1920] on String Figures 



This precision of language, which was necessary if the subject 

 was to be treated scientifically, was introduced in 1902. Subsequent 

 research has strengthened the interest taken in string figures, and in 

 anthropological expeditions to-day they are among the matters on 

 which information is sought. In particular Haddon has continued 

 to stimulate enquiry, and to him we owe many of the patterns 

 discovered. It is not too much to say that he is the creator of the 

 science, and to his enthusiasm and knowledge many of us owe our 

 introduction to it. 



The Americans took up the investigation warmly, and in 

 Philadelphia a valuable collection of drawings of string figures has 

 been formed which will preserve permanently many of the patterns 

 discovered. The results of the earlier work in America are embodied 

 in a handsome volume* published in New York in 1906, containing 

 full descriptions of about a hundred string figures, chiefly collected 

 in North America and New Guinea, though with some examples from 

 Africa, the Philippines, and other scattered localities. In it also are 

 given drawings of more than a hundred finished patterns from 

 Oceania and Queensland. Unfortunately Mrs. Jayne, to whose 

 liberality and initiative the book was due, died shortly after its 

 publication. 



Further examples from places where the amusement was already 

 known to exist, and collections from Africa and India, have since 

 been issued, and show that the construction of string figures is widely 

 practised where primitive man is still found. Examples also have 

 been reported from South America, but as yet this immense area is 

 an almost unworked field, the only w T ell-known South American 

 instance being a Fly — an example of Class /3. [The Fly can be 

 made thus: — (1) Put the thumbs, held upright, into the loop ami 

 draw tight. (2) Move the left hand to a horizontal position ; then 

 turn it counter-clockwise under the strings and up towards you into 

 its normal position, thus giving two dorsal strings. (3) Pass the 

 right hand between you and the left hand, then put the right little- 

 finger from above under the dorsal strings, pick them up, and 

 return. (4) Pass the left hand between you and the right ha ml. 

 then put the left little-finger on the palm, and pass it towards you 

 under the two strings on the right thumb, pick them up, and return 

 (5) Lift the left dorsal string over the digits, and extend This is 

 the Fly. Next its proboscis (or some part of its anatomy) is shown 

 by releasing the little-fingers. To try to catch the fly, clap your 

 hands together: on drawing them apart quickly and as far as 

 possible, it will always be found that the fly has escaped, in fact the 

 display of the proboscis destroyed the figure. (F. E. Lutz, "String 

 Figures of the Patornana Indians on the Northern Brazilian 

 Frontier," Anthropological Papers, Arner. Mus. of Xat. Hist., vol. xii., 



* " String Figures," by C. F. Jayne, New York, 1906. 



