As travel on the rivers is most common, it is inevitable that one must pass through the many swamps and marshes of the land. These regions offer a constant assault from all manner of animal and insect. Clouds of insatiable mosquitos, ravenous leeches, voracious crocodiles and venomous snakes are just some of the hazards that await.
There are even tribes that make their homes in these foul places, building their homes raised above the water on wooden piles or on the sparsely scattered islands of firm ground. Some of these peoples are open to trade and commerce while others shun all contact from the outside and are known to guard their territory with murderous violence.
The wetlands are some of the most ancient places of Sundaland, where creatures have existed for countless ages before any tribe settled. The locals speak of giant turtles the size of a longhouse and snakes that can swallow a man whole. And then there are other stories told around the fire that strike a deep unease in both the young and fully grown.
It is said that deep in the swamps there exist frogs, almost as tall as a man, nimble with their limbs and minds. Possessing mental faculties beyond any known animal and perhaps even possessing their own speech. Some say they build their own cities, being deep connected underwater caves in which to spawn, and that they tend shallows and ponds for food the way we tend our gardens.
There are grim tales of these beings venturing into villages in the depths of the night to steal away children, or that they sometimes prey upon the fishing canoes, pulling those caught daydreaming about their next catch down into the depths.
Some tribes, having no doubt in the true existence of these creatures, have entered into a gruesome appeasing worship of them. They build shrines to provide offerings of food and valuables, even captured enemies which they will tie to a tree near the water, sometimes even one of their own. Of course few can claim to have actually seen one these frog-people. But all can attest to hearing the screams of the sacrificial victims at night with no trace or trail left behind when the morning comes.
- An Account of Sundaland by Alom Takal
There are many questions and few answers in regards to these frog people. Most accounts paint them as very alien in nature. They have no language or behaviour that is comprehensible to humans, yet often they are described with an uncanny sense of consciousness.
Perhaps they are capable of having a culture, forming societies and building large scale dwellings. But what form these take is not easily imagined. Perhaps some foolhardy adventurers would dare try to discover. Whether they would ever be able to return and tell the tale is another matter.
Perhaps this is how they evolved size, strength and intelligence:
ScienceAlert.com: The world's biggest frogs are so huge they build their own ponds for their young
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