Silberhauke, Finggefauke,
“Anige hanige, Sarege-sirige,
Ripeti-pipeti-knoll!”[81]
To regard these rhymes as the direct inventions of the children themselves would be as mistaken as to attribute folk poetry to the masses. Most songs for children originate with grown people, yet they are childish and contain only what children can appreciate, for the principle of selection decides their fate. At the same time, original artistic production is exhibited by children in alliteration and rhythm as well as in rhyme. Thus, I noticed in Marie G——, when she was about three years old, a disposition to sportive variation of familiar rhymes appearing simultaneously with the rhythmic arrangement of words. The first rhyme evolved entirely from the profundities of her own genius came to light at the beginning of her fourth year, in the shape of this strange couplet, which she repeated untiringly:
“Naseweis vom Wasser weg
Welches da liegt noch mehr Dreck.”
Another child, Rudolf F——, also in his fourth year, declaimed persistently this original poem:
“Hennemäs’che, Weideidäs’che,
Sind ja lauter Käsebäs’che.”