Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/381

 Collectanea.


 * 65

this loop over the index. We have a hitch with the following obvious properties (Fig. iSa):

(i) If both ends of the support are free, or if the support is an endless ring or the like, the hitch is undone by passing the fixed end completely over the support, or by detaching the half hitches separately.

h

Fig. \\

(2) If neither end of the support is free, to unhitch, the free end of the loop must be threaded back through the fixed end, or the fixed end can be pulled simply.

Pull the fixed end of the hitch down six inches or a foot, then pass it up by the ulnar side over the back of the index. The arrangement of strings is that which has been twice elaborated (Fig. \Zb).

Thus it appears that the pendent radial loop in the foregoing description is really the fixed end of the double half-hitch, and the palmar index strings are merely portions of the same.

In the " Hand string-tricks " which follow, we shall find other properties of the hitch utilised.

A World-Wide Finger String-Trick.

Loop the end of string over B's finger, leaving two parallel strings a little distance apart, and hold the other ends of the strings firm in the left hand.

With the right hand palm upwards insert the right little finger