28 Harry K. Wolfe, 



drab, salmon, plum, cream, wine, pumpkin, Ornish, indigo, 

 navy-blue, lemon, Indian-red, pearl, slate, lavender, ink (vio- 

 let), blue-pearl, crab, tomato, brick, vermilion, cherry, lead, 

 carmine, maroon, grape, crushed strawberry, cardinal, rose- 

 madder, garnet, olive, yankee brown, dove, steel, mouse, 

 flesh color, terra cotta, orbid, house trimming, strawberry, 

 dark, burnt Sienna, copper, mauve, gold, blood, wood, clay, 

 pansy, indigo-blue, sky-blue, magenta, buff, heliotrope, scarlet- 

 lake, chrome yellow, cadmium, crushed raspberry, rose, sol- 

 ferino. I have admitted to the list two types {ornish and 

 orbid) of many answers that were evidently results of imper- 

 fect attempts to reproduce words heard, but never under- 

 stood. 



Besides the above list there were sixty-six modifications or 

 compounds of these elements ; as, reddish yellow, pinkish 

 drab, grayish blue. Some of the combinations display great 

 originality. I have seldom been more amused than when 

 sober-faced children, wishing to be very exact, called out, 

 after thorough deliberation 'light-white.' It seemed impos- 

 sible that anything should exceed the luminosity of this 

 description of gray ; but its ludicrousness was certainly ex- 

 celled by the pupil who gravely replied ' dark-zv/iite.' Only 

 one step remained, and it was soon taken. The colored chil- 

 dren, for some unknown reason, frequently employed the 

 adjective dark as a substantive. ^ There are, of course, 

 shades of dark. Several bright pupils, therefore, independ- 

 ently invented the expression 'light-dark.' Among the 

 other combinations are reddish blue, reddish pink, drabbish 

 red, pinkish drab. 



The total number of questions propounded to boys was 

 1 1,508 ; to girls, 1 1,797- The boys answered more than sixty- 

 two per cent correctly, and the girls more than sixty-seven 

 per cent. No answer was attempted by the boys to nearly 

 seven per cent, and by the girls to nearly four per cent. 



1 Black was probably intended. This may be a method of designating their 

 own complexion. Its relation to the popular expression for " colored person " is 

 unknown to me. 



