Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/133

Rh, and placing others on the sides and then placing a flat stone on top.

The next most frequent use that was made of stones was playing store or some other form of interchange. Stones were used as articles of food or merchandise in 45 cases and as money in 42 cases. When used as articles of food they were marked in some way or else different shapes were the distinguishing marks. When used as money the distinction depended upon the size or color of the stones. Stones represented all kinds of groceries such as eggs, nutmegs, lump sugar, apples, potatoes, raisins on cake, candy, various kinds of cakes, etc. In 2 cases scales were mentioned in connection with store play. These consisted of boards balanced on a rock.

Bright, sparkling stones were used as decorations for the rooms. Some decorations were made by pressing stones into the sand so as to make pictures of animal forms or human faces. In 43 cases stones were used to form the border of flower beds, walks and roads. The stones so used were carefully selected and arranged with an effort to make a beautiful effect.

In thirty cases gardens were made in connection with the house by laying rows of stones around a plot of ground or setting them upright so as to make a fence or wall. 75 children used stones as a means of separating different tracts of land from each other. A frequent expression was "Marked off extent of homes and gardens in play so claims would not overlap and cause trouble." Only eight children constructed barns in addition to their houses and in no case was a barn built without a house. The dawning of child consciousness is nowhere more fully revealed than in these early constructions of children, and for this reason the details have been so minutely given.

The use of stones in damming up streams was mentioned in the play of 29 children. This was done either to make a lake or to make a waterfall or rapids; this seems to have been a habit with some immediately after a rain in the spring and early summer. The making of bridges was mentioned 9 times and the making of canals and dykes once. The bridges were formed by throwing stones into the water until they extended above its surface. One little girl built an arch across a small stream by setting stones on end and leaning them against each other and then piling others on top of them.

The graves of dead pets such as cats, chickens, birds, dogs, etc., were marked with stones by fifteen children. The following are typical statements: "Placed stone at grave of canary." "Got chips from the marble cutters and used them as grave stones for bird and cat." The ceremony accompanying these burials and the erection of the tombstones was more