No joke, Doreen Valiente's miniature rant on how great toads are really makes me want a toad.
Omg i just realised, she wrote an Ode to a Toad.
(Transcript and source below)
"The toad is a remarkably intelligent creature and easily tamed. The natterjack, or walking toad, was the type specially favoured as a witch's familiar; but all toads make quite good pets, if they are kept in suitable conditions. They must have water available, as they breathe partly through their skin, and if this gets to dry they will die. They feed upon insects; and so the cottage garden was an excellent habitat for them and some old-fashioned gardeners kept them simply for this purpose, to keep down the insects that menaced the plants.
"The toad is generally harmless. He cannot bite, because he has no teeth; and the old story that he spits poison is a libel. What Really Happens is that the toad, when angry, frightened or excited will exude poison through his skin, from certain glands in the region of his neck. If you do not frightened or injure him he will remain harmless, and he has the most wonderful, Jewel-like eyes of any creature in the Reptile Kingdom. (As the reader may have gathered, the writer likes toads.)
"This substance exuded by the skin of the toad has a Milky appearance, and consequently it received the name of toads' milk. Witches who kept toads as pets had certain ways of obtaining the toads' milk without injuring or upsetting the toad--a good familiar was too valuable for that. Toad's milk was used in some of the witches' secret brews; and modern scientists have discovered that it contains a substance they have named bufotenin, which is an hallucinogenetic drug.
"It is also an extremely deadly poison, when used in the wrong way. The writer, therefore, does not feel that it would be in the public interest to disclose Too Many Details on this subject. The present irresponsible attitude towards hallucinogens, unfortunately displayed by many people today, precludes it.
"This, however, was one of the reasons for the popularity of the toad as a witch's familiar. The other reason is that toads, like cats, are very psychic creatures, and will react to ghostly influences."
Doreen Valiente, 1973, "An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present". Pages 124-125.
