This volume borrows its title from John Q. Anderson's article on the horned toad of the Southwest. William Owens' "Seer of Corsicana" and "Curanderos of South Texas" by Brownie McNeil are about the folk doctors or advisers whom the people visited. The next two articles by John Henry Faulk and William Henry Hardin are about folk characters who have in common a creativity which leads one to imaginative lying and the other to stories, rhymes, or tricks to raise a laugh. George D. Hendricks writes of "Southpaws, Psychology, and Social Science," and Americo Paredes writes of songs and stories found in the Spanish Southwest. Michael J. Ahearn writes the history of a madstone that has been in his family for a long time. Everett Gillis describes a rural singing school. Girlene Marie Williams writes of "Negro Stories from the Colorado Valley" while Fred O.Weldon analyses the Negro folk hero. Cultural conflict is evident in Richard Lancaster's "Why the White Man Will Never Reach the Sun." Frontier life and ways are reflected in G. A. Reynolds' essay on "Vigilante Justice in Springtown." J. R. Jamison tells the story of "The Sinking Treasure of Bowie Creek." Ruth Dodson's essay "South Texas Sketches" looks back to frontier life and Kenneth Porter writes of ghost stories.

Folklore
Multicultural History
History - Texas