Toys `Hens`

Peasant children were not threatened by the abundance of toys. We can distinguish three sources of the appearance of toys in their hands. The first group was made by themselves, according to their own ideas or as the result of imitation. They threaded berries or seeds to make necklaces, wove garlands of flowers, chains of milkmaid stems, wove braids, caps, bracelets or baskets out of rushes. They made pots out of peelings and floated shuttlecocks plucked from bark. Boys made bows and arrows, "snipe" pipes and pipes, bark trumpets called "pierdziel" or pistols from a cartridge case attached to a piece of wood (see E/180/ML). Girls made dolls from scraps of fabric, fur, feathers, various grasses and straw. Also popular among children were balls, so-called hairballs, made from cow hair. Most toys were made during the long hours spent herding cattle or on the meadows watching over ducks and geese (see E/217/ML, E/220/ML, E/1649/ML).

Another group consisted of toys made by parents, grandparents, older siblings or a local craftsman, carpenter or cabinetmaker, created within the local community (see E/2146/ML).

The third group consisted of toys purchased at fairs, markets, indulgences or from itinerant traders, characterised by great ingenuity, variety and rich ornamentation. These included: swings, rattles of various types (see E/187/ML), among them hammer rattles in the shape of a hexagonal box stuck on a stick or a one-winged windmill with a wooden crackle, horses; horse-drawn carriages; carts, "klepoki", i.e. wooden butterflies or birds flapping their wings, carousels with animal figures, "beaked hens" set in motion by a swinging ball, rag dolls, wooden or biscuit dolls (see 544/ML).