Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/140

130 M. and F. "Made snow man; used bits of coal for eyes, stones for nose and mouth, and broom for musket."

F., 5. "Made snow man by rolling snow balls and placing one on top of the other; used coal for eyes, nose and mouth and row of buttons down in front."

M. and F. "Made snow man; used stones for eyes, used stick for nose, drew ears and mouth with pointed stick, placed clay pipe in his mouth and hat on his head."

M. and F. "Made a snow man by rolling long balls for arms and legs, used coal for eyes and small ball of snow for nose, also for ears, made long line for mouth, put a stick in it for a pipe, laid stick on shoulder for gun."

M. and F., 10. "Made snow man with marbles for eyes, hay for whiskers, excelsior for hair, and a piece of red flannel cloth for a mouth." The eyes received more attention than any of the other features. While all of the children did not go into details concerning their snow men, 52 mentioned the eyes especially and made great effort to represent them with effect. The usual representations of the eyes were stones, marbles, pieces of coal and short sticks. The mouth seems to have been second in the attention it received; it was mentioned 50 times and was usually made of sticks or just a mark in the snow or a row of cranberries or red cloth. The nose was mentioned less frequently and the ears a very few times only. It may be due to the fact that the ears are less easily represented. Very few attempts were made to represent the legs of the snow men and in all cases these were made by the older children from 10 years up. The younger children were satisfied with a large ball as a foundation upon which to construct the remainder of the form. It would thus seem that they centred their attention upon a few of the more important portions of the human form to the neglect of the others. Only three attempts were made to make snow women. One of these, a girl of 7, rolled large balls of snow and made a woman by shaping the bottom ball like a skirt and made her with her arms crossed, which must have embodied her idea of woman's characteristic position. It is not clear why they gave so little attention to the making of feminine forms.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that the boys took the initiative in the constructions. There is some evidence of this as the girls frequently stated that they helped their brothers. But the more probable reason is that man's more active, out of door life appeals more strongly to the children's imaginations.

The attention to the dress of the forms made reveals the crude conceptions which children have concerning the representation of clothing. Thirty-six children represented the