By Tim King
Last June, while weeding our farm’s melon plants, I came eye-to-eye with the toad formerly known as Bufo americanus. I say formerly because people that I am considering calling soulless scientists changed the American toad’s name to Anaxyrus americanus. Your average toad aficionado neither wants to, nor can say, Anaxy-what-do-you-call-it. The common American toad will always be know as Bufo by its friends and admirers. That’s because toads don’t hop; they just bufo around like any every day boofuss. That’s what makes them so lovable.
Which brings me back to my garden Bufo last June. I was down on my knees hoeing errant purslane and lambs quarter that was competing with my young melon plants when I became aware of another creature watching me. I looked and there was Bufo, half buried in the warm soil, looking ever so serious, like she was trying to figure out the punch line to last weeks joke. Oh! Such a lovable Bufo!
And here’s the other thing I wanted to tell you: Bufo has sparkling golden circles around each of her eyes. You look, next time you’re up close to a toad, and you’ll see how they tastefully bring out the best in her little black eyes.
I visited with Bufo about garden gossip for a bit and then, for reasons that remain unclear to me, I decided to stand up. Now, at my age, my getting up from kneeling can be a frightful scene for the observer. So it’s not surprising that, as I struggled to overcome gravity, Bufo leapt clear out of the melon patch and into the tomato patch. I had no idea she had it in her!
I’m hardly the only person to have been charmed by a golden-eyed Bufo. Toads have justly played major and minor roles in both mythology and literature down through the ages.
Pliny, from ancient Rome, called Bufo a bramble frog which is a likable sort of name that I’d be inclined to adapt if I wasn’t so committed to Bufo. Any way toads, since they aren’t particularly athletic, have developed a potent defense mechanism. They, and their tadpoles, are poisonous. This characteristic caused some conflict between the Norse God Thor and Bufo. According to the ancient tale, placed on the internet by Thor’s descendants, Thor had a drinking problem and drank from a horn filled with venomous toad poison placed there by a giant toad. Thor, being Thor, wasn’t bothered by the brew and he defeated the Bufo and went on to save the world.
A substantially less masculine Bufo myth was from ancient Egypt. In that tale, the amazing toad-headed Goddess Heqet is associated with childbirth and rebirth. At birth, according to legend, she would assist in the creation of a baby’s Ka, or soul, by breathing life into their nostrils.
More recently American author, Arnold Lobel, wrote and illustrated, the popular Caldecott award winning five-part Frog and Toad series of books. The books, written for children, cast Toad, in his starring role, as being a rather serious amphibian, as compared to his light-hearted frog friend.
In another literary appearance, in the Kine Saga, written by British author A. R. Lloyd, Bufo is cast in a cameo role where he is actually named Bufo. He is a resident of Marshworld and, unfortunately, comes to an unhappy ending.
If I have to choose a favorite among all these fictional and fantastic Bufos I would choose yet another: Toad from Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows. Although Toad is never called Bufo in this early 20th century classic, Toad’s friends Badger, Ratty, and Mole, understand that Toad is acting very un-Bufo like and they intend to get him back on the correct Bufo path.
One morning Badger makes an unexpected visit to Ratty and Mole, interrupting their breakfast. He announces that the hour has come to take Toad in hand. The two are in complete agreement with Badger.
“We’ll teach him to be a sensible toad,” said Mole.
“Right you are,” cried the Rat. “We’ll rescue the poor unhappy animal! We’ll convert him. He’ll be the most converted toad that ever was before we’re done with him!”
And so the trio marches off to Toad Hall to convert Toad from what seems to be a serious addiction to new fangled motor cars. Toad’s addiction leads him on a series of mad cap adventures that can be seen as a hilarious tale for children or a serious critique on his, and ours, addiction to automobiles and modern technology as a whole.
Who would have thought my golden-eyed Bufo could be such an inspiration!
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