Coming now to the arms we find that their introduction is very uncertain. To the child, as also to the savage, the arms are what the Germans call a Nebensache—side-matter (_i.e._, figuratively as well as literally), and are omitted in rather more than one case out of two. After all, the divine portion, the head, can be supported very well without their help. [Illustration: Fig. 17.] The arms, as well as the legs, being the thin lanky members, are commonly represented by lines. The same thing is noticeable in the drawings of savages.[251] The arms appear in the front view of the figure as stretched out horizontally, or, at least, reaching out from the sides; and their appearance always gives a certain liveliness to the figure, an air of joyous self-proclamation, as if they said in their gesture-language, ‘Here I am’ (see above, p. 339, Fig. 5 (_a_), and the accompanying drawing of a boy of six, Fig. 17). ----- Footnote 251: For examples, see Andree, _op. cit._, plate 3. _Cf._ the drawings of Von den Steinen’s Brazilians. ----- In respect of shape and structure a process of evolution may be observed. In certain cases the abstract linear representation gives place to contour, the arm being drawn of a certain thickness. But I find that the linear representation of the arm often persists after the legs have received contour, this being probably another illustration of the comparative neglect of the arm; as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of five (Fig. 18 (_a_)). The primal rigid straightness yields later on to the freedom of an organ. Thus an attempt is made to represent by means of a curve the look of the bent arm, as in the accompanying drawings by boys of five (Fig. 18 (_b_) and (_c_)). In other cases the angle of the elbow is indicated. This last comes comparatively late in children’s drawings, which here, too, lag behind the crudest outline sketches of savages. [Illustration: Fig. 18 (_a_).] [Illustration: Fig. 18 (_b_).] [Illustration: Fig. 18 (_c_).—A miner.] [Illustration: Fig. 19.] The mode of insertion or attachment of the arms is noteworthy. Where they are added to the trunkless figure they appear as emerging either from the sides of the head, as in the accompanying drawing by a boy of two and a half years, or from the point of junction of the head and legs (Fig. 19; _cf._ above, p. 342, Fig.7 (_d_) and (_e_)). In the case of savage drawings wanting the trunk the arm is also inserted at this point of junction (see above, pp. 344, 346, Figs. 10 and 13 (_f_)).[252] ----- Footnote 252: On the treatment of the arm in the drawings of savages, see in addition to the authorities already mentioned _The Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, 1883-4, p. 42 ff. -----