Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/147

Rh among primitive people indicates that its use came very early in the evolution of man. "The textile art is older than the human species. For not only spiders and many caterpillars draw out extremely fine threads, but birds wove nests long before the advent of man on earth. . . . . There is no reason to doubt that the very first women were weavers of a crude kind, and that textile art has been with us always in one form or another." (The Origin of Invention, O. T. Mason, p. 224, chap. VII.)

Most primitive people use the string in connection with religious rites, ceremonies and magic. Many of our common string games are hoary with age, and were perhaps once connected with magic performances, of various kinds. For example, our common game of cat's cradle is made in some form or other by nearly every primitive tribe of the world to-day; and is also known by most civilized people. It has been found among the people in the following countries: Korea, Japan, East Indian Archipelago, Australia, Africa, western Asia, and among the Eskimo, American Indians in both North and South America, and the people of western Europe. There are 97 varieties of this game known to the world. Some are accompanied by muttering chants or songs. In other cases a consecutive story follows each movement. The same history might probably be worked out for each of our common string games and tricks. "All over the world strings, cords, and knots enter largely into the magical practices." (A. C. Hadden, Introduction to String Figures, p. XXIII.) The fact that primitive people make so much use of the string in all phases of their daily lives, including their religion and magic, gives some idea of the large part which it must have played in their struggles and how much they valued it. It undoubtedly became of survival value to many primitive tribes.

The analogy between children's uses of strings and those of primitive man is thus seen to be very close. Undoubtedly many of the uses which children make of them to-day are given us by social inheritance as is generally maintained. But the aptitude which children show in their use and the intense interest with which they play with them, and even save them, point to something more than mere imitation. It has been said that the younger the child is the racially older it is. If this be true it can readily be conceived how the early struggles of the race' with the string as a means of evolution, could give to the modern child's mind a psychic stringward tendency. From this point of view it becomes all the more necessary to utilize this racial instinct in the early education of the child.