Tokay

Tokays are short, green reptilian creatures from Oracle of Ages. They have angular heads, gangly limbs, and are catlike. The clawed, orange-crested creatures are very strong swimmers. Tokays live in the caves of Crescent Island, a large isle off the coast of Labrynna. In Oracle of Ages, a group of Tokay find Link's items washed up on their island and he must get them back using the a barter economy the Tokay have established.

Unlike the buy-and-sell method of shopping, the Tokay have set up a barter economy; although they still do sell in the conventional sense, the price is not rupees, but items, such as Mystery Seeds or Scent Seeds. In the event that the prospective buyer cannot afford these items, a compromise can sometimes be met, where the buyer will exchange one of their items for the seller's. However, the buyer cannot get anything new from the seller after this, and must trade back the item they took for their old item before getting anything new.

Besides having set up this fairly elaborate economy, the Tokay are fairly simple, almost to the point of being stupid. Some Tokay have indicated they think three is a huge number.

Trivia

 * In Japan, the Tokay are called the, "tokage" meaning "lizard" and "jin" meaning "folk". They are more often referred to as simply . For their Western name, the localization team has opted not to make it a literal translation, which they also declined on with the Subrosian from Oracle of Seasons. The name "Tokay" comes from the real-life tokay gecko. Geckoes being a type of lizard, the "tokay" part provides a similar-sounding, similar-meaning Western equivalent to their Japanese name. It should otherwise not be mistaken for a specification of their species as the Japanese word for gecko is.
 * Like the Gorons, the Tokays' way of speaking in the Japanese version is decorated with part of the species's name, in this case, added to their sentences. Because Western audiences in general aren't that fond of this kind of "cute speak", it was removed during translation.
 * The Tokay seem to have a large interest in Mystical Seeds; one Tokay wishes to grow a Scent Tree, a Tokay barter wants Mystery Seeds and Scent Seeds in exchange for the items it has come across, and in the present, two other Tokay wish to taste the Ember Seeds Link happened to be carrying with him. No interest is ever shown in either Gale Seeds or Pegasus Seeds, however.
 * The Tokay seem to have a built-in arboricultural sense. Many of the Tokay mention they love growing things.
 * It is possible that Lizalfos are related, or even the same thing as or descended from, Tokays.