Toad, that under coldest stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one,
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.’
“In another, reference is made to the toad-stone, which seems to be represented in Malayan tradition by the pearl carried in the bodies of the hamadryad, the cobra, and the bungarus, the three most deadly snakes of the Peninsula:—
‘Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.’
“There is some foundation of fact for the popular belief, as toads secrete an acrid fluid from the skin, which appears to defend them from the attacks of carnivorous animals.”[307]