These are pictures about sounds.
Growing up in South-East London, I learnt all about frogs with the help of Ladybird books and horror stories of the French and their eating habits. The important thing to retain was that they were green; that princesses kissed them (although heaven knows why) and above all that they went "ribbit, ribbit".
I was later exposed at school to the Attic comedy by Aristophanes called The Frogs. In it, the god of drama engages in a farting contest with the chorus of frogs, who go "brekekekex koax koax“. I remember thinking that the playwright can’t possibly have heard frogs because, as we all know, they go ”ribbit, ribbit“. But such is the influence of this play that the French word for croaking like a frog or toad is ”coasser“.
Twenty years later, I was camping on a mountain in the Peloponnese near the Styx river and was deafened by a chorus of Greek frogs, all going… you guessed it: ”brekekekex koax koax".
Bloody Greeks…
(Recently, I heard that southern America is experiencing huge numbers of frogs. The American Veterinary Association felt obliged to put out a communiqué warning American girls not to kiss them. This happens only in Republics, I hasten to assure all young princesses out there, although that Disney fascist has a lot to answer for.)
Tonight, I went out to catch the night sky. It has been a warm, peaceful night. The village clock struck 10 in a very country way and the occasional dog and cat and night birds could be heard.
But the main sound was the frogs. A wide, soothing, almost hypnotic chorus of them.
I still can’t quite decide what noise they made.
Your answers on a postcard, please (or in the comments section). There is a prize for the correct answer, but you have to be a princess to qualify.
Italian frogs go " Gre Gre " I know as my eldest son's 1st primary school book had the sentence . La rana fa "Gre gre" So that helped the other children in his class pronounce his name better " Gregory"
Brilliant evening sky