I have already touched on the modifications which appear in a child’s drawing of the human figure when the sculpturesque attitude of repose gives place to the dramatic attitude of action. This transition to the representation of action marks the substitution of a more realistic concrete treatment for the early abstract symbolic treatment. Very amusing are some of the devices by which a child tries to indicate this. As Ricci has pointed out, the arm will sometimes be curved in order to make it reach, say, the face of an adversary (Fig. 40 (_a_)). A similar introduction of curvature appears in the accompanying drawing from a scalp inscription (Fig. 40 (_b_)). Sometimes a curious symbolism appears, as if to eke out the deficiencies of the artist’s technical resources, as when a boy of five represents the junction of two persons’ hands by connecting them with a line (Fig. 40 (_c_)).[271] With this may be compared the well-known device of indicating the direction of sight by drawing a line from the eye to the object.[272] The most impossible attitudes occur when new positions of the legs are attempted, as in the accompanying endeavours to draw the act of running, kneeling to play marbles, and kicking a football (Fig. 40 (_d_), (_e_), and (_f_)). ----- Footnote 271: This I take to be the meaning of this odd arrangement. Footnote 272: _Cf._ Barnes, _loc. cit._ ----- [Illustration: Fig. 40 (_c_).] [Illustration: Fig. 40 (_e_).] [Illustration: Fig. 40 (_d_).] [Illustration: Fig. 40 (_f_).] [Illustration: Fig. 41.] One other point needs to be referred to before we leave the human figure, _viz._, the treatment of accessories. As pointed out, the child when left to himself is for the most part oblivious of dress, though the triangular cape-like form of the body may be a rude attempt to delineate a clothed figure. In general he cares merely to crown his figure with the hat of dignity, and, at most, to ornament the body with a row of buttons. Even when he grows sophisticated and attempts clothes he still shows his primitive respect for the natural frame. A well-known anthropologist tells me that his little boy on watching his mother draw a lady insisted on her putting in the legs before shading in the petticoats. In General Pitt-Rivers’ collection there is a drawing by a boy of ten which in clothing the figure naïvely indicates the limbs through their covering (Fig. 41). This agrees with what Von den Steinen tells us of the way the Brazilian Indians drew him and his companions. [Illustration: Fig. 42 (_a_).] [Illustration: Fig. 42 (_b_).]