Today we have dolls that walk, talk, cry, sleep, eat, drink-they are made to be as much like living beings as possible. But suppose a little girl is very poor and her parents can’t afford to buy her a doll? She might take a piece of wood and wrap it in a cloth and say it’s her doll. And it would be a doll! For a doll is simply whatever a child wants to consider a doll.

That’s why we can never trace the idea of dolls back to its beginning. Even before recorded history, wherever there were children, there were dolls. Indian children used a slab of wood with a knob for a head for their dolls. Persian children played with dolls made simply of folded cloth with a face painted on it. And dolls made of clay or bone have been found in the graves of children of primitive peoples in all parts of the world.

Some authorities say that dolls were at first used only in religious rites. The children might be allowed to hold the doll or image, but they were forbidden to play with it as a toy. But others believe that children of prehistoric times did play with dolls.

Among the earliest dolls known to us are those of the ancient Egyptians. They seem to have been very fond of dolls. They made them of wood with flat painted beads strung on threads. Egyptian dolls have been found that are more than 3,000 years old!

The ancient Greeks, too, had very interesting dolls. They had well-shaped heads, and the arms and legs moved by means of strings. Even today, in various parts of the world, children have dolls that are quite different from ours, and which the children prefer to ours! The little Eskimo girl has a doll made of carved whalebone. The Mexican girl has dolls made of baked clay, and may think our dolls are too pale.

Modern dolls are made of wax, cloth, yarn, papier-mache, and other materials. The heads of the most expensive dolls are often created by very good artists. But as you probably know, a girl’s favorite doll may not be the most expensive one at all!