anything else the child wants, as a glass-blower would blow a bottle or
a lamp chimney. The child plays with his prize until he tires of it and
then he eats it.

BLOCK GAMES--KINDERGARTEN

It was on a bright spring afternoon that a Chinese official and his
little boy called at our home on Filial Piety Lane, in Peking.

The dresses of father and child were exactly alike--as though they had
been twins, boots of black velvet or satin, blue silk trousers, a long
blue silk garment, a waistcoat of blue brocade, and a black satin
skullcap--the child was in every respect, even to the dignity of his
bearing, a vest-pocket edition of his father.

He had a T'ao of books which I recognized as the Fifteen Magic Blocks,
one of the most ingenious, if not the most remarkable, books I have
ever seen.

A T'ao is two or any number of volumes of a book wrapped in a single
cover. In this case it was two volumes. In the inside of the cover
there was a depression three inches square in which was kept a piece of
lead, wood or pasteboard, divided into fifteen pieces as in the
following illustration.

These blocks are all in pairs except one, which is a rhomboid. They are
all exactly proportional, having their sides either half-inch, inch,
inch and a half, or two inches in length.

They are not used as are the blocks in our kindergarten simply to make
geometrical figures, but rather to illustrate such facts of history as
will have a moral influence, or be an intellectual stimulus to the
child.

He may build houses with them, or make such ancient or modern
ornaments, or household utensils, as may suit his fancy; but the
primary object of the blocks and the books, is to impress upon the
child's mind, in the most forcible way possible, the leading facts of
history, poetry, mythology or morals; while the houses, boats and other
things are simply side issues.

The first illustration the child constructed for me, for I desired him
to teach me how it was done, was a dragon horse, and when I asked him
to explain it, he said that it represented the animal seen by Fu Hsi,
the original ancestor of the Chinese people, emerging from the Meng
river, bearing upon its back a map on which were fifty-five spots,
representing the male and female principles of nature, and which the
sage used to construct what are called the eight diagrams.

The child tossed the blocks off into a pile and then constructed a
tortoise which he said was seen by Yu, the