Page:The Chinese Boy and Girl.djvu/30

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THE CHINESE BOY AND GIRL

ever, with the children, and critics may say what they will, but the children are the last court of appeal in case of nursery rhymes. Let me give one:

There's a cow on the mountain, the old saying goes,
On her legs are four feet, on her feet are eight toes.
Her tail is behind on the end of her back.
And her head is in front on the end of her neck.

The Chinese nursery is well provided with rhymes pertaining to certain portions of the body. They have rhymes to repeat when they play with the five fingers, and others when they pull the toes; rhymes when they take hold of the knee and expect the child to refrain from laughing, no matter how much its knee is tickled; rhymes which correspond to all our face and sense; rhymes where the forehead represents the door and the five senses various other things, ending, of course, by tickling the child's neck.

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