404 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



Mr. R. U. Sayce. — Rope-twisters (12.30). 



In the nineteenth century a simple hook appears to have been used 

 nearly everywhere in the British Isles for twisting straw or grass into rough 

 ropes or bonds, which were used for thatching roofs and ricks, for tying 

 bales of hay, etc. The fate of this hook is typical of many other simple 

 rural implements. In many districts it has gone out of use ; in some it 

 has been entirely forgotten. 



It is still possible to collect these hooks in some districts, and the patterns 

 show a great variety of them. The older examples seem to have been 

 made of wood — a bent ash or hazel stick, or a small branch whittled into 

 the proper shape. At one end they have a handle rotating by means of 

 a swivel which is often simply but ingeniously contrived. The later types 

 consist of an iron rod, about three-eighths of an inch thick, bent more or less 

 into the shape of a brace and bit, and provided generally with two rotating 

 wooden handles through which the iron rod passes. 



Observations by many people are needed to record all the types of this 

 implement and its distribution. If we are to explain these things, we 

 must first collect all the facts. It would be interesting to work out the 

 history of the different patterns and to see how each had arisen and spread 

 from its immediate homeland. Work of this kind would involve an 

 intimate knowledge of the farm worker and the rural craftsman, and of the 

 economic and social conditions of the countryside. 



The name of this hook also shows some interesting local variations. 

 From Yorkshire down to Devon and Cornwall it has various forms such as 

 wem, wim, wimble, whimble, vimmerill. In Cumberland the hook is called a 

 symeturner (cf . O.N. Sima, a rope or bond), and in Scotland and the Shetlands 

 there are several variants such as simmet, simmun{d), etc. In Donegal, 

 Anglesey, Banffshire, etc., the name appears to be trahook, throwhook, 

 thraahook (cf. German, drehen), while in the Gaelic districts we find sugain 

 or shugain, with anglicised variants like soogaun, suggawn, or suggane. 



Afternoon. 



Joint Discussion with Section E {q.v.) on Natural and cultural regiom 

 (2.0). 



Tuesday, September 7. 



Mr. J. E. Sainty. — Preliminary report on a long 7nound at West Runton, 

 Norfolk (lo.o). 



Prof. John Murphy. — The psychological origins of magic (10.35). 



All magical actions are more or less simple or complex gestures. Con- 

 scious gestures are pictorial, and as such are complete in themselves, like a 

 drawing in childish or undeveloped art (which itself originates in gesture). 

 Many unconscious gestures are actions at the stage of conation or wish, and 

 never pass beyond it. Examples, in which the parallel to magic is evident. 

 On the other hand, in the magical art of the Magdalenian caves there are 

 characteristics of unconscious gesture such as ' action at a distance,' power 

 ignoring space and time, and irrational identification or solidarity between 

 the persons concerned. 



This we relate to the Freudian wish as the origin of gesture, in which 

 (e.g. in the inclination of the player's body in the desired direction of the 



