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



required, Mrs. Rishbeth's working of a design will be completed well 

 within twenty seconds, and even the three or four elaborate con- 

 structions, such us the Crab, the Duck, the Alaskan River, and the 

 Porker will take less than one minute. 



[Mrs. Rishbeth then showed fourteen examples of string figures, 

 six being in Class a and eight in Class p. The following are examples 

 in Class a : the Fish Spear, the Crayfish, the Rabbit, the Crab, a Tree 

 Burial, and the Duck. The following are examples in Class f3 : a 

 Man paddling his Kayak, the Eel, the Tide, an Alaskan River, the 

 Looper Caterpillar, the Scrub Hen, the Frog, and the Porker. Her 

 drawings and the descriptions, in her own words, of her workings are 

 given in an Appendix.] 



In selecting these constructions as the subject of this Lecture I 

 Lave been venturesome, but I plead guilty to liking to wander in the 

 outlying fields of science, and, as I have found pleasure in String 

 Figures and their history, I hoped that others might do the same. 



[W. W. R. B.] 



APPENDIX. 



1. The Fish-Spear = Baur. (Murray Island, Torres Straits.) 



Position I. 



Take up with the right index proximally the left palmar string, 

 twist it once and return. Pass the left index through the right 

 index loop from the distal side, pick up the right palmar string 

 proximally and return. 



The Fish Spear. 



Release right thumb and little finger and draw the hands apart. 

 This is one of the most widely distributed of figures, occurring 



