66 UNIVERSITY OF COLOKADO STUDIES 



words, the child tends to recapitulate by social heredity the historical 

 occupations of its remote adult ancestors. 



A few examples, though probably well known, may illustrate 

 the wide application and prevalence of this law of social recapitulation : 



It seems clear that many of the most popular children's games 

 were originally serious and even solemn ceremonies, which have 

 undergone a gradual process of degradation from their first state, 

 through that of half- joke, half-earnest to their present lowly position. 

 For instance, that well-known terror of the Bank Holiday in England, 

 "Kiss in the Ring," seems to be a rehc of the early form of marriage 

 by choice or selection. One of its variants, for there are several ways 

 in which it is played, presents this peculiar feature, that the head of 

 the girl standing in the center of the ring is covered with a shawl, and 

 a portion of the game turns upon her recognition by another player. 

 This indicates, thinks Mrs. Gomme, that "in this game we have pre- 

 served one of the ceremonies of a now obsolete marriage-custom — 

 namely, the disguising of the bride and placing her among her 

 bridesmaids and other young girls, all having veils or other cover- 

 ings alike over their heads and bodies. The bridegroom had to select 

 from among these maidens the girl whom he wished to marry, or whom 

 he had already married, for until this was done he was not allowed to 

 depart with his bride. This custom was continued in sport as one of the 

 ceremonies to be gone through after the marriage was over, long after 

 the custom itself was discontinued. Our bridal veil originates in 

 this custom."! ^ further instance of the complete alteration of 

 character which befalls a custom as it passes through the various 

 stages of its downward evolution, may be studied in the well-known 

 child's song, "Green Gravel," which, little as the children or their 

 mothers suspect it, is, according to the authority just cited, evidently 

 a funeral game. The green gravel and green grass indicate the 

 locality of the scene; "green" as applied to the gravel meaning, prob- 

 ably, freshly disturbed, just as a green grave means a freshly-made 

 grave. The tenant of the newly-made grave is the well-loved lady 

 of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and 



'Life in Early Britain, Windle, 1897, p. 5. 



