Whipping Toads to Produce Rain.
At one time the natives of Venezuela worshipped toads. They regarded the toad as "the lord of the waters," and treated it with much reverence; though, as has been the case with other idolaters, they were ready, in times of difficulty, to compel favorable hearing from their pretended deities. They whipped their imprisoned toads with little switches when there was a scarcity of provisions and a want of rain.