And Horns on the Toads Page: 78
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AND HORNS ON THE TOADS
And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the
head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father's hand, to
remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head....
And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he
also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his
younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a
multitude of nations. (Genesis 48:14-19).
The division between profound religious belief and super-
stitious paganistic hokum is often a razor's edge. I would hesi-
tate to categorize either the above allusion to the blessing of
offspring or the following several allusions pertaining to death,
Christmas, and marriage; but I think they all come close to that
razor's edge, and which side of it they are on depends upon the
individual's viewpoint. The Mordvin of the Finno-Ugric cult is
quite serious when he washes the corpse of his deceased
beloved. He then holds a sickle by the blade and cuts a portion
of grain for a sacrifice. All of this he is careful to do with his
left hand; then he throws the grain backward over his left
shoulder. He continues the ceremony backward, contrary to the
sun's motion, with his clothes on inside-out, placing other offer-
ings upside-down on the grave. According to Mordvin tradi-
tion, this world is right-side-up, straightforward, and right-
handed; the next world is upside-down, backward, and appar-
ently left-handed.'8
The missionary Graan once wrote that in heathen times
Swedish Lapps celebrated Christmas in a peculiar manner.
After several preliminary functions, the climax of the festivity
occurred when every man in the village would pass by a recep-
tacle and deposit within it three spoonfuls of fat with his left
hand.19
In the Perthshire highlands of Scotland it was once thought
that the bridegroom should wear a left shoe without a buckle
or latchet, "to prevent witches from depriving him, on the nup-
tial night, of the power of loosening the virgin zone."20 It is
said that the same superstition and custom are current in Syria.78
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And Horns on the Toads (Book)
Volume of folk stories and tall tales about the horned toad and other Texas folklore. The index begins on page 235.
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Boatright, Mody Coggin. And Horns on the Toads, book, 1959; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38856/m1/91/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.