actor as he was a carpenter he could make the superstitious people believe that he was a prophet-divinely inspired. And his gifts were rich accordingly!

The exchange of gifts at Christmas-time possibly grew out of the desire to emulate the amazing unselfishness of Christ. In later life, of course, the exchange of gifts would have become traditional, customary. And a certain joyousness, induced by the exchange of gifts and the merrymaking accompanying it, inspired a genuine generosity.

The custom was nurtured in Germany. Here it became the habit to make periodic exchange of gifts among friends, relatives, acquaintances. It became an obligation, and to escape it the man with many friends sometimes took a trip abroad at this period.

From Germany, the custom of Christmas gift-making spread over Europe. It crossed the sea and was brought to the struggling colonists who had tried to cut loose from all the Old-World influences. It has become more and more an institution, as the generations have slipped by, and to-day we exchange gifts at Christmas as a matter of course.

Gifts to Children.-We know from actual records that gift-making to children goes far back into prehistory. There are at various museums actual dolls, animals, and other toys which have been taken out of the long buried tombs of infants.

Love of offspring appears to have been prevalent even in primitive times, despite the records of infanticide. The Fijians, famous for cannibalism and savagery, are greatly attached to their children, and the children to their parents. The Tongans and New Zealanders are said to be extremely fond of, and kind to, their children. Among the Greenlanders, passed by in the march of civilization, the bonds of parental love seem stronger than with almost any other people.

We can very easily picture a savage father of long ago bringing a curious shell for his child to play with. We can

see a savage mother carefully whittling a flint or bone toy that her child might have something with which to be amused. Among these primitive peoples, marriage was not considered binding until a child was born. The birth of the child, therefore, must have been an occasion of great celebration, and perhaps all the clansmen or tribesmen presented gifts to the new-born child. It would have been a ceremony-to show the child he was welcome and among friends.

But as we have said, there are actual records to prove that gift-making to children existed at an early date. It is not necessary to peer behind the unknown and try to fathom the primitive mind.

Painted clay puppets-some in the form of humans, some in the form of animals-were given to early Egyptian children as playthings. We know that these were toys, and not amulets or fetishes, for they are found only in the tombs of infants or young children. (See illustrations.) There have also been found in the tombs of Egyptian children small wooden carts, houses, and ships. An ancient Egyptian ball is in existence which has small stones inside of it, so that when one shakes it, it rattles. This was probably the forerunner of the rattle as we know it today.

The early Romans had a method of adoption in which the birth of the child was simulated. The man who adopted the child gave it rich gifts, to prove that he was able to take care of it.

In ancient Greece a great ceremony took place on the tenth day after the birth of the child. A feast was given by the parents-the purpose, we are told, was to imply the father's acknowledgment of the child's legitimacyand the friends and relatives who were invited brought toys of metal or clay for the infant. The mother was presented with rich painted vases.

Gifts have always accompanied christenings. During the Middle Ages the child was usually presented by its

godparents with silver or gold spoons. It is very possible that the phrase "born with a silver spoon in his mouth" arose from this old custom.

The custom of presenting the children with gifts at Christmas was most pronounced among the Germans in early life. Kris Kringle is their name for Santa Claus. It is derived from Krist Kindli which means Christ Child. We can understand why the holiday would have been recognized as being particularly a child's holiday.

Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, is regarded as the patron saint of Christmas. The old nursery myth is that he comes down the chimney with a pack on his back to leave gifts for good children.

It is possible that this myth originated with the custom of cleaning the chimney at the beginning of the new year to enable good luck to enter the household (see p. 280). A housewife, busy cleaning the chimney at about the Christmas period, might have whispered to her children, to keep them out of mischief, that if they were good Santa Claus would come down the chimney and bring gifts for them. Tremendously impressed, the children would have hurried with the news to their little friends. And so it would have spread, becoming finally the popular nursery myth that it is to-day.

CHAPTER X

CORRESPONDENCE, AND THE HISTORY OF WRITING

As the art of writing and reading spread, came that old desire, that pathetic desire so common among human beings, to astonish some strange and remote person by writing down something striking, some secret one knew, some strange thought, or even one's name, so that long after one had gone one's way, it might strike upon the sight and mind of another reader. Even in Sumeria men scratched on walls, and all that remains to us of the ancient world, its rocks, its buildings, is plastered thickly with the names and the boasting of those foremost among human advertisers, its kings. -H. G. WELLS.

Τ

THE BEGINNING OF WRITTEN RECORDS

HE communicating of facts, thoughts, ideas, or fancies through writing belongs to an advanced stratum of development.

We know that the world has had a long, dim history which has been left practically unrecorded. We know that it has had an intermediate history which has bequeathed to us a wealth of material relics, but still no written records of what man thought or felt. The third great period of social development, of which we to-day are a part, is illumined by the invention of writing and its astonishing development. We can scarcely conceive of the tremendous influence which writing, and its sister art, printing, have had upon human affairs.

Of course, we cannot be certain when writing began, any more than we can be certain when speech began, or faith, or art, or any other human quality which is based upon long ages of development. Not even the historian can definitely tell us when writing began. Nor can the archæologist go back any farther than the records which he understands.

We can only guess that some early dreamer sat on the bank of a river and with experimental twig or finger made curious, fanciful patterns in the wet clay. We can only guess that some Palæolithic caveman, drawing bears and buffalos on the wall of his cave was attempting to express some crude thought that crowded through his mind-a thought lost to us for ever. We can only guess that infant systems of writing lie buried with forgotten civilizations, and that at some future time they may yet be discovered.

But let us see what we do know about the origin of writing and the first written records of mankind. We know that before any genuine sort of writing made its appearance, a kind of picture writing existed. The North American Indians appear to have been highly advanced in this art. Examples of their picture writing show us how even the most elaborate messages could be conveyed through this simple means.

Picture writing is merely a system of conveying thoughts or facts through pictures. There is in use in Europe to-day a timetable which has small black signs or pictures on it for the purpose of guiding tourists. A tiny cup on this timetable indicates a place where refreshments may be had. Various other signs indicate things of importance to the traveller.

This simple and elementary method of conveying ideas constituted the first kind of writing. It existed among the early Egyptians, the early Babylonians, the Chinese, the American Indians. It exists to-day among savage and untaught people all over the world. It is the simplest, crudest, and most elementary way of recording ideas. It bears the same relation to writing as gesture and imitative sound bear to speech (see p. 126).

At first picture writing was a device rather than a system. It helped man express his ideas, not only to his fellows but to himself. He devised the method of drawing pictures for his own convenience and satisfaction.