s early as
the period of the Hebrew Exodus.

The games and amusements of children were such as tended to promote
health by the exercise of the body, and to divert the mind by
laughable entertainments. Throwing and catching the ball, running,
leaping, and similar feats, were encouraged, as soon as their age
enabled them to indulge in them; and a young child was amused with
painted dolls, whose hands and legs, moving on pins, were made to
assume various positions by means of strings. Some of these were of
rude form, without legs, or with an imperfect representation of a
single arm on one side. Some had numerous beads, in imitation of
hair, hanging from the doubtful place of the head; others exhibited a
nearer approach to the form of a man; and some, made with considerable
attention to proportion, were small models of the human figure. They
were colored according to fancy; and the most shapeless had usually
the most gaudy appearance, being intended to catch the eye of an
infant. Sometimes a man was figured washing, or kneading dough, who
was made to work by pulling a string; and a typhonian monster, or a
crocodile, amused a child by its grimaces, or the motion of its
opening mouth. In the toy of the crocodile, we have sufficient
evidence that the notion of this animal "not moving its lower jaw, and
being the only creature which brings the upper one down to the lower,"
is erroneous. Like other animals, it moves the lower jaw _only_; but
when seizing its prey, it throws up its head, which gives an
appearance of motion in the upper jaw, and has led to the mistake.

The game of ball was of course generally played out of doors. It was
not confined to children, nor to one sex, though the mere amusement of
throwing and catching it appears to have been considered more
particularly adapted to women. They had different modes of playing.
Sometimes a person unsuccessful in catching the ball was obliged to
suffer another to ride on her back, who continued to enjoy this post
until she also missed it; the ball being thrown by an opposite player,
mounted in the same manner, and placed at a certain distance,
according to the space previously agreed upon; and, from the
beast-of-burden office of the person who had failed, the same name was
probably applied to her as to those in the Greek game, "who were
called asses, and were obliged to submit to the commands of the
victor."

Sometimes they caught three or more balls in succession, the h