Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/86

 74 consequent effect of such movements upon them. Accordingly I have added to the account of the methods of arriving at the different figures in many cases descriptions of the figures themselves, in the hope that by directing attention to the construction a better insight into the nature of the game might be obtained. These might have been more detailed and accurate, but my purpose was rather to show the possibility of being familiar with the string positions in every figure, and I feared to exceed the limits of patience.

I have used throughout the Haddon-Rivers nomenclature familiar to readers of Man (Oct. 1902, No. 109), but as sparingly as possible, bearing in mind that some of the terms which it employs are caviare to the general, and apt to increase the tediousness of descriptions; whereas there are some, like myself, who hold that the subject might with advantage be popularised so as to create in it an interest sufficient to bring to light what remains of such pastimes and to save them from being lost.

I have assumed that readers are familiar with the string figures published up to the present in Man (Aug. 1903, No. 66; Oct. 1903, No. 85). Of other printed matter I have made reference to Gomme (Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, A. B. Gomme, 1894. Nutt, Strand, London) and to Kinderspel en Kinderlust in Zuid Nederland, (door A. De Cock en Is. Teirlinck. A. Siffer, Gent, 1903.)

I have to thank Dr. Haddon, who kindly placed at my disposal his material comprising correspondence relating to the game, and Miss A. Kingston, who did me the service of reading the first draft of a large part of these notes and made some suggestions as to the methods of description employed, which I found it well to follow.

CAT'S CRADLE.

I..

First Player. Place the loop over the hands held upright palm towards palm, the radial string between indices and thumbs, the ulnar just below the little finger. Turn the right