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.
