hildren similar to
"little pig went to market," "forehead bender, eye winker," etc. The
parent, or the nurse, taking hold of the toes of the child, repeats the
following rhyme, as much to the amusement of the little Oriental as the
"little pig" has always been to our own children:

This little cow eats grass,
This little cow eats hay,
This little cow drinks water,
This little cow runs away,
This little cow does nothing,
Except lie down all day.
We'll whip her.

And, with that, she playfully pats the little bare foot. If it is the
hand that is played with the fingers are taken hold of one after
another, as the parent, or nurse, repeats the following rhyme:

This one's old,
This one's young
This one has
no meat;
This one's gone
To buy some hay,
And this one's on
the street.

There are various forms of this rhyme, depending upon the place where
it is found. The above is the Shantung version. In Peking it is as
follows:

A great, big brother,
And a little brother, too,
A big bell tower,
And a temple and a show,
And little baby wee, wee,
Always wants to go.

The following rhyme explains itself: The nurse knocks on the forehead,
then touches the eye, nose, ear, mouth and chin successively, as she
repeats:

Knock at the door,
See a face,
Smell an odor,
Hear a voice,
Eat your dinner,
Pull your chin, or
Ke chih, ke chih.

Tickling the child's neck with the last two expressions.

We have in English a rhyme:

If you be a gentleman,
As I suppose you be,
You'll neither laugh nor smile
With a tickling of your knee.

I had tried many months to find if there were any finger, face or body
games other than those already given. Our own nurse insisted that she
knew of none, but one day I noticed her grabbing my little girl's knee,
while she was saying:

One grab silver,
Two grabs gold,
Three don't laugh,
And you'll grow old.

There is no literature in China, not even in the sacred books, which is
so generally known as their nursery rhymes. These are understood and
repeated by the educated and the illiterate alike; by the children of
princes and the children of beggars; children in the city and children