Paint Induced Magic?

Violet and I recently finished reading the Psammead series by Edith Nesbit:  The Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet.  In the series the children experience all sorts of magical happenings including meeting a sand fairy who grants wishes, a flying carpet that will take you anywhere you want, an amulet that will take you to any time you want, and a phoenix.  The books were written in the early 1900's and are considered classic children's fantasy.  Definitely a read worth your time.

As we got towards the end of the last book, we found the children sitting at home painting.  Then they started eating the paint!  Yes, the books clearly state that the children we sucking the paint off the end of their paintbrushes and tasting it.  The various colors of paint tasted different.  They only did it a couple of times, and the text made it seem like it was just normal.  But it had Violet and I looking at each other and wondering:

Is all magic in early children's literature simply a result of lead poisoning??

It would explain a lot.  Narnia:  nothing more than brain damaged hallucinations.  Oz: Dorothy and the others who "visited" probably were peeling the paint off the walls shortly before their trip.  And why don't most children today get to experience such out of body adventures?  We've eliminated virtually all toxic children's art supplies.  I think this is worth exploring.  Perhaps when Violet is in graduate school it can be her dissertation thesis. 

Until then, we are theorizing that the sand fairy was a stuffed monkey, the phoenix was a parrot, and they simply hallucinated time and space travel from within the nursery.  And never eat your art supplies.  Just in case.