Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/378

 362 Collectanea.

distal string. Whisk the loop away as it comes round the

backs of the touching indices. (From a Bristol boy, about 1870.)

Fig. 15.

Mr. Oldham, King's College, Cambridge, showed me a most effective way of doing this trick. After touching index tips the performer shifts his index loop to the base of B's index. With the disengaged right hand held side up, he then strikes the strings a smart blow while slipping the distal string off the left index. Neatly done, the strings seem to come away through the uplifted finger.

Gypsy Finger String-Trick.

Place one end of the loop over the finger of another person (B), and give the right parallel string one clockwise turn, distal, round the same.

Hold the parallel strings with the left hand palm downwards, about a foot away from B's finger, the right string passing under the index and over the mid finger, the left string under the mid finger and over the ring finger.

With the right hand take the free end of the loop and double it over the left hand and a little way beyond towards B, and lay it across the parallel strings so that it hangs in equal festoons on either side of the latter, forming two pendent loops.

Bring the right hand below the left hand and between the pendent loops, and put the mid finger into the right pendent