The following piece of curious
social history/folklore came from an account by Fletcher Moss in 1901(1) of his
travels through rural
“ Then with difficulty I learn that
he is looking for a frog.He reiterates repeatedly that he wants a frog,because
he has a child with the frog [i.e. cough or sore throat-R]. This is puzzling. I
should prefer a sum in algebra or double practice to this puzzle. When the
Mormon from Salt Lake City wished me to give him
the names of many of his ancestors as I could, so that he might be baptized with
total immersion for each one of them separately when he got back to Salt Lake
Outside the garden gates,waiting for
their father,there were four children,aged about seven,six,five and four.They
were pale and bloodless, with sunken cheeks and big flat mouths like frogs.They
all hopped about on their hind-legs just like the pictures of the dressed-up
frogs in the children`s picture-books,and they all cried in chorus as if they
were ravenously hungry. “Dadda, av oo got a fwog? Dadda, av oo got a fwog?” It
was a horrible sight, enough to make one shudder if there had been any shudders
left.(2)
- F.Moss Pilgrimages
in
- Ibid pp 273-4
