Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/505

 Collectanea.

447

2. With 15 matches form 5 adjoining squares, then by removing 3 matches leave 3 adjoining squares. This is most simply shown by a diagram —

,

j

1

\

«, . ■

1 \ — *t

n r

1 -

A First formation. B Result.

3. To make 4 triangles with 6 matches —

I

(P. 190, after line 31.)

Ag cuir Snaim's mo dha Laimh Paisgte. (Tying a knot and my two hands folded.)

The performer sitting, lays a cord across his two thighs, then folds his arms across his chest, his right hand on the outside of his left fore-arm, his left hand under his right upper-arm. He then seizes with his left hand the end of the cord which is towards the left, then with his right hand, the end of the cord which is to the right, of course not moving the relative positions of his two hands. With the arms placed as directed, the left hand seizes the left end of the cord under his right arm, while the right hand seizes the right end of the cord over his left arm. Separating the hands will draw the string into a knot.

Virtually the same trick, performed more easily, may be done in the following manner : — Lay a cord upon the edge of the right hand, so that one end hangs over the back of the hand and the other over the palm, then put the left hand between the sides of the cord, pushing it along the back of the right