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Overview

Kidd’s ninth Gazaland tale begins when a falling fruit frightens Hare. The reported alarm spreads through the animals until they reach a place without water. Hare proposes digging, but it obtains only dust. Leopard, Elephant and the other animals fail as well. When the toad enters the hole, water immediately springs out. Elephant angrily demands another turn, but its entrance makes the water dry up.

The animals insist that the toad try again. It fills the hole, and they drive away Hare for bringing them to the dry place. The later plot concerns Hare’s attempts to obtain their water through honey-based deception, a tortoise’s gum trap and a final escape after feigning death. The toad is not given another appearance in that ending. Its actual contribution is the repeated successful production of water and the contrast with Elephant’s failure.

The account does not say that the toad commands rain, invents every spring or becomes a gigantic water monster. It describes no special anatomy or species. Nor is the initial falling fruit an attacking being: the alarm is Hare’s reaction. The profile records the particular extraordinary water-producer without separately counting the ordinary panic-stricken animals or transferring the different flood-tortoise episode’s powers to it.

Enters a dry excavationMakes water spring forthRestores water after an elephant failsSupports the animals’ new water supply
01

Origins & earliest records

Kidd’s complete Gazaland nursery tale, translated through Douglas Wood and edited for intelligibility. Preface x and introduction223–224 explain that mediation; no individual teller is named.

02

Records & interpretation

Kidd VII, Surprise Stories, IX, How the Hare Fooled the Beasts, complete pp. 240–243; water-producing toad and elephant contrast p. 241; Hare’s final feigned-death escape p. 243.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Savage Childhood: A Study of Kafir Children

    Dudley Kidd, compiler and editor; Douglas Wood, translation intermediary · 1906

    Kidd VII, Surprise Stories, IX, How the Hare Fooled the Beasts, complete pp. 240–243; water-producing toad and elephant contrast p. 241; Hare’s final feigned-death escape p. 243.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected tale and mediated translationKidd1906 — complete water-producing toad taleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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