Frog in the house
A frog indoors was an omen in the Solomon Islands, and in the American South meeting one meant money. Frogs are also among the first to suffer when their surroundings change, which raises a question about who around you feels trouble first.
What it may mean
Frogs breathe and drink partly through their skin, so whatever is in the water and air around them gets in quickly. That is why scientists watch frogs as an early warning: when a wetland starts to go wrong, frogs are often the first to show it. A frog indoors is out of place and very exposed, and it can call to mind the sensitive people around you, the ones who feel tension in a room before anyone has said a word, or the child who reacts first to trouble at home. Do you treat their reactions as an overreaction, or as early information? Many households have a frog of their own.
Depending on how you saw it
A tree frog on the window at night
Tree frogs climb glass with sticky toe pads and sit near lit windows to catch the insects that gather there. From inside you see the pale underside pressed to the pane. Who has been sitting close to your light lately, waiting for something you did not notice you were offering?
A frog in the toilet or the sink
In warm, wet places such as Florida, tree frogs often climb into plumbing vents and turn up in toilets and drains. They follow moisture wherever it leads. What would you go a long way, even somewhere odd, to find more of?
Trapped in a window well
A frog that falls into a basement window well often cannot climb out again. A small board or a stick leaned against the side gives it a ramp. Is there someone around you who just needs a little ramp, rather than a full rescue?
Why it happens in nature
Frogs end up indoors through open doors, pet doors, plumbing vents and gaps around pipes, often while hunting insects drawn to lights or looking for moisture. Tree frogs climb glass with sticky toe pads. Because frogs breathe and drink partly through their skin, a dry house is hard on them; one can be scooped into a damp container and set free in a shady, moist spot.
What folk beliefs say
Solomon Islands
In the Solomon Islands, a frog or another creature that does not usually come indoors, if seen in a house, was an omen whose meaning a wizard was asked to explain. If the creature cried out, people knew without asking that a death would soon follow.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 568. View the page
African American lore, US South
Among African Americans in the South, the 1903 collection reports, meeting up with a frog was considered extremely fortunate, and money was said to follow the frog into your hands.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 636. View the page
To reflect on
Who around you feels trouble first, and do you treat their reaction as information?