4. St. Joseph's - Linn & Laurel. 5. St. Patrick's Cherry, north of Blue Rock, Northside. 6. St. Peter's 7. St. Xavier's Sycamore, south of Sixth. In the course of my investigations this year, I made two slight changes in my method of gathering material. At the suggestion of a Clifton teacher, commended by her principal for her success with third grade children, I turned my questions into a story, thus: "Suppose you were out in the school-yard and had been playing one of these games that you've been telling me about, and suppose somebody said, 'Let's play another game. What would you like to play?' Write down the name of the one you would choose." Here, I paused while the children wrote their answers. Then I resumed; "Now, suppose somebody said, 'Oh, why do you want to play that game?' What would you say?" This sugar-coating of the questions had no noticeable effect on the quality of the answers, but the younger children responded to the questions more promptly when given in this form. The imagined situation seems to me analogous to that under which primitive criticism of the ballads might have been called forth. The other alteration was purely mechanical, but had the same aim and result, economy of time. After asking my second question, I waited as usual until I saw the children busily writing their answers. Then, if I found myself hurried, I sometimes asked the teacher to collect the papers at the end of five minutes and send them to the principal's office, while I went and interviewed another room. Although this change made it possible for me to visit more rooms in an afternoon than I could reach according to the original plan, I believe that it was in a few cases a mistake. In one room, almost all the children extolled their favorite games because it was "exercise." Another room is similarly unanimous in its vote for "Lazy Mary" because "it tells us that we should not be lazy." Both of these answers occur individually in several other rooms where I was present during the whole period of writing, but the uniformity of answers in these two rooms makes me doubt their sincerity. On the other hand, in some cases where I have collected the papers myself, I have seen the same answer given by pupils in differents parts of the room, who could not have discussed the matter after I had asked the question. In such cases, I could only account for the similarity by supposing that my hypothetical case was true, that arguments as to the relative merits of various games frequently occured in the school yard, and that some critic had won followers by his impromptu acuteness. Beyond the cases mentioned, I observed no alteration in the character of the results obtained after my change of method. My preliminary investigation had given me some hints, of course, as to what the results of further investigation might be. However, when I had finished visiting schools this year and began to classify the results, hanges Clifton grade were that play ne of their do Eing I found that the wider field of research had produced many answers which could not be placed in my original categories. These will be taken up in their proper place, but in the meantime a comparison may be made between the number of papers having the same general idea in the set collected during 1907 and in that collected during 1908: ers, tly us en ne I 5. t In the second investigation, although I knew approximately what elements of the singing game the children would be likely to emphasize, the relative proportions of these elements to the whole mass of material are not greater than in the original investigation, which was entered upon blindly. This would not have been possible, had I indicated my ideas of the games to the children. The figures prove my impartial attitude in stating my questions. The categories given above have been divided into many sub-classes, and representatives of many more distinct classes than those here listed have been found in every room. Even such a wholesale classification as the above, however, indicates that any influence which I may have exerted over the children's answers, must have been manifoldly self-contradictory. Therefore, I believe my method has been as good as any method that may be suggested for securing the natural, unpremeditated, spontaneous attitude of the children toward their games. Thus far, I have been trying to set forth in a clear form, the conditions under which my investigation was made, its aim and method. I shall divide the remainder of my report into two parts as follows: 1. Folk Poetry. Versions of children's singing games current in Cincinnati. 2. Folk Criticism. Reasons given by the children for their preferences among the singing games. FOLK POETRY. The following versions of Cincinnati singing games were dictated to me by the children themselves. In each case I have given the name of the school where I asked for the complete song, as other versions are doubtless current in other quarters of the city. Most of the very familiar games appear in the Fifth District version, as the Fifth District is in the midst of a very thick population, and the children there are especially versed in their oral literature. At the Fifth District, after interviews with the children by rooms, I summoned to the principal's office three specialists - Rilla Doyle, Felici Sabatina and Kuno Buchholz. Although there were several courteous differences of opinion among them as to the exact wording here and there, they finally agreed upon the form here presented. In all other schools, the version was submitted to a whole room at a time, and was subject to correction from all the children in that room, while being dictated. I have adopted Newell's classification as given in his "Games and Songs of American Children," published in 1883. A comparison of the songs as here given with the same songs in Newell's version reveals, in a striking way, the variation possible in the field of oral literature. I. LOVE GAMES. "There came a knight, a knight of Spain" was mentioned by one little girl at St. John's who could tell how to play the game but did not know the rest of the words. Compare Newell, PP. 41-42. (The Jew picks out one of them, and the two march forward again.) Now came two Jews ariding, etc. Thirtieth District. |