dolls are as much their children as they themselves are the
offspring of their parents.

Chinese toys embrace only those which involve no intricate scientific
principles. The music boxes of the West are unknown in China except as
they are imported. The Chinese know nothing about dolls which open and
shut their eyes, simple as this principle is, nor of toys which are
self-propelling by some mysterious spring secreted within, because,
forsooth, they know nothing about making the spring.

There are some principles, however, which, though they may not
understand, they are nevertheless able to utilize; such, for instance,
as the expansion of air by heat, and the creation of air currents. This
principle is utilized in lanterns. In the top of these is a paper wheel
attached to a cross-bar on the ends of which are suspended paper men
and women together with animals of all kinds making a very interesting
merry-go-round. These lantern-figures correspond to the sawyers,
borers, blacksmiths, washers and others which twenty or more years ago
were on top of the stove of every corner grocery or country post-office.

When we began the study of Chinese toys our first move was to call in a
Chinese friend whom we thought we could trust, and who could buy toys
at a very reasonable rate, and sent him out to purchase specimens of
every variety of toys he could find in the city of Peking. We ordered
him the first day to buy nothing but rattles, because the rattle is the
first toy that attracts the attention of the child.

In the evening Mr. Hsin returned with a good-sized basket full of
rattles. Some were tin in the form of small cylinders, with handles in
which were small pebbles: others were shaped like pails; and others
like cooking pots and pans.

Some of the most attractive were hollow wood balls, baskets, pails and
bottles, gorgeously painted, with long handles, necks, or bails. The
paint was soon transferred from the face of the toy to that of the
first child that happened to play with it, which child was of course,
our own little girl.

The most common rattles representing various kinds of fowls and animals
known and unknown are made of clay. Others are in the form of fat
little priests that make one think of Santa Claus, or little roly-poly
children that look like the little folks who play with them.

As the child grows larger the favorite rattle is a drum-shaped piece of
bamboo or other wood, with skin--not infrequently fis