30 May 2025 / 10 House
Frogs and toads
31st Mar 2012
Mexicolore contributor Renee McGarry
We are most grateful to Renee McGarry, doctoral candidate in art history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, for writing this sixth in a series of short introductory pieces on key creatures and wildlife in the Aztec world. Renee’s dissertation, Exotic Contact: Flora and Fauna in Mexica (Aztec) Visual Culture, considers how plants and animals are represented in Aztec sculpture and painted books.
Frogs and toads lived in the Basin of Mexico alongside the Mexicas. Though they are similar in appearance, the amphibians are taxonomically different, and the simplest way to tell them apart is how they look. Toads are covered in warts and bumps while frogs have smooth skin. Their habitats also provide an easy way to distinguish between the two: frogs live in wet, marshy places while toads can live in dry environments.
The bumps and warts on toads’ skins served an important purpose in Mexica religion as they secreted poisons that could cause hallucinogenic states used in ritual practice. The poison, called bufotenin, impacted the cardiovascular system and could be deadly when ingested in large amount. Therefore, to transport themselves to mind-altering states priests only consumed tiny quantities. According to Spanish chroniclers, the Mexicas boiled, ground, and licked toads to obtain the substance.
Excavations of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City reveal that toads were the only amphibians the Mexicas left in ritual caches (offerings to the gods) at the site, often as offerings to the god of rain and water, Tlaloc. Mexica sculptors also carved toads into large and small stone sculptures. One particularly large and robust sculpture (Pic 3) emphasizes the hallucinogenic properties of the toad, as the sculptor carved circular, wide eyes and glands atop the head that also secreted bufotenin.
While toads primarily served a ritual purpose, frogs were more down to earth amphibians, thriving in the silty waters of Lake Texcoco. During the day, the animals retreated into the marshiest areas, where they kept their skin hydrated and hid from predators. Breeding peaked during the wet season (summer) and at night the amphibians emerged from their hiding places for feeding and breeding, croaking irregularly but loudly to attract the opposite sex, and the female amphibians laid thousands of eggs at a time.
Within three days, the eggs hatched and tadpoles filled the lake water. The tadpoles were easily trapped, and the Mexicas ate them along with adult frogs. In fact, Mexicas sold and traded tadpoles in marketplaces, preferring to eat them rather than one of their animal domesticates, the turkey. Spanish surgeon general Francisco Hernández evidently taste-tested the amphibians and reported in his writings that they were quite delicious.
Hernández also spoke of the medicinal uses of frogs. Though the indigenous use of frogs as pharmaceuticals was limited, he does describe how some remedies appeared in and were adapted by Spanish pharmacies. Apothecaries began to use dried frog intestines to treat kidney stones, and the use of toads became common as they could function as diuretics and blood purifiers.
Toads and frogs provided life-giving sustenance on two planes. Frogs were a protein source, and in a society without many animal domesticates, they were necessary for the survival of the Mexicas as a people. But toads sustained Mexica ritual practice by providing states necessary to access their gods. The act of ingesting toad poison and hallucinating literally fed Mexica religion and reinforced the social hierarchy, allowing the elite priests and rulers to reach the realm of the gods when the ordinary man could not.
Picture sources:-
• Pix 1 & 3: Photo by Ana Laura Landa/Mexicolore
• Pix 2, 5, 6 & 8: Images scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro facsimile edition of the Florentine Codex, Madrid, 1994
• Pix 4 & 7: Photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.
Comments (1)
Katia H.
27th Jun 2012
Can you tell us which exact species of frog and toad the Aztecs made use of?
Mexicolore
Essentially they all belong to the order Anura, and range from the giant toad Bufo marinus which produces a powerful hallucinogen to the common frog rana temporaria.
Mexicolore contributor Renee McGarry
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