Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/81

 THE SCOTCH FISHER CHILD.

T may be safely said that children's amusements, as distinguished from children's games, have not engaged the attention of the students of man to the extent they merit. Many of these amusements are imitations of the work of men, and thus become a training for the work of life. Others, again, are in all likelihood the survivals of what were once customs followed by men. For example, can it be that the amusement of imitating burying alive in the sand is the survival of any sacrificial custom, or of the custom of burying a victim below the foundation stone of any large building?

Another question of much weight is: Do these amusements shew the mental development of the children? If so, it becomes a matter of much moment to collect not merely civilised children's amusements to as wide an extent as possible, but the amusements of uncivilised tribes and nations, so as to form a comparison between the mental development of the uncivilised man and that of the civilised child.

Another point worthy of comparison is the amusements followed by different classes of children, e.g., those of the fisher-folks' children with those of the children of the rural population. Such a comparison would probably bring out modes of thought, and traits of character, peculiar to each class, as it would assuredly set in clear light the differences of their occupations.

An attempt has been made to set forth some account of the child-life of the fisher-folks of the north-east coast of Scotland. My information has come from only a few of the villages, so that one must not judge that, because only