{{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} A '''toadman''' or '''toad-man''' is someone, in the folklore of the Fens of East Anglia and Lincolnshire, who has made a deal with the devil which gives them control over horses. Stories of toadmen seem to have been prevalent in the region during the inter-war period of 1918 to 1938.<ref name="MC01">{{Citation | last = Codd | first = Daniel | chapter = Supernatural Evil: Necromancers, Wisemen and Toad-men | title = Mysterious Cambridgeshire | year = 2010 | publisher = JMD Media | publication-date = 2010 | isbn = 9781859838082 }}</ref><ref name="CFT01">{{Citation | last = James | first = Maureen | chapter = Of the Fens and Farming: Elijah's Ghost (A Tale of a Toadman) | title = Cambridgeshire Folk Tales | year = 2014 | publisher = History Press | publication-date = 2014 | isbn = 9780752466286 }}</ref>
The initiation ceremony, with certain regional variations, involved the initiate catching a male toad, hanging it from a thorn bush or pegging it to an anthill until its bones had been picked clean, and then carrying the bones on their person until dried. The bones were then thrown into a running stream on a full moon at midnight and all except one would be swept downstream. The remaining small fork-shaped bone when recovered would, through unspecified means, grant its holder psychic control over horses.<ref name="MC01" /><ref name="CFT01" />
==See also== * The Horseman's Word * ''The Moon Stallion''
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Supernatural legends Category:Cambridgeshire folklore Category:Lincolnshire folklore Category:Norfolk folklore Category:Suffolk folklore