Toads

                                                           Frogs and Toads

Frogs and toads are powerful symbols. The frog is a symbol of good power and the toad a symbol of bad power. Frogs are messengers from the rain. They can be healers and fortunetellers. Toads are the tools of sorcerers. They are used to curse people bringing them harm. If you ever see a toad pray for protection. Here are two stories about a toad and a frog.

                                                                  Toads

A long time ago there was a chief who liked to use the bad medicine of toads. He used them to frighten his people so they would not leave him. Among his people there was a young girl named Wild Ginger. She wanted to visit her grandmother on the other side of the river. The chief, however, didn't want her to go. He told her that if she went a big monster would kill her. She didn't believe him and told all of her friends it wasn't true. Overhearing this, the chief became very angry.
One Saturday Wild Ginger sneaked across the river with her dog to visit her grandmother. As she stepped out of her canoe onto the opposite shore she looked back to where her dog had been and instead found a giant toad. The chief using his bad medicine had turned dog into a great giant toad. Wild Ginger had quite a temper herself and began beating the toad with her canoe paddle until it died. She took the dead thing and threw it onto the shore.
   Wild Ginger was still determined to see her grandmother. But no sooner had she again stepped onto the shore than the chief himself appeared. "Give me your oar!" he demanded. "Are you kidding!" she screamed "you just tried to kill me". Enraged Wild Ginger made a wicked blow at the wicked chief with her paddle and killed him. She pushed his body into the river and it sank. And that was the end of the wicked chief and the giant toad.

Bibliography
(Frogs and Toads is a summary of the original source) Lake-Thom, Bobby, Spirits of the Earth, 1997, Penguin Group, "Reptile and Snake Signs and Omens" p144-145.

(Toads is a summary of the original source, I changed the giant frog into a giant toad and made the main character more assertive and less reliant on men) Anderson, Anne, The Lore of the Wilds, 1976, Western Industrial Research and Training Centre, "The Giant Frog" p20-21.