over and
throughout history have sought stories to explain these creatures
who share our world; in almost every case, the amphibians become creatures
distinctly human, and yet possessed of unusual powers. They are inhabitants
of the secret natural world, initiates into powers we can only guess
at.
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