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



[The BatoJca Gorge as shown by the Lecturer was made by 

 the following successive movements : — First: Hold the right hand 

 horizontal, pointing away from you and with its palm facing down- 

 wards : res! the string on the right wrist so that two equal loops hang 

 freely down, one on its radial side, the other on its ulnar side. Second .- 

 Pass bhe left hand from left to right through both loops, and bring- 

 both hands into their normal positions. Third: Bend each little- 

 finger towards von. and with its back pick up both the strings which 

 cross each other in the centre of the figure. Fourth: Throw the 

 Dear wrist string away from you over both hands to their far side. 

 Fifth : Bend each thumb away from you, and with its back pick up 

 the corresponding oblique near little-finger string. Lastly : Take 

 each far wrist string and (keeping the other strings unaltered in 

 position) pass it over the hands to the near side of the wrists. 

 Extend the bands, and the figure, representing a bird's-eye view of 

 the zig-zag course of the river through the gorge, will appear.] 



Apart from collectors, who naturally find pleasure in getting 

 specimens of what they collect, travellers in uncivilized countries, 

 even if uninterested in string figures, will find some knowledge of 

 i hem a useful equipment. A native is apt to distrust a missionary, 

 a prospector, and a trader ; but a stranger, who exhibits what may 

 well be taken to be one of the innocent games of his own people, 

 offers credentials to which a friendly response is, as far as experience 

 goes, invariably made. Who, indeed, would attribute evil intentions 

 to one who comes armed only with a piece of string, and seems 

 chiefly interested in amusements similar to those familiar to the 

 onlookers in their childhood ? This is not a matter of mere 

 conjecture. I know of at least one definite instance where cordial 

 relations were thus at once established. 



Of course from the beginning of the study of these figures the 

 question arose of their possible relation to historical and religious 

 traditions. Up to now, however, with the exception of a few isolated 

 facts, no evidence of such connection has been found. Iudeed the 

 only traces of it so far recorded are that in New Zealand the forms 

 are associated with mythical heroes, and the invention of the game 

 attributed to Maui, the first man ; that various designs common to 

 many of the Polynesians are often made to the accompaniment of 

 ancient chants; that the Eskimo, too, have songs connected with 

 particular patterns, have a prejudice against boys playing the game 

 for fear it should lead to their getting entangled with harpoon lines, 

 and hold that such figures, if made at all, should be constructed in 

 the autumn so as to entangle the sun in the string and delay the 

 advent of the long winter night. Further, Boas asserts that among 

 the Kwakiletl of Vancouver Island the form known as " Threading 

 a Closed Loop " is used instead of a password by members of a 

 certain secret society to recognise fellow-members. These facts, 

 interesting though they be, do not come to much, and it would seem 



