These imitations already make sometimes the
impression of not being voluntary. Thus the child once--in the
eighty-third week--observed attentively a redstart in the garden for two
full minutes, and then imitated five or six times, not badly, the piping
of the bird, turning round toward me afterward. It was when he saw me
that the child first seemed to be aware that he had made attempts at
imitation at all. For his countenance was like that of one awaking from
sleep, and he could not now be induced to imitate sounds. After five
days the spectacle was repeated. Again the piping of the bird was
reproduced, and in the afternoon the child took a cow, roughly carved
out of wood, of the size of the redstart, made it move back and forth on
the table, upon its feet, and chirped now as he had done at sight of the
bird; _imagination_ was here manifestly much excited. The wooden animal
was to represent the bird, often observed in the garden, and nesting in
the veranda; and the chirping and piping were to represent its voice.
On the other hand, words of unlike syllables, like "Zwieback" (biscuit),
"Butterbrod," are either not given back at all or only in unrecognizable
fashion, in spite of their being pronounced impressively for him.
"Trocken" (dry) yields sometimes _tokk[)e]_, _tokko_, _otto_. Words of
one syllable also offer generally great difficulties of articulation:
thus "warm" and "weich" become _w[=a]i_, "kalt" and "hart" become
_hatt_.
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