Chapter 1

CHAP. I. Prehistoric man--His language one of signs and sounds--The story of Psammetichus and the Two Babies--Idiom of language a survival of primitive peoples 1

II. Modern types of early man--Sign-language of people living on the globe to-day--The custom of the UVINZA grandees--The "good-morning" of the Walunga tribe--Signs of hospitality in the sign vocabulary of the North American Indian--The "attingere extremis digitis" of the Romans--Clap-hands one of the first lessons of the Nursery--The modern survival of hand-clapping--"Is it rude to shake hands, Nurse?"--A hypercritical mother--Plato's rebuke--Agesilaus and his children--Nursery classics and critical babies--"Lalla, lalla, lalla" of the Roman child--The well-known baby dance of "Crow and caper, caper and crow" 8

III. Writers on comparative religions show that entire religious observances come down to modern peoples from heathen sources--The Bohemian Peasant and his Apple Tree--A myth of long descent found in the rhyme of "A Woman, a Spaniel, and Walnut Tree"; our modern "Pippin, pippin, fly away," indicates the same sentiment--The fairy tale of Ashputtel and the Golden Slipper, the legend from which came our story of Cinderella--Tylor on Children's Sports--The mystery of Northern Europe at Christ's coming--The Baby's Rattle--Ancestral worship follows sun and moon worship, and gives us the tales of fairies, goblins, and elves--Boyd Dawkins' story of the Isle of Man farmer--A Scandinavian Manxman--Modernised lullaby of a Polish mother--"Shine, Stars"--"Rain, rain, go away"--Wind making--LULLABIES--Bulgarian, German, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep"--The lullaby of the Black Guitar--"Baby, go to Sleep"--English version, "Hush thee, my Babby"--Danish lullaby of "Sweetly sleep, my little Child"--"Bye, baby bunting" 17

IV. Elf-land--Old-time superstitions--A custom of providing a feast for the dead known in Yorkshire, North-west Ireland, and in Armenia--The Erl King of Goethe--Ballet of the Leaf-dressed Girl--The Spirit of the Waters--An Irish legend of Fior Usga--Scotch superstition--Jenny Greenteeth of Lancashire--The Merrow of the West of Ireland--Soul Cages--The German rhyme of "O Man of the Sea, come list unto Me"--Mysticism among uncivilised races--The Corn Spirit--The Rye-wolf--"The Cow's in the Corn"--"Ring a ring a rosies"--"Cuckoo Cherry Tree"--Our earliest song, "Summer is a-coming in"--"Hot Cockles" at Yorkshire funerals--"Over the Cuckoo Hill, I oh!"--Indian Lore 34