And Horns on the Toads Page: 74
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AND HORNS ON THE TOADS
handiness (if I may use that word) loudly proclaim low
education."
In Texas at least, to say that someone has two left feet
describes him as being extremely awkward. I was much sur-
prised to find that there is a corresponding medical term in
use describing children whose awkward motor control cannot
be attributed to any organic neurological defects. Galen is said
to have recognized the condition when he wrote that some
children are "ambilevous." This word translates as doubly left-
handed, according to psychologist Blau, and ably characterizes
the disorder. In Blau's words,
These children show a lack of skill and coordination in both hands
comparable to the left hand of a definitely right-handed person. The
normal smoothness of muscular coordination is absent and movements
are jerky, inept, and bungling. The movements of feet and body in
general are often coarse and awkward.7
I had always heard of left-handed compliments as being
undesirable. But this research revealed such things as a left-
handed friend, conjecture, god, policy, opinion, work, wisdom,
favor, blessing, business, and ordination. All of these are ques-
tionable, doubtful, spurious, or sinister. A left-handed dream
is ill omened. A left-handed chance is a cruel, unfortunate blow.
Left-handed monkey wrenches, fountain pens, and spokes are
nonexistent but negativistically useful in ridiculing the ludicrous
or insignificant. "The lad's takkin no moore notice on him than
if he'd bin th' left-hand spoke ov a cart wheel," wrote a man
named Brierley in Marlocks (1867).8
In heraldry, a bar sinister was one drawn across a shield
the reverse of the usual manner, not from upper left to lower
right, but the opposite. It was popularly but erroneously sup-
posed to indicate illegitimacy. To marry with the left hand was
to contract a morganatic marriage. In medieval Germany
princes were permitted to marry commoners, and the ensuing
progeny were regarded as legitimate, though they could not
reign or inherit fortunes. In such morganatic marriages the74
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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/m1/87/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.