The Toad

The Toad is the eclipse-devourer of Khmu celestial lore: when the moon (or sun) darkens, it is because the toad has seized and swallowed the light, and people beat drums, mortars, and pots and raise a great clamour to frighten the creature into disgorging it. The motif belongs to a broad Southeast Asian family of eclipse beliefs in which the luminary is swallowed by an animal or demon; the identification of the swallower as a toad or frog is characteristic of the upland Mon-Khmer world, though tellings vary and some name a different devourer. The Toad is a single mythic actor of eclipse narrative rather than a class of spirits, and it is documented through eclipse practice rather than an established cult.

Domains

• sky

Powers

• swallows the moon at eclipse

Relations

• enemy: The MoonThe toad is the devourer of the Moon in eclipse belief.Kristina Lindell et al., The Kammu Year: Its Lore and Music (London: Curzon Press, 1982). (secondary)

Sources

• Khmu eclipse belief explains the darkening of the moon as its being swallowed by a toad or frog, which is driven off by human noise.: Kristina Lindell, Hakan Lundstrom, Jan-Ojvind Swahn & Damrong Tayanin, The Kammu Year: Its Lore and Music (London: Curzon Press / Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph No. 40, 1982). (secondary)