A blanc-de-Chine figure of Liu HaiCirca 1900|The cheerful figure of the God of Wealth with one leg raised teasingly above his three-legged toad with bulging eyes, his intricately moulded robes partially covering his emaciated body with accentuated spine and rib-cage, a loincloth of leaves beneath the bare belly, his robe tied to his right side with a gnarled lingzhi fungus, the figure standing on stylised swirling clouds. 33cm (13in) high|Liu Hai and his three-legged toad - both symbols of wealth and prosperity - are popular members of the pantheon of Chinese folk deities; and there are many myths and legends surrounding them that have come down to us.|One such legend is that Liu Hai was an alchemist and Daoist practitioner who passed by a village where a three-legged toad inhabited a local pond. This three-legged toad would emit a poisonous vapour and harm the villagers; so Liu Hai tempted the toad out with a chain of gold coins and made it his pet.|How a toad became linked to wealth and riches could be due in part to the nature of certain Chinese dialects. The Chinese word for 'toad' is chan (蟾), which in some dialects is a homophone for 'money' or qian (錢). Thus, in a dialect, one could easily hear 'Liu Hai playing with the toad' as 'Liu Hai playing with gold coins'.