the whole, his _understanding_
of words heard, particularly of commands, has considerably advanced; and
how far the reasoning faculty has developed is now easily seen in his
independent designations for concepts. For example, since his delight at
gifts of all sorts on his birthday, he says _burtsa_ (for Geburtstag,
birthday) when he is delighted by anything whatever. Another instance of
childish induction was the following: The child's hand being slightly
hurt, he was told to blow on his hand and it would be better. He did
blow on his hand. In the afternoon he hit his head against something,
and he began at once to blow of his own accord, supposing that the
blowing would have a soothing effect, even when it did not reach the
injured part.

In the forming of sentences considerable progress is to be recorded. Yet
only once has the child joined more than four words in a sentence, and
rarely three. His sentences consisting of two words, which express a
fact of the present or of the immediate past, are often, perhaps
generally, quite unintelligible to strangers. Thus, _danna kuha_
signifies "Aunt has given me cake"; _Kaffee nain_, "There is no coffee
here"; and _mama etsee_ or _etse_ is intelligible only by means of the
accompanying gesture as the expression of the wish, "Mamma, sit by me."
_Helle pumme_ signifies the wish to help (_helfen_) in pumping, and is
uttered at the sight of persons pumping water.

The following sentence consisting of five words is particularly
characteristic of this period, because it exhibits the first attempt to
relate a personal experience. The child dropped his milk-cup and related
_mimi atta teppa papa oi_, which meant "Milch fort [auf den] Teppich,
Papa [sagte] pfui." (Milk gone [on] carpet, Papa [said] "Fie!") The
words adopted by the child have often a very different meaning from that
which they have in the language of adults, being not entirely
misunderstood but peculiarly interpreted by the imitator. Thus,
pronouns, which are not for a long time yet understood in their true
sense, signify objects themselves or their qualities. _Dein bett_ means
"the large bed."

In the twenty-sixth month a large picture-book, with good colored
pictures, was shown to the child by me every day. Then he himself would
point out the separate objects represented, and those unknown to him
were named to him, and then the words were repeated by him. Thus were
obtained the following results:

Said