Fricassee

“ She held her broad browed head erect, the bristles pointed like needles from her blood-streaked muzzle, grit and pluck could be traced in her every movement, and, in her eyes, universal defiance.
Down the dark watercourse she went, twisting her lithe chestnut body S-wise in and out of the coarse grass-clumps. A frog leaped before her. In a flash she had flung herself upon it, her white teeth clicked together in its brain, and she sauntered slowly out of sight, bearing her latest victim in her mouth. It was hideous. To eat vegetables was natural enough, but to eat living, quivering flesh! ”

“ Frosch, masculine, ‘frog,’ from the equivalent Middle High German vrosch, Old High German frosk, masculine; corresponding to Dutch vorsch, Anglo-Saxon forsc (English dialectic frosk) , Old Icelandic froskr, ‘from’; Gothic *frusqa- is by chance not recorded. Before the derivative sk a guttural has dropped out, as is seen in the cognate terms. Anglo-Saxon frogga, English frog, would be in Gothic *frugga (*frugwa?) ; also akin to Anglo-Saxon frocca, earlier English dialectic frock, as well as Old Icelandic fraukr, ‘frog’ (so too Middle English frûte, froute, ‘toad’) . ”

“ The mobility of the black pigment granules of the frog has often struck me as extremely remarkable. Perfect absence of any tendency to aggregate on their part must be fully as essential to the freedom with which they move through the exquisitely delicate ramifications of their containing cells as want of adhesiveness of the blood-corpuscles is to their free transit through the capillaries, and I cannot but think that the two phenomena must be analogous. It may be, for aught we know to the contrary, that the pigment granules may be themselves living entities. ”

“ Every day when Big Mary sat in the sunshine, Freckle Frog crept out from under the rock, and hid in the grass, and watched her. She thought Big Mary was wonderful, but she thought that the blue silk dress and the pink parasol were more wonderful still, and the little soft muff,—that was the most wonderful of all! And poor little Freckle Frog wished that she had a blue silk dress with lace, and a pink parasol like Big Mary. ”

“ The Pharaoh, who from the threshold of his palace beheld this rising tide of frogs with weariness and disgust, crushed as many as he could with the end of his sceptre and pushed back the others with his curved sandals, but his labour was lost; more frogs came no one knew whence, and took the places of the dead, swarming more than they did, croaking more than they did, more loathsome, more uncomfortable, bolder, showing the vertebræ on their backs, staring at him with their big, round eyes, spreading out their webbed feet, wrinkling the white skin of their throats. ”

“ Then the Morning Glory Ladies fluttered with joy, for they loved parties, and they smiled and answered her: "Yes, indeed, we shall come, Little Freckle Frog, and wear our best dresses, too."
Then at last Freckle Frog was perfectly happy, and she laughed to herself and said:
"It really doesn't matter about my being pretty any more, for every one likes me now!" ”

“ In and about among vendors and buyers, and down the white-hot streets, wander blind beggars led by a sheep, often wearing several bells to announce its coming. Many women and children, and some men, wear about their necks a little black hand made of ebony, as a protection against 413the evil eye. The leisurely traveler from the south is struck by the scarcity of African blood; a full negro is almost never seen and the prevailing mixture is Indian with white. The flat head of the Cearense is legendary, and the average complexion is a half-burnished copper. ”

“ Now in the well were some frogs, so the elder sister said: “Sister, do you see these frogs? The name of the Rajah you are about to marry is Dhuddoo, or Frog, and you think that he is a man, but he is, in reality, a frog.” ”

“ Indeed, with the exception of their colour, they bear very little resemblance to the negro,—that is, the thick-lipped, flat-nosed negro of our fancy; for there are negro tribes in Africa whose features are as fine as those of the Feegeeans, or even as our own. In colour of skin the Feegeean is nearly, if not quite, as dark as the negro; but it may be remarked that there are different shades, as there are also among pure Ethiopians. In the Feegee group there are many men of mulatto colour, but these are not of the original Feegee stock. ”

“ The forked tongue is attached in front of the lower jaw, and can be flicked out and back with great rapidity in the capture of the small insects upon which the frog lives. The posterior nares open into the front of the mouth-- there is no long nasal chamber, and no palate, and there is no long trachea between the epiglottis and the lungs. The oesophagus is less distinct, and passes gradually, so far as external appearances go, into the bag-like stomach, which is much less inflated and transverse than that of the rabbit. ”

“ Before leaving the subject I must ask the reader to refer again for a moment to the frog’s foot on Plate X., and to notice the arrangement of the dark pigment spots. It is well known that when frogs live in a clear sandy pond, well exposed to the rays of the sun, their skins are bright yellow, and that when their residence is in a shady locality, especially if sheltered by heavy overhanging banks, they are of a deep blackish-brown colour. Moreover, under the influence of fear they will often change colour instantaneously. The cause of this curious fact is explained by the microscope. ”

“ On the way she passes a negro armed with a cutlass, who lops off the protruding ends of the stem in front of her nose and behind her ears as she walks without so much as arousing a flicker of her drowsy, black eyelids. ”

“ Intermarriage has given them all a striking family resemblance, and it is hours before the newcomer realizes that it is not the same man he has met over and over again, peddling his fish, his goats, or his crude straw hats in the streets of the town, but a score of more or less close relatives. They have preserved their blood pure from the slightest negro strain; but their aloofness has given them a sort of sick-bed pallor, an anemia both of physique and manner, especially among the women, an almost complete loss of teeth, and little power to resist disease. ”

“ My darling, I'd do any mortal thing I could—but I'm helpless! [At this instant Fakrash, in Oriental robe and turban, and a long green cloak, suddenly emerges from the cabinet between the sliding-doors and the door to the hall, and stands scowling and evidently trying to repress both rage and fear. Horace sees him first.] No, I'm not! Hooray! we're saved! He's turned up, after all! [The others retreat towards the fireplace in alarm.] Leave him to me. I know how to manage him. [He approaches Fakrash.] So here you are! If you aren't ashamed of yourself, you jolly well ought to be! ”

“ And to Fergus it was a very white old man, hunched up against the muddy wall, with blood upon his naked scalp and beard, and both hands pressed to his side; to the old man, a muddy face stricken with horrified concern, and a match burning down between muddy fingers ”

“ The frogs are used in pairs, male and female, and those I have seen were always in the possession of Jews from Yemen in Arabia, great numbers of whom are now living near Jerusalem in what is known as the Box Colony, being built mainly of the tin boxes in which petroleum is brought from Russia and Galicia. It has been suggested, but I offer it only as a suggestion, that as the frog is associated with evil, it is separated at both ends from the harmless objects of domestic life by a shoe, which, though not evil, is an object of contempt. ”

“ Nearly everyone’s slight sense of humor prompted him to pose as the opposite of what he was in real life; every negro who could afford it wore a rosy-cheeked mask and white gloves; many of the few whites had blacked up or donned negro masks, and perhaps half the men were made up as women, while there was a perfect rage, particularly among the part-negro girls, to appear in male attire, their hips bursting through their otherwise loosely flapping nether garments. ”

“ Standing booted under the open sky on the ground, you catch a frog by the head, spit into its mouth, ask it to carry away the ache, and then let it go. But the ceremony must be performed on a lucky day and at a lucky hour.160 In Cheshire the ailment known as aphtha or thrush, which affects the mouth or throat of infants, is not uncommonly treated in much the same manner. A young frog is held for a few moments with its head inside the mouth of the sufferer, whom it is supposed to relieve by taking the malady to itself. ”

“ The feet of the hind legs are webbed and have five fingers or toes.
[Pg 225]
The frog has a backbone, but no ribs. As he is ribless he cannot expand and contract his chest in breathing, so that he must swallow what air he wants. In swallowing air he must close his mouth and take the air in only by the nostrils; therefore, oddly enough, if his mouth is forcibly kept open he may be smothered. [64] The frog’s breathing is partly through its skin, which gives off carbonic acid gas; and moisture is as needful to a frog’s skin as to the gills of a fish. ”

“ When human attitude is so finely discriminative as regards different grades of his own species, it might be [Pg_269] extravagant to believe that the frog could have any consciousness of pain. A concession might however be made that the frog perceives a shock to which it responds by convulsive movements. It is as well that we should be careful about the use of terms for an eminent biologist insisted that animals never felt any pain: when an oyster is swallowed alive, it did not, according to him, feel any pain but rather a sensation of grateful warmth at contact with the alimentary tract. ”

“ This I had managed to do myself while Frenchy was jawing Freckles. I told Freckles, but it didn’t comfort him much. He said there were some things no mortal chap could stand; and to be called “an aborigine” because a man was born in Australia seemed to him about the bitterest insult even an old frog-eating Frenchman could have invented. ”

“ Nor is it unlikely that the hypothesis, which considers the cause of freckles and of blackness as the same, may be right. For if blackness is occasioned by the rays of the sun striking forcibly and universally on the mucous substance of the body, and drying the accumulating fluid, we can account for the different degrees of it to be found in the different inhabitants of the globe. ”

“ We'll come, Pringle, we'll come. [To Fakrash, who is still standing by the window.] Now then, sir, you've got all you came for—what are you waiting for?
Fakrash.
To receive thy thanks.
Professor Futvoye.
What? For exposing me to all this humiliation! You'll get no thanks from me, sir—and the sooner you and your accomplice relieve this house of your presence the better!
Fakrash.
[Moving to right behind the sofa.] Let the rat, while he is still between the leopard's paws, observe rigidly all the laws of politeness! Take heed—or thou mayst become more hideous even than a mule! ”

“ Foxes, polecats, and stoats are not averse to it, and the Grass-snake derives its main sustenance from it. In fact the enemies of the little frog are legion, one of the worst being Man. In France, Italy, and other parts of the Continent, the skinned fleshy hind-limbs are turned into a by no means disagreeable ragoût, or into dainty morsels when fried in butter and encrusted with bread-crumbs. ”

“ The Welsh workmen became alarmed, and moved away from the place, keeping, however, their eyes fixed on the pool. The mystery was soon solved, for a large frog made its appearance, and, sedately sitting on a fragment of the shattered stone, rubbed its eyes with its feet, as if awaking from a long sleep. The question was discussed, “Is it a frog, or the Spirit in p. 214the form of a frog; if it is a frog, why was it not killed when the stone was blasted?” And again, “Who ever saw a frog sit up in that fashion and rub the dust out of its eyes? It must be the Spirit.” ”

“ Then bit by bit the negroes grew numerous and impudent again, and I knew that the sugar-bearing coastlands were at hand.
Negroes so black and ox-like that they seemed scarcely human plodded past, never giving greeting as in the hills, though sometimes shouting an obscene jest. Children ran at sight of me, as those of Italy, for instance, do at sight of a negro. Ragged old women were hoeing cane in the fields. They earned five shillings a week; the strongest men three a day, at “task-work,” laboring from Monday to Friday. ”

“ Fakrash.
Call them what thou wilt—they are prison-houses! All, all dungeons wherein my wretched brethren labour in torment till the Day of Doom! [Pacing towards the right.] And every city throughout the world is filled with such abominations! Therefore— [turning on him again] —before I slay thee, I demand that thou tell me the name of the potentate by whom these punishments are imposed.
Horace.
[Whose expression during the above speech shows that a way out is beginning to suggest itself; to himself.] If I can—if only I can! [As Fakrash again waves the scimitar.] All right! ”

“ In the portion of Virginia where I lived it was common to use flax as part of the clothing for the slaves. That part of the flax from which our clothing was made was largely the refuse, which of course was the cheapest and roughest part. I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time. It is almost equal to the feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh. ”