768 GAMES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  [8TH. Ann. 24 
form of ducks, ete., such as Sampson’s wife gave me, as just mentioned. In 
another, a simple string is used in a variety of intricate ways, now representing 
a tuktoo, now a whale, now a walrus, now a seal, being arranged upon the 
fingers in a way bearing a general resemblance to the game known to us as 
“cat’s cradle.” The people were very quick in learning of me to play chess, 
checkers, and dominoes. 
Eskimo (Crentrat). Cumberland sound, Baftin land, Franklin. 
Dr Franz Boas says: 
The women are particularly fond of making figures out of a loop, a game simi- 
lar to our cat’s cradle (ajarorpoq). They are, however, much more clever than 
we in handling the thong, and have a great variety of forms, some ef which are 
Pia. 1049 a, b, c. Cat's cradle; a, deer; b, hare; c, hills and ponds; Central Eskimo, Cumber- 
land sound, Baffin land, Franklin; from Boas. 
represented in figure 1049. For example, I shall describe the method of making 
the device representing a deer [figure 1049a]. Wind the loop over both hands, 
passing it over the backs of the thumbs inside the palms and outside the fourth 
fingers. Take the string from the palm of the right hand with the first finger 
of the left, and vice versa. The first finger of the right hand moves over all 
the parts of the thong lying on the first and fourth fingers of the right hand 
and passes through the loop formed by thongs on the thumb of the right hand; 
then it moves back over the foremost thong and takes it up, while the thumb 
lets go the loop. The first finger moves downward before the thongs lying on 
the fourth finger and comes up in front of all the thongs. The thumb is placed 
into the loops hanging on the first finger and the loop hanging on the first finger 
of the left hand is drawn through both and hung again over the same finger. 
*The Central Eskimo. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 569, 1888. 
