They are not unlike those peculiar "riddles" with which the children of the Southern States were once so familiar, coming from the lips of our black "mammies." One, especially, I remember, suggested by my first quotation: "Throw it up green, it comes down red." Ans.: "Watermelon."
The accompanying illustration is descriptive of a game in which Mexican children take great delight.
This droll little sketch was roughly made by a young lad, a friend of mine, in describing the game to me. All Mexican children are natural artists, and some of these play-pictures are remarkably well drawn.
They first draw an oval (1) and say, "This is a man's house;"
"EL PATO."
then a small circle (2) near the center indicates an observatory on the house. A canal (3) is next made, leading to house. Another, but larger, ellipse (4) is drawn, attached to house; this is the wall around the man's farm. Within this wall another (5) is built which is the inclosure of his orchard. In the night
