1920] on String Figures 39 



that as yet there is no substantial evidence that the construction of 

 string figures is other than a recreation. I say "as yet," for new 

 discoveries may at any time alter our views on this question. 



Xow let me put aside these historical questions, and consider the 

 patterns actually made and their making. In opening the subject I 

 remarked that for constructing string figures two methods are 

 commonly applied ; these are known respectively as the Asiatic and 

 the Oceanic. In the former, two players are required, of whom one 

 at each move takes tbe string from the other : in the latter, 

 normally, only one player is required, who weaves the pattern with, 

 his fingers, using, if need be, his feet and teeth to assist him. 



The Asiatic method lends itself to many varieties, but as far as I 

 .am aware these have not been developed, and broadly speaking this 

 method is known to us almost only in the classical form, common in 

 the English nursery, of Cat's Cradle. This form occurs in Korea, 

 Japan, the Asiatic Islands, China, and Northern Europe, and the 

 result is a figure of Class a. The weaving begins by the first player 

 twisting the string round the four fingers of each hand, so as to 

 make two dorsal strings and one palmar string ; next picking up 

 the string on the palm of each hand with the back of the mid-finger 

 of the other hand, and then drawing tbe hands apart. The four 

 fundamental figures, which can be made in succession, are known in 

 England as the Cradle, Snuffer-Trays, Cat's-eye, aud Fish-in-a-Dish. 

 These are shown in the diagram on page 90 ; the method of 

 construction is widely known, and I need not display it here. 

 Another figure, called a Pound of Candles, is usually (though un- 

 necessarily) interpolated : a few other designs and an arrangement 

 for a See-Sawing movement can also be introduced. That is all. In 

 v Korea the four fundamental figures are known as a hearse-cover, 

 a chess-board, a cow's-eye, a rice-pestle, and the interpolated figure 

 as chop-sticks. In other places other names are given. 



I do not propose to describe Cat's Cradle further. As usually 

 played, it leads only to a fixed sequence of four or five forms ; no 

 skill is required, and there is little opportunity for variety. Pro- 

 bably to-day ethnologists are the only people cf mature age who 

 concern themselves with it. It is believed to have had its origin in 

 Eastern Asia, and to have been thence conveyed to Northern Europe, 

 perhaps by tea traders. A map of the localities in which it is 

 practised shows a band of marks along the east and north of Asia 

 and the north of Europe. From England, with its unceasing output 

 of emigrants, missionaries, and venturers, it has probably been 

 carried to other localities, but I do not think it is common outside 

 the countries I have named. 



Oceanic examples of Classes a and (3 are more interesting, and far 

 more widely spread. They occur among the Eskimo, and the natives 

 in America (North and South). Oceania, Australasia. Africa, and 

 India, though the last-named country, as we might expect from its 



