Discovering the Folklore of Birds and Beasts

Many of the beliefs and superstitions of early man were connected with animals which were credited with their own powers of speech and understanding and were also regarded as a source of cures for both mental and physical ailments. Modern expressions of speech still echo these beliefs – ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’ – ‘a frog in the throat’, and ‘being licked into shape’. In this book Venetia Newall has compressed much of the folklore that surrounded domestic pets and wild animals to make a fascinating and very readable survey from adders to zebras.