86 Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball [March 12, 



New York, l'.Hi'. ) Ethnologists, more conservative than primitive 

 men, deem it undesirable or worse bo vary recorded methods, so 

 with hesitation I add that the Indians might have made the conclu- 

 sion more effective by not displaying the proboscis and thus not 

 destroying the fly as a definite creation : in this case, as before, on 

 trying to squash it, you clap your hands sharply together, then 

 drawing them apart quickly and at the same time releasing the little- 

 tinge rs, the fly will have disappeared.] 



In 1911 Miss Haddon* published in London an excellent popular 

 account of some of the results available, with typical designs; so 

 the amusement is now open to all willing to learn the moves. Later, 

 in 1914, Dr. Hambruch printed at Hamburg a long memoir on tbe 

 subject, with special regard to the patterns found at Nauru in 

 Micronesia, tbe home of some of the most skilful native exponents 

 of the art, and then a German possession. Authorities for all the 

 figures I am making to-night, except the Fly, will be found in Jayne 

 or Haddon. Of course the outbreak of war in 1914 put a stop to 

 researches of this kind, as of so many others. Hence the serious 

 study of the subject covers only twelve years — namely, from 1902 

 to 1914 — and as yet few save specialists know much about it : but 

 materials increase rapidly, and the number of recorded specimens, 

 which in 1902 was less than fifty, already runs to many hundreds. 



I may sum up the result of the work of these twelve years by 

 saying that the evidence does not justify us in asserting dogmatically 

 that all primitive people play and always have played at making 

 string figures ; but we may say that the game was at one time 

 common among a large number of them. The formation of these 

 designs is natural, for there are not many sedentary occupations open 

 to uncivilized man during his long leisure hours, and to toy with a 

 piece of string is an obvious way of occupying time. What, however, 

 is striking, is the immense variety of well-defined patterns already 

 discovered, and their distribution in different parts of the world. 



The search for and collection of designs was begun only just in 

 time. With the advance of civilization, games such as these are apt 

 to be discarded by adults, and survive only among the children. I 

 suspect that this is why, until recent times when Cat's Cradle was 

 imported from Asia, there were in European literature, covering 

 many centuries of cultured life, no allusions to string figures. 



Among existing aborigines, it is usually the women who teach 

 the pastime to the children, and in most cases nowadays the lads 

 and men, though familiar with the methods used, do not of their 

 own accord make designs in the presence of strangers. Hence the 

 amusement may easily escape the attention of travellers ; no doubt, 

 also, many of these would take no interest in such figures even if 

 they saw them. Moreover, in wild countries the natives are shy, and 



* " Cat's Cradles from Many Lands," by K. Haddon, London, 1911. 



